CBEES Advanced Seminars 2010

The CBEES "Advanced Seminar" is a series of lectures, presentations of new publications and discussions of individuals' academic work-in-progress, all tied to contemporary research in Baltic Sea and Eastern European Area Studies.

The seminar is designed to serve several related purposes. First, it will allow participants to follow the development of multidisciplinary approaches to the study of this area, in order to provide an understanding of the dramatic interplay between the methods, theories and goals of area studies, and those of the various disciplines engaged in research on the area. Second, the seminar will discuss the methodology of research of a region that is constantly being redefined. Third, the seminar will provide general, up-to-date information about new fields and trends in area research, not least by establishing new academic contacts in Sweden and internationally, with particular focus on the scholars and scholarly networks of the region's different countries. It will, further, serve to encourage younger scholars to take part in area-specific scholarly discussion; and, finally, publicise CBEES and BEEGS as leading institutions for multidisciplinary research and education in the region.

The work of the Advanced Seminar is guided by the research themes elaborated by CBEES Research Leaders. However, the Advanced Seminar will also serve to expand upon these themes' perspectives by emphasising directions in scholarly work that are pursued by, among others, CBEES researchers in German studies, Baltic studies and post-Soviet studies. Advanced Seminar talks and presentations are given by invited lecturers, CBEES's visiting and senior researchers, and BEEGS doctoral students.

 

Most of the seminars are held in English on Mondays, 13.00-15.00. Some ad hoc seminars may be held on other days of the week. If a seminar is held in Swedish that will be noted below.

 

Seminar leaders

Maija Runcis, Baltic Studies Unit, CBEES

Email: maija.runcis@sh.se

Irina Sandomirskaja, CBEES 

Email: irina.sandomirskaja@sh.se

Mai-Brith Schartau, German Studies Research Unit, CBEES

Email: mai-brith.schartau@sh.se

 

2010

18 January: Attaining modernity: the ongoing processes of racialization in Russia

Nikolay Zakharov, doctoral student, BEEGS

Discussants:Professor Viktor Shnirel’man, History, Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology, the Russian Academy of Sciences, Member Academia Europae (Russia)

Dr Marlene Laruelle, Senior Research Fellow, Central Asia and Caucasus Institute & Silk Road Studies Program (Johns Hopkins University)

When? Monday 18 January, 13.00-15.00

Where? Södertörn University, room F 819

Contact: Irina Sandomirskaja, irina.sandomirskaja@sh.se

25 January: Kosmopolis and Hypercivilisation. Remarks on questions of identity in the Eastern European context

Prof Ludger Hagedorn, visiting researcher, CBEES /Institut für die Wissenschaften vom Menschen, Vienna 

Discussant: To be announced

When? Monday 25 January, 13.00-15.00

Where? Södertörn University, room F 819

Contact: Irina Sandomirskaja, irina.sandomirskaja@sh.se

1 February: Text seminar with Sven-Olov Wallenstein.

The earlier announced advanced seminar on Security and Nordic cultural policy is postponed.

When? Monday 1 February, 13.00-15.00

Where? Södertörn University, room F 819

Contact: Irina Sandomirskaja, irina.sandomirskaja@sh.se

8 February:  Dynamics, Resilience, and Communication: Approaches to Jurij Lotman's Theory - Mini-Symposium

PARTICIPANTS: Aleksei Semenenko (CBEES and Stockholm University), Jaakko Tuurunen (CBEES), Martin Avila (Konstfack - University College of Arts, Crafts and Design), Irina Sandomirskaja (CBEES).

Discussant: Tomi Huttunen (Slavic Department, University of Helsinki)

When? Monday 8 February, 13.00-16.00  

Where? Södertörn University, room F 819

Contact: Irina Sandomirskaja, irina.sandomirskaja@sh.se   

 

15 February: Health between body & bonding: a relational view on the social life of the BRCA-genes in Germany

Britta Pelters, visiting researcher at CBEES, March-May 2010.
Pelter is a doctoral student at the faculty of public health, Bielefeld university, Germany and qualified in pedagogics & human biology.

Discussant: Johnny Rodin, CBEES.

When? Monday 15 February, 13.00-15.00

Where? Södertörn University, room F 819

Contact: Mai-Brith Schartau, mai-brith.schartau@sh.se

 

22 February:  Charismatic Ethnicity as a Tool for Political Mobilisation: The Case of Sámi

Prof Ass Lars Elenius, Luleå University of Technology  

Discussant: Thomas Lunden

The Sámi people never built any nation state of their own, but are scattered on four countries. They have since long a special place in the heart of the European cultural heritage as the last remnant from the hunting era in Europe. They have since the 16th and 17th century been surrounded by a mythological nimbus as a kind of human extension of nature, and also been inscribed in the myth of the Scandinavian nation states as part of the national heritage.

The history and myth of the Sámi was also built into the self image of the Nordic countries when a common political organisation was established in the 1950s. The Sámi people were regarded as the symbolic essence of transnational Nordic co-operation, but also as a symbol of continuity from immemorial time. The romantic view on the Sámi did in the beginning of the 20th century result in a patriarchal segregation and assimilation policy towards the Sámi, built on a racial biological ideology.

