Past Events

	Title	Date	Type	Speakers
	The Problem of Religious Art in Modernity	Wed, 14.10.2020, 13:30 - Fri, 16.10.2020, 17:00	Conferences and Workshops	Oleg Tarasov Tatiana LevinaMaria Taroutina, petra carlsson, George Pattison, Lilia Sokolova, Nikita Balagurov, Viktoria Lavriniuk, Thomas Nemeth	The Problem of Religious Art in Modernity Uses and Abuses of the Icon in Russia Wed, 14.10.2020, 13:30 - Fri, 16.10.2020, 17:00 Speakers: Oleg Tarasov Tatiana LevinaMaria Taroutina, petra carlsson, George Pattison, Lilia Sokolova, Nikita Balagurov, Viktoria Lavriniuk, Thomas Nemeth Series: Conferences and Workshops The eighth graduate workshop of the Russian Art and Culture Group considered the deep implications posed by the problem of religious art by examining the various ways in which the icon was adapted in modern Russia to serve different artistic, philosophical, and political agendas. Read more
The Problem of Religious Art in Modernity Uses and Abuses of the Icon in Russia Wed, 14.10.2020, 13:30 - Fri, 16.10.2020, 17:00 Speakers: Oleg Tarasov Tatiana LevinaMaria Taroutina, petra carlsson, George Pattison, Lilia Sokolova, Nikita Balagurov, Viktoria Lavriniuk, Thomas Nemeth Series: Conferences and Workshops The eighth graduate workshop of the Russian Art and Culture Group considered the deep implications posed by the problem of religious art by examining the various ways in which the icon was adapted in modern Russia to serve different artistic, philosophical, and political agendas. Read more
	Beach Encounters	Tue, 13.10.2020, 16:00	Lecture	Amade M'charek Mieke Verloo Shalini Randeria	Beach Encounters Migrant Death, Colonial Currents and the Art of Paying Attention Tue, 13.10.2020, 16:00 Speakers: Amade M'charek Mieke Verloo Shalini Randeria Series: Lecture Her talk told a story about forensics as an art of paying attention. It offered some of the ingredients of the book that Mohsen Lihidheb and Amade M'Charek are currently working on in the context of the Emma Goldman Award. Read more
Beach Encounters Migrant Death, Colonial Currents and the Art of Paying Attention Tue, 13.10.2020, 16:00 Speakers: Amade M'charek Mieke Verloo Shalini Randeria Series: Lecture Her talk told a story about forensics as an art of paying attention. It offered some of the ingredients of the book that Mohsen Lihidheb and Amade M'Charek are currently working on in the context of the Emma Goldman Award. Read more
	Hagia Sophia as Symbol and Hostage of Actual Politics	Mon, 12.10.2020, 16:00	Seminars and Colloquia	Alexey Lidov Ayşe Çağlar Clemena Antonova	Hagia Sophia as Symbol and Hostage of Actual Politics Mon, 12.10.2020, 16:00 Speakers: Alexey Lidov Ayşe Çağlar Clemena Antonova Series: Seminars and Colloquia On 10 July 2020, by a decree of the Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, the basilica of Hagia Sophia – the central monument of the Byzantine Empire and the entire Orthodox world – was turned from a museum into a mosque. The conversion attracted worldwide attention and the leaders of the US, the EU and Russia, as well as most international institutions, appealed to Erdoğan not to go ahead with the plan. However, all the warnings were ignored and the first festive Muslim service was held on 24 July, with the country’s leadership in attendance. In this talk, various aspects of the conversion of Hagia Sophia, including political, religious, cultural and art-historical issues of this most significant event, were discussed. Read more
Hagia Sophia as Symbol and Hostage of Actual Politics Mon, 12.10.2020, 16:00 Speakers: Alexey Lidov Ayşe Çağlar Clemena Antonova Series: Seminars and Colloquia On 10 July 2020, by a decree of the Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, the basilica of Hagia Sophia – the central monument of the Byzantine Empire and the entire Orthodox world – was turned from a museum into a mosque. The conversion attracted worldwide attention and the leaders of the US, the EU and Russia, as well as most international institutions, appealed to Erdoğan not to go ahead with the plan. However, all the warnings were ignored and the first festive Muslim service was held on 24 July, with the country’s leadership in attendance. In this talk, various aspects of the conversion of Hagia Sophia, including political, religious, cultural and art-historical issues of this most significant event, were discussed. Read more
