Tag Archives: Everyday Experience of Spaces

CEFRES Team

Sophie Raehme – Research & CV

“Visualizing Resistance: The Traveling Graffiti “Las Cuchas Tienen la Razón” and the Ghostly Presence of Forcibly Disappeared Colombians in Europe”

Research Area 3 – Objects, Traces, Mapping: Everyday Experience of Spaces

My research broadly examines how state and non-state actors, as well as victim-survivors themselves, negotiate concepts of collective reparation for gendered, intersectional, and relational harm. I focus in particular on the possibilities and limitations of collective reparations within official processes of victim subject recognition. Using a relational ontological lens, I explore how frameworks of collective victimization are constructed and contested within transitional justice discourses and beyond and in particularly in relation to territorial memory, art, and resistance in the context of Colombia’s urban territorial peace. My work is grounded in critical, decolonial, queer, and feminist approaches to transitional justice, reparations, gender, and human rights. Between 2022 and 2024, I collaborated closely on participatory documentary projects with a women’s searcher collective and an LGBT group in Medellín. One of these projects is currently being re-edited and is planned for submission to a human rights film festival.

During my fellowship at CEFRES, I will explore the transnational dimensions of memory activism through the traveling graffiti “Las cuchas tienen la razón”, originally created by youth graffiti artists and women searchers in Medellín, Colombia. The project investigates how this visual intervention, symbolizing territorial resistance and youth and women-led struggles for truth, justice, and reparations, has been reinterpreted within the Latin American diaspora in European cities such as Vienna, Berlin and London. To study these translocated territorial memories in traveling graffiti, I adopt an exploratory methodology using the metaphor of ghosts. “Ghost ethnography” offers a conceptual framework to examine how trauma and absence are inscribed on bodies and urban spaces, particularly through muralism and graffiti. These forms of street art function as living archives of resistance, often overlooked in mainstream historiography and ethnography, yet central to grassroots memory practices. I will complement this with semi-structured interviews conducted with graffiti artists and women searchers.

At CEFRES, I aim to contribute primarily to Research Area 3, “Objects, Traces, Mapping: Everyday Experience of Spaces.” During my stay, I will present findings from my PhD research and screen the upcoming participatory documentary “Women Walking for Truth – Transforming Voices and Territorial Resistance” (2025).

CV

I hold a Master’s in Philosophy (2019) from Goethe University (Frankfurt) and a Master’s in International Studies / Peace and Conflict Research (2020) from the Technical University of Darmstadt. In 2024, I taught courses on feminist theory, climate repair, and art-based methodologies as a Global Teaching Fellow at the Department of Political Science and Global Studies at Universidad de los Andes (Bogotá). In 2025, I was a visiting PhD researcher at the Department of Gender Studies at the London School of Economics and Political Science and at the Department of Political and Social Sciences at the European University Institute (Florence).

CEFRES Team

Nina Papcunová – Research & CV

“Nature in Modernism”

Research Area 3 – Objects, Traces, Mapping: Everyday Experience of Spaces

Contact: nina.papcunova@savba.sk

Nina Papcunová is a doctoral student at the Institute of Slovak Literature of the Slovak Academy of Sciences in Bratislava. Her dissertation, entitled Nature in Modernism, contributes to CEFRES Research Area 3.

The main objective of the thesis is to explore the cultural function of nature in Slovak literature between 1890 and 1925, corresponding to the poetic line of naturalism-symbolism-modernism. The research also focuses on the environmental awareness of modernist literature and its response to contemporary changes in the relationship between humans and nature (industrialization, war). The psychological aspects of the representation of nature will be equally relevant to the research. Thematically, the research will focus on motifs of natural disasters and destructive human interventions in nature, with an emphasis on their literary representation, aesthetic and functional use, and overall signification. The research will work with prose and poetic texts from a defined period and will cover many authors in the aim of capturing as many different approaches to the aforementioned themes and motifs as possible.

