Archives: Events

Yelena Ostrovskaya (University of Strassbourg)

Abstract

The International Literature journal was conceived by the International Union of Revolutionary Writers as an “organ of revolutionary militant thought” published in the four main European languages, Russian, English, German and French. In reality, however, it gave birth to four editions, united by title and editorial board, but differing in their aims and audiences, especially between the Russian and ‘foreign’ versions. While the ‘foreign’ editions originally published authors from different countries in an attempt to create a ‘commons’ of communist world literature (Clark), in the late 1930s they virtually became the mouthpiece of Soviet literature. The paper discusses the journal as a project, with a special focus on the English version and its route to foreign readers.

Vjollca Krasniqi (University of Prishtina)

Abstract

This presentation focuses on urban life at the fringe of Prishtina, the capital city of Kosovo. It discusses the histories, practices, and processes of urban transformation and marginality and how urban margins have evolved in the post-war and post-socialist contexts of the city centre. Grounded in the framework of large-scale political transformations, including post-socialism, post-war, and state-building processes, it explores their impact on urbanisation. In particular, it examines urban sprawl as a result of informal and ‘un-designed’ urbanism, providing an impetus for myriad urban scapes. These not only profoundly shape the urban social fabric, but also give rise to conflicting narratives and imaginations of city life. Adopting a critical lens on the dialectic of center-periphery and the production of scapes in Prishtina’s contested public spaces it demonstrates tensions, conflict, and contestation accompanying the urban sprawl – a by-product of the neoliberal economy – and the dynamics of post-socialist and post-war urban life in Prishtina and Kosovo as a whole.

Bio

Dr. Vjollca Krasniqi is an Associate Professor at the Faculty of Philosophy, and Faculty of Arts, at the University of Prishtina. She holds a Ph.D. from the University of Ljubljana, an M.Sc. degree in Gender, Development, and Globalization from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), and a BA degree in Philosophy and Sociology from the University of Prishtina. Her main research interests are gender, nation-building, collective memory, post-war justice, and human rights. She has been teaching at the University of Prishtina, Faculty of Philosophy courses on research methods, contemporary sociological theories, ethics, gender studies, and human rights. Currently, she also teaches at the Faculty of Arts at the University of Prishtina courses on gender studies and sociology of art. She was a visiting scholar at Dartmouth College, US (2016). She is the co-founder of the University Program for Gender Studies and Research (2013-) and also served as the co-chair (2014-2018). She is a member of the steering committee of the Memory Studies Association Regional Group South East Europe (2020-). She is the co-chair of the Working Group on Training and Capacity Building of the COST Action Slow Memory (2021-). She serves on the boards of Humanitarian Law Center Kosovo (2019-), and Atifete Jahjaga Foundation (2018-), and is the chair of the Board of Directors of Save the Children Kosovo (2021-). She has worked on numerous projects on gender issues and has been active in the women’s movement in the Balkans.

Igor Duda (Juraj Dobrila University of Pula)

Abstract

Under Habsburg rule in the 1840s, the East Adriatic coast saw the emergence of organised tourism. Among the upper classes at the time, seawater and air were considered essential for wellness during winter holidays at seaside health resorts. A century later, in socialist Yugoslavia, the rising working class became domestic tourists, with summer holidays at the beach, predominantly in Croatia, viewed as a pathway to well-being and a higher standard of living. By the 1960s, post-war social tourism was complemented with a booming commercial tourism industry, attracting millions of foreign visitors. This mass tourism reshaped local seaside communities, influenced the needs and expectations of Yugoslavia’s growing travel and consumer culture, and helped to create an open and welcoming international image for the country. The history of Adriatic tourism mirrors Croatia’s history within Austria-Hungary, Yugoslavia and later, including the economic, social and cultural changes from the 19^th century to the present.

Bio

Igor Duda is a full professor at the Department of History, Faculty of Humanities, and at the Centre for Cultural and Historical Research of Socialism, Juraj Dobrila University of Pula. He is focusing on history of everyday life and social history of socialist Yugoslavia, particularly on history of leisure, tourism, consumer culture, standard of living, childhood, making of a socialist citizen and citizens’ participation in social self-management.

He was the principal investigator of the research projects Making of the Socialist Man. Croatian Society and the Ideology of Yugoslav Socialism and Microstructures of Yugoslav Socialism: Croatia 1970-1990. At the University of Pula he teaches courses in contemporary history. He also teaches at the PhD programme in modern and contemporary history at the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Zagreb. He is the initiator and head of the annual summer Doctoral Workshop in Pula (since 2015), co-organiser of the biennial conference series Socialism on the Bench (since 2013), as well as the co-editor-in-chief of the journal History in Flux (since 2019). He is co-founder of the Centre for Cultural and Historical Research of Socialism and the head of the Chair of Late Modern and Contemporary History.

