JOB:Doctoral Positions "History" (Södertörn University, Stockhom) (four years, fully salaried)

 deadline 20 February 2017:

1 doctoral position in history with relevance for the Baltic Sea region
or Eastern Europe:
Doctoral studentship in History within the research area of Historical
studies, connected to the Baltic and Eastern European Graduate
School(BEEGS)
The planned research for this studentship must be relevant for the
Baltic Sea region or Eastern Europe, since the position is also
connected to the Baltic and Eastern European Graduate School, BEEGS
(www.sh.se/beegs), which is part of the Centre for Baltic and East
European Studies, CBEES (www.sh.se/cbees) at Södertörn University.

Entry requirements and selection

The general entry requirements are:
1. a second-cycle/master level qualification
2. fulfilment of the requirements for courses comprising at least 240
credits of which at least 60 credits awarded at second-cycle/master
level, or
3. the acquisition of substantially equivalent knowledge in some other
way in Sweden or abroad

Further information
Per Bolin Head of School of history and contemporary studies,
per.bolin@sh.se Phone: +46 8 608 4053
Kekke Stadin, professor of history, kekke.stadin@sh.se Phone: +46 8 608
4256
Lisa Gäll, Human Resources Officer lisa.gall@sh.se Phone: +46 8 608 45
84

Application procedure:
For application, use the web-based recruitment system "ReachMee" at
Södertörn University. Click on the link "ansök" (apply) at the bottom of
the announcement.
http://web101.reachmee.com/i007/sh/uk/vacdetail.aspx?commadseqno=1446&postback=vacancies.aspx

Further doctoral positions in the history of ideas and other
disciplines, mainly from the humanities, can be found under:

http://www.sh.se/vacantpositions

CFP: “Still taming nationalism? 25 years of political community building in the Baltic States”

Call for papers “Still taming nationalism? 25 years of political community building in the Baltic States” for the Association for the Study of Nationalities (ASN) conference “Europe, Nations, and Insecurity: Challenges to Identities,” which will be held on 30 June – 2 July, 2016 in Kaunas, Lithuania.

Panel convenors: Dovile Budryte & Timofey Agarin

Twenty five years after the declaration of independence, the Baltic states are widely regarded as consolidated democracies that overcame ethnic polarization and “earned” membership in the European Union and NATO. Yet many challenges related to political community building remain. Though Lithuania adopted inclusive citizenship and was not subject to intense international scrutiny, tensions between the Lithuanian ethnic majority and the minorities remain on agenda: Resident Poles are perceived as pro-Russian and disloyal.  In addition, there are confrontations over the use of Polish characters in official documents and about the content of minority education. There is an ongoing stigmatization of a small and economically disadvantaged Roma minority and occasional ultra-nationalist outbreaks. In Latvia, voting still takes place mostly along ethnic lines, and the crisis in Ukraine has complicated majority-minority relations even further. In Estonia, the participation of Russian speakers in political and civic life remains very low, and there is a noticeable ethnic segmentation in the labor market. Furthermore, the three states have experienced significant out-migration after joining the EU, which further exacerbates fears of ethnic majority survival and insecurity about national sovereignty.

Both of us have raised questions about the ability of Baltic democracies to foster domestic cultures necessary for promoting minority rights norms as early as ten years ago (Budryte 2005, Agarin 2010). When both of us were working intensely on and in the region around the time of Baltic EU accession, we have witnessed that the three states have adopted legislations and followed the European normative blueprint as in Holocaust education in order to earn their re-entry into the “West”. Yet, as recent studies on interethnic relations and community building issues in the Baltic states suggest, there is still copious work to be done in creating open-minded, secure and confident political communities beyond ethnic affinities. Studies exploring the persistent obstacles to the creation of inclusive political communities in the Baltic states have been far and few between and we are keen to explore the conflictual relations between groups residents in the Baltic states as tools for further democratization of the region.

We welcome papers exploring practices by local, national, and international actors that stand up to the challenges listed above. We are particularly interested in practices that create dialogic relations between groups with different identities, such as recent attempts to build bridges between Litvaks and Lithuanians, recognition of contemporary exclusion of Roma and genocide of the group during the WWII, relations between the Balts living abroad, and similar cases of cross-cultural relationality, challenging exclusive ethnocentric nationalism of nation-state building projects in the region.

Please submit your paper proposal online at: http://form.jotformeu.com/form/43244899969377

Proposals for papers should include contact details of the author(s) and an abstract of up to 200 words by November 15, 2015.