The methodology of the research is based on the theories of ecocriticism and ecopoetics (écopoétique; writing about nature – écrire la nature) applied to the study of modernism. Both theories focus on representations of nature in literary texts. While ecocriticism focuses primarily on the presence of nature in literature, ecopoetics examines in depth the aesthetic forms and shapes in which nature is captured in literature. Modernism as a period is often associated with the development of urbanization and thus also with urban space. Although nature appears in Slovak modernist texts, its depictions have not yet received significant attention from experts. My research presents an innovative approach to the defined issue on two levels: the core of the research is the representation of nature in a literary period that has so far been characterized by an interest in the city, and the research will be based on the use of ecocriticism and ecopoetics, which have not yet been significantly applied in literary research in our geographical area.

CV

Education

2024 – present: PhD candidate; Thesis: Príroda v modernizme (Nature in Modernism; La nature dans le modernisme), Institute of Slovak Literature, Slovak Academy of Sciences (SAV), Bratislava

2019-2024: Master’s in Slovak and French language and culture with a specialisation in translation and interpretation, Comenius University, Bratislava

Additional education

2022-2024: Supplementary pedagogical studies focusing on teaching French – extension module, Comenius University in Bratislava

Recent publications

– Review in English of a publication by author Peter Adkins: The Modernist Anthropocene: Nonhuman Life and Planetary Change in James Joyce, Virginia Woolf and Djuna Barnes (2024), SLOVENSKÁ LITERATÚRA (in print)

– Recenzia pri príležitosti vydania publikácie od autorky Mgr. Silvia Rybárová, PhD.: Dejiny, pamäť a osobný príbeh v súčasnej francúzskej próze (2024), SLOVENSKÁ LITERATÚRA, zv. 72, 2025, č.3

CEFRES Team

Dominika Drobná – Research & CV

“Theory and Practice of Architecture in Bratislava around 1800”

Research Area 3 – Objects, Traces, Mapping: Everyday Experience of Spaces

Dominika Drobná is a PhD candidate at the Department of Art History, Faculty of Arts, Comenius University in Bratislava. Her dissertation, titled Theory and Practice of Architecture in Bratislava around 1800, contributes to Research Area 3 at CEFRES.

The aim of the dissertation is to explore the relationship between architectural theory and practice in Bratislava between 1770 and 1830. The research began with a focus on the development of sacred architecture in western Slovakia during this period, particularly in the context of Theresian and Josephine reforms in the Church and education. These reforms significantly influenced architectural production and led to the discovery of a previously overlooked figure in architectural theory – Johann Nepomuk Schauff. Schauff worked for many years as a drawing teacher at the Normalschule in Bratislava, where he taught drawing to local craftsmen, including masons and stonemasons. These craftsmen increasingly participated in architectural design, particularly in religious and secular buildings, often in collaboration with Viennese architects. Schauff also developed his own theoretical ideas focused on the architecture of the Kingdom of Hungary and published several works in Bratislava related to this topic.

In addition to Schauff, the dissertation focuses on the work of architect Matthäus Walch, who was active in Bratislava especially during the 1770s. Walch played a key role in the construction of several aristocratic palaces, a theatre, and two Evangelical churches built even before the issuance of the 1781 Patent of Toleration.

The core objective of the dissertation is to address the theoretical and practical aspects of architecture – particularly sacred architecture – by analysing the work and ideas of these two important figures. It seeks to trace the stylistic development of architecture in Bratislava during a pivotal transition from the late Baroque to Classicism, and to demonstrate Bratislava’s significance as a secondary centre of architecture and art in the Habsburg monarchy and the Kingdom of Hungary.

The research methodology consists of several phases. The first involved heuristic and critical evaluation of existing literature. This was followed by in-depth analysis of primary historical sources, including archival documents, maps, architectural plans, and historical depictions, especially prints. Special attention is given to Schauff’s theoretical texts, whose interpretation helps illuminate broader architectural discourse around 1800.

