Kommission Kulturelle Kontexte des östlichen Europa in der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Empirische Kulturwissenschaft e. V. (KKKöE) -
zu Gast beim BKGE

Trauma im östlichen Europa – Begriff, Erfahrung, Gedächtnis in Ethnografie und historischer Anthropologie / Trauma in Eastern Europe – Concept, Experience, Memory in Ethnography and Historical Anthropology
12.–13. Juni 2026 ǀ Graz, Österreich

Veranstaltet von:

• Institut für Kulturanthropologie und Europäische Ethnologie der Universität Graz
• Arbeitsbereich Südosteuropäische Geschichte und Anthropologie am Institut für Geschichte der Universität Graz
• Kommission für Kulturelle Kontexte des östlichen Europas in der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Empirische Kulturwissenschaft
• Johann Gottfried Herder-Forschungsrat

Trauma in Eastern Europe – Concept, Experience, Memory in Ethnography and Historical Anthropology
Conference on 12 and 13 June 2026 at the University of Graz, Austria

Organised by:

• Department of Cultural Anthropology and European Ethnology at the University of Graz
• Section Southeast European History and Anthropology at the Department of History of the University of Graz
• Commission Cultural Contexts of Eastern Europe in the German Society for Empirical Cultural Studies
• Expert Commission for Empirical Cultural Studies in the Johann Gottfried Herder Research Council

Both historically and today, the societies of Eastern Europe have been shaped in many ways by political and social violence, by war and genocide, expulsion, and persecution. Especially from a Western perspective, these experiences have increasingly been framed in terms of collective or individual trauma.

The interdisciplinary conference seeks to shift perspectives in three interrelated areas of ethnographic, historical-anthropological, and ethno-psychoanalytic research. The contributions

• reflect on concepts of the traumatic in both historical and contemporary Eastern European contexts,
• they broaden and problematize the methodological repertoire of ethnography by incorporating subject-oriented research with and about people who have experienced violence in Eastern European settings,
• and they investigate the places, resonances, and practices of traumatic collective memories.

Conference lectures and discussions are held in English language.

Time:

The conference begins in June 12, 2026 at 2 p.n. and finishes on June 13, 2026, at 6 p.m.

Location:

University of Graz – Jesuitenrefektorium am Rosenhain

Aigner-Rollett-Allee 39, 8010 Graz, Austria

Contact, information, registration:

Institut für Kulturanthropologie und Europäische Ethnologie der Universität Graz

Attemsgasse 25/I, 8010 Graz, Austria

https://kulturanthropologie.uni-graz.at/

projekt.kulturanthropologie@uni-graz.at

Programme

Friday, 12 June 2026

Location: Aigner-Rollett-Allee 39, 8010 Graz (SR 120.12)

14.00 – 14.30 Welcome and introduction

14.30 – 15.15 Keynote

Linda Mëniku & Eglantina Zyka (Tirana, Albania):

Trauma and Migration: Narratives of Shock, Loss, and Adaptation Among Albanian Diasporas

15.15 – 16.20 Borders

Alexandru D. Aioanei (Iasi, Romania):
The Memory of Trauma on the Former Romanian–Soviet Border

Manca Švara, Martina Tonet & Daniel Wutti
(Koper, Slovenia/Klagenfurt, Austria):
Trauma, Remembrance, Resilience and Reconciliation

16.20 – 16.40 Coffee Break

16.40 – 18.30 Places

Sandra Kreisslová & Jana Nosková (Brno/Prague, Czech Republic):
Trauma-heritage in the post-Sudeten space: reconstruction of a German cemetery as a field of memory negotiations

Dušan Medin (Podgorica, Montenegro):
Between Silence and Memorialisation: Dissonant Heritage of the Yugoslav Wars in Montenegro Domestic Archives of Memory: Everyday Mnemonic Practices and Intergenerational Negotiations of Home in Post-war Bosnia

Sanda Üllen (Vienna, Austria):
Domestic Archives of Memory: Everyday Mnemonic Practices and Intergenerational Negotiations of Home in Post-war Bosnia

20.00 Communal Dinner

Saturday, 13 June 2026

Location: Aigner-Rollett-Allee 39, 8010 Graz (SR 120.12)

