Thursday 31 March 2022

CALL FOR PAPERS Chernobyl as a Historical Caesura: Environment, Politics, and Science University of Naples Federico II 9-10 December 2022

CALL FOR PAPERS

Chernobyl as a Historical Caesura: Environment, Politics, and Science

University of Naples Federico II

9-10 December 2022

The Departments of Social Sciences and of Humanities of the University of Naples Federico II, the Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute, the Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society of Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, and the Department of History of the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy are pleased to announce an open call for papers for the conference Chernobyl as a Historical Caesura: Environment, Politics, and Science to be held in Naples on 9-10 December 2022.

Over the last ten years, scholars have devoted an increased attention to the study of the role the Chernobyl (Ukr. Chornobyl’) disaster played from a political, social, cultural, and environmental point of view. In her seminal book A Manual for Survival, Kate Brown defined the incident and its aftermath as an unprecedented episode in human history with long-term consequences that are not yet fully evident even today. Starting with this insight, our conference aims at analyzing the Chernobyl disaster as a turning point in the late twentieth century not only for political and environmental history, but also for medicine and international cooperation, and for the human perception of nature and science. For our conference we seek papers that can speak (but are not limited) to the following questions:

The ways in which the Chernobyl disaster reshaped political debates locally, nationally, and internationally

The impact it had on political regimes (including the Soviet Union) and on the emergence of environmental and eco-nationalist movements and parties.

The consequences this accident had on debates about science and technology, as well as on debates about risk, health, and hazards.

The ways in which it shaped debates about energy and environmental policies at a local, national, and international level.

The effects the Chernobyl events had on scientists’ political and civic engagement in the context of the late Cold War, and on their research concerning environmental issues and renewable forms of energy.

The social and political consequences the Chernobyl calamity had on local populations and civil societies, in Ukraine and around the world.

How the Chernobyl disaster is remembered locally, regionally, and internationally and how it shaped individual and collective perceptions of nature and science as much in artistic expressions as in popular culture.

The ways in which the incident contributed to the emergence of a global environmental awareness and the need for international research, activity, and cooperation.

Please send a paper proposal of no more than 500 words, along with a 1-page CV, to Simone Attilio Bellezza (sabellezza@gmail.com) and Elisabetta Bini (elisabetta.bini@unina.it) by May 15, 2022. The program committee will notify applicants by June 25, 2022.

The conference language will be English. A selection of the papers will be published in an edited volume / special journal issue. Travel expenses will be covered and accommodation will be provided.

Scientific committee:

Simone Attilio Bellezza (University of Naples Federico II)

Elisabetta Bini (University of Naples Federico II)

Gabriella Corona (ISMED-CNR)

Christof Mauch (Rachel Carson Center, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München)

Serhii Plokhy (Harvard University)

Natalia Shlikhta (National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy)

The conference is part of the National Research Project (PRIN 2017) Inventing the Global Environment: Science, Politics, Advocacy and the Environment-Development Nexus in the Cold War and Beyond.

Marcel Chahrour: Der Medizinische Orient: Wien und die Begegnung der europäischen Medizin mit dem Osmanischen Reich (1800–1860). Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag 2022. ISBN 978-3-515-13193-3

 



Zu Beginn des 19. Jahrhunderts begegnet die deutschsprachige Medizin dem "Anderen": dem als "Orient" konstruierten Südosten Europas, dem Osmanischen Reich und den Gebieten Nordafrikas, Persiens und der arabischen Halbinsel. In der Fachliteratur, in Debatten und in den Erfahrungen vor Ort tätiger Ärzte spiegelt sich die Begegnung unterschiedlicher medizinischer Systeme – die "akademische Medizin" integriert das Wissen der heilkundlichen Lehren des Osmanischen Reichs, nutzt es als Experimentierfeld und Erfahrungsraum. Später verändert sich die Position der ärztlichen Akteure: Von Beobachtern und vereinzelt Teilnehmenden werden auch deutschsprachige Ärzte im Osmanischen Reich und Ägypten zu Betreibern eines grundlegenden strukturellen Wandels, der auf eine Verdrängung der traditionellen heilkundlichen Methoden abzielt. Die Periode einer als "Modernisierung" und "Reform" verstandenen Machtübernahme europäischer medizinischer Strukturen im Osmanischen Reich beginnt.

