In 1858, the Novara, the first Austrian vessel to circumnavigate the globe, brought to New Zealand a group of scholars from the Habsburg domains, including the noted geologist Ferdinand Hochstetter. The Novara also brought to Vienna two passengers from Ngāti Apakura who learned the printing trade and later published Te Hokioi, the first Māori-run newspaper.

Since the Novara thus symbolizes friendship and intellectual exchange between Central Europe and New Zealand, the Novara fellowship seeks to promote knowledge about the cultures of Central Europe in New Zealand. The Antipodean East European Study Group is proud to announce that Charles Ingrao of Purdue University is the first Novara Fellow. All of the following talks take place in the Wood Seminar Room (OK 406) of Victoria University (Kelburn Campus) in Wellington, New Zealand.

“Why Bosnia? Why Kosovo? Explaining Ethnic Conflict in Central Europe”
(Thursday 4 March, 5:00 pm)
Yugoslav wars came as a shock to many.  But to some it was the plausible climax to a centuries-long process that may ultimately be duplicated around the world.

“The Holy Roman Empire Reconsidered”
(Wednesday 10 March, 4:00 pm)
Famously dismissed by Voltaire as “neither Holy, nor Roman, nor an Empire,” Germany’s “thousand-year Reich” actually offered a great deal both to its people and to Europe as a whole.

“Weapons of Mass Instruction: How Schoolbooks Destroyed Multiethnic Central Europe”
(Tuesday 16 March 12:00 noon)
Parents expect schools to teach the next generation about their nation’s history.  Yet the textbooks that their children read are very selective in what is taught and what is forgotten about the past.  The central European experience suggests that the end result is a recipe for conflict.

“Democracy & Dissolution”
(Friday 26 March, 12:00 noon)
When the Berlin Wall fell, pundits and politicians proclaimed the triumph of democracy. Some hailed the “end of history” as a narrative of wars, rebellions and human suffering caused by authoritarian forms of government. Their naïveté exposed a flawed understanding of what democracy is and must become.

“Revolutionary Origins of European Genocide”
(Tuesday 13 April, 12:00 noon)
Following the outbreak of the Yugoslav wars, observers routinely likened the horrific crimes committed against Bosnia’s Muslims to the Nazi campaign against the Jews.  Yet very few appreciated how both genocides can be traced to a common cause. 

All talks organized by the Antipodean East European Study Group are free and open to the public. Fee free to cross-post.

For more on the Novara fellowship, including a printable flier, see the webpage:

http://www.victoria.ac.nz/antipodean/Novara-Fellowship.aspx