| Masaryk Institute and Archives of the Czech Academy of Sciences.

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Saturday, 19. June 2021


All day


Before

June

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Aktuality

23. 6. 2021 to 25. 6. 2021
Online Workshop: Humanitarian Mobilization in Central and Eastern Europe during the Twentieth Century
Online Workshop: Humanitarian Mobilization in Central and Eastern Europe during the Twentieth Century

Online Workshop: Humanitarian Mobilization in Central and Eastern Europe during the Twentieth Century

Datum konání:
23. 6. 2021, 0:00 to 25. 6. 2021, 0:00
Organisers: Doina Anca Cretu, Michal Frankl (ERC-funded project Unlikely refuge? Refugees and citizens in East-Central Europe in the 20th century, Masaryk Institute and Archives of the Czech Academy of Sciences)

The Unlikely refuge? project has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program (grant agreement No 819461).

Humanitarianism has become one of the defining features of our contemporary world, as governments, private associations, and international organizations are increasingly responding to human suffering across the borders of nation states. The twentieth century saw an increased institutionalization, professionalization, and direct intervention on behalf of those in need. Yet this expansion of aid also multiplied the dilemmas of humanitarian engagements.

This workshop tackles humanitarianism in Central and Eastern Europe during the twentieth century, probing the tensions stemming from engagements in nationalist and/or state socialist environments and the dilemmas or misunderstandings that arose from encounters with Western forms of providing aid. Central and Eastern Europe experienced the creation of new nation states and an escalation of nationalism. This region was moreover a site of violence and genocide during the two world wars as well as during the Balkan Wars of the 1990s. Centralization, political control, and persecution under state socialism also shaped but also often limited humanitarian activism through individual and social engagements. Narratives of Western humanitarianism have often treated this region as one of backwardness and of a passive reception of benevolent mobilization for those in need. However, the region was a space of amplified local action to relieve suffering at the same time as humanitarian initiatives from abroad grew in presence and capacity. Studying humanitarianism from below, against a backdrop of complex political and social contexts, is essential to understanding how solidarity was constructed and how aid was provided in this region during the twentieth century.

The workshop aims to engage with diverse facets of providing aid in Central and Eastern Europe, as this area opens up broader questions of local, national, and international scales of humanitarianism. The workshop will focus on domestic forms of humanitarianism and investigate key local actors (e.g. state institutions and their officials, formal associations, activists, and charity workers), their agendas, and practices of providing aid. It will further explore their entanglements and relationships with Western as well as non-Western actors and their relief practices in Central and Eastern Europe. It will investigate how important political, ethnic, or confessional identities were in shaping discourses and practices of solidarity. It will furthermore reflect on the ways in which humanitarians positioned and negotiated the provision of aid within local nationalist and/or state socialist frameworks. Some of the questions we aim to address are: How did local actors interpret the motivations and methods of international humanitarian organizations?How did humanitarian work operate in contexts in which aid was perceived as a tool for reconstructing nations, building a socialist society, or transitioning to democracy?

Programm

Wednesday, June 23

14:00 - 14:10    Introduction

14:10 - 15:40    Humanitarian Workers: Local Action and the Need to Help

Chair: Doina Anca Cretu (Masaryk Institute and Archives/ERC UnRef)

Friederike Kind-Kovács (TU Dresden): Teach Them to Earn a Living: Julia Vajkai and the Humanitarian Idea of Children’s Education

Marija Vulesica (Humboldt-University): Aleksandar (Aleksa) Klein (Arnon): A Key Actor of the Jewish Humanitarian Work in Interwar Yugoslavia

Christine Schmidt (Wiener Holocaust Library, London) and Dan Stone (University of London): Women and Child Search: A Gendered View of Post-World War II Reconstruction

16:00 - 17:30    Transnational Interactions: Networks and Dialogues

Chair: Lidia Zessin-Jurek (Masaryk Institute and Archives/ERC UnRef)

Kinga Frojimovics (Vienna Wiesenthal Institute for Holocaust Studies): Western Humanitarian Aid during the Era of Emerging Communist Dictatorship: The JDC in Hungary in 1948 -1949

Ruth Nattermann (Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich): “The same spirit that led me into war, makes me today leave for Russia.” Italian and Transnational Actors and Their Humanitarian Work for Postrevolutionary Russia