Marcel Chahrour wirft einen Blick auf die Vorgeschichte dieser "Reformperiode" und zeigt vom Standpunkt Wiens, wie die sich verändernde Medizin Europas das "Andere" konstruiert, während sie sich selbst findet.

Monday 28 March 2022

Discussion of Galina Babak and Aleksander Dmitriev "The Atlantis of Soviet National Modernism"

 The last issue of  Ab Imperio: The Network of Empire and Nationalism Studies is partly devoted to the discussion of Galina Babak and Aleksander Dmitriev "The Atlantis of Soviet National Modernism" (https://hpscesee.blogspot.com/2021/12/1920-1930-atlantis-of-soviet.html) and the very notion of "national modernism" as its key point.

From the Editors: "Russia’a aggression against Ukraine makes it virtually impossible for scholars from these countries to participate in joint academic events and publications without everyone’s unequivocal condemnation of the war on Ukraine unleashed by Putin’s regime. There can be no “Russian studies” without their Ukrainian segment, but also without a clear differentiation between Russia and Putinism, first of all by Russian scholars themselves. The task of the day is therefore more challenging than just the formal condemnation of war atrocities and more challenging than offering support to the suffering population of Ukraine: in the academic sphere, it involves methodological reorientation of the discipline and a rejection of the analytical language of methodological nationalism that substantiates the war."

The issue is also available through Muse platform https://muse.jhu.edu/issue/47519


Call for Papers: Researching (in) the Carpathians. Science and Politics in the Carpathians, ca. 1848-1939

Prague, Czech Academy of Sciences, October 13-14, 2022. 

The Carpathians form a long-stretched mountain arc that historically separated different regions and states in Eastern and Central Europe. As a peripheral border region, distinctive by its multi-ethnic character, the Carpathians presented a challenging area both for the imperial Austria-Hungary and its interwar successor states. Already since the early 19th century, individual parts of the mountain range and its populations had been put onto mental maps of different, often competing agents, claiming the region part of their imagined national territories. The Carpathians thus rightly turned out to be a stimulating space to research East-Central-European nationalisms in the last decades. Our workshop aims at continuing these discussions, while opening new research questions and avenues for scientific collaboration. We want to address two issues in particular:

Even though in the last years, the research on Carpathians went by and large transnational, there is still little discussion between scholars working on the history of the Galician/Polish-Ukrainian side and the Hungarian/Czechoslovak Carpathians. The first goal of the workshop hence is to start discussions between respective scholars and encourage more comparative, transnational and transregional research in the field.

Secondly, we are suggesting histories of knowledge production in the region as an approach which is suitable to inspire transdisciplinary discussions and as a convenient meeting point for scholars working on different subregions of the Carpathians. Science presents a quintessentially transnational endeavour, which was, nevertheless, marked also by political struggles and contest, esp. in border regions claimed by different states and/or nation movements. At the same time, the fields of science and knowledge-production open the way to connect / confront the issue of nationalism with that of governance and modernization and thus enrich the existing literature on the region.

In line with these considerations, we are welcoming contributions that would focus on knowledge-production in/about the Carpathians while addressing its political dimensions, esp. links to different nation- and state-building projects, resp. modernization projects/civilizing missions undertaken in the region. We are particularly interested in papers that consider transnational connections and/or attempt at cross-regional comparisons. The workshop also aims at interdisciplinary discussions. Scholars of all disciplinary backgrounds are kindly welcomed.

Presentations may address following issues:

·        Institutions and infrastructures of science and knowledge-production in the region

·        Individual scientific projects, expeditions, publications

·       Scientific collaborations across the region (transnational and transregional research projects, international congresses)

·        Knowledge production as part of governance

·        Popular science (local scholarly societies, reading halls)

·        Presentation of science to the public (exhibitions, museums)

·       Science and development of modern industries (tourism, exploitation of natural resources)

·      Other transdisciplinary approaches to knowledge on the Carpathians

Abstract submission: 

Submit a max. 300 words abstract and a short bio note by May 15 to both Filip Herza (herza@eu.cas.cz) and Martin Rohde (rohde@hiu.cas.cz).

Notification about accepted papers by the end of May.

Participants will be provided with accommodation in Prague during the workshop. The travel costs of international participants can be reimbursed up to 120€.

There is no conference fee.

