Occupations and the occupied: Agency, expertise, and patronage in wartime and postwar political cartographies. Thematic issue of Geografiska Annaler

Occupations and the occupied: Agency, expertise, and patronage in wartime and postwar political cartographies. Thematic issue of Geografiska Annaler: Series B, Human Geography, Volume 107, Issue 1 (2025). Edited by Steven Seegel.

Full issue: https://www.tandfonline.com/toc/rgab20/107/1?nav=tocList

Seegel, S. (2025). Introduction: ‘Occupations and the occupied: agency, expertise, and patronage in wartime and postwar political cartographies’. Geografiska Annaler: Series B, Human Geography, 107(1), 1–3. https://doi.org/10.1080/04353684.2025.2458905

Seegel, S. (2025). ‘Rescuing Ukrainian agency, expertise, and patronage: on the historical cartography of Ukraine and maps in times of war’. Geografiska Annaler: Series B, Human Geography, 107(1), 4–15. https://doi.org/10.1080/04353684.2025.2458907

Megginson, T. (2025). ‘What belongs to the Czechoslovak nation’: geographers’ and mapmakers’ visions of Czechoslovakia before the Paris Peace Conference. Geografiska Annaler: Series B, Human Geography, 107(1), 16–28. https://doi.org/10.1080/04353684.2025.2461778

Nekola, P. (2025). Genuine inquiry and human agency under occupation: lessons from the history of geographic and cartographic reasoning. Geografiska Annaler: Series B, Human Geography, 107(1), 29–44. https://doi.org/10.1080/04353684.2025.2462290

Svatek, P. (2025). Academic cartography in Vienna 1939–1945: actors, funders and political context. Geografiska Annaler: Series B, Human Geography, 107(1), 45–59. https://doi.org/10.1080/04353684.2025.2461772

Call for papers: Historical Perspectives on Infant Care and Child Education

Call for papers:  Historical Perspectives on Infant Care and Child Education. Emmi Pikler, Infant Homes, and the Politics of Child Welfare in 20th Century Hungary

The Conference is organized in collaboration with CEU Democracy Institute,

Österreichische Kulturforum Budapest and Ludwig Boltzmann Institute, Kriegsforschung.

This conference aims to foster interdisciplinary dialogue on the historical and political

dimensions of infant care, child welfare, and family policies in 20th-century Hungary. The

conference will examine the political, social, cultural, and gender dynamics that shaped child-

rearing practices and state interventions in family life. Understanding the professionalization

of childcare requires examining developments from WWI to the present day. This allows for

an examination of the diverse political and ideological regimes that have shaped the childcare

field, as well as the memory politics that continue to influence its trajectory. In this way,

particular emphasis is placed on the life and work of Emmi Pikler (1902–1984), a doctor and

childcare specialist who influenced the evolution of infant care in post-WWII Hungary and

established a highly successful international organization. Although Pikler was one of the most

influential childcare experts in socialist Hungary, her life and work remain largely unexplored

from an interdisciplinary perspective.

We invite researchers, historians, sociologists, psychologists, child welfare and care

professionals to examine the historical development of infant and child care in Hungary, with

a particular focus on Emmi Pikler’s work and the role of infant homes (csecsemőotthonok) in

shaping child protection policies and the care of young children by families. The objective is

to illuminate how child protection systems were shaped by social necessities and political

aspirations, offering invaluable insights into the contemporary challenges in child welfare

policy. Presentations that explore the political implications of child welfare policies, the

interplay between government and society in child welfare, care, and protection, and the impact

of ideologies on childcare systems are highly encouraged.

We welcome proposals that address, but are not limited to, the following topics:

Emmi Pikler’s Contributions and Political Context

Examination of Emmi Pikler’s work in the broader political and social context of 20th-century

Hungary, including her influence on national child welfare and child protection policies and

the support or resistance from political actors. The role of the „Lóczy” in sheltering the hidden

infants of political prisoners in the 1950s.

The Functioning of Infant Homes and State Intervention

Historical analysis of how infant homes (csecsemőotthonok) were established and operated,

focusing on the political motivations behind state intervention in family and child welfare,

including the role of public institutions and the changing structure of out-of-home care of

children from dominantly family-based foster care to institutional care.

Child-Rearing Ideologies

Exploration of how political ideologies (such as nationalism, socialism, or conservatism),

traditions, and beliefs shaped child-rearing practices, especially concerning state-supported

institutions for infant care and family-based care of young children.