If you have questions about the panel please contact us: t.agarin@qub.ac.uk and dbudryte@ggc.edu 

More information on the conference, can be found at the website: http://www.pmdf.vdu.lt/asn-kaunas

Call for Papers: Baltic Educational Histories

Interdisciplinary Conference, 19th - 22nd September, 2016, Tartu

Through factors such as trade, Christianisation, the wars waged by the

chivalric orders, and the importation of laws, the autochthonous peoples

of the Baltic region were exposed to cultural, linguistic, and political

influences of varying degrees. In this way, they were subjected to

formative processes which are frequently compared with colonial

practices. The cultures (German, Danish, Polish, Swedish, and Russian)

which played a dominating role in the region established a wide array of

economic, legal, religious, and cultural institutions; an army of

specialists (officials, lawyers, clergymen, writers, teachers) was

enlisted in order to firmly entrench their power-not least in the

consciousness of the dominated peoples. To this end, and due to the

post-Reformation requirement to use the native language, many of these

specialists had to engage with the local cultures and languages. In the

domains of journalism, literature, and academia, this led to greater

reflection on the various Baltic languages and ethnic groups, and on the

asymmetrical structural tensions between the dominant and subordinate

cultures. The aim of the official legislation and cultural activity was

to ensure the cultural and social survival of the ruling minorities.

This state of affairs led to an extraordinary concentration of

educational initiatives in the Baltic region, the effects of which were

sometimes visible across Europe (we might think for example of the many

Hofmeister (private tutors), who facilitated intellectual exchange far

beyond the borders of the Baltic states in the 18th century). In the

cultural centres of power, scholars who had been integrated into the

social order-often after having risen from a farming background-began to

elaborate, from within the midst of and with the means of, but

ultimately against, the dominant educational paradigms, conceptions of

the distinctive cultural character of the various Baltic linguistic

communities. From the time of the first "national awakening," this was

accompanied by the internal formation of the Baltic peoples, who often

manifested symptoms of an "internal colonisation" (as the planned

construction of society was termed in Prussia). Like all nations, the

Baltic nations have constituted themselves-sometimes in accordance with

Soviet requirements-by means of educational practices, schools,

literature, culture, media, linguistic policies, and so on. Today they

must also deal with minorities (particularly those of Russian origin),

and with a wide range of linguistic and cultural contexts of exchange.

In almost all of their dimensions, then, the history, economy,

administration, languages, law, culture, and literature of the Baltic

states almost unavoidably bear on the question of "education." Across

linguistic and cultural borders, the histories of the Baltic peoples and

cultures can (also) be told as educational histories. Moreover, the

Baltic region is an area of exemplary significance where the theme of

education is concerned: for education always has something of a colonial

character, insofar as individuals defined as superior promise or feel

entitled to "cultivate" supposedly inferior individuals in accordance

with a model which will allow them to become truly "cultured." The fact

that teachers and learners were divided among different ethnic groups in

the Balkans for such a long time serves to make this tension inherent to

all education even more apparent. The theme of "Baltic educational

histories" can thus be approached in a variety of ways from all areas of

historical and contemporary research on the Baltics. We welcome

contributions from a wide range of perspectives, which may include

analyses of relevant fields of discourse, religious and cultural

institutions and trends, and academic disciplines as a whole, or studies

which focus on exemplary or exceptional stories of individuals, groups,

or entire peoples.

Sessions:

1. Languages of education - language education (chairs: Egle Kontutyte

and Reet Bender)

2. Educational media (chairs: Ulrike Plath and Maris Saagpakk)

3. Educational institutions (chairs: Silke Pasewalck and Liina Lukas)

4. Symbolic orders (chairs: Karsten Brüggemann and Jaan Undusk)

5. Key players in education (chairs: Jost Eickmeyer and Anu Schaper)

6. Nation building - educating nations (chairs: Thomas Taterka and

Julija Boguna)

7. Power structures in language, literature, and culture (chairs: Ruta

Eidukeviciene and Andreas Kelletat)

8. Open sessions (these offer a forum for other contributions which fit

the overall conference theme but not the topic of one of the other

sessions).

Conference organised by

The Baltic-German Network for German Studies

Planning committee:

Dr Reet Bender (Tartu)

Professor Ruta Eidukeviciene (Kaunas)

Professor Jürgen Joachimsthaler (Marburg)

Professor Maris Saagpakk (Tallinn)

Professor Thomas Taterka (Riga)

Dr Egle Kontutyte (Vilnius)

Overall conception/planning committee representative:

Professor Jürgen Joachimsthaler (Marburg)

Organisation:

Dr Silke Pasewalck (Tartu)

Applications: please send a proposed title, together with a short

abstract of around 250 words, to bildungsgeschichten@ut.ee by 15th

October 2015, indicating the session for which the paper is most

appropriate.