The material basis of the study is formed by three key sacred buildings in Bratislava: The Large Evangelical Church (1774–1776), The Small Evangelical Church (1776–1777), and The Roman Catholic Church of St. Ladislaus (1830–1831). Notably, the two Evangelical churches were constructed before the Patent of Toleration in 1781. After a comprehensive analysis of the selected objects, the characteristic features of the architecture of the given period and region will be determined by comparison, and their development and style will be defined. In the final phase, I’m focusing on interpreting the acquired knowledge about sacred architecture. The aim is to highlight the broader context of the issue under investigation within the architecture of the selected period, not only in the territory of present-day Slovakia, but also in the context of the situation in Hungary, the Habsburg Monarchy and Europe.

Education

  • From 2022 till present: PhD. candidate, Art studies, Department of Art History, Faculty of Arts, Comenius University in Bratislava
  • 2021–2024: Master, Archaeology, Department of Archaeology and Museology, Faculty of Arts, Masaryk University in Brno
  • 2019–2021: Master, Art History, Department of Art History, Faculty of Arts, Masaryk University in Brno
  • 2016–2019: Bachelor, Art History, Department of Art History, Faculty of Arts, Comenius University in Bratislava

Recent publications

  • Šintava a Sereď: premeny stredovekého hradu na renesančnú pevnosť a klasicistický kaštieľ: doklady vo svetle poznatkov z oblasti archeológie, dejín architektúry a pamiatkovej starostlivosti (Šintava and Sereď: transformation of a medieval castle into a Renaissance fortress and a Classicist manor house : evidence in the light of knowledge in the field of archaeology, history of architecture and monument care). In: Studia archaeologica Brunensia, roč. 29, č. 1, 2024, s. 109–151.
  • Vila pro stavitele (Villa for the Builder). In: Tajemství české minulosti, č. 103, 2024, s. 24–27.
  • Bratislavskí stavební majstri a ich vplyv na premeny mesta v druhej polovici 18. storočia (Bratislava’s Master Builders and Their Influence on the Transformation of the City in the Second Half of the 18th Century). In: Umělec a město: sborník příspěvků z odborné konference. Brno 2023, s. 91–104. ISBN 978-80-88145-69-1.
  • Kontexte der Kunst um 1800 aus dem Gebiet der heutigen Slowakei (Contexts of Art around 1800 from the Territory of Present-Day Slovakia). In: Internationales Doktorand/innen Forum Kunstgeschichte des östlichen Europas [elektronický dokument]: Beiträge / Papers 2023. Berlin 2023, s. 1–2.
  • Možnosti inšpirácie architektúrou (Posibilities of Inspiration through Architecture). In: Prostor Zlín, roč. XXX, č. 4, 2023, s. 43–47.
  • Pressburger Baumeister Matthäus Walch a jeho stavebná činnosť v Bratislave (Pressburger Baumeister Matthäus Walch and his building activities in Bratislava). In: Kolbiarz Chmelinová, Katarína – Beňová, Katarína: Umenie a umělci v meste okolo roku 1800. Bratislava 2023, s. 86–112. ISBN 978-80-8127-388-9.
  • Národní divadlo Nitranské župy (National Theatre of the Nitra County). In: Opuscula historiae artium, roč. 70, č.2, 2021, s. 142–153.

Participation in conferences

  • November 2024: “National Styles in Architecture: The Formation of the Hungarian National Columns Order in the European Context“, paper presented in the conference Ex Arte: Fortresses, Bridges and Borders, Masaryk University, Brno
  • October 2023: “Johann Nepomuk Schauff and the Study of the Hungarian National Style in Architecture“, paper presented in the conference Ex Arte: From Material to Theory, Palacký University, Olomouc
  • October 2023: “Bratislava’s Master Buliders and Their Influence on the Transformation of the City“, paper presented in the conference The Artist and the City, Museum of Kroměříž
  • May 2023: “Contexts of Art around 1800 from the Territory of Present-Day Slovakia“, short paper presented in the conference VIII. Internationales Doktorand*innenforum Kunstgeschichte des östlichen Europas, Humboldt-University, Berlin
  • November 2022: “Pressburger Baumeister Matthäus Walch and his building Activities in Bratislava“, paper presented in the conference Art and Artists in the City around 1800, Comenius University, Bratisava
CEFRES Team

