Tag Archives: Norms & Transgressions

Calls for Papers

CFP | Gender and Mediation

⇒ In German below ⇐

Translational and Editorial Practices in the Reception of Belgian Literature in Czech- and Germanophone Cultural Spaces during Modernism (1870–1940)

 Workshop is organised by Petra James, Hubert Roland, Quintus Immisch di Padua and Martina Mecco, MODERNITAS (MSH – Université Libre de Bruxelles) – UCLouvain and CEFRES – French Research Centre in Humanities and Social Sciences in collaboration with Department of Czech and Comparative Literature, Charles University, Institute of Czech Literature, CAS, Institut of Slovak Literature, SAV.

Deadline for submissions: December 30, 2025
Date: April 15 – 17, 2026
Location: CEFRES, Prague
Languages: English, French, Czech, German
Send an abstract of 300 words to: martina.mecco@ulb.be

(See German below)

The conference is organised as part of the FNRS (Fonds de la Recherche Scientifique, Belgium) project entitled “Belgium ‘Read’ in German and Czech” (2024-2027), directed by Petra James (Université libre de Bruxelles) and Hubert Roland (UCLouvain). Continue reading CFP | Gender and Mediation →

Non classé

Markus Pollak – Research & CV

“Evaluating Democracies: International Election Observers and the Contestation of Liberal Ordering”

Axes de recherche 1 : Déplacements, dépaysements et décalages : hommes, savoirs et pratiques & 2 : Normes et transgressions

I am a Ph.D. candidate in International Relations at Central European University and a DOC-Fellow at the Austrian Academy of Sciences. My research focuses on international election observers in the post-Cold War era. Specifically, I examine practices of contestation facing observation missions sent out by regional organizations. As a key pillar of democracy promotion and liberal international ordering, election observation provides an entry point for understanding contemporary endogenous and exogenous challenges to liberal international ordering.

My project is embedded in the subfield of international political sociology. To collect data, I combine interviews with election observation practitioners and intergovernmental organization staff with archival research, particularly at the OSCE archives in Prague. In line with a Bourdieu-inspired research methodology, my project emphasizes participant observation. I have worked as a OSCE and EU election observer in Bolivia, the United States, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, and Serbia. I am also a research associate at the NGO Election-Watch.EU.

Currently I work on a research project investigating OSCE election observer careers and the recruitment practices of OSCE missions. Previously, I conducted research on parallel election observation missions and published an article on the election observation missions of the Commonwealth of Independent States in the OSCE region.

Education

  • PhD in International Relations, Central European University (ongoing)
  • MA in International Relations, Central European University
  • Certificate of Social Sciences and Humanities, Sciences Po Paris
  • BA and MA in Political Science, University of Vienna

Selected Publications

Pollak, M. (2025). Mimicking Election Observation: The Politics of Parallel Election Monitoring. Election Law Journal: Rules, Politics, and Policy.

Teaching experience

2025-2026: Lecturer at the University of Vienna for the course “Politics of Democratization and Autocratization”

2025: Teaching Assistant at Central European University for the courses “International Intervention and Statebuilding” and “Introduction to International Relations”, Vienna

Conferences and Public Presentations

  • European International Studies Association (EISA) – 2025 Pan-European Conference on International Relations (“It´s a small world! For 20 years it´s often been the same people”)
  • Electoral Integrity Conference (EIP) – 2023 (“Mimicking Election Observation”) + 2025 (“It´s a small world! For 20 years it´s often been the same people”)
  • University of Vienna – “The Subversion of Liberal Election Observation?”, presentation at the Marie Jahoda Summer School 2024 (July 2024).
  • University of Oxford – “Mimicking Election Observation”, presentation was a part of the programme of the Europaeum Oxford Spring School 2024, St Antony´s college (April 2024).
  • Sciences Po Paris – “Mimicking Election Observation”, guest speaker at an event of the CERI VERELECT research group (November 2024)
  • Central European University – Pollak, M.“´Being an observer is not a profession – although everyone thinks it is”, guest speaker at the Conflict and Security Research group (March 2025)
CEFRES Team, Non classé

Ruslana Koziienko – Research & CV

“The effects and affects of the (im)mobility of men during Russia’s full-scale war against Ukraine”

Contact : Koziienko_Ruslana@phd.ceu.edu

Research Area 2 : Norms and Transgressions

Ruslana Koziienko is a social anthropologist and a doctoral candidate in the Department of Sociology and Social Anthropology at Central European University (Vienna). Her doctoral research explores the experiences of Ukrainian adult civilian men as affected by the limited mobility—outside, due to the travel ban, and within the country, due to the mobilization processes—under martial law, which was introduced in response to Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. The project focuses on three interrelated themes. First, it examines the coping strategies civilian men develop under conditions of constrained mobility in order to support and provide for themselves and their families. Second, the research analyzes the transformations of masculinities and sense of manhood civilian men have undergone, especially in the light of the masculinity of the defender occupying the hegemonic position, as well as, more broadly, how the hierarchy of masculinities in Ukrainian society has been reshaped over more than three years of the all-out war. The third theme (and the general framework) of the project explores the transformations of and contestations over citizenship and what it means to be a “good (male) citizen” in times of war. Finally, the research also looks at the dynamics, processes, and regimes at different—national, regional, and international—levels that have shaped the historical moment when the sex-selective travel ban in times of war became possible and supported, or at least tolerated, by many in the first place. Among these are the national gender order, the European migration regime, the international humanitarian regime, and the tension between, on the one hand, state sovereignty and, on the other, the international regime of human rights.

