History of Science in Central, Eastern and Southeastern Europe

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

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 19^th 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.

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

Rare sources from Kharkiv and the region, especially from the 19^th 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/