	Eroding Trust	Wed, 07.10.2020, 14:00	Seminars and Colloquia	Ivan Vejvoda Srdjan Cvijic	Eroding Trust Serbian Democracy from 5 October 2000 to COVID-19 Wed, 07.10.2020, 14:00 Speakers: Ivan Vejvoda Srdjan Cvijic Series: Seminars and Colloquia Freedom came to Serbia in 2000, with a decade-long delay with respect to the rest of the post-Communist Europe. Ever since, the country has been on a wobbly transition towards an established democracy and EU membership. More than Serbia’s inability to settle firmly on a Westward geopolitical course and its uneasy relationship with its neighbors, it is the lack of trust between the citizens and their government internally that stood in the way of the construction of a lasting democracy. Was there a political conspiracy to murder of Zoran Djindjic, the first democratically elected Prime Minister since WW2? Did a criminal network steal more than three thousand babies from mid-1950s to 2000, and gave them to illegal adoption? Is sustainable democratisation compatible with the unreformed security service and their monopoly on secrets? Is the mismanagement of the COVID-19 pandemic by the current regime historically unique, or can it be set in the broader historical perspective of state capture and disregard of the independent institutions in Serbia and Yugoslavia? The answer to these questions concerning Serbia can serve as an allegory for all of the post-Communist world’s untold stories that combined, offer an explanation to its shaky democratization in the last three decades. Populists and their outlandish conspiracy theories did not come from thin air. It is the lack of transparency and accountability of the mainstream governments that created reservoirs of disgruntled citizens thus transforming them in an easy prey for the enemies of democracy. Read more
Eroding Trust Serbian Democracy from 5 October 2000 to COVID-19 Wed, 07.10.2020, 14:00 Speakers: Ivan Vejvoda Srdjan Cvijic Series: Seminars and Colloquia Freedom came to Serbia in 2000, with a decade-long delay with respect to the rest of the post-Communist Europe. Ever since, the country has been on a wobbly transition towards an established democracy and EU membership. More than Serbia’s inability to settle firmly on a Westward geopolitical course and its uneasy relationship with its neighbors, it is the lack of trust between the citizens and their government internally that stood in the way of the construction of a lasting democracy. Was there a political conspiracy to murder of Zoran Djindjic, the first democratically elected Prime Minister since WW2? Did a criminal network steal more than three thousand babies from mid-1950s to 2000, and gave them to illegal adoption? Is sustainable democratisation compatible with the unreformed security service and their monopoly on secrets? Is the mismanagement of the COVID-19 pandemic by the current regime historically unique, or can it be set in the broader historical perspective of state capture and disregard of the independent institutions in Serbia and Yugoslavia? The answer to these questions concerning Serbia can serve as an allegory for all of the post-Communist world’s untold stories that combined, offer an explanation to its shaky democratization in the last three decades. Populists and their outlandish conspiracy theories did not come from thin air. It is the lack of transparency and accountability of the mainstream governments that created reservoirs of disgruntled citizens thus transforming them in an easy prey for the enemies of democracy. Read more
	Cossacks and Enlightenment	Mon, 05.10.2020, 16:00	Seminars and Colloquia	Volodymyr Sklokin	Cossacks and Enlightenment Between Orientalization and Republican Reappropriation Mon, 05.10.2020, 16:00 Speakers: Volodymyr Sklokin Series: Seminars and Colloquia The talk dealt with the impact of Enlightenment ideas on rethinking the image of Cossacks in the Ukrainian peripheries of the Russian Empire in the second half of the eighteenth century. The mechanisms through which eighteenth century West European Enlightenment political and historical thought provided intellectual resources for both orientalizing the Cossack political tradition and empowering it were examined. Orientalist discourse was introduced by Voltaire, used by Saint Petersburg enlightened absolutists to justify the elimination of Cossack autonomies, and accepted by a segment of the local elite. On the other hand, Enlightenment political thought, exemplified in particular by Rousseau and Montesquieu, was used to go beyond traditional estate and regional particularism, to rethink the Cossack political tradition in more universalist categories of republicanism and to set it against Catherine II’s supposed ‘despotism’. Read more