The workshop is jointly organized by the Institute of Ethnology, the Institute of History and the Institute of the Slavic Studies, Czech Academy of Sciences in cooperation with the Lumina quaeruntur project "'Images of science' in Czechoslovakia 1918-1945-1968," Masaryk Institute and Archives of the Czech Academy of Sciences. 

Conference venue: Na Florenci 3, Prague 1 (Ústav pro českou literaturu).

Filip Herza, Martin Rohde, Michal Vašíček

Friday 25 March 2022

How to help Ukrainian scholars in need (by Tetiana Zemliakova)

 What to keep in mind if you want to help Ukrainian researchers affected by the war

1. It is great that you opened a short-term emergency fellowship. Yet you must provide support with what happens next — assist with preparing other applications, explain how to deal with research funding agencies in your country, provide all the necessary information about terms of academic employment. Do not just leave researchers alone after they arrive on campus.
2. Provide any assistance possible to support visa applications of researchers’ family members. If you cannot provide them with invitations, help clarify the application requirements, translate documents, and contact your consulate. Yes, there are initiatives dedicated to provide visa support, but try to reduce the number of external actors involved. It is easier for the university to run all the processes than for a stressed, displaced researcher on the move. Do as much as you can, although it might be ‘not your job’ under normal conditions.
3. The same goes for housing and tickets. In your call, indicate whether you are ready to help with relocation or cover travel expenses. Think about informal (or non-institutional) ways of facilitating researchers’ arrival on campus — searching for tickets, translating housing contracts, introducing incoming researchers to each other so they might rent a place together, etc.
4. Think about researchers coming with children: kindergartens, schools — can you contact them and help with placing kinds? You can check in advance with your local schooling system to answer researchers’ questions immediately (same as with visas, really).
5. Eliminate unnecessary application requirements. Contact the referees directly and allow researchers to submit their names only; accept documents submitted via email (not everyone can upload papers through your application portal); be flexible with deadlines; accept applications submitted in any format (you can convert them to .pdf, really), etc. Just keep in mind that not every scholar has access to computers and/or stable internet at this moment.
6. Don’t require researchers to show up on campus immediately; offer a possibility to make part of a fellowship distantly.
7. Never compare ‘who suffers more.’ At least not aloud. Just accept from the very beginning that the war affects peoples’ lives in a myriad of aspects; they may be unimaginable, unbelievable, unlikely. Sometimes, people are not ready to overshare. Sometimes, people are not ready to admit how unfortunate their condition is. Sometimes, people are not ready to appear miserable. So please, be sympathetic or at least tactful.
8. Consequences of war are difficult to formalize. Researchers do not know your institution’s internal rules and limitations, so you better think in advance and offer what you can deliver.
9. Finally, you should remember at any moment that researchers are seeking help from your university because they aspire to remain professionals. They are not merely seeking food and shelter, but they seek an environment that would allow them to pursue what they cherish. Try to alleviate whatever stands in-between researchers and their work. Your goal is not only to help researchers survive (there is nothing specifically ‘university’ in it, refugee funds can do better than universities) but to help them remain professionals (that is what a university can do).

[from facebook of Tetiana, https://www.facebook.com/lordaauch]

Thursday 24 March 2022

Leszek Zasztowt: Józef Mianowski. Biografia konserwatysty [Józef Mianowski - Biography of a Conservative]. Warsaw: Studium Europy Wschodniej 2022.

  



Józef Mianowski to w dziejach Polski postać wyjątkowa. Nieco zapomniany bohater narodowy, który nigdy nie wojował, nie odniósł ran i nie poległ bohatersko, co więcej kolaborował z zaborcą, a mimo wszystko zapisał się w naszej historii złotymi zgłoskami. Przede wszystkim był praktykującym lekarzem, badaczem, a poza tym wykładowcą medycyny na Uniwersytecie Wileńskim i w wileńskiej Akademii Medyko-Chirurgicznej, a pod koniec życia współtwórcą i rektorem warszawskiej Szkoły Głównej. Mianowski to jeden z tych, którzy wychowali sławne „pokolenie Szkoły Głównej”. To także patron najczcigodniejszej polskiej instytucji wspierającej naukę, Kasy im. Mianowskiego, wokół której skupiały się najważniejsze postacie naszego świata uczonego od schyłku XIX wieku po drugą wojnę światową.