08.30 – 09.00 Arriving

09.00 – 09.45 Keynote

Hariz Halilovich (Melbourne, Australia):

Afterlives of the missing: Trauma, translocal memory and the politics of absence in post-genocide societies

09.45 – 11.35 Emotion and Ethnographic Resonances I

Katharina Eisch-Angus (Graz, Austria):
Borderlands silently speaking. Traumatic landscapes, past entanglements and the timeless recurrence of European war memory – and the ethnographic experience thereof

Olivia Anna Rachwol Hansson (Tübingen, Germany):
Postmemory as Method: Collective Trauma, “Halfieness”, and Ethnography Among the Polish (Far) Right

Alla Koval (Berlin, Germany):
Researching Trauma and Forced Migration: Emotional Resonance and Researcher Self-Care

11.35 – 12.00 Coffee Break

12.00 – 13.15 Embodied Trauma

Miruna Butnaru-Troncotă & Teofana Cepoi (Bucharest, Romania):
Silenced Wounds: Gendered Violence and the Politics of Memory in Postwar Bosnia-Herzegovina

Ioana Elena Urda (Timisoara, Rumania):
Renegotiating trauma representation on stage

13.15 – 14.30 Lunch (on site)

14.30 – 16.20 Emotion and Ethnographic Resonances II

Jaroslav Klepal (Prague, Czech Republic):
Between Affect and Solidarity: On the Ethnography of PTSD and Veteranhood in Bosnia and Herzegovina

Johanna Muckenhuber & Jolana Wagner-Skacel (Graz, Austria):
Understanding Transgenerational Trauma: Combining Autoethnographic and Ethnopsychoanalytic Approaches to the Study of the Long-Term Impact of Trauma

Christina Sterniša (Graz, Austria):
Naming the Dead: Gender, Necropolitics and Mourning Practices in Postwar Greece

16.20 – 16.30 Coffee Break

16.30 – 17.45 Multimodal Memories

Felicitas Auersperg & Anna Schor-Tschudnowskaja (Vienna, Austria):
How traumatic experiences are interpreted in the light of political culture

Bogdan Trifunović (Čačak, Serbia):
Digitizing Trauma in the Western Balkans: Memory Institutions and Genocide Narratives

17.45 – 18.00 Conclusion

Programme as PDF

See also: Call for Papers (en)

PROTEST!
Expression, Organization and Impact in a Central and Eastern European Perspective

June 22 to 24, 2026

Europejskie Centrum Solidarność, Gdańsk

Individuals and groups respond to perceived injustices and grievances with protest. The forms of expression are diverse and interact with the conditions defined by social and political opportunity structures. Protest is a central instrument of social negotiation processes related to participation and co-determination. It thrives on publicity and attention, yet it is – especially in authoritarian contexts – often accompanied by less visible practices of resistance that take place in everyday life or in subversive, hidden forms.

Protest manifests itself not only in rallies and marches but also in artistic forms of expression: in the visual arts, in literature, and in performance. Numerous narratives refer to the evaluation and appropriation of rebellious behaviour.

The conference aims to focus on various forms of protest and resistance, their structural conditions and consequences, as well as their (current and retrospective) legitimization vs. condemnation. While protest is a global phenomenon, we are focusing on contributions that explore its manifestations in Central and Eastern Europe across different historical periods (from the early modern era to the present). We will also accept papers addressing theoretical and methodological aspects of protest.

The event is interdisciplinary in nature, as is the topic itself, and encompasses the disciplines of history, political science, cultural anthropology, sociology, literary studies, musicology, or art history. Contributions may be historical or contemporary in nature.

Possible approaches and topics:

• Interpretations and evaluations (what can protest be?) – from peaceful participation movements and emancipatory self-empowerment to violent or radicalized forms of resistance
• Processes of negotiation and the role/effectiveness of protest initiators
• Political substructures as resistance to state structures
• Petitions and other forms of civic engagement
• Transnational protest and its cross-border diffusion
• Exclusionary and discriminatory protest movements
• Narratives and perspectives (e.g., emancipatory histories of the oppressed vs. narratives of uprising)
• Forms and formats of protest (material, symbolic, performative)
• Visual and acoustic dimensions (symbols, sounds, images)
• Emotions and affect in protest
• The role of violence and repression in protest dynamics
• Appropriations and re-appropriations of protest (political and cultural)

Abstracts should not exceed 300 words and should be submitted by January 10th to:
https://conf.isgv.de/conftool/

We will endeavor to cover the costs for accommodation and travel for a limited number of participants. Should you be interested in funding, please inform us in your application.

