How to study Romanian conservative intellectuals in transnational perspective?

5th session of CEFRES Seminar

When: Wednesday 6 April 2022, 4:30 pm
Where: CEFRES and online (to register please contact claire(@)cefres.cz)
Language: English
Host: Anemona Constantin (CEFRES/Charles University)

Abstract:

“Populist,” “illiberal,” “nationalist,” or “conservative”: these are some common ways to refer nowadays to political actors, social movements, or intellectuals who criticize liberalism. These overused, worn-out, and often abused labels have been reinvented despite some obvious theoretical flaws and methodological biases. Perhaps, because these terms are fulfilling a vital social and political function – naming and shaming what appears to be at the climax of the ideological undesirability – they continue to be widely used in the media and by social scientists. A few questions emerge naturally: how to engage with a research field undermined by so many negative preconceptions? How to study an object labeled in such a derogatory way? Which research methods would allow us to break with the common beliefs and approach the conservative mobilizations more reflexively?

To answer these questions, the presentation examines a specific case: the Romanian conservative intellectuals and their contribution to the political debates that have challenged since 2007 the “liberal consensus” established in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) after the demise of state- socialism. By “liberal consensus,” I understand discourses that have accepted and promoted human rights (including minority rights and tolerance towards cultural, religious, and gender diversity), the market economy, the rule of law, and the European integration. By “conservative” intellectuals, I understand public figures who define themselves as such.

Continue reading How to study Romanian conservative intellectuals? →

Affects, Everyday Writing Practices, and the Origins of Self-Analysis. The Case of Julian Ochorowicz and Sigmund Freud.

4th 2022 Session of CEFRES Seminar 

When: Wednesday 30 March 2022, 4:30 pm
Where: At CEFRES and online (to register please contact claire(@)cefres.cz)
Language: English
Host: Agnieszka Sobolewska (Warsaw University/Sorbonne University/CEFRES)

Abstract:

In what ways everyday writing practices (such as keeping a journal or writing letters) are related to science in the second half of the nineteenth century? How the differences between self-reflective techniques (such as introspection and self-analysis) are reflected in the generic divergencies between journal and epistolary practices? During this presentation, I will take a closer look at the important shift in the nineteenth century psycho-medical literature which was closely related to the question of psychological introspection and the emergence of psychoanalytic self-analysis in the late 1890s. This shift can be closely observed in life writing of the nineteenth-century psychologists, physicians, and future psychoanalysts, and was crucial for future understanding of the self in the twentieth century.

Continue reading Affects, Everyday Writing Practices, and the Origins of Self-Analysis →

Justice and Memory after Dictatorship: How Eastern Europe and Latin America Transformed International Law

3rd 2022 Session of CEFRES Seminar

When: Wednesday 16th March 2022, 4:30 pm
Where: At CEFRES and online (to register please contact claire(@)cefres.cz)
Language: English
Discussants: Raluca Grosescu (SNSPA, Bucarest), Eva-Clarita Pettai (Imre-Kertész Kolleg)
Moderation: Anemona Constantin (CEFRES)

Abstract:

This research investigates how national courts from Latin America and Central Eastern Europe (CEE) have challenged and transformed international criminal law (ICL) in trials held against former authoritarian officials after the “third wave” of democratization. In contrast to the UN-centric approaches that have dominated the scholarship on ICL, I explore the role of two so-called “semi-peripheries” of the international system in shaping global norms. I show how legal actors from the two regions created novel readings of ICL and contested an existing international law order which they considered unable to address their violent pasts. Continue reading Justice and Memory after Dictatorship →

Pan-Slavism or Romantic Nationalism? The case of the Pest-Buda Serbs in the first half of the nineteenth century

2nd 2022 Session of CEFRES Seminar

When: Wednesday 2 March 2022, 4:30 pm
Where: At CEFRES and online (to register please contact claire(@)cefres.cz)
Language: English
Host: Dušan Ljuboja (ELTE University, Budapest, associated at CEFRES)

Abstract:

The nationalism studies are a broad field, with several different schools of thought, usually divided between the modernists and primordialists. The phenomenon of nation building is generally viewed as a modern concept, characterized by the age of changing social orders, rise of industrial capitalism, new technologies, and information age. Whether the emerging nations had a right to claim that their existence reached far beyond this modern era, does not truly matter. The nationalist movements abide by a certain set of rules. Researchers devised methodological tools which would act as a lens through which we could determine the stage of development of a certain national movement. One of these tools is the framework by Joep Leerssen, a Dutch historian, who proposed the idea of “cultural nationalism.” This theory, among others, would be the basis of my attempt to determine whether a certain movement, regardless of its developmental stage, would qualify as a national one, and if not, what were the reasons for it? Continue reading Pan-Slavism or Romantic Nationalism? →