Cossacks and Enlightenment Between Orientalization and Republican Reappropriation Mon, 05.10.2020, 16:00 Speakers: Volodymyr Sklokin Series: Seminars and Colloquia The talk dealt with the impact of Enlightenment ideas on rethinking the image of Cossacks in the Ukrainian peripheries of the Russian Empire in the second half of the eighteenth century. The mechanisms through which eighteenth century West European Enlightenment political and historical thought provided intellectual resources for both orientalizing the Cossack political tradition and empowering it were examined. Orientalist discourse was introduced by Voltaire, used by Saint Petersburg enlightened absolutists to justify the elimination of Cossack autonomies, and accepted by a segment of the local elite. On the other hand, Enlightenment political thought, exemplified in particular by Rousseau and Montesquieu, was used to go beyond traditional estate and regional particularism, to rethink the Cossack political tradition in more universalist categories of republicanism and to set it against Catherine II’s supposed ‘despotism’. Read more
	The Compatriots	Mon, 28.09.2020, 16:00	Seminars and Colloquia	Andrei Soldatov Clemena Antonova Irina Borogan	The Compatriots The Tricky Relationship Between the Kremlin and Russian Exiles Mon, 28.09.2020, 16:00 Speakers: Andrei Soldatov Clemena Antonova Irina Borogan Series: Seminars and Colloquia The Russian diaspora is the third-largest in the world. The Russians fled the country in troves for more than one hundred years. First the Tsar’s crazy politics towards Jews, then the Revolution and Civil War, the Second World War and anti-Semitism in the Soviet Union forced millions to emigrate.In the 90-s, emigration was in the spotlight of society because the borders got opened for the first time in many decades. People started moving in both directions – many of them were leaving the country, but some of the emigrants came back to Russia to capture the new opportunities. Read more
The Compatriots The Tricky Relationship Between the Kremlin and Russian Exiles Mon, 28.09.2020, 16:00 Speakers: Andrei Soldatov Clemena Antonova Irina Borogan Series: Seminars and Colloquia The Russian diaspora is the third-largest in the world. The Russians fled the country in troves for more than one hundred years. First the Tsar’s crazy politics towards Jews, then the Revolution and Civil War, the Second World War and anti-Semitism in the Soviet Union forced millions to emigrate.In the 90-s, emigration was in the spotlight of society because the borders got opened for the first time in many decades. People started moving in both directions – many of them were leaving the country, but some of the emigrants came back to Russia to capture the new opportunities. Read more
	Philosophische Miniaturen	Sat, 26.09.2020, 15:30	Visual and Performing Arts	Jan Frei Ludger Hagedorn Michaela AdelbergerJakob Rendl	Philosophische Miniaturen Jan Patočka - Ein ketzerischer Europäer aus Prag Sat, 26.09.2020, 15:30 Speakers: Jan Frei Ludger Hagedorn Michaela AdelbergerJakob Rendl Series: Visual and Performing Arts Die “Philosophischen Miniaturen” stellten in Lesungen und Gesprächen das Werk des Philosophen Jan Patocka vor. Patocka ist nicht nur der wichtigste tschechische Philosoph des 20. Jahrhunderts, sondern war auch eng mit der Charta 77 verbunden. Read more
Philosophische Miniaturen Jan Patočka - Ein ketzerischer Europäer aus Prag Sat, 26.09.2020, 15:30 Speakers: Jan Frei Ludger Hagedorn Michaela AdelbergerJakob Rendl Series: Visual and Performing Arts Die “Philosophischen Miniaturen” stellten in Lesungen und Gesprächen das Werk des Philosophen Jan Patocka vor. Patocka ist nicht nur der wichtigste tschechische Philosoph des 20. Jahrhunderts, sondern war auch eng mit der Charta 77 verbunden. Read more
	The EU Periphery and Revisionist Powers	Wed, 23.09.2020, 14:00	Seminars and Colloquia	Dimitar Bechev Ivan Vejvoda	The EU Periphery and Revisionist Powers Wed, 23.09.2020, 14:00 Speakers: Dimitar Bechev Ivan Vejvoda Series: Seminars and Colloquia Starting with the annexation of Crimea in the spring of 2014, scholars and analysts have been debating the standoff between the West and competitors such as Russia, Erdogan’s Turkey, and lately China on Europe’s periphery. “The return of geopolitics” has become a standard phrase to describe the new moment in the international politics of Eastern and Southeast Europe. A contrast is drawn with the 2000s, the highmark of the European Union’s “transformative power” and NATO’s eastward expansion. But the top-down view highlighting the preferences and actions of big players, including core EU member states like Germany and France, Russia, Turkey etc. overlooks the critical role played by peripheral countries and their elites. Rather than being the object of great powers’ decisions, they manipulate rivalries in pursuit of political advantage. Though the domestic arena provides entry points for external actors’ influence it also empowers incumbent elites in the target countries. The talk drew on examples from Southeast Europe (the Western Balkans, Bulgaria, Romania, Greece) but drew parallels to the post-Soviet space. Read more