Health and Welfare Policies in a Political Lens

Investigating the intersection between child health policies, welfare programs, and broader

political agendas. How have political regimes from post-WWI Hungary to the present

influenced healthcare, education, and welfare reforms for children and families?

Nation-Building and Childcare

The role of child-rearing practices and child protection policies in nation-building efforts,

including how children were seen as future citizens and how infant care became part of political

discourse on national strength and identity.

Women’s Roles and Gender Politics

The role of women, particularly mothers and caregivers, in the political discourse surrounding

family and childcare. How did gender politics intersect with state policies on child welfare, and

what have been the expectations placed on women influencing current policies and practices?

How have professional and academic women influenced perceptions, policies, and practices,

with particular attention to research and programs related to children, families, and women's

roles?

The Politics of Poverty and Child Neglect

The state’s approach to dealing with child poverty and neglect including political debates

around state, community versus family, and parental responsibility for children’s welfare and

well-being. How did social class and political ideologies shape policies towards impoverished

families and orphaned or abandoned children?

Comparative Political Perspectives

Comparative studies of how political regimes in Hungary and other European countries

influenced establishing and managing infant homes and broader childcare policies.

Submission Guidelines

We invite individual papers or panel discussions. Proposals should include:

● Full name, institutional affiliation, and contact information of the presenter(s)

● Title of the presentation or panel

● Language of submission: Hungarian OR English

● A 300-word abstract outlining the research topic, methodology, and key findings or

arguments

● Any specific AV or other technical requirements

All proposals should be sent to Mária Herczog (herczogmaria@me.com), Andrea Pető

(petoa@ceu.edu) and Fanni Svégel (svegelfanni@gmail.com) as one Word (doc) or PDF file.

Panel proposals should be sent as one merged file.

Deadline for abstract submission: 1 May, 2025

Notification of acceptance: 15 June, 2025

Submission of papers: September 15, 2025

Conference dates: October 6-8, 2025, at CEU DI

For more information, see the project page (https://democracyinstitute.ceu.edu/emmi-pikler).

workshop for emerging scholars (M.A. students, Ph.D. students, and postdoctoral researchers) focusing on the study of contemporary East-Central and Southeastern Europe

 The Center for Slavic, Eurasian, and East European Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is pleased to invite you to submit paper proposals for a workshop for emerging scholars (M.A. students, Ph.D. students, and postdoctoral researchers) focusing on the study of contemporary East-Central and Southeastern Europe. We are interested in novel sources and approaches that reinterpret traditional historical narratives of these regions.

We welcome submissions related to East-Central and Southeastern Europe from history and other historically-informed disciplines, such as political science, anthropology, sociology, and film and literary studies. Scholars from the regions of inquiry are especially encouraged to apply. We hope to create panels of scholars from diverse national and temporal subfields to discuss shared challenges and insights related to the use of different sources – including, but not limited to, oral histories, literary sources, government documents, photography, video, or material culture. We will accept papers on any topic. In their presentations, panelists will address the source base of their papers and their interpretations thereof.

The workshop is remote and will take place via Zoom on May 16, 2025. Participants will have 15–20 minutes to present their papers in English. Each presentation will be followed by comments from a discussant and questions from the audience.

Please send a short abstract (300 words) and a CV in English via this form. Proposals should briefly explain the paper’s source base and argument, as well as its contribution to the fields of East-Central and Southeastern European history. The deadline for submission is 11:59 pm EST on March 31, 2025.

Applicants will be informed of their status by April 7. Those accepted into the workshop will be asked to submit a complete paper by 11:59 p.m. EST on May 2, 2025. Please direct questions regarding the workshop to myself (ahuselja@email.unc.edu) and Mira Markham (miram@live.unc.edu).

CfP: Mobilizing Nature: The Environmental History of the Ottoman Danubian Frontier, Vienna, 12-13 March 2026

Call for papers: Mobilizing Nature: The Environmental History of the Ottoman Danubian Frontier, Vienna, 12-13 March 2026

The Danube, “le roi des fleuves de l’Europe” (the king of European rivers), as Napoleon Bonaparte called it, is the second longest river in Europe, surpassed by the Volga in Russia only. Originating from the Black Forests in Germany, it flows through or past ten Central and Southeastern European countries before it flows into the Black Sea. The Danube was a vital commercial and military shipping channel for the Ottomans. From the fourteenth century, they increasingly used the Danube as a waterway to move supplies and munition between the Black Sea and the Hungarian plains. Especially in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the Danube was an inseparable part of Ottoman campaign logistics. It enabled the Ottomans to apply their military projections to Europe and contributed to their success in their military operations against the Habsburgs. 

