Rethinking knowledge, questioning approaches? The Baltic States, Ukraine, Belarus and Moldavia between Central Europe and the former Soviet Union
Scientific event description
These two-day colloquium will focus on developments in SHS knowledge in and about Belarus, Ukraine, Moldavia and the Baltic states. These states, formerly Soviet republics, all belonged to different empires before 1917 (Austro-Hungarian Empire, Ottoman Empire, Russian Empire), depending on the era, and form part of a region of borders torn between East and West. Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine prompted us to rethink our knowledge of the Ukraine and accelerate its "decolonization", in order to study Ukrainian history and society in their specificity and in their relations with the countries of medieval Europe. And knowledge about Belarus and Moldavia is also subject to decentralization. In the Baltic States, this process had begun long before, but the current situation raises new questions. These three countries are also becoming a place of refuge for Ukrainian, Belarusian and Russian scientists.
Scientific event program
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 12, 2025
Dumézil Auditorium, Inalco - Maison de la Recherche, 2 rue de Lille, Paris 7e
Morning (9am-12:30pm)
Opening by William Berthomière (CNRS) and Dramane Coester (MAÉ)
Introduction by Paul Gradvohl, Emilia Koustova, Kathy Rousselet and Clara Royer(GDR CEM and GDR Est)
Session 1/ Consequences of war on the construction of knowledge
Moderation: Tatyana Shukan (ANR EXILEST / Centre Emile Durkheim)
- Yuliya Yurchuk (Södertörn University), Rethinking humanities in the shadow of Russo- Ukrainian war. The case of memory studies and Ukraine.
- Almira Ousmanova (European Humanities University, Vilnius), The production of knowledge as a "crime": Belarusian scholars under the condition of political repression, war, exile and deterritorialization (2020 - 2024).
Coffee Break
- Trencsényi Balázs (CEU Vienna-Budapest), Contextualizing, Transnationalizing, Decolonizing? Repositioning Ukrainian History as Emergency Pedagogy.
des librairies parisiennes.
Discussion: Anna Colin-Lebedev (Université Paris Nanterre-ISP) and Alexandra Goujon (Université de Bourgogne-CREDESPO)
Afternoon (2-6pm)
Session 2/ Decolonial perspectives
Moderation: Mateusz Chmurski (CEFRES, Prague)
- Mykola Riabchuk (Institute of Political and Nationalities' Studies, Kyiv), Mapping "Nowhere Nations": Imperial Knowledge and Challenges of Decolonization.
- Valeria Korablyova (Charles/CEFRES University, Prague), Strategic inter-imperiality: de- centering Eastern Europe, creolizing the theory.
Coffee break
- Camille Robert-Bœuf (Vilnius University), Geography to understand Lithuanian rural spaces in 2024: between postcolonialism and geographical ghosts.
- Svetlana Suveica (Universität Regensburg), Borderland Epistemologies: (Decolonial) Perspectives on Moldova's History and Identity.
Discussion : Luba Jurgenson (Sorbonne Université-EUR'ORBEM)and Hamit Bozarslan (EHESS-CETOBaC)
ThURSDAY 13 FEBRUARY 2025
Room 6 - Centre Panthéon - Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne 12 place du Panthéon, Paris 5e
Morning (9:30am-12pm)
Session 3/ Disappearing empires and reconfiguring science
Moderation: Paul Gradvohl (Panthéon-Sorbonne-SIRICE)
- Maciej Górny (Polish Academy of Sciences), Cordon sanitaire through science: 19th and 20th century approaches to the limits of Russia in the times of war.
- Justina Smalkyte (USHMM, Washington), The "subaltern past" and "memorial conflicts": historian narratives about the Second World War in Lithuania after 1990.
- Françoise Daucé (EHESS-CERCEC), Rethinking debates on sovereignty in the light of Internet histories.
Discussion: Ioana Popa (CNRS-ISP)
Afternoon (1:30-6pm)
Session 4/ Rethinking borders
Moderation: Catherine Géry (Inalco-CREE)
- Marie Moutier-Bitan (Université de Caen), Décloisonner les études sur la Shoah en Moldavie et en Ukraine de l'Ouest: réflexions autour des usages du fleuve-frontière Dniestr dans les politiques génocidaires nazie et roumaine.
- Raz Segal (Stockton University), László Csősz (Hungarian Jewish Museum and Archives, Budapest), Pavlo Khudish (Uzhhorod National University), Jews and Roma in the Subcarpathian Region. Uncovering Entangled Histories and their Contemporary Significance.
Coffee Break
- Iryna Dmytrychyn (Inalco-CREE), Galyna Dranenko (Sorbonne Université- Eur'Orbem), "Frontières-cicatrices: Traces of an erasure of reality and knowledge about Ukraine in Sofia Andrukhovych's novel 'Amadoca'(2020).
- Florent Parmentier (Sciences Po), La Transnistrie à l'heure de la guerre en Ukraine: limites
frontalières, continuités historiques et recompositions géopolitiques.
Discussion: Juliette Cadiot (EHESS-CERCEC)
Round-table discussion:"Religious fact(s) and political borders on the edges of Middle and Eastern Europe: crossed perspectives on a field in renewal"
Ivan Almes (Ukrainian Catholic University, Lviv), Denys Brylov (Drahomanov National Pedagogical University, Kyiv), Ovidiu Olar (IHB, Austrian Academy of Sciences), Kathy Rousselet (Sciences Po-CERI) and Laurent Tatarenko (CCFEF-University of Warsaw / IHMC-CNRS).