Luciana Jinga (The Institute for the Investigation of Communist Crimes and the Memory of Romanian Exile, Bucharest): What Dialogue Between Humanitarians and Beneficiaries? The Intricate Case of the Humanitarian Aid Towards Children in Romania during the 1990s

18:00 - 19:30    International Organizations: Methods and Motivations

Chair: Francesca Rolandi (Masaryk Institute and Archives/ERC UnRef)

Francesca Piana (Italian-German Historical Institute of Trento, ISIG-FBK): Casework For Families Beyond Borders. The International Migration Service in Interwar Poland

Pamela Ballinger (University of Michigan): Trieste and the Problem of the Hardcore

Sarah Knoll (University of Vienna): International Aid for Refugees in Austria During the Cold War (1956-1990)

Thursday, June 24

14:00 - 15:30    Practices of Humanitarianism

Chair: Alice Szczepaniková (Independent researcher and analyst)

Jo Laycock (University of Manchester): Soviet Remedies for Displacement: Refugees and Public Health in the South Caucasus

Sara Silverstein (University of Connecticut): Typhus, Refugees, and Humanitarianism in the Integration of Poland’s Second Republic

Katarzyna Nowak (University of Manchester): Civilising Mission in the Archipelago of Refugee Camps

16:00 - 17:30    Local Humanitarianism

Chair: Ágnes Katalin Kelemen (Masaryk Institute and Archives/ERC UnRef)

Franciszek Zakrzewski (EHESS/ERC Lubartworld): Between Grassroot Organisations and Social Policies: Humanitarian Aid in the Interwar Lubartów

Maren Hachmeister (TU Dresden): Self-Organized Elderly Care in the Three Border Region: From Late Socialist Humanitarianism to Post-1989 Transformations

Laura Brade (Albion College): A Network Approach to Tracing Humanitarian Mobilization for Refugees from the Bohemian Lands

18:00 - 19:30    State-Organized or Civic: Humanitarianism Under State Socialism

Chair: Ondřej Vojtěchovský (Charles University)

Sielke Kelner (Leiden University): Spiritual Empowerment as a Form of Humanitarian Relief. The Work of Open Doors in Communist Romania

Cristian Capotescu (University of Washington): More than Speechless Emissaries: Civic Response and Socialist Refugeedom in Hungary, 1987-1989

Nikola Karasová (Masaryk Institute and Archives/ERC UnRef): Humanitarian Mobilization under the Conditions of an Emerging State Socialist Regime: The Greek Civil War and Korean War Child Refugees in Czechoslovakia

Friday, June 25

14:00 - 15:30    Humanitarianism and Nation Making

Chair: Maximilian Graf (Masaryk Institute and Archives/ERC UnRef)

Gábor Egry (Institute of Political History, Budapest): From the Other Masaryk to the Romanian Queen. Transnational, Humanitarian State-building and the Post-Habsburg Transition

Elif Becan (Collège de France): Relief Programs as Means of Nation Building in Turkey: The Welcome of Muslims from the Balkans During the Interwar Period

Julia Reinke (Masaryk Institute and Archives/ERC UnRef/University of Jena): Refugees in the ‘Better Germany’. Socialist Humanitarian Aid to Greek Refugee Children in the Early German Democratic Republic

16:00 - 17:30    Conceptualizing and Debating Humanitarianism

Chair: Karla Koutková (Masaryk Institute and Archives/ERC UnRef)

Čarna Brković (University of Goettingen): Disagreement Over the Non-Political: 1975 Red Cross Peace Conference

Nick Wetschel (ISGV Dresden): Recht, Humanität, Barmherzigkeit”: (Re-)Establishing Humanitarian Frames of Meaning and Action After State Socialism

Alex Langstaff (New York University): “A Good Scandal in Vienna:” Reporting and Debating Corruption in Postwar Relief, 1917-1925

17:30 - 17:45    Final remarks

Programm (PDF)

Call for Papers (PDF)
30. 6. 2021
Střed | Centre, 2/2021 – výzva autorům
Střed | Centre, 2/2021 – výzva autorům