Scholars have tracked the political, social, and economic consequences of the Ottoman military presence on the Danube, but less attention has been paid to its environmental repercussions. To fill this gap, the Department of Near Eastern Studies at the University of Vienna will host the “Mobilizing Nature: The Environmental History of the Danubian Frontier” workshop from 12 to 13 March 2026. Focusing on the Middle and Lower Danubian frontiers in the early modern period, it will explore the Danube River’s place and role in Ottoman warfare. The workshop aims to shed light on the relationship between the riverine environment, war and military in the early modern Ottoman Danube. It aims to bring together researchers working on the river’s military and environmental histories and those with a broader focus on river history. In this respect, it seeks to foster a cross-disciplinary conversation to build connections across fields and bring different perspectives to understand the establishment and maintenance of the Ottoman Danubian frontier in connection with the natural environment.

The participants are encouraged to engage in interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary topics that deal with questions including, but not limited to, the following:

▪ How did the Ottomans expand their rule and establish and maintain their military frontier on the Danube River? 

▪ How did the Ottoman military engage with the Danubian environment? In what ways did environmental conditions, such as climate, landscape, flora, fauna, soil, and water, shape the character of Ottoman warfare? 

▪ How did military ideas, strategies, bodies, and institutions interact with nature in the Ottoman Danube? 

▪ How did they cope with the challenges posed by the Danube, such as shallows, whirlpools, and shifting islands? 

▪ How did the Ottoman military mobilize natural resources, such as timber, stone, sand, and ores, for their military ends? 

▪ What were the environmental consequences of the Ottoman military presence on the Danube? How did the militarization of Danubian landscapes affect human beings and other species? 

▪ What are the specificities of the militarized environments along the Ottoman Danube? How similar or different are they from other militarized environments in the Ottoman Empire and beyond? 

▪ How are the environmental histories of Ottoman battlefields linked? 

▪ How can methods and tools used in the digital and spatial humanities, such as historical GIS and creative geovisualization, offer alternative ways of telling stories about the Ottoman Danubian Frontier?

For the “Mobilizing Nature” workshop, we invite submissions that align with the workshop aims mentioned above. Please send your proposals of max. 300 words and short bios to Onur İnal (onur.inal@univie.ac.at) and Deniz Armağan Akto (deniz.armagan.akto@univie.ac.at) until 31 May 2025. 

Limited funding will be available to help cover travelling costs for individuals without institutional support. 

The workshop is part of the project “DANFront: An Environmental History of the EarlyModern Ottoman Military Frontier in the Middle and Lower Danube,” funded by the Austrian Science Fund (FWF) (PAT2459324). 

https://danfront.univie.ac.at/

In the spirit of continuing the rich dialogue and scholarly exchange from the Mobilizing Nature workshop, we intend to publish an edited collection on the innovative research presented at the workshop. The edited collection will seek to consolidate and extend the theoretical and conceptual insights generated by the workshop, providing a significant contribution to Ottoman military environmental history.

URL

https://danfront.univie.ac.at/workshop/

CHORUS & hps.cesee global book talk: Economic Knowledge in Crisis: Economists and the State in the Late Soviet Union

CHORUS & hps.cesee global book talk: Economic Knowledge in Crisis: Economists and the State in the Late Soviet Union. Thursday, April 10, 11:00 am ET / 17:00 CET / 18:00 Kyiv, Zoom.

ABOUT THIS EVENT

Virtual platforms CHORUS (Colloquium for the History of Russian and Soviet Science) & HPS.CESEE (History of Science in Central, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe) are inviting you to the forthcoming discussion of a new book on the history of Soviet economics. Ewa Dąbrowska and Ilya Matveev will join Olessia Kirtchik to comment on her recent book: Economic Knowledge in Crisis: Economists and the State in the Late Soviet Union [1], in a discussion moderated by Slava Gerovitch.

Thursday, April 10, 11:00 am ET / 17:00 CET / 18:00 Kyiv, Zoom.

