CfP: East and Central European Cultures in Exile. Archiving, Collecting, and Publishing in the Twentieth and Twenty-First Centuries

The Herder Institute Summer Academy invites Early Career Researchers, including Advanced Master Students, Ph.D. Students, and Early Postdocs, to participate in a workshop dealing with the East and Central European diaspora’s experiences of collecting, archiving, and publishing in exile. Eastern Europe can be characterized by constant flux, with peoples, objects, andinstitutions undergoing continuous movement. From the late nineteenth century through periods of wars, revolutions, and the Cold War, various social, ethnic, religious, and political groups were compelled to migrate and exile due to poverty, catastrophes of the twentieth century, aspirations for better lives, and sometimes escaping prosecution for both trumped-up accusation and actual WWII crimes. Mass migration entails the establishment of cultural institutions in new environments, including archives, libraries, and publishing houses, which serve as mediators between cultures and their bearers, both within and outside their respective countries.

Suppressed under socialism, East European cultures sought avenues to the „free world,“ yet they were influenced by the ideological confrontation between East and West. Along with opposing the unfreedoms of Socialism in their native countries and on the global scale, publishing activities in the diaspora could include the dissemination of far-right and radical nationalist ideas. Furthermore, conflicts, recriminations, suspicions, and financial quarrels were not rare and they occupied a visible place in émigré publications. How can we critically engage with this heritage while paying attention to its diversity and historical significance?

The Summer Academy will delve into the publishing and collecting initiatives that emerged across Europe and the world following World War II, continuing into the late 1980s.

Equally crucial is the issue of preservation and accessibility, which can be facilitated through digitization. However, the challenge lies in how to approach and digitally connect the scattered multicultural and multilingual collections.

Against the backdrop of Russia’s ongoing aggressive war in Ukraine and mounting repressions in Belarus and Russia, East European cultures find themselves once again facing exile and emigration, while the Cold War experience of émigré activities at archiving, collecting, and publishing regain its relevance.

With its extensive archival materials, including the unique Urbańczyk collection of the Polish underground press from the era of Solidarność, the newspaper clippings archive from the Cold War period, and the comprehensive periodicals archive covering Eastern and Central Europe, the Herder Institute provides an exceptional foundation for this thematic focus, which will be explored through various theoretical and practical thematic units.

We invite submissions for 10-15 Minutes Paper presentations on the topics, including, but not limited to:
- Publishing Houses in exile: national and transnational perspectives
- The variety of émigré and publishing and collecting activities and how they affect the production of knowledge on Eastern Europe during the Cold War and after
- (Re)creation of national cultures in exile Intercultural connections and collections in the diasporas
- New and old diasporas’ approaches to publishing and collecting: continuity or rupture?
- The role of digital publishing and archiving techniques for enhancing access to émigré collections and archives

Send your exposé (approx. 300 words) and a short CV to
forum@herder-institut.de
until April 30, 2024.
Accomodation for selected participants will be provided and travel costs up to 250 Euro (EU), 500 Euro (Non-EU), 800 Euro (overseas travels) can be covered upon request.