The organizing team is looking forward to receiving your abstract.

Paulina Gulińska-Jurgiel
Jörg Hackmann
Piotr Kocyba
Grzegorz Piotrowski
Ira Spieker

Johann Gottfried Herder-Forschungsrat (Johann Gottfried Herder-Research Council) // Europejskie Centrum Solidarność (European Solidarity Centre)

Deadline: 10th January 2026

Mobilisation and Community Formation in Minority and Diaspora Contexts: The “We” in Central and Eastern Europe
Sept. 30 – Oct. 2, 2026 ǀ Freiburg (Breisgau)

Institute for Cultural Analysis of the Germans of Eastern Europe (IKDE)
Annual Conference

More information: https://www.ikdebw.de/news/mob...

The “We” is a commitment. Attributions and appropriations of belonging play a central role in the creation of community – they serve as markers of (self-)assurance, facilitating internal identification but also external demarcation. This community-building effect has an inherent explosiveness: it is capable of emphasizing what ‘we’ have in common (Scheer 2022), but this demonstrative attitude also harbours populist potential. Initially broad and vague in conceptual terms, we therefore pay particular attention to communities, when they are called upon: war and crises, but also the need to find orientation after migration and to plan for the future to negotiate belonging(s). As a result, new formations of collective images and mechanisms are constantly emerging, challenging existing concepts.

For instance, with regard to Eastern Europe, the term ‘We’ took on a charged meaning in contrast to ‘They’: Not only is the multi-ethnic region imagined as inferior (Todorova 1997), but its citizens also experience racialised degradations throughout history and due to their (labour) mobility, which highlights inequalities between East and West (Lewicki 2023) and clearly calls into question a European ‘We’-consciousness.
In the context of the region, but especially among Germans in Eastern Europe, various forms of thinking about and doing community can be found in the transnational sphere between ‘homeland’ and place of residence: Hometown magazines (Heimatzeitschriften, Kasten/Fendl 2017) and other performative acts such as commemorative or festive days (Schell/Prosser-Schell/Pusztai 2018), both in the region of origin and now in Germany, form arenas for negotiation. Moreover, references to a shared heritage are playing an increasingly important role in economic contexts: while communities from Transylvania have often made considerable financial and organisational efforts to renovate e.g. fortified churches, this heritage is increasingly being promoted for tourism purposes (Oltean/Anghel/Schuster 2017). It cannot be ruled out that other regions may follow suit and launch similar grassroots initiatives. Yet, the question of renewing the sense of community also arises when the generation who experienced flight and expulsion passes away. This challenge is comparable for those in diaspora communities who still knew their homeland from their own experience. New narratives and updates to the association's work are desirable here.
These examples highlight, that, overall, the “We” as a building block of identity has repeatedly been the subject of debate, particularly when it comes to (forced) migration, border shifts and the experience of foreignness: The developments of the “short twentieth century”, the “Age of Extremes” (Hobsbawm 1994), made it clear that ‘we’ – up until the present – are not in a post-community era of solitary seclusion. Rather, „post- is always shadowed by neo-“ (Clifford 1994, p. 328), so that existing and seemingly fading images of community are constantly revised and updated. These transformations are themselves subject to a certain timeliness, thus offering insight into historical and current conjunctures and trends. In this respect, manifestations of (new), and probably only partial social cohesion can serve as a lens through which to view society and its units. In the context of cultural studies research on these “we”-images in migration, minorities, and diaspora, the focus shifts from mere attributions to the underlying, often implicit schemata, routines, and resources (Brubaker 2002) that enable community formation and further connection. They require an examination of their inherent historical contexts and cultural mechanisms, their narratives and performative modes of expression. The conference will therefore focus on the following, interlinked questions and topics, but is not limited to them:

“We” as a political project
How have political programs and movements shaped the politicization of (ethnic) communities and their identities? To what extent have they negotiated the issue of loyalty, especially with regard to potentially conflicting, overlapping loyalties? How are these contexts reflected today; how are they remembered, but also discussed in the present?

