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CEFRES review of books – December 2019

The new edition of CEFRES Review of Books will take place on Thursday 12th June at 5 pm at CEFRES library.
Join us for a discussion around the latest publications in humanities and social sciences from France.

This informal meeting gathers CEFRES team, the library readers, and professionals from libraries and publishing. The aim of our Review of Books is to make better known the publishing landscape in humanities and social sciences. Each book is presented in no more than 10 minutes, so to stress its originality and stakes.

So far, the following presentations are announced:

  • Patrick BOUCHERON : La trace et l’aura (Paris : Seuil, 2019), by Arthur Perodeau
  • Sonia COMBE : La loyauté à tout prix. Les floués du “socialisme réel” (Le Bord de l’eau, 2019), by Jérôme Heurtaux
  • Octave DEBARY : De la poubelle au musée. Une anthropologie des restes (Créaphis, 2019) by Fedora Parkmann
  • Alexandre GEFEN : Réparer le monde. La littérature française face au XXIe siècle (Corti, 2017), by Radek Karkovský
  • Catherine MALABOU : Métamorphoses de l’intelligence (PUF 2017) by Thomas C. Mercier
  • Michel PASTOUREAU : Le Loup (Seuil, 2018), by Adéla Klinerová

Postcolonial issues / decolonizing theory

Fifth session of IMS / CEFRES epistemological seminar of this semester led by:

Vojtěch Šarše (FF UK / associated to CEFRES)
Benedetta Zaccarello (CNRS / CEFRES)
Topic: Postcolonial issues / decolonizing theory

Where: CEFRES Library – Na Florenci 3, Prague 1
When: Wednesday 11 December 2019, from 4:30 pm to 6 pm
Language: English

Texts to be read:

  • Enrique Dussel : “A new age in the history of philosophy: The world dialogue between philosophical traditions”. Philosphy and Criticism, 2009, May 15, p. 499-515. DOI: 10.1177/0191453709103424
  • Aurobindo Ghose, “A Misunderstanding of Continents” & “Towards Unification”. In: Complete Works, Vol. 12.”Essays Divine and Human”, p. 389-393.
  • Kwame Anthony Appiah: “Is the Post- in Postmodernism the Post- in Postcolonial?”. Critical Inquiry, Vol. 17, No. 2 (Winter, 1991), pp. 336-357

BEYOND 1989. Hopes and Disillusions after Revolutions (A Global Approach)

BEYOND 1989. Hopes and Disillusions after Revolutions
(A Global Approach)
International Conference – Film Screening “Solidarnosc. La Chute du Mur commence en Pologne” (EN subtitles)

Date: 6 & 7 December 2019
Venue: Prague (Charles University Karolinum, Faculty of Arts, French Institute)
Organizers: French Research Center in Humanities and Social Sciences (CEFRES), Faculty of Arts of Charles University (FF UK), Faculty of Social Sciences of Charles University (FSV UK), Institute of Contemporary History of the Czech Academy of Sciences (ÚSD AV ČR), and ERC Project “Tarica”
Partners: French Institute in Prague, Faculty of Humanities of Charles University, Centre of French Civilization and Francophone Studies of Warsaw University (CCFEF), Scientific Centre of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Paris, Institute of Polish Culture of the University of Warsaw (IKP), CNRS Research Unit LADYSS (University Paris I Panthéon-Sorbonne) and GDR Europe Médiane (CNRS)
Language: English

➤To attend Friday’s conferences, a registration is needed by sending an email at: cefres@cefres.cz

2019 represents an important symbol and a major commemorative moment in Europe. Marking thirty years since the collapse of the communist regimes of Central and Eastern Europe, as well as fifteen years since their European integration, this anniversary gives rise to political, memorial and academic initiatives throughout Europe.
This thirtieth anniversary is a unique opportunity to think about revolutionary experiences and regime change in various historical contexts. Thereby, this conference aims at offering wider and new academic perspectives on regime transformations and democratic transitions, through a comparative approach. Post-Communist Europe will undoubtedly be one of our focus, as well as the Arab world following the 2011 uprisings or the political transitions in Sub-Saharan Africa. Thus, this unprecedented proposition is to offer an equal value of those revolutions in a comparative analysis, without any ranking based on success of failure.
The chosen perspective is to question the object “revolution” by the multiple interpretations that the revolution raises: promotion, even sublimation; but also disqualification, even outright rejection.