We shall endeavour to cover travel expenses, but would ask participants

to attempt to secure reimbursement for their travel costs from their

institutions or other sources in the first instance.

CfP:Global, Glocal, and Local: Distinction and Interconnection in the Baltic States

University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, USA  May 26-28, 2016

This conference will explore the independence, dependence, and interconnections of Baltic states, peoples, and communities across time and space in multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary perspective. It will uncover the distinctive, hybrid, and globalized features of culture, politics, economics, history, language, and other aspects of life in the Baltic countries.

The Association for the Advancement of Baltic Studies is the world’s premier scholarly society for research on Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. Its global membership includes scholars and supporters from North America, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Sweden, Finland, Germany, Australia, Great Britain, Russia, Israel, Japan, and elsewhere.

The conference welcomes papers, panels, and roundtable presentations in fields related to the Baltic region, its countries, and populations within those countries, including minorities. Contributions are encouraged from disciplines including, but not limited to, the following:

anthropology, architecture, business, communication and media, cultural studies, demography, economics, education, environment, ethnic relations, film studies, fine arts, gender studies,geography, history, international relations, law, linguistics, literature, memory, political science, psychology, public health, religion, sociology, and advancing Baltic studies. Interdisciplinary and comparative work is welcome.

We are also particularly interested in papers focused on

Baltic Jewish studies. Graduate students, both Master and Ph.D., are encouraged to submit proposals.

Paper and panel proposals must include an abstract of no more than 250 words and a one to two page curriculum vitae.

These materials should be sent simultaneously

to the appropriate divisional chair’s email address below AND aabs2016@gmail.com

The deadline for submissions is October 1., 2015

http://www.aabs-balticstudies.org/

 

CfP: Cultures of Baltic Nobilities. Identities - Concepts - Practices

Interdisciplinary Conference, September 7-12, 2016, Klaipeda
(Lithuania)

Up to now numerous testimonies in the Baltic provide an insight into the
variable cultures of nobilities representing not least the "Transposition" (Bogislav von Archenholz) of this region between Western Europe and Russia. Previous research focused mainly on Baltic-German nobilities and their self-assertion against the background of changing power and territorial affiliation in early modern era. However, Baltic nobilities have barely been examined in the quickly developing European research of nobilities. This conference is the first step to include the cultures of Baltic nobilities from the 16th to 19th century into these European research contexts. The main goal is to create new research perspectives by focusing on the contexts exceeding the Baltic. 

The conference's aim is to consider Baltic nobilities and examine the preconditions and forms of regional Baltic nobilities - not taking into account national ascriptions. Special attention will be paid to the cultures of nobilities in Estonia and Latvia (the historical Baltic region) as well as to Lithuania (Grand Duchy of Lithuania). Their special characters found their expressions and experienced changes through variable inter-relations (marriages, migration, networks of communication) among each other, the Russian Empire, the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, the Duchy and later Kingdom of Prussia as well as the Scandinavian empires, especially Sweden.
Due to the multitude of these noble cultures and their cultural habits the identities (self-assertion and self-portrayal) and allegiances of the different noble cultures from the early modern era to the social and political changes in the 19th century are to be investigated. Similar to many European noble cultures nobility in the Baltic was constituted by descent, property and the political rights of participation attached to it. A political voice, lordly privileges and the preferential access to higher ranks and positions in the services as well as in administrative jobs represented the key elements of noble self-conception. Different components of a noble culture which found their expression in the
respective political, territorial and social frameworks were linked to these elements.

The conference requires a profound understanding of culture according to
the present concepts of cultural studies. It includes intellectual-aesthetic approaches (e.g. cultural patronage, production of literature and art, architecture and furnishings of the aristocratic estates) as well as material (e.g. political and economic culture) and anthropological ones (e.g. the cultural memory, marriage procedures, gender relations, family, education, life in an estate house, sociability and representation, nobilities in town, confessional
characters). Consequently, contributions from all historico-cultural subjects (e.g. history, history of art, literary and language history, music, theology / church history) are appreciated. The conference aims at reviewing the present knowledge about nobilities and the specific noble cultures in the Baltic area and initiating new scientific perspectives.
Potential contributors please submit your proposal of ca. 3000
characters and a short CV as well as contact details by October 31, 2015
to: adelskulturen@uni-osnabrueck.de.
For further enquiries, please contact adelskulturen@uni-osnabrueck.de.