Past Events

	Title	Date	Type	Speakers
	Marginalized (not only) in Times of Lockdown	Mon, 22.03.2021, 16:00	Seminars and Colloquia	Alison Smale Ludger Hagedorn Noémi Kiss	Marginalized (not only) in Times of Lockdown Culture, Periphery and the East-West-Imbalance Mon, 22.03.2021, 16:00 Speakers: Alison Smale Ludger Hagedorn Noémi Kiss Series: Seminars and Colloquia In recent months, culture and the arts have suffered severely under pandemic-related restrictions. While artists, freelancers, independent projects, and even publicly funded cultural institutions are struggling for economic survival, we easily overlook the fact that—also in “normal times”—the autonomy of culture is increasingly being called into question. With respect to the immediate effects of this political and economic pressure on the arts, there is a major divide between cultural centers and those operating on the periphery. Most heavily affected by the asymmetric consequences of these pressures are not the trend-setter elites in cultural centers, or the publicly funded (non-)artists on the semi-peripheries, but all those who do not move to the cultural capitals. That is, those who decide to uphold cultural projects on the periphery—where they are most direly needed. Within Europe, there is also a significant East-West divide, not only in terms of the distribution of funding, but also in regard to the autonomy of art. This talk dealt with the situation of cultural actors on the periphery, confronted with emigration, poverty, de-/nationalization, walls, borders, ghettos, diseases, regime changes, and a new intra-European colonization. Read more
Marginalized (not only) in Times of Lockdown Culture, Periphery and the East-West-Imbalance Mon, 22.03.2021, 16:00 Speakers: Alison Smale Ludger Hagedorn Noémi Kiss Series: Seminars and Colloquia In recent months, culture and the arts have suffered severely under pandemic-related restrictions. While artists, freelancers, independent projects, and even publicly funded cultural institutions are struggling for economic survival, we easily overlook the fact that—also in “normal times”—the autonomy of culture is increasingly being called into question. With respect to the immediate effects of this political and economic pressure on the arts, there is a major divide between cultural centers and those operating on the periphery. Most heavily affected by the asymmetric consequences of these pressures are not the trend-setter elites in cultural centers, or the publicly funded (non-)artists on the semi-peripheries, but all those who do not move to the cultural capitals. That is, those who decide to uphold cultural projects on the periphery—where they are most direly needed. Within Europe, there is also a significant East-West divide, not only in terms of the distribution of funding, but also in regard to the autonomy of art. This talk dealt with the situation of cultural actors on the periphery, confronted with emigration, poverty, de-/nationalization, walls, borders, ghettos, diseases, regime changes, and a new intra-European colonization. Read more
	“We Are All Refugees”: Informal Settlements and Camps as Converging Spaces of Global Displacements	Wed, 17.03.2021, 17:00	Seminars and Colloquia	Ayşe ÇağlarFaranak Miraftab	“We Are All Refugees”: Informal Settlements and Camps as Converging Spaces of Global Displacements Seminar Series on Forced Migration with Faranak Miraftab and Ayse Çağlar Wed, 17.03.2021, 17:00 Speakers: Ayşe ÇağlarFaranak Miraftab Series: Seminars and Colloquia Faranak Miraftab presented her most recent work in which she relationally theorizes realities of those living in slums and in camps in the era of intensified global displacements. Read more
“We Are All Refugees”: Informal Settlements and Camps as Converging Spaces of Global Displacements Seminar Series on Forced Migration with Faranak Miraftab and Ayse Çağlar Wed, 17.03.2021, 17:00 Speakers: Ayşe ÇağlarFaranak Miraftab Series: Seminars and Colloquia Faranak Miraftab presented her most recent work in which she relationally theorizes realities of those living in slums and in camps in the era of intensified global displacements. Read more
	Crimes Without Punishments and Damaged Collective Identities	Mon, 15.03.2021, 16:00	Seminars and Colloquia	Jerko Bakotin	Crimes Without Punishments and Damaged Collective Identities The Example of the Dvor Massacre Mon, 15.03.2021, 16:00 Speakers: Jerko Bakotin Series: Seminars and Colloquia The lecture briefly presented the circumstances of the massacre committed in the town of Dvor during the Croatian Army’s Operation Storm, which crushed the secessionist Serb Republic of Krajina. In the early afternoon of August 8, 1995, nine (possibly ten) mentally ill and handicapped people were executed in Dvor’s primary school, where they had found shelter. Twenty-five years after the massacre, the killers have still not been prosecuted and it is even unclear to which army they belonged. In the vicinity there were both Croatian and Serbian units, while the Bosnian Army was only a few kilometers away. In addition, the massacre happened in front of Danish UN soldiers, whose base was on the school’s playground a mere 20 meters away from the massacre. Read more