The Mediatized “We”
How have media products – from historical newspaper prints and posters to today's digital platforms – addressed public consciousness and opinion? To what extent have they contributed to connection and exchange and addressed (new) opportunities for community building?

The Transnational “We”
Particularly, but not exclusively, in the context of flight, expulsion and exile: Which strategies did/do people employ to settle in a new place, in a new social environment? How did/do they in turn (re)establish connections to their region of origin? To what extent does this interaction create potential for intermediate, hybrid positions?

Commodifying and Renewing the “We”
How do collective actors – such as tourism, associations, town twinning, etc. – participate in the marketing of a certain “we”? Which aspects of detraditionalisation, but also which attempts to revive or even remake folk culture and involve new groups of stakeholders can be traced in their activities?

In addition, intersecting aspects such as generation, gender, and others shall be taken into further consideration. However, there should still be room for subjective interpretations and thus actor-specific negotiations. Hitzler et al. (2009), for example, refer here to the diversity of “post-traditional communities” and their situated, lifestylerelated community building. The conference therefore aims to reflectively explore community formation and mechanisms of social cohesion, their challenges and potential for the establishment of belonging. It provides a discursive space for evaluating “we”-formations and their potential for past, present and future variations of belonging in minority and diaspora contexts in different local, regional, national, and transnational frames. In doing so, it will bring into focus that membership – whether in groups, associations, parties, neo-tribes, or communities – is often a pluralistic concept of attribution and appropriation that is subject to fundamental external as well as potentially polyphonic internal dynamics. These need to be analytically grasped and further accompanied by research, particularly in the wake of the “return of community in late modernity” (Rosa et al. 2010, p. 58).

Thus, historical and archival perspectives will be considered alongside contemporary research from a cultural studies perspective and other related fields. These approaches include case studies from the context of Germans in Eastern Europe, but the format is also open to comparative perspectives that go beyond this scope or relates it to other minorities, as well as perspectives from broader minority and diaspora research. Please send your proposal for a 20-minute presentation, consisting of an abstract (~2,000 characters) with a working title and brief biographical information about yourself, to Jana Stöxen (jana.stoexen@ikde.bwl.de) by 1st March 2026.

Travel expenses can be covered within the scope of the funds provided.

Literature

• Brubaker, Rogers (2002): Ethnicity without Groups. European Journal of Sociology 43, 2, p. 163–189.
• Clifford, James (1994): Diasporas. Cultural Anthropology 9, 3, p. 302–338.
• Hitzler, Ronald / Honer, Anne / Pfadenhauer, Michaela (Eds.; 2009): Posttraditionale Gemeinschaften. Theoretische und ethnografische Erkundungen.
• Hobsbawm, Eric (1994): The Age of Extremes: The Short Twentieth Century, 1914–1991.
• Kasten, Tilman / Fendl, Elisabeth (Ed.s; 2017): Heimatzeitschriften Funktionen, Netzwerke, Quellenwert.
• Lewicki, Aleksandra (2023.): East–West Inequalities and the Ambiguous Racialisation of ‘Eastern Europeans.’ Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 49, 6, p. 1481–1499.
• Oltean, Ovidiu / Anghel, Remus Gabriel / Schuster, Christian (ed.s; 2017): Reinventând Germanitatea. Etnicitate, mobilitate şi împrumut cultural la marginea Europei.
• Rosa, Hartmut Rosa / Gertenbach, Lars / Laux, Henning / Strecker, David (2010): Theorien der Gemeinschaft.
• Scheer, Monique (2022): Kultur ist ‚das Gemeinsame‘: Kritische Vergemeinschaftungsforschung und das Verstehen von Zusammenhalt in der Vielfalt. In: Ludwig-Uhland-Institut (Ed.): Kultur ist: Beiträge der Empirischen Kulturwissenschaft in Tübingen, p. 47-66.
• Schell, Csilla / Prosser-Schell, Michael / Pusztai, Bertalan (Ed.s; 2018): Re-Invention of Tradition in Ostmitteleuropa nach 1990. Neue, „gefundene“ und revitalisierte Feste mit Schwerpunkt auf Ungarn.
• Todorova, Maria (1997): Imagining the Balkans.

Call for Papers (pdf, en)

Deadline: 1st March 2026