dr hab. Jacek Soszyński,

prof. PAN, Instytut Historii Nauki PAN

Józef Mianowski, lekarz, pierwszy i zarazem ostatni rektor Szkoły Głównej Warszawskiej, jest postacią znaną, choć w dość specyficzny sposób. Stosunkowo mało bowiem wiadomo o nim jako o człowieku, natomiast jego nazwisko funkcjonuje w powszechnej pamięci jako symbol uczelni, która złotymi zgłoskami zapisała się w historii polskiej kultury. O szczególnym fenomenie Szkoły Głównej pisano niejednokrotnie, ale wciąż, jak się wydaje, nie udało się w pełni wyjaśnić przyczyn powstania jej legendy, żywej do dziś. Z pewnością jednym z najważniejszych powodów jest to, że wśród jej absolwentów znalazło się pokaźne grono osób, które nie tylko zajęły eksponowane stanowiska w literaturze, nauce i kulturze polskiej, ale też zadbały o utrwalenie pamięci o swojej Alma Mater, jej profesorach i ich dorobku. Abiturienci Szkoły Głównej zrobili wiele dla zachowania w świadomości społecznej szczególnej roli kulturowej uczelni, która choć istniała zaledwie 7 lat, zdążyła wychować grupę, mianem „pokolenia Szkoły Głównej”.

Dr hab. Joanna Schiller-Walicka,

prof. PAN, Instytut Historii Nauki PAN

Monday 21 March 2022

Sebastian Engelmann, Bernhard Hemetsberger, Frank Jacob (eds.) War and Education: The Pedagogical Preparation for Collective Mass Violence. Amsterdam, Padeborn: Brill, Schöningh 2022. ISBN: 978-3-506-79196-2

 



This book shows that education does not only prepare war, but defines its character for future generations. Pointing out the intricate interconnetion with the various practices of education this volume offers in-depth studies of war and education in several chronological and geographical contexts. Tying in with the latest state of the art the authors offer examples for education for war, education in war and education for reconciliation in the aftermath of wars from a global perspective.

CfP: Reshaping Nature: Atomic Agriculture in the Cold War Era

 The University of Genoa-Department of Antiquities, Philosophy, History (DAFIST), and the Unit 2 of the Research group Prin 2017-Inventing the Global Environment (https://www.inveglement.eu/), are pleased to announce the International Conference Reshaping Nature: Atomic Agriculture in the Cold War Era, which will be held on 8-9 September 2022 in Genoa, Italy.

Historians  of science have widely investigated the impact of the atomic bomb on  the development of the life sciences after World War 2, thoroughly  documenting how the dissemination of scientific resources associated  with nuclear energy shaped biological knowledge, laboratory  instrumentation, and medical practices.

In  this burgeoning historiographic context, the application of nuclear  science in agriculture has hitherto attracted relatively little  scholarly attention. In particular, despite the pioneering contributions  of Helen Anne Curry, Jacob Darwin Hamblin and Karin Zachmann, the  development of mutation breeding in other national contexts different  from the United States and, more in general, the global spread of atomic  agriculture remains uncharted territory.

The  aim of this workshop is to partially bridge this gap, by providing a  broader perspective, both geographically and analytically. First of all,  we intend to examine the transnational dimension of atomic agriculture,  drawing attention to little known, yet fundamental, national case  studies (in Europe, Asia, Latin America) but also delving into the  transnational circulation of research methods, technological systems,  irradiated organisms. Secondly, we aim to explore the complex  interaction between the establishment of atomic agriculture as a  transnational scientific field, on the one hand, and its Cold War  geopolitical dimension, on the other, involving conflicting actions and  relationships between different United Nation organisations, such as the  FAO and the IAEA. Finally, we are also interested in proposals which  analyse the visual and rhetorical strategies of atomic agriculture, its  techno-pastoral imaginary, its particular approach to the aesthetics of  the atomic sublime.

Submissions should preferably, but not exclusively, deal with:

Mutation breeding and food irradiation: national and international programmes

Seeds and soil irradiation

The insect sterile technique

Circulation and networks of scientific knowledge in the field of atomic agriculture

Atomic agriculture and the Green Revolution: narratives and tensions

Visual and material cultures of atomic agriculture

Please send a paper proposal of no more than 300 words, along with a 1-page CV, to Francesco Cassata (francesco.cassata@unige.it) by May 15, 2022. Final notification will be given by June 5, 2022. Please  also express whether you would present in person or online. The  conference is intended in person, but hybrid sessions are planned to  accommodate both preferences.