The meeting is free and open to the public. To receive the Zoom link, please register here: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/LInm1rrqSzqQFiI0muwJzw or write to hps.cesee@gmail.com

[1] Economic Knowledge in Crisis: Economists and the State in the Late Soviet Union. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan 2024.

“This book aims to shed new light on the puzzle of the late Soviet conversion to the “market” and capitalism by revisiting the history of Soviet reform economics. Using a variety of sources, including interviews with economists, archival files, and published materials, it examines the social contexts in which economists employed in economic administration and research institutions could have played a crucial public and political role, the forms of their participation, and the social and political logic behind the selection of economic experts and their rise to power during perestroika and the “transition” period. It also compares the professional trajectories of these reformist economists and assesses the scope of this group’s influence in the post-Soviet period in order to conclude on the new state of economic expertise in Russia.”

Participants

Ewa Dąbrowska is a Postdoc in the Cluster “Contestations of the liberal Script” and at the Institute for East European Studies at the Freie Universität Berlin. She obtained her PhD from the University of Amsterdam with the thesis on ideas and policy change in Putin’s Russia. Her current research focuses on alternatives to the liberal norms and institutions in the governance of the Internet, data and the digital economy in Russia and the Global South. More information https://www.scripts-berlin.eu/people/Dabrowska/index.html 

Olessia Kirtchik is a sociologist and CNRS researcher, specializing in the sociology of science and technology. She holds a PhD from the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (EHESS) and has held academic positions in Russia, France, and Austria. Her research focuses on the history of cybernetics, AI, and the circulation of economic ideas. Notable publications include “The Soviet Scientific Programme on AI” (BJHS Themes, 2023) and “Computers for the Planned Economy” (Europe-Asia Studies, 2022). She is currently working on the IAction project, studying AI’s role in public administration in France. More information: https://cis.cnrs.fr/en/olessia_kirtchik/ 

Ilya Matveev is an independent Marxist researcher in Russian and international political economy. He is currently a visiting scholar at UC Berkeley and a member of the research group Public Sociology Laboratory. He is a founding editor of Openleft.ru. His recent publications include “From the Chicago Boys to Hjalmar Schacht: The Trajectory of the (Neo)Liberal Economic Expertise in Russia” (Problems of Post-Communism, 2024) and "When the Whole Is Less Than the Sum of Its Parts: Russian Developmentalism since the Mid-2000s." (Russian Politics 2023 with Oleg Zhuravlev). More information: https://berkeley.academia.edu/IlyaMatveev 

Slava Gerovitch teaches history of mathematics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He holds two PhDs: one in philosophy of science (from the Institute for the History of Natural Sciences and Technology in Moscow) and one in history and social study of science and technology (from MIT's Science, Technology and Society Program). He has written extensively on the history of Soviet mathematics, cybernetics, cosmonautics, and computing. He is the author of From Newspeak to Cyberspeak: A History of Soviet Cybernetics (2002), Voices of the Soviet Space Program (2014), and Soviet Space Mythologies (2015). More information: https://web.mit.edu/slava/homepage 

CALL FOR PAPERS: The Humanities and Natural Sciences in the Late Stalin Era

 CALL FOR PAPERS: The Humanities and Natural Sciences in the Late Stalin Era

The CUPOLA project (Culture’s Politics Under Authoritarian Rule: Soviet Civilizationism and the Case of the Humanities During the Stalin Era, 2024–2028) invites chapter proposals for the book project The Humanities and Natural Sciences in the Late Stalin Era. The deadline for abstracts is May 15, 2025, with notifications of acceptance sent by May 23, 2025. We invite abstracts for book chapters that offer novel perspectives on the humanities and natural sciences during the late Stalin era. To apply, please submit an abstract (maximum 500 words) and a CV (maximum two pages) to elina.viljanen@helsinki.fi.

Research on Stalin-era humanities and natural sciences has primarily focused on the political and ideological control exerted by the state. However, there is a scarcity of studies exploring the degrees of autonomy and submission within these fields. To address this gap, we propose examining the political strategies employed by scholars in Soviet humanities and natural sciences in their efforts to gain relative autonomy from Soviet political control. This approach is grounded in the understanding that, for political instrumentalization to be effective, it cannot entirely eliminate scholarly autonomy, as scholarship must remain useful for political purposes.