Andrej Vašíček – Recherche & CV

“Cultural and Historical Memory of the Landscape in Hungary in the 18th Century”

Research Area 3 – Objects, Traces, Mapping: Everyday Experience of Spaces

Introduction

This dissertation examines the cultural and historical memory embedded in the rural and semi-rural landscapes of 18th-century Hungary. It explores how local communities perceived, shaped, and remembered their surroundings, focusing on the material traces, spatial practices, and symbolic representations that connected people to the land over time.

Research Questions

  • How was the landscape remembered and represented in legal, religious, and social contexts during the 18th century?
  • What material or symbolic traces of past uses and meanings can be identified in the landscape (e.g. crosses, boundary markers, hydrological structures, routes)?
  • How did natural features (rivers, forests, hills) become part of collective memory or identity?
  • In what ways did the transformation of the landscape—through cultivation, regulation, or settlement—affect the cultural memory of its inhabitants?

Methodology

The research combines approaches from environmental history, historical anthropology, and critical cartography. It draws on a variety of historical sources:

  • Urbaria and conscriptions, reflecting the socio-economic use of land.
  • Historical maps and cadastral plans, to track spatial organization and memory.
  • Parish records, inscriptions, and religious monuments, to trace symbolic landscape elements.
  • Narrative sources (such as local chronicles) for mental and lived geographies.

The project uses microhistorical case studies from specific regions of historical Upper Hungary to reconstruct the interaction between people and landscape.

Empirical Foundation:

The primary empirical basis includes:

  • Archival material from the Hungarian National Archives and Slovak regional archives.
  • 18th-century maps from military and ecclesiastical collections.
  • Fieldwork involving the documentation of surviving landscape features (e.g. stone crosses, remnants of old field systems, flood regulation structures).

Contribution to CEFRES Research Area 3 – Objects, Traces, Mapping

The dissertation contributes to the understanding of landscape as a palimpsest of objects and traces—a space marked by layers of past meanings, uses, and representations. It proposes that the memory of place is not only transmitted through texts or rituals but also inscribed into the terrain through spatial practices and preserved physical remnants. By investigating how people inhabited and interpreted their environment, this research offers a historical perspective on the production of space, connecting tangible objects with intangible memory. It also engages in mapping these traces, both literally (through GIS) and conceptually, as a way to understand how landscapes become historical and cultural archives.

CEFRES Team

Olesia Totska – Research & CV

“Foreign economic cooperation of Ukraine and EU countries: modern trends”

Contact: Totska.Olesia(@)vnu.edu.ua

Olesia Totska is a professor at the Department of Management, Faculty of Economics and Management, Lesya Ukrainka Volyn National University, Ukraine. She has the scientific degree of Doctor of Economic Sciences, the academic title of professor. She is the author of 272 publications, of which 236 are individual (as of August 1, 2024).

Her research interests are international trade; management of the development of higher education (educational, scientific-innovative and financial-investment spheres); mathematical methods, models and information technologies in economics and management; project management. Continue reading Olesia Totska – Research & CV →

CEFRES Team, Non classé

Anna Yanenko – Research & CV

“Captured Spaces: Kyiv Museum Life in the late 1920s and 1930s. Based on the photos from the National Preserve ‘Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra’ collection”

Research area 3 – Objects, Traces, Mapping: Everyday Experience of Spaces

Anna Yanenko is a researcher (Deputy Head of the Research Department of Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra and Museums History) in the National Preserve “Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra” (Ukraine). She is a co-founder and coorganizer the continual Research Seminar on History of the Humanities in Ukraine (an initiative of ICOM Ukraine and the Institute of Archeology of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine). She coordinates conferences on history of humanities, archaeology and museums in Ukraine. Continue reading Anna Yanenko – Research & CV →