There  are limited funds available to cover travel and accommodation costs up  to a certain amount for scholars who have not access to institutional  funding.

The  conference language will be English. A selection of the papers will be  published in either an edited volume or a special journal issue.

The conference is part of the National Research Project (PRIN 2017) Inventing the Global Environment: Science, Politics, Advocacy and the Environment-Development Nexus in the Cold War and Beyond.

Thursday 17 March 2022

Halina Zwolska: Uczniowie Szkoły Głównej Koronnej 1780-1795 [Students of the Principal School of the Realm 1780-1795]. Kraków: Księgarnia Akademicka 2022. ISBN: 978-83-8138-566-4

Halina Zwolska: Uczniowie Szkoły Głównej Koronnej 1780-1795 [Students of the Principal School of the Realm 1780-1795]. Kraków: Księgarnia Akademicka 2022. ISBN: 978-83-8138-566-4

Summary

Despite numerous studies on the history of the Jagiellonian University during the existence of the Principal School of the Realm, detailed biographical and prosopographical studies on the student community have been lacking so far. Research on Kraków university students has a long tradition and dates back to the 19th century. Data on students and professors from the period 1364-1780 are collected in the database Corpus Academicum Cracoviense (https://cac.historia.uj.edu.pl/). Data on students from the second half of the 19th century until Poland regained its independence is collected in a multi-volume publication Corpus studiosorum Universitatis Iagellonicae 1850/51-1917/18. The present book fills a serious gap. It is a catalogue of students from the years 1780-1795 and has an exceptional character. For other periods we have a much better source base. For the Middle Ages and Early Modern Era it is a series of matriculation books. For new times, it is the annually kept enrollment cards and student catalogues. For the period of the Principal School of the Realm there is no uniform documentation of this type. The student community has to be reconstructed on the basis of very diverse and fragmentarily preserved, incomplete sources. These include catalogues of colleges and seminaries, lists of students for particular years, certificates of attendance at lectures or of obtaining degrees, minutes of examinations, oaths of candidates for teachers (submissions), account books, visitors’ reports and others.

CFP: Across the 'Nylon Curtain': Cold War Cooperation and Trans-systemic Exchanges

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A workshop organised by the Centre for the Study of Health, Ethics and Society, University of Hamburg.


Across the 'Nylon Curtain': Cold War Cooperation and Trans-systemic Exchanges

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Centre for the Study of Health, Ethics and Society, University of Hamburg, 22559 Hamburg (Deutschland)

30.09.2022

Bewerbungsschluss: 15.05.2022


Studies of post-war Europe stress ideological divisions and competing economic models. As researchers working in the ERC-funded LEVIATHAN project, we approach the post-war period in a way that challenges the traditional view of Europe as a political dichotomy separated by an ‘Iron Curtain‘. Instead, we understand the systemic divide, borrowing the metaphor of the Hungarian historian György Péteri, as a ‘Nylon Curtain‘ – a present and yet surmountable partition that was frequently breached in a variety of ways by ordinary citizens, artists, scientists, politicians, and other historical actors. 


We especially welcome proposals for papers from postdoctoral researchers and early career scholars that explore the transgressions and cooperations across the ‘Nylon Curtain’ from a variety of different angles, including but by no means limited to artistic, cultural, literary, political, scientific, and sociological collaborations between protagonists in East and West. 


The workshop will be divided chronologically into three panels, 1945-1961, 1962-1980, and 1981-1990, in order to encourage a multitude of perspectives on specific time periods, and interdisciplinary reflections on the manifold ways the perceived divisions were circumvented, subverted or disregarded in the spirit of international collaboration and shared humanity during the Cold War. 


Funding will be available and accommodation will be provided upon request. Workshop papers should be submitted by 31st August for advance circulation, and the proceeds of the workshop will subsequently be published in an edited volume in 2023.

Monday 14 March 2022

Call for Papers: Decolonizing Eastern European Studies - Knowledge as an Object of Inquiry, May 13, 2022 (virtual)

 

Calls  for decolonization have become a mainstream politics in contemporary  academia: rethinking epistemology, destabilizing the canon, and  challenging existing institutional structures. Eastern European Studies  is no exception and numerous scholars wish to work toward a more  relational, hybrid, and plural vision of the field. But what does it  mean to decolonize Eastern European Studies? What is to be gained by  decolonizing Eastern European Studies? How can this intellectual project  advance our understanding of the region?