Friday 6, December
Karolinum
Modrá posluchárna, Charles University, Ovocný trh 560/5

13:30-14:00: Registration

14:00-15:00: Keynote Addresses
Translation CZ / EN / FR
Mr. Tomáš Petříček, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic
Mr. Jean-Yves Le Drian, Minister of Europe and Foreign Affairs of  the French Republic

15:00-15:30: Introduction
Lenka Rovná, Vice-Rector for European Affairs, Charles University
Miroslav Vaněk, Director of ÚSD AV ČR
Jérôme Heurtaux, Director of CEFRES

15:30-16:15: 1st Academic Keynote
Moderation: Michal Pullmann, Dean of Faculty of Arts, Charles University
Adéla Gjuričová (ÚSD AV ČR): The Unbearable Lightness of Women’s Rights: On Gender Order in Post-Socialist Transformation

16:15-16:45: Coffee Break

16:45-17:30: 2nd Academic Keynote
Georges Mink (College of Europe / CNRS): 1989 Revisited in the Light of its Consequences. Thoughts of a Committed Observer

17:30-18:45: Roundtable: Hopes and Disillusions towards European Integration
Ivo Šlosarčík (FSV UK)
Marie-Elizabeth Ducreux (CNRS / EHESS)
Marion Van Renterghem, Journalist / Albert-Londres Prize
Michael Žantovský, Director of the Václav Havel Library

18:45: Reception

Saturday 7, December
Faculty of Arts / nám. Jana Palacha 1/2
Room 104

9:30-10:15: 3rd Academic Keynote
Moderation: Eliška Tomalová (FSV UK)
Michal Kopeček (ÚSD AV ČR): Democratic Hopes and Liberal Illusions: the 1989, Post-Dissident Politics of Memory and the Challenge to “Liberal Consensus” in East Central Europe

10:15-12:00: Panel 1: Promoting Revolutions
Moderation: Pavel Mücke (ÚSD AV ČR)
Federico Tarragoni (Paris-Diderot University): From Revolutions to Revolutionary Subjectivities. Some Sociological Tracks
Matěj Spurný (FF UK / ÚSD AV ČR): Environment in Capitalism. Paths to a Neoliberal Consensus
Ester Sigillò (ERC Tarica): Engaging in Civil Society in Response to the Failure of Political Parties in Tunisia
Eliška Tomalová (FSV UK): Velvet Revolution in Cultural Diplomacy and Nation Branding
Jana Wohlmuth Markupová (FHS UK): Meaning of 17th November 1989 in the Memory of Former Student Protagonists in Czech Republic
Emmanuelle Boulineau (ENS Lyon): Spatial Illusions and Disillusions in Central Europe: Borders, Flows, and Territorial Cooperation

12:00-12:15: Coffee Break

12:15-13:45: Panel 2: Disillusions after Revolution
Moderation: Jérôme Heurtaux (CEFRES)
Éric Aunoble (University of Geneva): Post-Revolutionary Syndromes: The Case of Ukrainian Communists after 1920
Clément Steuer (ERC Tarica): Discrediting the Revolution in Political Discourse: the Role of Counter-Revolutionary Parties in Egypt
Alia Gana (CNRS / ERC Tarica), Maher Ben Rebah (ERC Tarica): Political Disenchantment in Post-Revolutionary Tunisia in the Light of Electoral Processes
Nicolas Maslowski (CCFEF): Post-Dissent: Between Social Resource and Source of Disillusion
Marcel Tomášek (FHS UK): Scholars and Experts’ Disillusions on Post-1989 Dynamics in East-Central Europe

13:45-14:45: Lunch

14:45-17:30: Students’ Presentations
Moderation: Paweł Rodak (Warsaw University), Marie-Elizabeth Ducreux (EHESS / CNRS)
Michal Louč (FHS UK / ÚSTR): The Former Czechoslovak Political Prisoners from the 1950s and their Perceptions of the Velvet Revolution and Dealing with Communism
Václav Rameš (ÚSD / FF UK): The 1989 as an Opportunity for a New Economic Order. Expectations and Disillusionments in the Czechoslovak Postcommunist Ownership Transformation
Marek Skála (FHS UK): The Beginnings of Small Businesses during the Economic Transformation Period
Martin Babička (Oxford University): “We are Buying the Future”: Neoliberalism, Historicity, and the Case of Voucher Privatization in Postsocialist Czechoslovakia
Filip Keller (FF UK): And Then Wolves Have Come. Czechoslovakian Technical Intelligentsia on The Postcommunist Transformation
Pavel Jonák (FHS UK): Great Expectations? Czech Post-Revolutionary Way of Teaching Creative Writing from the Perspective of its Actors
Eliška Černovská (FSV UK): The Role of Guy Erismann in French-Czech(oslovakian) Musical Relations before and after the Velvet Revolution
Igor Zavorotchenko (FHS UK): One Example the 1989/1991 Revolution could not Change the Historical Assessment, Although we did Hope So