Crimes Without Punishments and Damaged Collective Identities The Example of the Dvor Massacre Mon, 15.03.2021, 16:00 Speakers: Jerko Bakotin Series: Seminars and Colloquia The lecture briefly presented the circumstances of the massacre committed in the town of Dvor during the Croatian Army’s Operation Storm, which crushed the secessionist Serb Republic of Krajina. In the early afternoon of August 8, 1995, nine (possibly ten) mentally ill and handicapped people were executed in Dvor’s primary school, where they had found shelter. Twenty-five years after the massacre, the killers have still not been prosecuted and it is even unclear to which army they belonged. In the vicinity there were both Croatian and Serbian units, while the Bosnian Army was only a few kilometers away. In addition, the massacre happened in front of Danish UN soldiers, whose base was on the school’s playground a mere 20 meters away from the massacre. Read more
	Die Impfung - Ein knappes Gut?	Sun, 14.03.2021, 11:00	Panels and Discussions	Shalini RanderiaKatharina T. Paul, Barbara Prainsack, Ursula Wiedermann-Schmidt	Die Impfung - Ein knappes Gut? Europa im Diskurs - Debating Europe Sun, 14.03.2021, 11:00 Speakers: Shalini RanderiaKatharina T. Paul, Barbara Prainsack, Ursula Wiedermann-Schmidt Series: Panels and Discussions „TESTNiemand ist sicher, bevor wir alle sicher sind“, warnen internationale Organisationen vor dem allerorts aufgekommenen Impfnationalismus. Denn mit den nun verfügbaren Covid-Impfstoffen stellen sich neue drängende Fragen: Wer bestimmt, welche Länder und Bevölkerungsgruppen überhaupt Zugang zu einem Impfstoff erhalten? Brauchen wir eine globale Impfstrategie, um den Wettlauf gegen die Ausbreitung von Mutationen zu gewinnen? Welche Lehren können wir aus früheren Pandemien und der Geschichte von Impfungen ziehen? Read more
Die Impfung - Ein knappes Gut? Europa im Diskurs - Debating Europe Sun, 14.03.2021, 11:00 Speakers: Shalini RanderiaKatharina T. Paul, Barbara Prainsack, Ursula Wiedermann-Schmidt Series: Panels and Discussions „TESTNiemand ist sicher, bevor wir alle sicher sind“, warnen internationale Organisationen vor dem allerorts aufgekommenen Impfnationalismus. Denn mit den nun verfügbaren Covid-Impfstoffen stellen sich neue drängende Fragen: Wer bestimmt, welche Länder und Bevölkerungsgruppen überhaupt Zugang zu einem Impfstoff erhalten? Brauchen wir eine globale Impfstrategie, um den Wettlauf gegen die Ausbreitung von Mutationen zu gewinnen? Welche Lehren können wir aus früheren Pandemien und der Geschichte von Impfungen ziehen? Read more
	Spielarten des "sanften" Autoritarismus	Wed, 03.03.2021, 18:00	Lecture	Dirk Rupnow Shalini RanderiaTilmann Märk	Spielarten des "sanften" Autoritarismus Wie Demokratien demokratisch ausgehöhlt werden Wed, 03.03.2021, 18:00 Speakers: Dirk Rupnow Shalini RanderiaTilmann Märk Series: Lecture Im Mittelpunkt des Vortrags steht der widersprüchlich anmutende Begriff des „sanften“ Autoritarismus (soft authoritarianism). Er bezieht sich auf Demokratien, die in vielen Teilen der Welt von zunehmend autoritären Praktiken gekennzeichnet sind. Gegenwärtig werden liberale Werte wie Institutionen mit formalen, rechtstaatlichen Mitteln von durch Wahlen legitimierten Politikern unterminiert, die somit die Grundlagen von Demokratie von innen aushöhlen. Anhand von Beispielen wie voter suppression und gerrymandering in den USA, autocratic legalism in Polen und Ungarn sowie Angriffen auf die Pressefreiheit, auf zivilgesellschaftliche Organisationen oder die Universitätsautonomie in der Türkei, wird im Vortrag hinter die „sanften“ Züge dieser neuen Ausprägung von Autoritarismus geblickt. Ferner wirft der Vortrag die dringliche Frage nach den Möglichkeiten sowie Grenzen zivilgesellschaftlichen Widerstands gegen diesen weichgezeichneten Autoritarismus auf. Read more