This interdisciplinary workshop invites proposals from advanced PhD students who  are currently working on a publishable piece or a dissertation and are  interested in rethinking epistemology and exploring the systems of  knowledge production in and about Eastern Europe broadly understood.  Some of the topics may include:

the role of scholarship  produced in the region and its languages for rethinking the  interdisciplinary field of Eastern European Studies,

the relation between knowledge production and politics,

prospects and challenges of decolonial methodology,

the role of the canon in sustaining systems of knowledge control,

epistemological tensions and contradictions in studying the region,

the relation between memory and history in decolonizing Eastern European Studies,

access to and dissemination of knowledge,

knowledge production in the moment of political and social change,

challenges and prospects of comparative research in and outside the region.

The workshop will  be organized in the format of intensive panel discussions of  pre-circulated papers led  by leading scholars in the field that will be  closed to the public. It will be followed by a keynote panel including  invited speakers and selected participants. Applicants should submit an abstract and short bio to deesproject@newschool.edu by March 20, 2022.

Selected  participants must submit their papers (approx. 15 pages) two weeks  before the workshop. A publication of the presented papers is planned.

The  organizer of the workshop is the Decolonizing Eastern European Studies  Group with the support of the Dean’s Office of The New School for Social  Research, New York City.

CFP: The Making of the Humanities X, The Society for the History of the Humanities (Carnegie Mellon University (CMU); University of Pittsburgh (Pitt)), t.b.a. t.b.a. (United States) 03.11.2022 - 05.11.2022, Deadline: 15.05.2022

 

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The Society for the History of the Humanities is delighted to announce that the 10th Making of the Humanities conference on the comparative history of the humanistic disciplines will take place in Pittsburgh, November 3-5, 2022. Keynotes will be delivered by Kathleen Fitzpatrick and Eric Hayot.


The Making of the Humanities X

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The Making of the Humanities conferences are organized by the Society of the History of the Humanities. This year’s conference will be organized by Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) and the University of Pittsburgh (Pitt).

 

We welcome panels and papers on any period or region. We are especially interested in work that transcends the history of specific humanities disciplines by comparing scholarly practices across disciplines and civilisations.


Please note that the Making of the Humanities conferences are not concerned with the history of art, the history of music or the history of literature, and so on, but instead with the history of art history, the history of musicology, the history of literary studies/philology, etc.


Paper Submissions

Abstracts of single papers (30 minutes including discussion) should contain the name of the speaker, full contact address (including email address), the title and a summary of the paper of maximally 250 words.


Panel Submissions

Panels last 1.5 to 2 hours and can consist of 3-4 papers and possibly a commentary on a coherent theme including discussion. Panel proposals should contain respectively the name of the chair, the names of the speakers and commentator, full contact addresses (including email addresses), the title of the panel, a short (150 words) description of the panel’s content and for each paper an abstract of maximally 250 words.

 

More information about the conference fee will follow in May 2022, but we will try to keep it low as possible (around $90 for students and $120 for regular participants). Each participant also needs to be a member of the Society for the History of the Humanities ($30 for PhD students, $60 for others). Membership includes subscription to the journal History of Humanities.


We hope to welcome you in Pittsburgh!

Call for articles: Environment of Central European Border Regions. Střed/Centre Journal


This issue of Střed/Centre will be devoted to articles analyzing issues related to the relationships of the environment and Central European border regions from the 19th century to the present day. Deadline for submissions of full papers: July 31, 2022

ENVIRONMENT OF CENTRAL EUROPEAN BORDER REGIONS

In certain historical periods, the border regions of Central Europe were separated by an impenetrable state border, while at other times they were a virtually uniform area. But regardless of the border arrangement, they have always been connected by the environment. Thus, in the environment and the different approaches to it on both sides of the border were reflected differences in politics, economic interests and culture. Policies developed at the centre could not only contribute to the joint solution of environmental problems in the borderlands, they could also provoke cross-border ‘ecological wars.’ High-profile examples of the latter include the long-running dispute between the Czech Republic and Austria over the Temelín nuclear power plant in South Bohemia, the Slovak-Hungarian dispute over the Gabčíkovo-Nagymaros Dams, and the recent Czech-Polish conflict over the Turów lignite mine in south-western Poland.

