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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.

Workshop: Care of the habitat

Care of the Habitat. Between Infrastructure Maintenance and Attention to Living Beings

Location: CEFRES, Na Florenci 3, Prague
Date: 19–20 October 2023
Language: English

Organized by :

CEFRES (UMIFRE 13, UAR 3138, CNRS-MAEE), Prague

Scientific Committee :
Chloé Mondémé (Triangle, CNRS / CEFRES)
Petr Gibas (Institute of Sociology of the Czech Academy of Sciences / CEFRES)
Mateusz Chmurski (CEFRES)
Ange Pottin (University of Vienna / CEFRES)

Please see the program here below and download the program here.

Continue reading Workshop: Care of the habitat →

World Literature, Cold War Edition

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

Františka Zezuláková Schormová (FF UK/CEFRES)
Topic: World Literature, Cold War Edition

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

Text to be read:

  • Pascale Casanova, The World Republic of Letters (Harvard University Press, 2007), Chapter One, p. 9–44.

Written Culture and Society in the Bohemian Lands 16th-18th Century

dívka s knihouA Workshop Around Roger Chartier

Where: Institute of Czech Literature of the Czech Academy of Sciences – Na Florenci 3, Prague 1, Entrance C, 3rd Floor
Languages: English and French

Program

9:30–10:00 Pavel Sládek (Faculty of Arts, Charles University)
Fragility of Hebrew Printing and Its Impact (c. 1520 – c. 1650): Printing Press as an Agent of Destruction

10:00–10:30 Veronika Čapská (Faculty of Humanities, Charles University)
Textual Practices, Cultural and Economic Exchange in the (Swéerts)-Sporck Milieu at the Turn of the Baroque and Enlightenment

10:30–11:00 Michael Wögerbauer (Institute of Czech Literature, Czech Academy of Sciences)
“No Applause Please or I Shall Put My Pen Down Forever”. Maria Anna Sager’s Novels Die verwechselten Schwestern (1771) and Karolinens Tagebuch (1774) and the Problem of the Near-to-non-circulation of a text

11:00–11:30 Break

11:30–12:00 Claire Madl (CEFRES/Institute of Czech Literature, Czech Academy of Sciences)
Which boundaries for which Readership? Enlarging and Diversifying the Reading Public through Advertising

12:00–12:30 Daniela Tinková (Faculty of Arts, Charles University)
The “Dangerous Correspondance“ of the “Red Priests“ from Moravia. The French Revolution and the Formation of a Public Space in the Czech Lands

 

« An extraordinary thrill » : reflexions from the first letter of « Crisis of the Mind » (1919) by Paul Valéry

Benedetta Zaccarello, ITEM (Institut des Textes et Manuscrits Modernes, CNRS/ENS)

will be taking part in the seminar called Current Issues. Reflection on Crises organised by CEFRES.

Date: Wednesday , March 3th 2021, 12h30 à 13h50
Where: Online on Zoom.
Organisators:  Maria Kokkinou (post-doc at CEFRES / Charles University), Jérôme Heurtaux (CEFRES)
Language: French

Link to join the seminar : https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84097191940 

For more information about the programme and the seminar,  see the website: http://cefres.cz/fr/seminaires/penser-les-crises.

‘Post-’. The Past in the Present. CEFRES–CETOBaC Workshop

In 2024, the French Center for Research in Humanities and Social Studies (CEFRES) together with the institution reunited by its Platform – Charles University and the Czech Academy of Sciences will be CETOBaC’s guest during a one-day workshop.

Date: April 26 2024, 9 am–7 pm CET
Location: CETOBaC, Campus Condorcet, 14 cours des Humanités, Aubervilliers (Bât. recherche Nord, room 0.010)
Language: English, French
Organizers: Mateusz Chmurski (CEFRES), Lucie Drechselová (CETOBaC, EHESS), Fabio Giomi (CETOBaC, EHESS)
Partner Institutions: CETOBaC, EHESS / CEFRES

Program

9:00 – 9:15 – Greeting word

09:15 – 09:30 – Introduction

Marc Aymes, Center for Turkish, Ottoman, Balkan, and Central Asian Studies (CNRS / EHESS, CETOBaC)

Mateusz Chmurski, French Center for Research in Social Sciences (CEFRES)

09:30 – 11:00 – ‘Post-’. Thinking the Present Through the Past

Moderator: Emmanuel Szurek (EHESS, CETOBaC)