Spielarten des "sanften" Autoritarismus Wie Demokratien demokratisch ausgehöhlt werden Wed, 03.03.2021, 18:00 Speakers: Dirk Rupnow Shalini RanderiaTilmann Märk Series: Lecture Im Mittelpunkt des Vortrags steht der widersprüchlich anmutende Begriff des „sanften“ Autoritarismus (soft authoritarianism). Er bezieht sich auf Demokratien, die in vielen Teilen der Welt von zunehmend autoritären Praktiken gekennzeichnet sind. Gegenwärtig werden liberale Werte wie Institutionen mit formalen, rechtstaatlichen Mitteln von durch Wahlen legitimierten Politikern unterminiert, die somit die Grundlagen von Demokratie von innen aushöhlen. Anhand von Beispielen wie voter suppression und gerrymandering in den USA, autocratic legalism in Polen und Ungarn sowie Angriffen auf die Pressefreiheit, auf zivilgesellschaftliche Organisationen oder die Universitätsautonomie in der Türkei, wird im Vortrag hinter die „sanften“ Züge dieser neuen Ausprägung von Autoritarismus geblickt. Ferner wirft der Vortrag die dringliche Frage nach den Möglichkeiten sowie Grenzen zivilgesellschaftlichen Widerstands gegen diesen weichgezeichneten Autoritarismus auf. Read more
	The Sociological Truth of Fiction	Mon, 01.03.2021, 16:00	Seminars and Colloquia	Jan Vana Kapka Kassabova Ludger Hagedorn	The Sociological Truth of Fiction the Post-Communist Novel as Social Theory of Normalization in Czechoslovakia Mon, 01.03.2021, 16:00 Speakers: Jan Vana Kapka Kassabova Ludger Hagedorn Series: Seminars and Colloquia Social scientists often refer to literary fiction as a source of inspiration, social understanding, and deep insights into the “Zeitgeist” or “episteme”. In passing, they often subsume literature into conceptual frameworks, approaching it as “fictional” data to be translated or converted into “factual” scholarly discourse. This presentation tried to develop an epistemological-theoretical model which treats novels as allies endowed with their own agency – not passive objects to be gutted by sociological theory. Read more
The Sociological Truth of Fiction the Post-Communist Novel as Social Theory of Normalization in Czechoslovakia Mon, 01.03.2021, 16:00 Speakers: Jan Vana Kapka Kassabova Ludger Hagedorn Series: Seminars and Colloquia Social scientists often refer to literary fiction as a source of inspiration, social understanding, and deep insights into the “Zeitgeist” or “episteme”. In passing, they often subsume literature into conceptual frameworks, approaching it as “fictional” data to be translated or converted into “factual” scholarly discourse. This presentation tried to develop an epistemological-theoretical model which treats novels as allies endowed with their own agency – not passive objects to be gutted by sociological theory. Read more
	A Short History of Prison Noise	Tue, 23.02.2021, 18:00	Lecture	Felix Ackermann Iryna Vushko Timothy Snyder	A Short History of Prison Noise The 1902 Brygidki Unrest and the Agency of Criminal Prisoners in Habsburg Lemberg Tue, 23.02.2021, 18:00 Speakers: Felix Ackermann Iryna Vushko Timothy Snyder Series: Lecture Noise can be understood as sonic violence and analysed as a central means of communication during the recurring prison riots in the early 20th-century Habsburg Empire. For both prison administrators and state-appointed public prosecutors, silence was synonymous with discipline and order. This definition gave criminal prisoners an opportunity to bargain silence in exchange for legally slight yet routine-revising changes within the regime of incarceration. Noise wielded such powerful leverage because it spread inmates’ demands from inside the prison to nearby streets – in this case, those of the Habsburg city of Lemberg. Inmates were able to use their prison buildings as a space of resonance – in both physical and symbolic ways. Read more
A Short History of Prison Noise The 1902 Brygidki Unrest and the Agency of Criminal Prisoners in Habsburg Lemberg Tue, 23.02.2021, 18:00 Speakers: Felix Ackermann Iryna Vushko Timothy Snyder Series: Lecture Noise can be understood as sonic violence and analysed as a central means of communication during the recurring prison riots in the early 20th-century Habsburg Empire. For both prison administrators and state-appointed public prosecutors, silence was synonymous with discipline and order. This definition gave criminal prisoners an opportunity to bargain silence in exchange for legally slight yet routine-revising changes within the regime of incarceration. Noise wielded such powerful leverage because it spread inmates’ demands from inside the prison to nearby streets – in this case, those of the Habsburg city of Lemberg. Inmates were able to use their prison buildings as a space of resonance – in both physical and symbolic ways. Read more
	Whose Story? Which Sacrifice?	Mon, 08.02.2021, 16:00	Seminars and Colloquia	Ludger Hagedorn Marci Shore	Whose Story? Which Sacrifice? Gender Identity in Sacrificial Stories Mon, 08.02.2021, 16:00 Speakers: Ludger Hagedorn Marci Shore Series: Seminars and Colloquia Sacrifice may be a topic of intense philosophical-theological academic debate, but it is also the everyday experience of millions of ordinary people. Scholarly reflection on sacrifice has produced an ambiguous discourse which stretches across numerous disciplines from anthropology, to religious and social studies, to ethics. Sacrifice has of course developed within the religious-cultic context and can be traced in global religions and local cults alike. Read more
