Baltic Spaces" research seminar, 2023-2024

Seminar summary

The Baltic Sea region straddles several cultural areas (Middle Europe, Northern Europe, Germanic world, Russian world) that are strongly rooted in humanities research traditions. However, despite the borders (religious, cultural, political, ideological) that have crossed and continue to cross this region, the sea is an obvious factor of contact and rapprochement. The seminar is intended as a forum for discussion of these exchanges, circulations and displacements, and of the shifting borders that divide the region. More generally, it is a meeting place for researchers and young scholars in the humanities and social sciences whose work is rooted in the societies bordering the Baltic Sea (northern Germany, Belarus, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Poland, northwest Russia, Sweden).

The seminar is part of Axis 2 of the Centre de Recherches Europes-Eurasie (CREE) entitled "Imperial, post-imperial and post-Soviet societies" directed by Julien Vercueil.

Seminar program

- Friday, October 13, 2023 - 4:00-6:00 pm (followed by a "verre de l'amitié"
Round table: The Finnish and Estonian political scenes after the spring 2023 elections

• Harri VEIVO (professor at the University of Caen, member of ERLIS), Linda HAAPAJÄRVI (postdoctoral researcher at the Academy of Finland/University of Tampere, associate researcher at the Centre Maurice Halbwachs), Gustav KALM(postdoctoral researcher at the École de Droit de Sciences Po), Katerina KESA (lecturer at Inalco, member of CREE).

- Friday November 10, 2023 - Maison de la Recherche - Salle de Sacy (2nd floor) - 2, rue de Lille Paris 7ème - 17h00-19h00 (followed by a friendly drink)
Research seminar:"Living by the border: the case of the interwar Vilnius region"

• Tomas BALKELIS (historian, researcher at the Lithuanian Institute of History, Vilnius, visiting professor at EHESS in November 2023)
• Discussant: Julien GUESLIN (head of the museum department at La contemporaine, researcher in contemporary Baltic history)

- Friday, December 8, 2023 - Maison de la Recherche - Auditorium Dumézil - 2, rue de Lille Paris 7ème
Study day: "Radical right in Europe and the War in Ukraine"
Program being prepared.

- Friday April 5, 2024 - Maison de la Recherche - Salon Borel (1st floor) - 2, rue de Lille Paris 7ème
Study day for PhD and Masters students working on the Baltic region

• Facilitator: Katerina Kesa and Eric Le Bourhis

Call for papers below.

- Friday, May 3, 2024 - Maison de la Recherche - Salon Borel (1er étage) - 2, rue de Lille Paris 7ème
Atelier de recherche sur les littératures estoniennes et lettone

• Animation: Antoine Chalvin and Eric Le Bourhis

• Call for papers for the study day for PhD and Masters students working on the Baltic region.

Date: April 5, 2024
Location: Maison de la Recherche de l'INALCO, 2 rue de Lille, Paris 7e.

Students (masters and PhD) in the humanities and social sciences, working on societies, regions or countries bordering the Baltic Sea, are invited to come and present their research at this study day, whatever the theme and discipline.
Of course, PhDs who have recently defended their thesis are invited to propose a paper.

The expected duration of interventions is 20-25 minutes.

Those interested are kindly requested to send a 10-line draft paper to the seminar organizers by January 30, 2024. It should include a title and an abstract presenting the research topic and, depending on the discipline, elements on the research methods employed as well as the corpora, sources or materials exploited.

Seminar organizers

Katerina Kesa (CREE, Inalco)
Eric Le Bourhis (CREE, Inalco)