Methodologically, the research draws on online and in-person, in-depth semi-structured interviews with Ukrainian civilian men, as well as, in a few cases, their partners, in Ukraine and across nine countries (Austria, the Czech Republic, Germany, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Spain, the UK, and Canada). Research participants include men who remained in Ukraine, those who left the country, men who left but later returned, and those who were abroad when the full-scale invasion started. The research is also complemented by an analysis of the transformations of the law and regulations governing the border crossing regime and mobilization processes, media materials, and elements of digital ethnography.

CV

Education

  • 2020 – exp. 2026: PhD candidate, Sociology and Social Anthropology, Central European University, Vienna
  • 2018 – 2020: MA, Sociology and Social Anthropology, Central European University, Budapest
  • 2011 – 2015: BA, Cultural Studies, National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy, Kyiv

Teaching experience

  • 01/2025 – in progress: Certificate of Teaching in Higher Education, Central European University
  • 01/2024 – 04/2024: Teaching Assistant, Central European University, Vienna, Ethnographic Methods, Asst. Prof. Johanna Markkula (MA level)
  • 04/2022 – 06/2022: Mentor, Invisible University for Ukraine, Vienna, Transformation, Conflict, and Migration (mixed levels)

Publications

  • Koziienko, Ruslana. 2023. “Against false solidarity. A call for true solidarity among people with experiences of displacement.” Allegra Lab, March. (Link)
  • Biziukova, Volha, Ruslana Koziienko, and Anna Lazareva. 2023. “‘Arrival’ Infrastructures: Ukrainian Displaced People in Vienna.” IWM Post, no.131 (June). (Link)
  • Koziienko, Ruslana. 2016. “Listening to the Rhythms of Cultural Trauma,” A Visit from Ghosts, 1 (October): 10-12. (Link)

In preparation

  • Biziukova, Volha, Ruslana Koziienko, and Ayşe Çağlar. “Beyond exception: the Ukrainian displaced in Vienna and the mazes of temporary protection in the EU and global contexts.” (Advanced draft; will be submitted to Ethnic and Racial Studies)

Conference presentations

  • 11 – 13/06/2025: Men and Masculinities in Transition, organized by the Nordic Association for Research on Men and Masculinities, Stockholm University; Panel: Military-2 & Prison; Presentation title: Transformations of civilian masculinities: Ukrainian men and (im)mobility during Russia’s full-scale war against Ukraine.
  • 14 – 15/11/2024: Ukrainian Un/Certainties: Mobilities, Memories and Representations in Times of War, organized by Prisma Ukraїna, Berlin; Panel: Gender and (Im)Mobility; Presentation title: Contesting citizenship: (Im)Mobility of adult civilian men under martial law during the Russian war against Ukraine.
  • 23 – 26/07/2024: EASA2024: Doing and Undoing with Anthropology, Barcelona; Panel: The Gender of the State; Presentation title: The effects and affects of the (im)mobility of civilian men under martial law during the Russian war against Ukraine.
  • 13 – 14/10/2022: Solidarity, Displacement & the University Workshop, Berlin; Presentation title: Against false solidarity. A call for true solidarity among people with experiences of displacement.

Co-authored conference presentations:

  • 04 – 05/11/2023: Dialogues of the Peripheries, online; Feuerbach 11 conference, organized by the Commons journal; Co-presented with Volha Biziukova and Ayşe Çağlar; Panel: Approved or Refused: How the international refugee system has to work? (Link)
  • 30/09/2023: Migration and Arrival in Turkey: Urban and Spatial Approaches, Istanbul, organized by ReROOT Project; Co-presented with Volha Biziukova and Ayşe Çağlar; Presentation title: Arriving in “perpetual temporariness”: the displaced from Ukraine in Vienna and the mazes of temporary protection.
  • 01 – 02/03/2023: Cities and Human Mobility Research Collaborative Research Symposium, Vienna; Co-presented with Volha Biziukova; Presentation title: “Arrival” Infrastructures of the Displaced from Ukraine in Vienna.

