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The normalized, the normalizers and their cinemas

The normalized, the normalizers and their cinemas: Czechoslovak and Soviet Films of the 1970s

Created and moderated by Anastasia Mamaeva, PhD student at UMR Eur’ORBEM (Sorbonne University/CNRS, Paris), this webinar is organized with the support of Eur’ORBEM, CEFRES (Prague) and Charles University (Prague).
Location: CEFRES, Na Florenci 3, Prague 1 and online (to get the link, please register at cefres@cefres.cz)
Date: May 13, May 27, June 4, 2024 at 4:30 pm (CET)
Language: English

Program

Every session will take place from 4.30 to 6 PM Prague/Paris time and will include a presentation and a discussion.

Monday, May 13

The Squalid Charms of the Stagnation Cinematic Aesthetics
Igor GULIN (independent cultural historian, critic, poet)

Monday, May 27

Visitors and Insiders: The Normalisation-Era Career of Jindřich Polák
Jonathan OWEN (independent scholar of Eastern and Central European cinema, avant-gardes, and cult film; author, Avant-Garde to New Wave: Czechoslovak Cinema, Surrealism and the Sixties, 2011)

Tuesday, June 4

Czechoslovak public relations films for export
Lucie ČESÁLKOVÁ (editor-in-chief, Iluminace magazine; Charles University, Prague)

Abstract

Continue reading The normalized, the normalizers and their cinemas →

Working with Wartime Testimonies

Working with Wartime Testimonies: Practical Workshop in Digital Humanities

A workshop jointly organized by the “War and Society” research alliance, the “Ukraine in a changing Europe” center of the IMS (Institut mezinárodních studií) at FSV UK, CEFRES and supported by 4EU University Alliance. 

Location: CEFRES, Na Florenci 3, Prague (Friday 24) and FSV UK, U Kříže 8, Praha 5 Jinonice, Room C322 (Saturday 25)
Date: 24.–25. May
Language: English
Organizing committee:

Program
Friday May 24th: CEFRES

17.00 – 17.20 Meet-up and registration

17.20 – 17.30 Welcome from the organizers

17.30 – 18.30 Opening Keynote

  • Natalia Otrishchenko, Lviv Center for Urban History
    “From Euromaidan to Full-Scale Russian Invasion: Archiving Ukrainian Society’s Experiences” (will be live-streamed)

18.30 – 19.45 Panel Discussion: “Europe after the Russian full-scale invasion”

  • Panel: Valeria Korablyova, Charles University, Vladimír Handl, Charles University, Jakub Eberle, Institute of International Relations Prague
  • Chair: Martin Laryš, Charles University

19.45 – 21.00 Reception at CEFRES

Saturday May 25th: Faculty of Social Studies, Charles University, U Kříže 8, 158 00 Praha 5 Jinonice, Room C322

08.45 Meet-up in front of the library at Campus Jinonice

09.00 – 10.00

  • Jiří Kocián PhD, FSV, Charles University
    “Digital Collections of Historical Sources: Users’ and Producers’ Perspectives”

10.15 – 11.15

  • Cecile Boëx, EHEES, School of Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences
    “Collecting and Analyzing Wartime Video-Testimonies in Syria. What Can Images Do?”

11.30 – 13.00 Student Presentations (more detailed program for panels will come)

  • Chair: Astrid Greve Kristensen, Sorbonne University

13.00 – 14.00 Lunch

14.00 – 15.30 Practical Workshop and coding in Taguette in the digital database “Voices of Resistance and Hope” with Natalia Otrishchenko, Lviv Centre for Urban History

15.45 – 17.00 Panel Discussion: “Trauma in War Testimony Research”

  • Panel: Natalia Otrishchenko, Lviv Center for Urban History, Cecile Boëx, EHESS, Marija Krgovič, University of Copenhagen
  • Chair: Kateřina Fuksová, Charles University

Abstract: 

On February 24, 2022, the lives of the people of Ukraine changed. On that day, Russia started the “special military operation”, a full-scale war against the Ukrainian people. Europe, which mistakenly believed that people had learned the lessons of the horrors of the Second World War, was drawn overnight into the new reality of war. Thousands of refugees began to flow in, bringing with them stories of violence, suffering and loss of loved ones – war refugee testimonies, a genre that should rather not even exist.The workshop „Working with Wartime Testimonies: Practical Workshop in Digital Humanities” focuses on survivor testimonies not only from Ukraine, but from a diverse perspective both temporally and geographically and approaches them from the point of view of digital humanities. To this end, the workshop seeks to showcase the opportunities digital tools offer for preserving and analyzing wartime testimonies. Through practical exercises, keynote lectures, panel discussions, and student presentations, participants will gain insight into utilizing digital tools effectively, enabling them to engage with testimonies in innovative and interdisciplinary ways. During the workshop the participants will explore existing digital archives housing wartime testimonies, especially regarding the ongoing Russian full-scale invasion of Ukraine, but also the archives of Holocaust survivors’ testimonies as well as those who survived the civil war in Yugoslavia. Ethical considerations loom large in this discussion, with the project addressing the sensitive nature of working with wartime testimonies. Participants will explore issues of trauma, consent, and privacy and learn strategies for ethically collecting, preserving, and disseminating testimonies in a way that respects the dignity and agency of those involved while considering their own psychological well-being, too.

