Archive

The terms “Twitter” or “Telegram revolution” highlight the importance of social media platforms in processes of political mobilisation. How distinctive is online activism from offline activism, and how do the two interact? Are we moving towards a new form of post-digital activism where blurred lines become the norm?

Evgeny Morozov holds the Opening Talk of Viadrinicum, an annual summer school on the Eastern Partnership countries. He outlines the contours of a political agenda that seeks to redeploy the potentials of digital infrastructures towards the goals of enhancing democratic agency, autonomy, and discovery.

After the collapse of the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia in the 1990s, new states with new social and political orders emerged.The disintegration of these two multiethnic states and the emergence of new independent countries sparked wars, protracted conflicts and disputes over borderlines and allegiances. The authors Lana Bastašić and Andrey Kurkov will read from their works and then take part in a discussion with the audience.

1990/91 marked the end of the division of Europe and the onset of a new era of radical political and social change. In the context of the thematic year #30PostSovietYears ZOiS, in co-operation with FES Regional Office for Cooperation and Peace in Europe, will take a critical look ahead. The aim is to shed light on diverging perspectives based on the development since then.

This workshop investigates how populism, nationalism, and inequalities intersect with religion to forge unions and divisions in Eastern Europe and Eurasia. Can religious actors be bridges in conflict resolution? When and how might they escalate tensions by activating the links connecting religion and violence?

This talk evaluates new data on historical views in Russia. Based on a survey, Félix Krawatzek will identify the historical views in the Russian population today. His analysis will focus on two vignette experiments undertaken to find out whether the widespread attempts to legislate history can be effective.

With the collapse of the Soviet Union and the new-found religious freedom, spiritual life has re-emerged in unprecedented diversity in the atheist former Soviet Union. Yet, the legacy of the negotiations on religious freedom continues to imprint itself on inter-faith relations and interactions with a largely secular society.

The 21 May, 2021 marks the 100th anniversary of physicist Andrei Sakharov. The fight for human rights was at the heart of his social commitment. With guests from Russia, Germany and other countries, we want to talk about Sakharov's historical significance and the relevance of his ideas.

With a focus on Russophone migrants in Germany, Masha Beketova examines not only the evolving post-Soviet LGBTIQ+ migrant movement, but also its internal differences, hierarchies, and multiple political self-identifications. These phenomena are still overlooked in queer diaspora and post-soviet migration research.

The event sheds light on diverging perspectives on the European security order at the time. How compatible were the ideas on the level of state politics with those at the level of civil movements? What were the limitations of the new vision? What are the prospects for cooperative security in Europe today?

This seminar will feature a discussion with the authors of a recently published online special issue of East European Politics and Societies, entitled “Circulation, Conditions, Claims: Examining the Politics of Historical Memory in Eastern Europe.” The event is organised by Harvard University.

This year’s conference of the “Religion Section” within the DGO (German Association for East European Studies) will address the role of religions in the struggle against gender in a differentiated and analytical way. Besides clarifications of the concept of gender in religious contexts, questions of specific historical legacies and of religious and societal practice will be discussed.

Under the theme “Globalising Eastern Europe – New Perspectives on Transregional Entanglements”, this conference organised by BASEES and EEGA in cooperation with the DGO and ZOiS seeks to stimulate and discuss research on these border-crossing encounters in a comparative perspective online.

Generational renewal is a vector of social and political change in any society. A shared generational outlook can sometimes explain the dynamics that unfold during moments of profound rupture. We will discuss and also contextualise the changes that 1991 symbolises in a wider European and global context.

In this event of our series, we have a conversation about platforms for publishing Russophone literature with our guests Olia Breininger and Yelena Furman. Olia Breininger is a writer, digital artist and literary anthropologist. Yelena Furman publishes on contemporary Russian women writers and teaches Russian literature.

State actors in Tajikistan view sex work as a threat to the nation in the context of two processes: nation-building centred around the family unit, and the fight against HIV/AIDS. Karolina Kluczewska explores the narratives, laws, and practices deployed to limit sex work, and considers local security frameworks.