The EU Periphery and Revisionist Powers Wed, 23.09.2020, 14:00 Speakers: Dimitar Bechev Ivan Vejvoda Series: Seminars and Colloquia Starting with the annexation of Crimea in the spring of 2014, scholars and analysts have been debating the standoff between the West and competitors such as Russia, Erdogan’s Turkey, and lately China on Europe’s periphery. “The return of geopolitics” has become a standard phrase to describe the new moment in the international politics of Eastern and Southeast Europe. A contrast is drawn with the 2000s, the highmark of the European Union’s “transformative power” and NATO’s eastward expansion. But the top-down view highlighting the preferences and actions of big players, including core EU member states like Germany and France, Russia, Turkey etc. overlooks the critical role played by peripheral countries and their elites. Rather than being the object of great powers’ decisions, they manipulate rivalries in pursuit of political advantage. Though the domestic arena provides entry points for external actors’ influence it also empowers incumbent elites in the target countries. The talk drew on examples from Southeast Europe (the Western Balkans, Bulgaria, Romania, Greece) but drew parallels to the post-Soviet space. Read more
	COVID-19 and Democracy: A New Mode of Governance?	Tue, 22.09.2020, 18:00	Lecture	Wolfgang Merkel	COVID-19 and Democracy: A New Mode of Governance? The German Case in Comparison Tue, 22.09.2020, 18:00 Speakers: Wolfgang Merkel Series: Lecture The Berlin Republic of today is neither Weimar (1918–1932) nor Bonn (1949–1990). It is by all standards the best democracy ever on German soil. Nevertheless, during the COVID-19 crisis there was a shift from democracy as a mode of governance to what the controversial legal theorist Carl Schmitt (1922) affirmingly described as a “state of exception”; a state that is desired and approved by the people. It was the hour of the executive. Parliament has disempowered itself. There was very little, if any, contestation or deliberation during the first eight weeks of the COVID-19 crisis – neither in parliament nor in civil society. Will the state of exception emerge as the new mode of governance during deep crises in the 21st century? If this is the case, it would erode, de-parliamentarize and illiberalize our democracies as we have hitherto known them. Read more
COVID-19 and Democracy: A New Mode of Governance? The German Case in Comparison Tue, 22.09.2020, 18:00 Speakers: Wolfgang Merkel Series: Lecture The Berlin Republic of today is neither Weimar (1918–1932) nor Bonn (1949–1990). It is by all standards the best democracy ever on German soil. Nevertheless, during the COVID-19 crisis there was a shift from democracy as a mode of governance to what the controversial legal theorist Carl Schmitt (1922) affirmingly described as a “state of exception”; a state that is desired and approved by the people. It was the hour of the executive. Parliament has disempowered itself. There was very little, if any, contestation or deliberation during the first eight weeks of the COVID-19 crisis – neither in parliament nor in civil society. Will the state of exception emerge as the new mode of governance during deep crises in the 21st century? If this is the case, it would erode, de-parliamentarize and illiberalize our democracies as we have hitherto known them. Read more
	Jean Améry Prize Awarded to Ivan Krastev	Thu, 17.09.2020, 19:30	Lecture	Ivan Krastev	Jean Améry Prize Awarded to Ivan Krastev Thu, 17.09.2020, 19:30 Speakers: Ivan Krastev Series: Lecture The Allianz Kulturstiftung and the Klett-Cotta publishing house awarded the prize, founded in memory of Jean Améry for important contemporary essays, to IWM Permanent Fellow Ivan Krastev on September 17, 2020. The jury, chaired by Robert Menasse, explained their decision by stating »The clarity of thinking against the appointments of the time: That is, among other things, what Ivan Krastev has in common with Jean Améry«. The prize is awarded every two years for outstanding achievements in the field of contemporary, progressive essays. The award winner talked to IWM Rector Shalini Randeria. Read more
Jean Améry Prize Awarded to Ivan Krastev Thu, 17.09.2020, 19:30 Speakers: Ivan Krastev Series: Lecture The Allianz Kulturstiftung and the Klett-Cotta publishing house awarded the prize, founded in memory of Jean Améry for important contemporary essays, to IWM Permanent Fellow Ivan Krastev on September 17, 2020. The jury, chaired by Robert Menasse, explained their decision by stating »The clarity of thinking against the appointments of the time: That is, among other things, what Ivan Krastev has in common with Jean Améry«. The prize is awarded every two years for outstanding achievements in the field of contemporary, progressive essays. The award winner talked to IWM Rector Shalini Randeria. Read more

Past Events

Current Fellows' research