Nevertheless, relationships to the environment of the border regions were not only shaped by specific conflicts, but also by the everydayness associated with creating and maintaining cross-border infrastructure or a shared cross-border approach to the use of nature and its resources. Moreover, the natural environment of the border regions of Central Europe could also imply specific cultural meanings manifested in regional and national identities, some of which were shared on both sides of the border, while others were perceived differently. In the case of Central Europe, which intersects the West and East of the continent, research into the relationship between people and the environment across the borders of several countries makes it possible not only to form a transnational perspective, but also to critically re-evaluate simplistic stereotypes regarding the ecological West and the unecological East. Borderlands research in relation to environmental issues can serve as a laboratory for exploring the different paths between modern and postmodern values across various states, political regimes and discursive environments.

This issue of Střed/Centre will be devoted to articles analyzing issues related to the relationships of the environment and Central European border regions from the 19th century to the present day. Comparative and transnational approaches will be particularly welcome in this context.

Themes of potential contributions could include, for example:

- changes in the relationship of people to the environment in the border regions;

- the influence of agriculture and industry on the environment of the border regions;

- environmental conflicts between states and their impact on the border regions;

- cross-border nature conservation;

- cross-border cooperation in the management of natural disasters;

- tourism in the border regions.


Monday 7 March 2022

CEU Press provides free access to ten of its titles on Ukraine


CEU Press is making its most pertinent titles on Ukraine and its neighbours freely available on the Project MUSE platform: https://ceupress.com/article/2022-03-01/ceu-press-provides-free-access-ten-its-titles-ukraine

How did the Russian Empire in the nineteenth and the early twentieth centuries try to “solve” the question of Ukraine? Can history explain the causes of the current military confrontation? Who are the Ukrainians of today?

For a deeper look into the history of Ukraine and how it affects the present, you can read, download and share the eBooks following the links below:


Along Ukraine’s River by Roman Adrian Cybriwsky

A Laboratory of Transnational History: Ukraine and Recent Ukrainian Historiography, edited by Georgiy Kasianov and Philipp Ther

Heroes and Villains by David Marples

The Moulding of Ukraine by Katarzyna Wolczuk

State-Building: A Comparative Study of Ukraine, Lithuania, Belarus, and Russia by Verena Fritz

Regionalism without Regions: Reconceptualizing Ukraine's Heterogeneity, edited by Oksana Myshlovska and Ulrich Schmid

Where Currents Meet: Frontiers of Memory in Post-Soviet Fiction of Kharkiv, Ukraine by Tanya Zaharchenko

Memory Crash by Georgiy Kasianov

The Ukrainian Question by Alexei Miller

The War in Ukraine’s Donbas, edited by David Marples

For more about these titles, you can find a summary here.

Saturday 5 March 2022

Digital resources on the history of Ukraine

by Martin Rohde: martin.rohde@geschichte.uni-halle.de 

This is an revised extended version of my post on the blog HPS.CESEE, which was produced in order to document the rich and helpful digital resources on Ukrainian history. Please, feel free to send me any link to legal sources and resources on Ukrainian history, which I shall add to this list.

 

Digital libraries

 

Electronic library “Ukrainica” (Електронна бібліотека “Україніка”)

http://irbis-nbuv.gov.ua/cgi-bin/ua/elib.exe?C21COM=F&I21DBN=UKRLIB&P21DBN=UKRLIB

 

Electronic Library of Ukrainian Culture (Електронна бібліотека Культура України)

http://elib.nlu.org.ua/

 

Libraria: Ukrainian periodicals

This important site once had a paywall, but since the pandemic broke out, the content is available for free. It does not only feature important Ukrainian newspapers and journals from former Galicia as well as Soviet Ukraine, but also periodicals in Yiddish, Polish and German.

https://libraria.ua/

 

The Paul Robert Magocsi Carpatho-Ruthenica Library

Sources on Transcarpathia/Uhors‘ka Rus‘/Podkarpatská Rus/Zakarpattia

https://archive.org/details/carpathoruthenica

 

Kramerius

https://ndk.cz/

The digital portal by Czech national library features important publications e.g. on the history of Zakarpattia. Many of the available 19th century sources can be accessed for free, while sources from the interwar period require institutional access or can be accessed in the library.