During the late 20th and the 21st century the cultural charisma and heritage of the Sámi people have been used by Sámi politicians in order to unite the Nordic Sámi groups in a common homeland, Sápmi, cross the nation state borders. It is in many ways the same process as for the nation states in the 19th century. The charisma of the Sámi people will in the paper be examined as a tool for political mobilisation by showing examples from the 19th and 20th century, and analyse them in the context of modernisation and post (second) modernisation. This charisma was in a way created by leading persons of the majority population, but has also been used by the Sámi movement in the political mobilisation.

When? Monday 22 February, 13.00-15.00

Where? Södertörn University, room F819

Contact: Irina Sandomirskaja, irina.sandomirskaja@sh.se

 

5 March: The Nordic Region: Cultural Policy and Regional Security

Anna Kharkina, doctoral candidate, History and BEEGS

Discussant: PhD Fredrik Doeser, Political Science (Södertörn University) and the Swedish Institute for International Affairs

When? Friday 5 March, 13.00-15.00

Where? Södertörn University, Room F 819

Contact: Irina Sandomirskaja, irina.sandomirskaja@sh.se

 

8 March: Soviet Repressions in Estonia

Anu-Mai Kõll, CBEES, Södertörn University.

Chair: Helene Carlbäck, BEEGS/CBEES

Discussant: Maija Runcis, CBEES

When? Monday 8 March, 13.00-15.00

Where? Södertörn University, Room F 819

Contact: Maija Runcis, maija.runcis@sh.se

 

15 March: Hermann Kant "Stadt-Reportage als politischer Auftrag. In Stockholm (1971) vom DDR-Autor Hermann Kant"

Birgitta Almgren, CBEES, Södertörn University.  

Discussant: Markus Huss, BEEGS.

When? Monday 15 March, 13.00-15.00

Where? Södertörn University, room F 819

Contact: Mai-Brith Schartau, mai-brith.schartau@sh.se. 

 

17 March: Textuality of Culture: An Introduction to Jurij Lotman's Cultural Semiotics

Aleksei Semenenko, CBEES, Södertörn University.

Aleksei Semenenko presents two chapters from his current work on Jurij Lotman. The first chapter scrutinizes several core constituents of Lotman’s theory; the second analyzes the relevance of the mind-brain problem for semiotic analysis and describes several attempts to explore the neurological basis of consciousness and thought.

Discussants: Prof. Peter Alberg Jensen (Stockholm University) and Prof. Lars Kleberg (Södertörn University).

When? Wednesday 17 March, 13.00-15.00

Where?  Södertörn University, Room PC 249

Contact: Irina Sandomirskaja, irina.sandomirskaja@sh.se

 

22 March: A racist Empire: Stalin's ethno-policy against "enemy nations" in the Soviet Union

Björn Felder, Nordost-Institute, Lüneburg

Discussant: Anu-Mai Kõll, CBEES

When? Monday 22 March, 13.00-15.00

Where? Södertörn University, Room F 819

Contact: Maija Runcis, maija.runcis@sh.se

29 March: Everyday family life in Soviet-Latvia 1940-1990

Maija Runcis, CBEES, Södertörn University

Chair: TBA

Discussant: Yulia Gradskova, Dep. of History, Stockholm University

When? Monday 29 March, 13.00-15.00

Where? Södertörn University, Room F 819

Contact: Maija Runcis, maija.runcis@sh.se

19 April: Tradition and modernity. Images of Jews in Latvian novels 1934-1944

Annette Reinsch-Campbell, The Baltic Institute, Stockholm University

Discussant: TBA

When? Monday 19 April, 13.00-15.00

Where? Södertörn University, Room F 819

Contact: Maija Runcis, maija.runcis@sh.se

26 April: 340 miles between - local calls go transnational. Interpersonal communication at a call centre.

Carina Guyard, BEEGS, Södertörn University

Discussant: TBA

When? Monday 26 April, 13.00-15.00

Where? Södertörn University, Room F 819

Contact: Maija Runcis, maija.runcis@sh.se

 

10 May: Presentation of doctoral dissertation

Anna Callenholm, doctoral student at Stockholm University. 
Her dissertation deals with Ruth Klüger and Cordelia Edwardson.

When? Monday 10 May, 13.00-15.00

Where? Södertörn University, room F819

Contact: Mai-Brith Schartau, mai-brith.schartau@sh.se. 

 

17 May: Geographical Information Systems in Historical Research: A Case Study on East Germany

Jonathan Kitay, visiting researcher at CBEES. 

Kitay is studying the implementation of Geographical Information Systems (GIS) in historical research using the former German Democratic Republic (GDR) as a case study. In brief, Jonathan is mapping the spread of repression and the rise and fall of the SED's (Socialist Unity Party of Germany) emancipatory efforts across space and time in an effort to access the degree to which both factors contributed the longevity of the SED regime and its ultimate demise. On the whole, he aims to demonstrate to historians the usefulness of GIS analysis to their research.

When? Monday 17 May, 13.00-15.00

Where? Södertörn University, room F819

Contact: Mai-Brith Schartau, mai-brith.schartau@sh.se.