Anna Namestnikov (Universiteit Gent)

Abstract

Na de Bolsjewistische revoluties van 1917 en de daaropvolgende burgeroorlog ontvluchtten meer dan een miljoen Russen hun thuisland en vormden zij Russischtalige diasporagemeenschappen wereldwijd, vooral in Europese steden als Berlijn, Parijs en Praag, maar ook in steden als New York en Harbin. Deze émigré-samenleving, vaak aangeduid als ‘Russia Abroad’, zocht manieren om om te gaan met het verlies van hun prerevolutionaire vaderland en verleden, de opkomst van de Sovjet-Unie en het leven in de nieuwe gastlanden. Dit proces, door Greta Slobin (2013) omschreven als een ‘triangulatie’ van invloedsferen, was cruciaal voor de culturele identiteit en productie van Russia Abroad en resulteerde in een voortdurende interactie met ‘de Andere’.

In deze lezing richt ik mij op een tot nu toe onderbelicht aspect van dit culturele veld, namelijk de literaire vertaling van buitenlandse literatuur naar het Russisch. Welke auteurs, genres en thema’s werden het vaakst vertaald? Wie waren de vertalers, en hoe werd deze vertaalde literatuur gepresenteerd aan de Russische émigré-lezer?

Om deze vragen te beantwoorden, analyseer ik twee populaire mainstream tijdschriften: Illjustrirovannaja Rossija (Geïllustreerd Rusland, Parijs; 1924-1939) en Roebezj (Grens, Harbin; 1927-1945). Beide publicaties brachten regelmatig literaire vertalingen, naast een brede mix van andere content (Russische literatuur, nieuws, satire, kruiswoordpuzzels, modepagina’s, etc.), maar opereerden in verschillende gastlanden (Frankrijk en China). Door deze twee tijdschriften met elkaar te vergelijken, stel ik de vraag centraal of en hoe literaire vertaling werd ingezet om een dialoog met de gastcultuur aan te gaan.

Bio

Anna Namestnikov is an FWO Fundamental Research Fellow at the Russian section of the Department of Translation, Interpreting and Communication (Faculty of Arts and Philosophy, Ghent University), where she is a member of the TRACE research group. She obtained a Master of Arts in Eastern European Languages and Cultures (Russian and Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian) in 2019-2020 (Ghent University). Before starting her FWO project, Anna worked as a teaching and research assistant (September 2021 – November 2023, Department of Translation, Interpreting and Communication, Ghent University), where she co-taught courses on Russian grammar and Russian literature and conducted preliminary research for her PhD project. As of November 2023 she has been working on a PhD project on the system of translation in Russian émigré periodicals (1919-1939) under the supervision of Piet Van Poucke.

Sevinj Samadzade (Universiteit Gent)

Abstract

This lecture critically interrogates the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict through a feminist lens, questioning both the historical and contemporary peacebuilding efforts that often fail to address the deep-rooted issues of militarism, nationalism, and gender injustices inherently connected with the conflict context. It challenges the prevailing liberal peace frameworks that see gendered inclusion as immanence within the already patriarchal power structures rather than dismantling them. By focusing on the Armenian-Azerbaijani context, the lecture critiques how peacebuilding initiatives have historically sidelined the lived experiences of women and other marginalized genders in conflict zones.

Drawing from the stories of women in both Armenia and Azerbaijan, the lecture reveals the contradictions between peace rhetoric and the reality of heightened militarized masculinities and nationalism, which frequently exclude or instrumentalize women’s subjectivities. This approach critically reflects on the very nature of peacebuilding, calling into question whether current models truly foster sustainable peace or perpetuate cycles of violence and exclusion. It ultimately argues for a radical rethinking of peace and security, one that places the transformative potential of feminist approaches at the centre of conflict resolution efforts.

Bio

Sevinj Samadzade is a PhD Fellow at Ghent University, affiliated with both the Department of Political Science and the Department of Social Work and Social Pedagogy. She also holds a fellowship at the United Nations University-CRIS, where she is part of the Migration and Social Policy Cluster. Her PhD research explores the ways social work practices can reproduce geopolitical dynamics, aiming to deepen the understanding of the interaction between global and local scales in social welfare provisions.

Sevinj earned her master’s degree in Middle East, Caucasus, and Central Asian Security Studies from the University of St. Andrews in Scotland. Her work has primarily focused on the gender, peace, and security nexus in the South Caucasus region. With over a decade of experience working with various civil society groups in Azerbaijan and Georgia, she has been involved in processes related to dealing with the past, researching alternative histories, and the daily politics of armed conflicts. Additionally, she has implemented gender and peace education throughout the wider region.