Střed | Centre, 2/2021 – výzva autorům

Datum konání:
30. 6. 2021, 0:00
Téma čísla: Město – laboratoř změn

Redakční uzávěrka: 30. 6. 2021

Kontakt: stred@mua.cas.cz

Publikační jazyky: čeština, angličtina, němčina

Webová stránka časopisu: https://www.mua.cas.cz/cs/stred-casopis-pro-mezioborova-studia-stredni-evropy-19-a-20-stoleti

Plný obsah časopisu: www.ceeol.com

Abstrakty: http://cejsh.icm.edu.pl

Indexace: ERIH+, SCOPUS, CEEEOL, CEJSH, EBSCO

Dnes již ve městech žije většina světové populace, světu dominují ekonomicky i spotřebou přírodních zdrojů. Právě v urbánním prostředí se historicky začaly utvářet mnohé procesy a představy, které považujeme za součást naší civilizace ve sféře hospodářství, samosprávy, vzdělání či například rodinného života. Zároveň se zde nejzřetelněji projevovaly i nejzávažnější výzvy a hrozby.

Z perspektivy humanitních a společenských věd města představují cenný výzkumný rámec, kterým jsou prostorově vymezená a přitom historicky utvářená území se svým specifickým denním rytmem i dlouhodobými vývojovými cykly. Umožňují sledovat a zkoumat jak aktuální procesy, tak i jejich historické kořeny, proměny a reakce na ně. Města tak můžeme chápat jako „laboratoř“ výzkumu závažných problémů a otázek moderní doby.

Toto číslo časopisu „Střed/Centre“ poptává studie z oboru urbánních dějin, které na nových empirických příkladech ze střední Evropy 19. a 20. století přispějí jak k reflexi produktivnosti starých i nových témat a metod výzkumu včetně všeobecně vzývané interdisciplinarity, tak i k diskusi o aktuálnosti a potřebnosti historického výzkumu moderních měst.

Číslo časopisu zahrnuje následující tematické okruhy:

vnější i vnitřní hranice moderních měst, jejich posuny a rozostřování; sociálně-prostorové nerovnosti,

vliv architektury, urbanismu a technických oborů na mentální a komunikační mapy měst,

velké politické transformace a jejich projevy na úrovni měst,

města jako nositel specifických politických strategií; městský aktivismus,

město jako cíl expertních intervencí, plánování a sociálního inženýrství,

města čelící globálním krizím.

Tisk (PDF)
30. 6. 2021
Střed | Centre, 2/2021 – Call for Papers
Střed | Centre, 2/2021 – Call for Papers

Střed | Centre, 2/2021 – Call for Papers

Datum konání:
30. 6. 2021, 0:00
Issue topic: The City – A Laboratory of Changes

Deadline for submissions: June 30th, 2021

Contact: stred@mua.cas.cz

Languages of publication: Czech, English, German

Journal website: https://www.mua.cas.cz/en/stred-centre-journal-for-interdisciplinary-studies-of-central-europe-in-the-19th-and-20th-centuries-323

Full content of the journal: www.ceeol.com

Abstracts: http://cejsh.icm.edu.pl

Indexing: ERIH+, SCOPUS, CEEEOL, CEJSH, EBSCO

Today, most of the world’s population lives in cities, which dominate the world economically as well as lead it in the consumption of natural resources. Historically, many processes and ideas that we consider to be part of our civilization – in the economy, our system of government, education, or even in our private family lives – first began to take shape in urban environments. At the same time, the most serious challenges took root in large cities.

From the perspective of the humanities and the social sciences, cities represent a valuable framework for research since they are spatially clearly defined and historically shaped areas with specific daily rhythms and long-term development cycles. They make it possible to observe and research both current processes and their historic roots and the changes and reactions to them. Cities can thus be understood as a “laboratory” where the serious problems and questions of the modern era can be analyzed.

This issue of Střed | Centre calls for papers on topics from the field of urban history. Using new empirical examples from 19th and 20th century Central Europe, they shall analyze old and new research topics and methods, including frequently called-for interdisciplinarity, and discuss the current state and need for historical research on modern cities.

The issue will include the following topics:

external and internal borders of modern cities, their shifts and blurring; social-spatial inequalities,

the influence of architecture, urbanism, and technology on urban mental and communication maps,

major political transformations and their manifestation at the city level,

cities as bearers of specific political strategies; urban activism,

the city as a target of expert interventions, planning, and social engineering,

cities facing global crises.

