Conference | Transnationalism, Activism and Solidarity

Romani Racialization Beyond Majority-Minority Narratives

When: 21–23 May 2025
Where: Vila Lanna, Institute of Czech Literature, CEFRES

CEFRES is hosting the closing round table on the 23rd of June at 5 PM.

Convenors: Tina MAGAZZINI and Martin FOTTA (Institute of Ethnology, Czech Academy of Sciences)

The conference is open to the public, but registration is required due to limited capacity.

📝 Register here: https://forms.office.com/e/HGQ7SNK2Rq
📄 The full programme is available for download as a PDF here. Continue reading Conference | Transnationalism, Activism and Solidarity →

Energy and its Renewed Cartography

Eighth session of the 2024-2025 CEFRES Francophone
Interdisciplinary Seminar The Map and the Border
In 2023 we started questionning the very act of bordering and representing (a territory, a period, a trajectory). In short, thanks to the interdisciplinarity of our respective disciplines, we began inquiring into the question of the map and the border.

Location: CEFRES, Na Florenci 3, Prague 1
Date: Friday May 23, 2025, from 10 am
Language: French

Speaker: Gilles LEPESANT (CEFRES / CNRS)
Discussant: Barbora Kvasničková (Research fellow at AMO – Association for International Affairs)

Abstract Continue reading Energy and its Renewed Cartography →

Conference | Central Europe and Francophone Africa in the aftermath of the Second World War: Crossroads

To mark the 80th anniversary of the end of the Second World War, the Centre universitaire francophone of the University of Szeged, in partnership with the Regional Centre of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences and the Department of Modern History and Mediterranean Studies of the University of Szeged, is organising a conference entitled ‘Central Europe and Francophone Africa in the aftermath of the Second World War: crossroads’.

This event has been created in partnership with the French Research Center in Humanities and Social Sciences – Prague (CEFRES) and the French Institute in Hungary.

When: May 19 and 20, 2025
Where: Regional Centre of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Szeged

READ THE FULL PROGRAM HERE

Argumentary

This conference aims to interrogate post-history in two distinct regions that, at first glance, appear to share little in common, maintaining only distant relationships. However, when the fighting ended, both regions—considered peripherical—and their respective nations and populations experienced, simultaneously, an ambiguous and debatable liberation. With this paradox in mind, the conference seeks to highlight the inherent issues present in both regions within the broader perspective of the post–World War recomposition of the world, from which neither the European nor the African continent was exempt. The year 1945 marked the end of the dominance of traditional European powers and laid the foundations of the bipolar world order. These transformations had numerous repercussions for these regions, situated at the center of the superpowers’ geopolitical chessboard.

Taking a comparative approach, this conference positions itself as an open window into exploring the inherent or shared dynamics between Central Europe and Francophone Africa from the very end of hostilities onward. It also aims to describe the profound transformations, without losing sight of the fact that, although the year 1946 marked a rupture and a new beginning, it also belonged to the continuity of the old world.

Hence, the conference seeks to offer a space for reflection and dialogue between specialists of both regions—PhD students, early-career researchers, lecturers, and established scholars alike—to better understand the impact of the end of the Second World War on the contemporary history of Francophone Africa and Central Europe. The key perspectives proposed for discussion include:

Central Europe at the end of the Second World War
France and Central Europe from 1940 to 1950
Francophone Africa in 1945
The decolonization movements
Gaullism and Africa

Book World Prague 2025 | Meet Ruth Zylberman

Discover this powerful novel about the fate of the inhabitants of a Parisian house in the 1940s.

When: May 17, 2025, 4 PM
Where: Milan Kunderas’ Hall, Výstaviště Praha Holešovice, Křižíkovy pavilony

The event is organised in cooperation with French Institute in Prague and Maraton Editions.

Join us at the Book World Prague 2025 for a discussion with writer and director Ruth Zylberman, who will be talking about her novel 209 rue Saint-Maur, Paris Xe: Autobiographie d’un immeuble (Points, 2021), of which the Czech translation was published by Editions Maraton in 2024. Ruth Zylberman’s narrative brings to life the stories of those who disappeared and those who survived, children and adults, collaborators and resistance fighters, young girls in love and women with sulphurous reputations, people of different nationalities whose destinies were brought together by the same Parisian address. The discussion will be followed by a book signing.

Ruth Zylberman, a French director and writer, has made several documentaries and published her first novel, La Direction de l’absent, in 2015. Her work reflects a deep interest in the history of Central Europe: her documentary Dissidents, les artisans de la liberté (2009) is devoted to Václav Havel, among others, while Le Procès – Prague 1952 (2021) traces the fate of three convicts: Rudolf Slánský, Artur London and Rudolf Margolius. In 2018, she directed the documentary Les Enfants du 209 rue Saint-Maur, Paris Xe, which served as the basis for her novel published in 2020. Both the film and the book have been enthusiastically received by audiences and specialists alike.

Translation of Humanities and Social Sciences | Conference

When: May 15th and 16th, 2025
Where: Institute of World Literature, Slovak Academy of Sciences, Bratislava, Slovakia
Language: French, English
Organizers: Katarína Bednárová, Silvia Rybárová, Ján Živčák (Institute of World Literature, Slovak Academy of Sciences)

See the whole CFA
Download the program here.
See the official poster here.

This international conference is organised by The Institute of World Literature of the Slovak Academy of Sciences, Faculty of Arts of Comenius University Bratislava and CEFRES.

Photo: Mgr. Lucia Drotárová, PhD. Created with the help of AI.

Program

Continue reading Translation of Humanities and Social Sciences | Conference →

The Dimension of Words | Doctoral Workshop

EHESS-UMIFRE Workshop

This doctoral programme will consist of four 2-3 hour workshops over two days, each focusing on a dialogue and joint readings.

Date: May 12-14, 2025
Location: CEFRES, Na Florenci 3, Prague 1
Language of the workshop: English, French
Organizers : EHESS, CEFRES (Prague), CRFJ (Jerusalem), IFA SHS (Frankfurt/Main)
Coordination : Falk Bretschneider (EHESS / IFRA-SHS) & Mateusz Chmurski (Sorbonne Université / CEFRES)

Argumentary:
How do we name the things that happen? If this question is always relevant, it is never as sensitive, divisive, or necessary as it becomes in times of crisis. The Russian invasion of Ukraine, followed by the crisis in the Near East that erupted on October 7, 2023—with their respective share of daily tragedies—give this question a cruel and painful urgency. How do we name what is happening to us? Pogrom. Resistance. Colonisation. Terrorism. Genocide. Segregation. Apartheid. War crimes. How do we choose these words, and who chooses them for us? Are these words precise enough to fairly capture reality, while broad enough not to be reduced to the empirical description of isolated events? If imprecision is a necessary attribute of language, how can we be sure that the intentions behind these words are free from manipulation, harmful visions, or dangerous ideologies? To which frameworks—legal, legislative, expert, academic—do these words belong? What do they permit, and what do they silence? How do they mobilise reason, emotion, moral judgement, or ethical and political positions? In what historical contexts were these words created or imbued with meaning, and how much would it cost to free them from those contexts? Indeed, to question, clarify, and correct the words we use as categories to analyse the world as it is—this is no easy task.

Program

Continue reading The Dimension of Words | Doctoral Workshop →