Grand entretien – Mali or Bohemia?

Mali or Bohemia ? “Grand Entetien” with François-Xavier Fauvelle and Ladislav Varadzin

Date : May 22, 2024 at 6:00 pm
Location : French Institute in Prague, Štěpánská 35, Prague 1
Language : french and czech (simultaneous translation)

Partners of the event : CEFRES, French Institute in Prague, Institute of Archaeology, Czech Academy of Sciences

François-Xavier Fauvelle and Ladislav Varadzin will discuss about Africa’s cultural diversity and various historical paths of african societies. The will think about characteristics of a “global” Middle Ages including Central Europe and several regions of Africa. Engaging the exercice (inevitably risky) of historical comparaison, they will share their thoughts about medieval written documentation (including arabic and jewish works) available for these two regions, the role of archaeology, the emergence of the State, meeting of Central European and African societies with Christianity or Islam, “broker” States and business and more. They will mention the kingdoms of Bohemia, Moravia, Ghana, Mali and Ethiopia.

François-Xavier Fauvelle is professor at the Collège de France, holder of the chair of history and archaeology of African worlds at the Collège de France and currently director of the French Research Center in Jerusalem. He worked in South Africa, in Ethiopia where he excavated the Christian site of Lalibela and discovered several Muslim towns, and in Morocco where he excavated the medieval city of Sijilmasa. Among some twenty books translated into a dozen languages, he is the author of Zlatý nosorožec : Příběhy o africkém středověku (Prague, 2021).

Ladislav Varadzin is a researcher in the Institute of Archaeology of the Czech Academy of Sciences in Prague. A specialist in recent prehistory and ancient history of societies in North-East Africa and Central Europe, he worked in Sudan and in Egypt, and he excavated the medevial site of Vyšehrad in Prague. He is the author of more than a hundred scientific articles and book chapters.

Racializing Romani People in the 19th Century

Racializing Romani People in the 19th Century

A conference, jointly organized by the Prague Forum for Romani Histories at the Institute of Contemporary History, the Czech Academy of Sciences, in collaboration with Gonzaga University, the Postgraduate School ZRC SAZU, and the Institute of Ethnology, Czech Academy of Sciences, and supported by Strategy AV21 (Research Programme: Identities in the World of Wars and Crises), Lumina Queruntur award (LQ300582201), and Gonzaga University.

Date: 20-21 May, 2024 at 12:45pm
Location: Villa Lana, V Sadech 1/1, 160 00 Praha 6-Bubeneč
Conclusive public roundtable discussion (21/5/2024): CEFRES, Na Florenci 3, Prague 1
Language: English

CEFRES welcomes in its premices the last public roundtable discussion, 21 May 17h00-18h30 – Round-table discussion

  • Chair : Vita Zalar 
  • Speakers: Margareta Matache, Sunnie R. Chang 

Participants of the conference

  • Rafael Buhigas JIMÉNEZ (member of  the History and Commemoration department of the European Roma Institute for Arts and Culture, ERIAC)
  • Maria CHIOREAN (PhD candidate at Lucian Blaga University of Sibiu)
  • Martin FOTTA (head of the Department of Mobility and Migration at the Institute of Ethnology, Czech Academy of Sciences – EÚ AV ČR)
    Carolina García SANZ (associate professor in the Department of Contemporary History at the University of Seville)
  • Margareta (Magda) MATACHE (lecturer at the Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health)
  • Dezso MATE (Romani Rose Fellow at the Research Centre on Antigypsyism at the Heidelberg University’s Department of History)
  • Verena MEIER (PhD candidate at the Research Centre on Antigypsyism at the Heidelberg University’s Department of History)
  • Sunnie RUCKER-CHANG (associate professor at the Ohio State University)
  • Laura Soréna TITTEL (postdoctoral researcher at Justus Liebig University Giessen)
  • Tom TYSON (PhD on the history of Gypsies in early modern Scotland at Cambridge University)
  • Dalen WAKELEY-SMITH (assistant professor of history at Washington University in Saint Louis)
  • Egemen YILGÜR (professor of anthropology at Yeditepe University)

Complete Program

Monday, May 20th

12:45 – Welcome 

Ann Ostendorf and Vita Zalar 

13:00-15:00 – Keynote session 

  • Chair: Ann Ostendorf 
  • Margareta Matache: The Racialization of Romani People Across Time and Geographies: Patterns and Mechanisms.
  • Sunnie R. Chang: Relational Perspectives on the Origins and Uses of ‘Blackness’ in Roma and African American Communities 

