European history is not the addition of individual national histories. However it has also been argued to the contrary that a transnational conception of European history cannot do without national historical contributions. This is also valid for Eastern Europe, where national historical perspectives have long developed in negative juxtaposition to each other. This had the consequence that borders between states often appeared to be logical bounding areas for the respective “particular” histories, or they were put in question due to lack of agreement with national aspirations. Even in the Communist period, the thought that community and collective agents were defined by national language remained intact despite ideological pressure.
From here the questions arise that are being intensively discussed at present: how can national and European perspectives be tied together? How can national historical perspectives from neighboring lands be opened to a transnational point of view? Are there feasible concepts and instruments which facilitate the contact between these two perspectives?
This international conference for young scholars has the goal of discussing the relationship between both perspectives, by means of selected themes, in order to examine the relationship each of the two perspectives has had with the other. Most relevant are dissertations and projects that combine multiple conceptual approaches in an effort to join national with transnational aspects (the history of integration, history of transfers, history of interrelation, comparative history, spaces of memory, migration history, the element of foreign domination, the history of empires, etc.). The emphasis is therefore especially focused upon the history of the Baltic region and Poland, but the discussion should also integrate comparative examples from other parts of Europe.
Organized by:
Institute for Lithuanian History, Vilnius (www.istorija.lt), Herder Institute, Marburg (www.herder-institut.de), Nordost-Institut, Lüneburg (www.ikgn.de)
Application Deadline:
March 31, 2008
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