16:30-16:45: Coffee break

Klára Žaloudková (FSV UK): Preying on the State: Oligarchization of Bulgaria after 1989
Jiří Kocián (FSV UK): Persistent Burden: Post-1989 Romania and The Quest for Democratic Maintenance
Marek Suk (FF UK): Were Dissidents Representing the Alternative to the Normalisation Regime? Their Political Performance before and shortly after November 1989
Claire Laurent (University of Strasbourg): “Polszczyzna”: The Hope of a Nation without a State and the Disillusion of a Post-Revolutionary Nation-State

17:30-18:30: Break. Move to French Institute

French Institute, Stepanska 35
Kino 35

18:30-20:00 Screening of Anna Szczepanska’s film Solidarnosc. How Solidarity Changed Europe, LOOKSfilm/Arte-NDR, Germany, 2019, 52 mn (English subtitles).
Moderation: Luc Lévy, Director of the French Institute
Debate with Anna Szczepanska and Georges Mink

20-20:30 Closing Remarks
Nicolas Maslowski (CCFEF), Paweł Rodak (Warsaw University), Aneta Bassa (Polish Academy of Sciences), Jérôme Heurtaux (CEFRES), Eliška Tomalová (FSV UK), Michal Pullmann (FF UK), Pavel Mücke (ÚSD AV ČR), Alia Gana (CNRS, ERC Tarica)

Read more about the event subjects on: http://cefres.cz/fr/11961

Orders of Worth and Urban Space

Fourth session of IMS / CEFRES epistemological seminar of this semester led by:

Yuliya Moskvina (FSV UK / CEFRES)
Topic: Orders of Worth and Urban Space

Where: CEFRES Library – Na Florenci 3, Prague 1
When: Wednesday 27 November 2019, from 4:30 pm to 6 pm
Language: English

Text to be read:

  • Luc Boltanski, Laurent Thévenot: “On Justification. Economies of Worth”, (Princeton U. P. 2006 = De la justification. Les éconmies de la grandeur. Paris, Gallimard, 1991), chapters:
    “The polity model” (74 – 80),
    “A Framework for analyzing the commons worlds”, “The sense of the common”, “The art of living in different world” (140 –  158),
    “The civic world” (185 – 193).

Can we compare revolutions?

A lecture by Jérôme Heurtaux (CEFRES director) as part of the Franco-czech historical seminar organized by Institute for Czech History of the Faculty of arts, Charles University (FFUK), in collaboration with CEFRES.

Venue: Faculty of Arts of Charles University, nám. J. Palacha 2, Prague 1, room 201
Date & Time: 21 November 2019, 9:10-12:10
Language: French

Abstract:

As a canonical object of social sciences, the revolutionary phenomenon provoked numerous comparative approaches in sociology, history and political sciences. Which statement can we draw from the international comparison of revolutions? On the strength of the scientific literature and of his own searches about the fall of communism in Poland and about the Tunisian revolution, Jérôme Heurtaux will point out the advantages and the limits of the comparative exercise, and will make the case for a controlled and an erratic comparison.

JÉRÔME HEURTAUX is director of the French Research Center in Humanities and Social Sciences (CEFRES) in Prague. He is a specialist in regime change and in democratic transitions. Among his several publications belong La démocratie par le droit. Pologne 1989-2016 (Presses de Sciences po, 2017), Introduction à l’Europe postcommuniste (avec Frédéric Zalewski, De Boeck, 2012) and 1989 à l’Est de l’Europe. Une mémoire controversée (in co-direction with Cédric Pellen, L’Aube, 2009). He publishes in 2019 Pologne, 1989. Comment le communisme s’est effondré (Éditions Codex).

Coffee Seminar with French Historian Claire Zalc

Informal meeting with Claire Zalc about her research

Open to public.

Discussants: Pavel Baloun (FHS UK/CEFRES), Florence Vychytil-Baudoux (EHESS/CEFRES), Francesca Rolandi (Masaryk Institute of the CAS)
Moderated by Jérôme Heurtaux (CEFRES)

Venue: CEFRES Library (Na Florenci 3, Prague 1)
Date: 18 November 2019, 2-4 pm
Organizer: CEFRES
Language: English

Claire Zalc (CNRS) is a prolific and innovative french historian specializing in immigration issues, Jewish studies and economic history. She has published several books, some of which have been translated into English, such as Microhistories of the Holocaust (dir., with Bruttmann), New York, Berghahn Books, 2016 and Quantitative Methods in the Humanities. An Introduction (with Claire Lemercier), Virginia Press, 2019. She is also Principal Investigator de l’ERC Consolidator LUBARTWORLD « Migration and Holocaust : Transnational Trajectories of Lubartow Jews Across the World (1920s-1950s) ».