Whose Story? Which Sacrifice? Gender Identity in Sacrificial Stories Mon, 08.02.2021, 16:00 Speakers: Ludger Hagedorn Marci Shore Series: Seminars and Colloquia Sacrifice may be a topic of intense philosophical-theological academic debate, but it is also the everyday experience of millions of ordinary people. Scholarly reflection on sacrifice has produced an ambiguous discourse which stretches across numerous disciplines from anthropology, to religious and social studies, to ethics. Sacrifice has of course developed within the religious-cultic context and can be traced in global religions and local cults alike. Read more
	Putin’s Memory War. Russia’s Battles over the History of World War II	Tue, 26.01.2021, 18:00	Lecture	Clemena Antonova Sergei Medvedev Timothy Snyder	Putin’s Memory War. Russia’s Battles over the History of World War II Tue, 26.01.2021, 18:00 Speakers: Clemena Antonova Sergei Medvedev Timothy Snyder Series: Lecture In the past decade, memory politics has become greatly contested. Russia under Putin launched a major propaganda offensive ahead of the 75th anniversary of victory in World War II (8 May in the rest of the world, 9 May in Russia), aiming to fight the “falsifications” of war history by the West, and to deny the crimes of Stalinism during the War. This presentation explored the implications of this memory war on Russia’s relations with Europe, and its role in legitimizing the ruling regime. Read more
Putin’s Memory War. Russia’s Battles over the History of World War II Tue, 26.01.2021, 18:00 Speakers: Clemena Antonova Sergei Medvedev Timothy Snyder Series: Lecture In the past decade, memory politics has become greatly contested. Russia under Putin launched a major propaganda offensive ahead of the 75th anniversary of victory in World War II (8 May in the rest of the world, 9 May in Russia), aiming to fight the “falsifications” of war history by the West, and to deny the crimes of Stalinism during the War. This presentation explored the implications of this memory war on Russia’s relations with Europe, and its role in legitimizing the ruling regime. Read more
	The Coloniality of Migration	Wed, 20.01.2021, 17:00	Seminars and Colloquia	Ayşe ÇağlarPrem Kumar Rajaram	The Coloniality of Migration Seminar Series on Forced Migration with Prem Kumar Rajaram and Ayse Çağlar Wed, 20.01.2021, 17:00 Speakers: Ayşe ÇağlarPrem Kumar Rajaram Series: Seminars and Colloquia Refugees and migrants are often studied as though they have no relation to the racial and class structures and histories of the societies in which they reside. They are taken to be external strangers to be governed by ‘integration’ policy and border management. Migration, and in particular forced migration, can be usefully understood in relation to practices of material and cultural dispossession and value expropriation so as to ensure a steady supply of cheapened labour power. These practices were central to the way colonial capitalism of the 19th and 20th centuries was organised, and remain pertinent to contemporary intersections of politics, economics and culture. The persistent coloniality of contemporary migration is evident in struggles to control and direct the social reproduction of culturally-demeaned others (including migrants and other racialised groups) with the aim of ensuring the regular supply of cheapened labour. Read more
The Coloniality of Migration Seminar Series on Forced Migration with Prem Kumar Rajaram and Ayse Çağlar Wed, 20.01.2021, 17:00 Speakers: Ayşe ÇağlarPrem Kumar Rajaram Series: Seminars and Colloquia Refugees and migrants are often studied as though they have no relation to the racial and class structures and histories of the societies in which they reside. They are taken to be external strangers to be governed by ‘integration’ policy and border management. Migration, and in particular forced migration, can be usefully understood in relation to practices of material and cultural dispossession and value expropriation so as to ensure a steady supply of cheapened labour power. These practices were central to the way colonial capitalism of the 19th and 20th centuries was organised, and remain pertinent to contemporary intersections of politics, economics and culture. The persistent coloniality of contemporary migration is evident in struggles to control and direct the social reproduction of culturally-demeaned others (including migrants and other racialised groups) with the aim of ensuring the regular supply of cheapened labour. Read more

Past Events

Current Fellows' research