  • Adrian Brisku (Charles University / Ilia State University), Imperial Political-Economic Legacies in New (Inter)national Economic Order: Albania, Czechoslovakia, and Georgia’s Foreign Trade Discourse and Policy after the Great War
  • Václav Šmidrkal (Czech Academy of Sciences / Charles University), ‘Post-’ and ‘Trans-’: the Legal Status of World War II veterans in Czechia after 1989
  • Jelena Božović (CEFRES / Charles University), Languages in a post-conflict multiethnic society: The interplay of official and unofficial policies in Bosnia and Herzegovina

11:00-11:30 – Break

11:30-13:00 – Memories. Reflecting on the Past in the Present

Moderator: Lucie Drechselová (CETOBaC, EHESS)

  • Marie Černá (Czech Academy of Sciences), The Czechoslovak Prague Spring of 1968 from the point of view of local communist actors
  • Anna Huláková (Charles University), Situated Knowledge, Feminist Frameworks of Analysis and Women’s Representation in the Post-Soviet Central Asia
  • Camille Leprince (EHESS, CETOBaC), La guerre d’Espagne comme représentation de l’escalade de violence en Syrie

13:00-14:30 – Lunch break 

14h30-16h00 – Reflecting on Genocidal and Mass Violence: Yesterday, Today

Moderator: Xavier Bougarel  (CNRS, CETOBaC)

  • Elif Karakaya (Rochester University / CETOBaC), Unfinished Empire: Place and Memory in Post-Ottoman Visual Art
  • Kateřina Králová (Charles University), Holocaust Ruins: Ethnography of Hirsch quarter in Thessaloniki 
  • Özgür Sevgi Goral (Gerda Henkel Stiftung / CETOBaC), Our Wound Runs Deep: Colonial Aphasia and the Memory Field in Turkey

16:30-18:00 – Behind the Scenes of Political Documentaries 

Moderator : Ilshat Saetov (EHESS, CETOBaC)

Screening of Robert Mihály, The Best Corner in the World (2022), 25’, and screening and discussion with the director Sibil Çekmen, On the Trail of Missing Documentaries (in preparation in 2024), 14’.

18:00 – Closing cocktail

Abstract

The Center for Turkish, Ottoman, Balkan, and Central-Asian Studies (CETOBaC) at the Parisian Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (EHESS) examines the past and present situations of Turkish speaking people throughout the geographical area of Turkey, the regions that once formed part of the Ottoman Empire, and Central Asia. The Center’s work concerns not only this population group but also their relationships with their neighbors, and social, cultural, and political questions. For certain research questions, the Center extends its reach towards the east to include Iran, Afghanistan, and China, and, to the west, towards Central and Eastern Europe. CETOBaC brings together historians, sociologists, anthropologists, geographers, linguists, and political scientists in 6 research areas: History of the Ottoman Empire; Contemporary Turkey; Balkans in the Contemporary Period; Central Asia and the Caucasus; Languages, Culture and Societies in the Turkish region; Islam and Sufism.
Each year, CETOBaC organizes an annual meeting with a research institution sharing similar scientific interests: these exchanges between researchers and provide a platform for discussing our research on the Balkans, Turkey, the Ottoman Empire and Central Asia in all disciplines.
The 2024 CEFRES-CETOBaC workshop will be structured around three main themes:

  1. Post-Ottoman, post-Habsburg, post-socialist. Thinking the past in the present.
    We will jointly explore the legacies left by the great imperial configurations that had such a profound impact on Central and Eastern European in the 19th and 20th centuries. Particular attention will be paid to how these configurations not only influenced social structure, but also organized the field of social sciences. How do we think about the categories of the multiple “post-“? How do we construct them? By looking at the situated production of knowledge, this first section will address through concepts the institutionalization of “cultural areas” in France and Central and Eastern Europe. This section continues in a successful collaboration launched by Lucie Drechselová during her fellowship at CEFRES in September 2023, that resulted in a doctoral workshop entitled “Dynamics of Political Participation: Disciplinary knowledge through the prism of ‘area studies’”.
  2. Memory studies.
    Closely related to the first section, the second part of the day will explore memory studies. memory studies. The aim is to stimulate dialogue on current research devoted to the formation, preservation, transmission, contestation and forgetting of individual and collective memories. We will also address practices of commemoration and interpretation and interpretation of the past, as well as strategies for reconciliation and healing in post-conflict societies. This section will also examine from several angles the recurring theme of “nostalgia” that animates a multiplicity of the contexts in the post-Soviet and post-Ottoman spaces, as well as – to a lesser extent – in former Czechoslovakia.
  3. Social sciences in danger.
    The third part of the day will take the form of a round-table discussion, focusing on the difficulties facing our disciplines, both in France, in Eastern Europe and in Turkey. We will discuss the combined effects of funding cuts and government decisions restricting academic freedom, controlling research subjects, as well as limiting the dissemination of the dissemination of potentially politically disturbing results. This debate will be followed by the screening of a documentary.