A project carried out within the framework of the TANDEM program, developed by the Czech Academy of Sciences, Charles University and CEFRES/CNRS united within the Platform for Cooperation and Excellence in Humanities and Social Sciences.
This project proposes a pioneering study of the ghostly, material and symbolic memorial landscapes of defeated minorities who have been displaced and dispersed after the successive collapse of imperial and multinational entities during the 20th century, followed by the Cold War reconfiguration of countries of Central and Eastern Europe, and later on, due to the fall of the communist regimes. We define defeated minorities as populations who have been identified or associated with the aforementioned political formations and considered at best as accomplices, and at worst as responsible for their political systems of domination and/or dictatorship.
A seminar of the Institute for International Studies of the Faculty of Social Sciences, Charles University in Prague, and CEFRES
Organizers: Jérôme Heurtaux (CEFRES) and Maria Kokkinou (postdoctoral researcher, CEFRES / Charles University) When: Fall Semester, Wednesdays, 12:30 – 1:50 pm Where: Online, upon registration. Please contact the organizers: maria.kokkinou(@)cefres.cz. Language: French
Seminar presentation:
The crisis has the wind in its sails: due to the appearance and extensive spread of Covid-19 in 2020, this concept has regained a world-wide attention, not observed since the financial crisis of 2009. Apart from these spectacular moments of global turmoil, we can no longer count the events or phenomena that are described as crises.
A concept inextricably linked to modernity, a “crisis” (pre)occupies our societies in all its dimensions. The polysemic uses of the term and its very topicality prompt us to revisit this concept, its different meanings and uses. This seminar course is devoted to this task. It will involve the intervention of researchers from various disciplines – political sociology, history, art history, anthropology, philosophy, etc.
What realities are qualified as “crises” and in which ways are they critical? What is a crisis and how to explain its emergence? How does a crisis unfold, what are its effects and consequences? Why do crises give rise to conflicts of interpretation over their meaning? Is the notion of crisis a central operator of our modernity and a key to understanding the challenges that contemporary societies face?
Wednesday, January 6th, 12:30 – 1:50 Presentation of the Students’ work
Evaluation:
Students read one text per week, sent in advance by the lecturer. They prepare a 5-page essay in French on a “crisis” not addressed during the class, based on at least three sources (1 academic and 2 non-academic ones). The assignment must be turned in by January 4th 2021 and presented orally on January 6th during the last session (5 minutes each).
Bibliography:
Arendt, Hannah, La crise de la culture, Paris, Gallimard, 1991.
Dobry, Michel, Sociologie des crises politiques, Paris, Presses de Sciences po, 1986.
Gaïti, Brigitte, « Les incertitudes des origines. Mai 1958 et la Ve République », Politix, n° 47, 1999, p. 27-62.
Gobille, Boris, « L’événement Mai 68. Pour une sociohistoire du temps court », Annales HSS, mars-avril 2008, n° 2, p. 321-349.
Grossman, Evelyne, La créativité de la crise, Paris, Minuit, 2020.
Lacroix, Bernard, « La ‘crise de la démocratie représentative en France’. Eléments pour une discussion sociologique du problème », Scalpel, vol. 1, 1994, p. 6-29.
Morin, Edgar, « Pour une crisologie », Communications, n° 91, 2012.
For the celebration of the 100th anniversary of the French Association for Artistic Action (AFAA) and the foundation of the French Works Abroad Service (SOFE), the Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs and the French Institute, together with Sorbonne-Nouvelle University, are organizing a series of events to study the history of French cultural diplomacy. Other higher education and research establishments also have the opportunity to become partners in this initiative.
Among these events, an academic conference is planned for spring 2022 at Sorbonne-Nouvelle University, which will focus on the history and action of the French cultural network abroad, including the Cooperation and Cultural Action Services (SCAC), Instituts Français and Alliance Française branches. It will also look at the public policies underpinning this action. The proceedings of this conference will be published.
The scientific committee responsible for the conference is launching a call for submissions open to academics of all languages, nationalities and disciplines, although the main focus of the conference is historic.
Submissions could cover various fields of the French cultural diplomacy (such as language, artistic exchanges, cultural and creative industries, academic research, teaching and debate), its actors, including figures, public, semi-public and private institutions (departments of the Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Culture, Alliance Française branches, foundations, major cultural institutions, cultural and creative industry companies, profiles of major figures and studies of staff) and the core focuses of its action (audiences, vehicles and means of distribution, purposes and goals, and multilateralism). A comparative approach looking at other national models could also be proposed, as well as a country- or geographical region-based approach (French cultural diplomacy in Latin America, Asia, Europe, etc.).
The scientific committee will prioritise submissions which will make use of the abundant archival material available at the Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs, in the La Courneuve and Nantes archive centres (documents from consular services, Instituts Français, Alliance Française branches, cultural centres, the AFAA, the SOFE, the Directorate-General of Cultural Affairs, etc.) and which could be enriched with the input from various diplomatic missions requested in view of the conference.
Submissions should be sent in French or English (1,000 to 3,000 characters) to the scientific committee by 4 December 2020 to the email address HistDiplo2022@gmail.com, accompanied by the CV of the author.
The authors of submissions selected by the scientific committee will be informed by 20 December 2020.
Dr Bernhard Struck, Reader / Associate Professor in Modern European History, School of History, University of St Andrews, Founding Director of the Institute for Transnational & Spatial History. His research focuses on German, French, Polish History, the history of travel, borderlands, cartography and space. He is author of Nicht West – nicht Ost. Frankreich und Polen in der Wahrnehmung deutscher Reisender, 1750-1850 (2006) and Revolution, Krieg und Verflechtung.Deutsch-Französische Geschichte 1789-1815 (2008) (with Claire Gantet). He is co-editor of Shaping the Transnational Sphere. Experts, Networks and Issues from the 1840s to the 1930s (2015).
The main objective of this project is to bring forth a new understanding of the orphan as a literary and cultural figure as it is presented in contemporary historical fiction. The focus lies on fiction that in particular tells the story of orphans in the Czech lands after 1945, encompassing the two dominating isms of the 20th century, Fascism and Socialism. I work with contemporary (post-2000) novels by authors such as Jáchym Topol, Radka Denemarková and Bianca Bellová, in addition to German W.G. Sebald. By comparing texts that differ significantly in their approach to representing trauma and loss, I believe the orphan narrative generates a variety of voices. My theoretical approach is of interdisciplinary scope, and combines both classical literary theory and narratology, memory studies and historical approaches to literature. I am in particular interested in questions of genre, archetypes and myths. Continue reading Astrid Greve Kristensen: Research & CV→
French Research Center in Humanities and Social Sciences – Prague