Our project seeks to explore the intersections between the political, cultural, and philosophical aspects of Soviet humanities and natural sciences. Our premise is that the political aspects of humanities and sciences are not reducible only to the active role they assume through their actors and ideas in conventional state driven politics. To address and test this premise, we introduce the methodological concept of culture’s politics, which refers to the struggle for power to define and govern one’s own cultural existence. In the context of the humanities and natural sciences, it is essential to ask: To what extent did scholars under Stalinism experience relative autonomy? What did autonomy entail, and why is this phenomenon significant? How should we conceptualize the late Stalin era in scholarship, particularly from the perspectives of the history of ideas and philosophy of science?

A seminar to discuss preliminary book chapters will be held at the Aleksanteri Institute of the University of Helsinki on October 2–3, 2025. Online participation will be available, and the deadline for submitting draft chapters is September 22nd, 2025.

We kindly ask you to forward this Call for Papers to any individuals or groups who may be interested in contributing to this book project. For more information about the CUPOLA Project, please visit the ARGIH pages: https://www.helsinki.fi/en/researchgroups/russian-east-european-and-eurasian-intellectual-history/news/call-for-papers

 

Call for Articles: "Betrayal Revisited: Historical Perspectives on Treachery in Central Europe" (Střed/Centre 2/2025)

 Call for Articles: "Betrayal Revisited: Historical Perspectives on Treachery in Central Europe" (Střed/Centre 2/2025)

By early 2025, arguments about ‘betrayal’ have made a triumphant return to the domain of global politics, underscoring the emotive underpinnings of a particular US- and NATO-centric global order, particularly from the perspective of the Global North. At the same time, rhetoric from many of the main actors involved has operated with the concept of betrayal since nobody wants to betray the trust of the respective ‘nation’. This situation has evoked memories of historic betrayals, from the Munich Agreement to the Phoney War, from the Yalta Conference to the failure of the Budapest Memorandum, as well as individual betrayals both domestic and foreign. The resurgence of interest in treachery in Central Europe is in line with a number of historiographical trends since the 1990s. On the one hand, it is driven by a new generation of historians seeking to challenge post-socialist narratives with their black-and-white, national typologies. On the other hand, it is a reaction to the resurgence of such dualistic narratives in conservative and right-wing historiography. Concurrently, and not by chance, Julien Benda’s La trahison des clercs (The Treason of the Intellectuals, orig. 1927) experienced a revival in the region, marking the return of yet another discourse on betrayal.

The present issue of the diamond open access journal Střed/Centre will contribute to this growing Central European debate on the histories of treachery and betrayal. Contributions are invited on the period from the onset of the 19th century to the present day, and the space stretching from Bregenz to Luhansk and from Dubrovnik to Tallinn. Comparative and transnational approaches are particularly welcome in this context.

Potential themes or questions to discuss are:

- What terms are used in the languages of Central Europe to discuss concepts of betrayal or treachery in a variety of historic political or personal contexts? Where does this language come from and how has it evolved?

- What criteria are used by governments or in the general public for evaluating treachery or betrayal? Which discourses and which emotional regimes do they relate to (social, cultural, gender, religious, colonial, national etc.)?

- How has the criteria employed in incidents of treachery changed over time? How has this affected the criteria for atonement? How far is atonement for treachery ever possible?

- Where and why have notorious figures of betrayal or treachery appeared or disappeared over the course of the last two centuries? How far have they involved new forms of collective identification in the Central European region (e.g. class, gender, ethnicity) in evolving forms of state or society?

- What happens when discourses about betrayal clash with each other? – e.g. different national perspectives (as in the 1938 ‘Munich betrayal’), or conflicts about betrayal on a more personal level such as adultery or oath-breaking.

- How and why are certain incidents or figures of treachery long-lasting? Who sustains these historic incidents in the public memory, and how are they reconfigured for new purposes in later decades by regimes or society?

- To what extent are there key sites or spaces in Central Europe which evoke memories of betrayal, treachery or treason? 

- How far do incidents or discourses about treachery have regional limits, or are they also transnational with some examples from Central Europe having an international resonance?

Please send a title and an abstract of no more than 250 words to the editors at stred@mua.cas.cz by April 10, 2025. Authors of accepted proposals will be expected to submit their full papers by October 1, 2025.

Information about the journal and the guidelines can be found in the “For Authors” section of the journal’s website: https://asjournals.lib.cas.cz/Stred/home?lang=en 

Languages of publication: English, Czech, Slovak, German