 

Diasporiana

http://diasporiana.org.ua/

Diasporiana features publications by the Ukrainian diaspora, but also from the Habsburg Empire, so it makes a lot of sense to search in different languages (especially Ukrainian, German, English, French and Czech). There are full series of publications by important institutions, such as: Ukrainian Free University (Український Вільний Університет), Poděbrady Ukrainian Husbandry Academy (Українська господарська академія), individual publications by the respective scholars, journals (e.g. Ukrainian Medical Journal/Український Медичний Вісник), serials by Shevchenko Scientific Society, German language journals like Ruthenische Revue (complete, 1903-1905) and Ukrainische Rundschau (few issues).

 

Mykhailo Hrushevsky Digital Archive (e-архів Михайла Грушевського)

http://hrushevsky.nbuv.gov.ua/

An extensive collection of publications on and by Ukrainian national historian Mykhailo Hrushevs’kyi, including volumes he edited.

 

Digitized sources and publications by the Institute for the History of Ukraine (Інститут Історії України, НАН України)

http://resource.history.org.ua

E.g. the important journal Kievskaia Starina (1882-1906), maps, recent historical periodicals.

 

escriptorium, digitized sources from Kharkiv University

http://escriptorium.univer.kharkov.ua/

Rare sources from Kharkiv and the region, especially from the 19th century and the early Soviet period

 

Laboratory of Folklore Studies/ Лабораторія фольклористичних досліджень

http://labs.lnu.edu.ua/folklore-studies/proekty/elektronna-navchalna-biblioteka-ukrajinskoji-folklorystyky/

Sources for Folklore Studies and related disciplined, such as the most important historical journals on Ukrainian Anthropology/Ethnography/Ethnology/Folklore

 

The complete issues of the Collection of the Mathematical-natural scientific-medical section of Shevchenko Scientific Society (Збірник математично-природописно-лікарської секції Наукового Товариство ім. Шевченка) and the German session reports of the section (Sitzungsberichte der Mathematisch-naturwissenschaftlich-ärztlichen Sektion) have been digitized and made available here.

 

 

Polish Resources

FBC – Federacja Bibliotek Cyfrowych

https://fbc.pionier.net.pl/

Digital collections of Polish institutions, including several important sources on Eastern Galicia, such as Greek-Catholic Schematismen (handbooks on local churches). German, Latin and Ukrainian publications included as well – you might need to try out different transliterations of Ukrainian.

 

 

Austrian resources with material on Galicia & Bukowina

 

ANNO - AustriaN Newspapers Online

http://anno.onb.ac.at/

 

ALEX – Historische Rechts- und Gesetzestexte

http://alex.onb.ac.at/

 

 

Maps and mapping projects

 

MAPA: Digital Atlas of Ukraine, by Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute

https://huri.harvard.edu/mapa

 

L’viv interactive by the Center for Urban History, L’viv

https://lia.lvivcenter.org/#!/map/

 

 

mapire – historical maps

https://mapire.eu/

 

Cadastral maps of Bukovyna

https://www.oapen.org/search?identifier=578176

 

 

Teaching materials

 

German teaching module on the history of Galicia (“Kronland Galizien und Lodomerien”), edited by Börries Kuzmany, 2015, Herder Institute Marburg

https://www.herder-institut.de/digitale-angebote/dokumente-und-materialien/themenmodule/modul/17/seite/57.html

 

Educational platform by the Center for Urban History, L’viv

https://edu.lvivcenter.org/en/online-courses/

 

Teaching Resources collected by Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute

https://huri.harvard.edu/teaching-resources-list

 

 

(Historical) encyclopedias:

 

Encyclopedia of Ukraine

http://encyclopediaofukraine.com/

 

Encyclopedia of Ukrainian Studies (“Ukrainoznavstva”)/Енциклопедія Українознавства

http://litopys.org.ua/encycl/eui.htm

 

Brokgauz-Efron Encylopedic Dictionary/Энциклопедический словарь Брокгауз-Ефрон

http://resource.history.org.ua/cgi-bin/eiu/history.exe?Z21ID=&I21DBN=ELIB&P21DBN=ELIB&S21STN=1&S21REF=10&S21FMT=elib_all&C21COM=S&S21CNR=20&S21P01=0&S21P02=0&S21P03=ID=&S21COLORTERMS=0&S21STR=0008210

 

 

Other

 

Urban Media Archive by the Center for Urban History, L’viv

https://uma.lvivcenter.org/en

 

Call for papers: XI World Congress (International Council for Central and East European Studies)

- International Council for Central and East European Studies (ICCEES) (British Association for Slavonic and East European Studies / UCL Sch...