Public talks and presentations:

  • 13 – 15/06/2025: Participant, conference Einsam in der Neuen Welt (Lonely in the New World); Project Group Central, Eastern, and South-Eastern Europe, The Evangelical Academy, Tutzing, Germany.
  • 22/02/2024: Invited speaker, public discussion War, Flight and Civil Society. The Ukrainian perspective; Dialogue Office for Civil Society Cooperation, Vienna, Austria.
  • 09/11/2023: Presentation of research findings and invited speaker, public discussion What’s next for Ukrainian refugees? Lived experiences between state “welcome infrastructures” and self-help ecosystems; Research Center for the History of Transformations (RECET), Vienna, Austria.
  • 22/02/2023: Presentation of key findings of the research “Arrival” Infrastructures of the Displaced from Ukraine in Vienna, Central European University, Vienna, Austria; Co-presented with Volha Biziukova, Ayşe Çağlar, and Anna Lazareva.
  • 09/02/2023: Presentation of key findings of the research “Arrival” Infrastructures of the Displaced from Ukraine in Vienna, Institute for Human Sciences (IWM), Vienna, Austria; Co-presented with Volha Biziukova. (Video)

Conferences/workshops organized

  • 08/07/2025: Un/Making Protection: The Proliferation of Temporary Protection Regimes Across Space and Time, co-organizer, Institute for Human Sciences (IWM), Vienna, Austria.
  • 17 – 18/10/2024: EthnoDoks: 16th Edition, co-organizer, Vienna, Austria. (Link)

Other work experience

  • 2015 – 2019: Visual Culture Research Center, Kyiv, Ukraine; Project manager, researcher, co-curator
  • 2015 – 2016: The National Art Museum of Ukraine, Kyiv, Ukraine; Research Associate in the Education Department
  • 08/2015 – 10/2015: The School of Kyiv (Kyiv Biennial 2015), Ukraine; Coordinator

Exhibitions

  • 05/2017 – 07/2017: Custodial Settings, co-curator, Visual Culture Research Center, Kyiv (Link)
  • 11/2016 – 04/2017: Points of Approaching, co-curator, CSM/Foundation Centre for Contemporary Art, Dnipro-Kharkiv-Kyiv (Link)
  • 11/2016 – 12/2016: KINOTRON: Exhibition of an Unrealized Idea. Felix Sobolev – Stanisław Lem – Viktor Glushkov, co-curator, Visual Culture Research Centre, Kyiv (Link)
  • 08/2016: Olympics’84 in Donetsk, co-curator, Visual Culture Research Centre, Kyiv (Link)
CEFRES Team

Eva Krásová – Research and CV

Eva Krásová teaches theory of literature at the Institute of Czech Literature and Comparative Studies at the Faculty of Arts, Charles University in Prague.

Her research focuses on the history of thinking about literature, especially in the 20th century, using historiographical methods such as text genetics and work with archival documents. She is interested in the relations between Czech and French linguists mainly Emile Benveniste, Antoine Meillet, Jan Mukařovský, Vilém Mathesius, Vladimír Skalička, etc.

In addition, she has long been a lecturer in world literature in creative writing programmes, first at the Josef Škvorecký Literary Academy, and from 2015 to the present at the Text and Screenplay Department of the Jaroslav Ježek Conservatory and College, where she has had the opportunity to meet young poets in their
formative stages.

Her most recent professional interest is the analysis of popular culture using the tools of classical narratology and pop culture tropology and the resulting reflections on the place of literature in the contemporary media situation.

CEFRES Team, Non classé

Honorata Sroka – Research & CV

“Practices of Self-historicization and Historical Art by Neo-avant-gardes in Central-Eastern Europe during the 1960s and 1970s“

Research area 2: Norms and Transgressions

Contact : hksroka[@]gmail.com

Honorata Sroka is a literary scholar specialised in both avant-gardes and archival studies. Her PhD project was conducted at the University of Warsaw and is entitled “The Archive of the Avant-Garde. Interpretations of the Franciszka and Stefan Themerson Correspondence” Continue reading Honorata Sroka – Research & CV →

CEFRES Team

Vera Guseynova – Research & CV

“The International Exposure of Russian Art in 1957-1991: Social and Historical Analysis of Art Transfers and Circulations, the Case of Soviet Non Official Art””

Contact: vera.guseynova[@]ehess.fr

Research Areas 1 & 2

My doctoral research revolves around the international acknowledgment of a localized artistic movement, specifically focusing on unofficial Russian art from the latter half of the 20th century, which defied the Soviet doctrine of socialist realism. Through an analysis of its artistic and market valuation process, I explore four pivotal reception and dissemination hubs: French, German, Anglo-Saxon, and East European contexts. Leveraging a database of visual artists who challenged state-sanctioned norms of creativity in the USSR during the 1950s and the 1960s, my research work delves into the individual and collective trajectories of these artists. Moreover, it underscores the pivotal role played by a diverse cohort of actors, both domestic and foreign, whose interest in this art emerged during the early stages of the thaw period, actively contributing to its dissemination and legitimization. Continue reading Vera Guseynova – Research & CV →