15:00-15:30 – Coffee break 

15:30-17:30 – Panel I: Intellectualizing Race 

  • Chair: Tina Magazzini 
  • Dezso Mate: History of the Gypsy Lore Society
  • Martin Fotta: Race, Nation, and Lusophone Gypsylorism 
  • Tom Tyson: Antiquarians, Missionaries, and the ‘Romantic Gypsies’ of Scotland 

Tuesday, May 21 

10:00-12:30 – Panel II: Racializing Nations 

  • Chair: Martin Fotta 
  • Rafael Buhigas Jiménez: ‘Gitanos’ from Working-Class Neighbourhoods in the (Proto)Gossip Magazines: Racialization and Criminalization in Madrid (1850- 1900) 
  • Dalen Wakeley-Smith: ‘A Very Undesirable Class of Immigrants’: Immigration Officials, Race, and ‘Gypsies’ in the Gilded Age and Progressive Era Egemen Yılgür: Ethno-racialization of the ‘Gypsy’ in the Modern Ottoman Censuses 
  • Carolina García Sanz: Constructing the ‘Racial Enemy’ against the Spanish Colonial Crisis: The Civil Guard and the ‘Gypsies’ 

12:30-13:00 – Lunch break 

13:00-15:00 –  Panel III: Contradictions and Critiques of Racialization 

  • Chair: Renata Berkyová 
  • Verena Meier: Antigypsy Special Legislation in Germany: Labels for State Repression and the Ambivalences of Definition 
  • Laura Soréna Tittel: Marx’s Critique of Vagabondage and the Policing of Roma in the Nineteenth Century 
  • Maria Chiorean: Racialization in Abolitionist Fiction: Uncle Tom’s Cabin and Măriuca’s Cabin, a Comparative Case Study 

17:00-18:30 – Roundtable discussion hosted by the French Research Center in Humanities and Social Sciences (CEFRES), Na Florenci 3, Prague. The event is open to the general public. No prior registration needed.

  • Chair: Vita Zalar 
  • Speakers: Margareta Matache, Sunnie R. Chang 

Abstract 

The scholarly study of race, racism, racialization, and racial capitalism on a global scale has significantly reframed our understanding of the nineteenth century. It has been established that ideas about race influenced the thoughts and experiences of all people who lived in the nineteenth century. Racial thinking permeated law, politics, science, and diplomacy. It supported colonizing projects, caused removal from traditional homelands, diminished access to resources, limited citizenship rights, criminalized individuals, and dislocated countless people around the world.

This two-day conference brings the scholarship on nineteenth-century racecraft into conversation with Romani history. The organizers invite contributors to consider the impact of racialization on Romani communities in the nineteenth century.

The intimate two-day conference will be centered around panels consisting of 20-minute presentations with extensive discussion. Scholars from all disciplines were encouraged to apply. We particularly welcomed applications from Romani scholars and early-career scholars.

The conference is an in-person event only. Interested attendees should contact Marek Jandák (jandak@usd.cas.cz) to register.

For further details regarding the discussion content, please visit the Program Forum for Romani Histories website.

Sapphic Empire

Sapphic Empire: Transnational History of Lesbian Writings in Polish, Russian and Ukrainian Modernisms and beyond (1848–1933)

6th session of CEFRES in-house seminar
Through the presentation of works in progress, CEFRES’s Seminar aims at raising and discussing issues about methods, approaches or concepts, in a multidisciplinary spirit, allowing everyone to confront her or his own perspectives with the research presented.

Location: CEFRES Library
Date: Tuesday, May 13, 2024 at 4:30 pm
Language: English
Contact / To register: cefres[@]cefres.cz

Speaker:   Anna Dżabagina (CEFRES / Charles University)

Chair: Libuše Heczková, FF UK Continue reading Sapphic Empire →

The normalized, the normalizers and their cinemas

The normalized, the normalizers and their cinemas: Czechoslovak and Soviet Films of the 1970s

Created and moderated by Anastasia Mamaeva, PhD student at UMR Eur’ORBEM (Sorbonne University/CNRS, Paris), this webinar is organized with the support of Eur’ORBEM, CEFRES (Prague) and Charles University (Prague).
Location: CEFRES, Na Florenci 3, Prague 1 and online (to get the link, please register at cefres@cefres.cz)
Date: May 13, May 27, June 4, 2024 at 4:30 pm (CET)
Language: English

Program

Every session will take place from 4.30 to 6 PM Prague/Paris time and will include a presentation and a discussion.

Monday, May 13

The Squalid Charms of the Stagnation Cinematic Aesthetics
Igor GULIN (independent cultural historian, critic, poet)

Monday, May 27

Visitors and Insiders: The Normalisation-Era Career of Jindřich Polák
Jonathan OWEN (independent scholar of Eastern and Central European cinema, avant-gardes, and cult film; author, Avant-Garde to New Wave: Czechoslovak Cinema, Surrealism and the Sixties, 2011)

Tuesday, June 4

Czechoslovak public relations films for export
Lucie ČESÁLKOVÁ (editor-in-chief, Iluminace magazine; Charles University, Prague)

Abstract

Continue reading The normalized, the normalizers and their cinemas →