Print (PDF)
8. 9. 2021 to 10. 9. 2021
Call for Conference Papers: Local Administration during the First and Second World Wars
Call for Conference Papers: Local Administration during the First and Second World Wars

Call for Conference Papers: Local Administration during the First and Second World Wars

Datum konání:
8. 9. 2021, 0:00 to 10. 9. 2021, 0:00
Venue: Vila Lanna, V sadech 1, Prague

Organization: Jan Vondráček (Masaryk Institute and Archives of the CAS, Prague)

Deadline for submission: 17. 3. 2020

The type of rational, legal administrative staff is capable of application in all kinds of situations and contexts. It is the most important mechanism for the administration of everyday affairs. For in that sphere, the exercise of authority consists precisely in administration.

Max Weber

Local administration has always played a key role in securing, implementing and stabilizing the authority of the modern state. After the outbreak of the First World War, the warring countries were confronted with a difficult supply situation, including famine, disease, refugees and labor shortages. The clerks of the local administration were responsible for implementing new policies and solving problems. They were the ones in direct contact with local populations which were often multi-ethnic and presented a broad variety of needs.

In many cases, local administrations were reorganized to deal with vast and unprecedented tasks and problems. In other cases, the German Empire and Austria-Hungary established military occupation administrations which depended on existing local administration, for example in Belgium, Serbia and Ukraine.

Not only military defeat but also the failure of overtaxed local administrations to solve substantial problems such as obtaining sufficient food supplies for the population led to revolts in the German Empire and the Habsburg Monarchy.

This drastic experience prompted Nazi Germany in particular to undertake a reorganization of local administration shortly before the outbreak of the Second World War. Even after large parts of Europe were under German occupation, local administrations remained largely responsible for the daily life needs of local populations, such as organizing production, distribution and rationing of food and other basic goods, such as heating fuel and clothing. Since state food allotments were often insufficient to meet basic needs, local populations reacted with the development of a variety of illegal practices. Farmers evaded compulsory levies of food and sold undocumented, illegally butchered meat. Hidden stores of products, food and ration stamps were traded for other goods as part of a comprehensive black market. Although nominally supervised by German occupiers, the actual prosecution of these new economic crimes generally fell in the responsibility of local administrations and courts. Local courts continued to hear non-political cases and disputes within local populations as well.

Recent research in Holocaust Studies have showed that local administrations not only played an important role in making the mass murder of the European Jews possible, but that it was often local administrations that took the initiative.

This conference aims to bring together scholars who work on specific aspects of local administration in the First World War and the Second World War and analyze and compare a diversity of methodologies, findings and approaches.

We are particularly interested in papers that are dealing with the following historical focuses:

The relationship between the occupying power and local administration.

Local administration and the war economy

Local courts under occupation

Continuity and change in staffing aspects of local administration under occupation

Questions of local administration and local interpretation of collaboration

Prof. Jonathan Gumz will give a keynote address on local administration and the First World War.

Prof. Dieter Pohl will give a keynote address on local administration and the Second World War.

At the moment we are able to cover accommodation and parts of the travel costs, we are still looking for funds for travel costs.

The conference language is English.

Please send your abstracts of approximately 500 words by 17 March 2020 to: Jan Vondráček, vondracek@mua.cas.cz

Print (PDF)

Address

Masarykův ústav a Archiv AV ČR, v. v. i.

Gabčíkova 2362/10
Praha 8
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Czech Republic

tel: +420 286 010 110
e-mail: mua@mua.cas.cz

Registration number: 67985921

VAT ID: CZ67985921

IBAN: CZ48 5500 0000 0076 5427 0028

BIC/SWIFT: RZBCCZPP

Primary tabs

Saturday, 19. June 2021

23. 6. 2021 to 25. 6. 2021

Online Workshop: Humanitarian Mobilization in Central and Eastern Europe during the Twentieth Century

Programm

Wednesday, June 23

Thursday, June 24

Friday, June 25

30. 6. 2021

Střed | Centre, 2/2021 – výzva autorům

Téma čísla: Město – laboratoř změn

30. 6. 2021

Střed | Centre, 2/2021 – Call for Papers

Issue topic: The City – A Laboratory of Changes

8. 9. 2021 to 10. 9. 2021

Call for Conference Papers: Local Administration during the First and Second World Wars