News

In the latest issue of the Acta Universitatis Carolinae – Studia Territorialia you can find an article written by Magdalena Bubík, titled “Cieszyn Friendship Bridge and its ghosts: the changing role of a bridge that unites and divides two countries”.

Magdalena’s article explores the changing symbolic and social role of the Friendship Bridge in Cieszyn, a town divided between Poland and Czechia by the Olza River. Once part of a militarized border zone, the bridge has evolved into a space of remembrance, reconciliation, and everyday cross-border connections. Drawing on interviews, autoethnography, archival research, and media analysis, the study shows how major political events – from the fall of communism to European integration and the COVID-19 border closures – have left their mark on the bridge’s landscape and meaning. Using the concept of hauntology, the article examines the “ghosts of the bridge”: the memories, stories, and urban traces that shape local identity and reveal how contested histories continue to influence collective belonging.

Link to the article you can find here.

Last Wednesday, following the Polish Day of Independence, our team gathered to read and discuss Spectral Borders: History, Neighbourliness and Discord on the Polish-Belarusian Frontier by Aimée Joyce (Sean Kingston Publishing, 2024). The session resulted in a heated exchange around the book’s main arguments and methods.

The discussion began with a short round of first impressions on the content of the book, followed by an open conversation about its key themes. We reflected on how the author’s approach relates to our research and considered how the book’s ideas might inform our project. Particular attention was given to the way the text handles questions of specters, visions of borderlands, and ethical challenges of anonymization and presentation of the fieldwork. Our debate was influenced by the fact that two of our team members (Karolina and Karina) conducted a fieldwork in the eastern Polish borderlands as well. We discussed how our positionality and our relationship with the region affected our reading of the book. 

The conversation concluded with reflections on how this book contributes to ongoing questions about hauntology as a metaphor, method, and theoretical framework. Overall, the meeting provided space for thinking collaboratively about how scholarship continues to evolve through shared reading and discussion.

At the beginning of November, Magdalena spent a week in Vienna as part of the “Young Researchers in Vienna – 2nd Edition” program. Her stay in the capital of the former Habsburg Monarchy provided an excellent opportunity to explore the University of Vienna’s library resources. Still, the highlight of her visit was a research lecture in the Department of Slavic Studies at the University of Vienna, during which Magdalena presented the theoretical and methodological framework of her doctoral work and shared a case study on the painting of Jesus in Liberec. The presentation sparked a lively discussion with students, faculty members, and guest listeners — in English, Polish, and Czech. This time in Vienna was exceptionally productive and inspiring, offering valuable feedback and new ideas for the next stages of her research.

The visit was made possible thanks to the support of the Polish Academy of Sciences Scientific Station in Vienna and the Department of Slavic Studies at the University of Vienna, represented by Univ.-Prof. Mag. Dr. Stefan-Michael Newerkla.

At the end of October, our team had the pleasure of hosting Dr. David Duindam from the University of Amsterdam for a fascinating seminar titled “The Ruins of Radio Malabar: Infrastructure as Colonial Heritage in Indonesia”. The presentation drew from the ongoing research project “Concrete Colonialism: Architecture and Heritage in Indonesia around Independence” which David conducts together with Dr. Rixt Woudstra and Anita Halim Lim, M.A.

David presented his findings and thoughts on the circulation, use, and afterlives of concrete in the former Dutch East Indies and postcolonial Indonesia. His project explores how this seemingly modern, durable material became entangled with histories of colonial governance, technological ambition, and nation-building. Focusing on two early radio stations, one in Kootwijk (the Netherlands) and one in Malabar (Indonesia), he traces how concrete connects infrastructures, landscapes, and political imaginaries across continents. The presentation highlighted how radio technology, landscape engineering, and colonial aesthetics intersected, turning “infrastructure” into both a material and symbolic bridge between Europe and Southeast Asia.

In an engaging discussion, team members reflected on themes of migratory heritage, the durability and decay of concrete, and the ways colonial legacies persist in postcolonial space. Questions of ethnographic method, environmental impact, and the emotional meanings of material heritage enriched the exchange.

We thank David for sharing his thought-provoking research and for inspiring our team to think critically about how materials themselves, such as concrete, carry histories of empire, memory, and transformation.

At the beginning of October, Magdalena took part in her mid-term doctoral assessment – an important milestone for every PhD researcher according to the Polish law on higher education. After the first two years of working, every PhD candidate is obliged to provide proofs of their work and discuss them with the impartial committee. Here, the evaluation committee consisted of dr hab. Anna Engelking, Professor at the Institute of Slavic Studies, Polish Academy of Sciences; dr hab. Robert Kulmiński, Professor at the University of Warsaw; and dr. Katarzyna Taczyńska, Assistant Professor at the Institute of Slavic Studies, Polish Academy of Sciences. This meeting served not only to discuss the progress of Magdalena’s research so far but also to reflect on future directions and upcoming research goals.

We are happy to share that the committee recognized that Magdalena is conducting her research in a timely and consistent manner, meeting all planned objectives and activities. She received a positive assessment, which means she can now continue developing the second part of her doctoral project.

Congratulations, Magdalena!

In her latest blog post, Magdalena Bubík takes inspiration from the exhibition “Liberec versus Jablonec” at the Severočeské Muzeum [the North Bohemian Museum] in Liberec. Moved by an old map covered with countless stickers, she explores the complex layers of memory, belonging, and identity tied to a place that has undergone a near-complete population change. What does it mean to feel “at home” when the past and present seem to speak different languages?

Blog post you can find here.

This time without Michal, the female part of our team decided to discuss the current Czech knowledge production about formerly German sites and cemeteries published this year in international journals. We gathered online to discuss the article titled: “Institutionalised amnesia? Exploring geographies of memory and the care of German graves in Central Europe: insights from the Czech Republic” written by Lukáš Novotný, a scholar based at University of Jan E. Purkyně in Ústí nad Labem and another article “Reanimation of abandoned places: three case studies from Czechia” by a collective of Czech authors. Novotný focuses on preserving the formerly German cemeteries in the Czech Republic and conducted interviews with mayors and professionals. His data illustrate very well that caring for cemeteries is not only a matter of international politics and ideology, but also everyday management that is difficult for small Czech municipalities. The Study of Kreisslová and a collective of authors is a comparative study of three cases of abandoned and destroyed formerly German villages in Czechia and bottom-up efforts to reconstruct or memorialize them. They focus on these alternative heritage preservation practices and hypothesize how they can inspire thinking about abandoned places in other regions. 

Both pieces inspired our writing about the region, and as both articles were published as open access, we encourage you to read them as well.

We invite you to explore the topic further and read about Karina’s recent field research, in which she describes how a group of volunteers cares for the damaged cemetery of the former German inhabitants of the village Čermná (German: Leukersdorf) near Ústí nad Labem (German: Aussig).

As part of her field research, in mid-October Karina Hoření took part in the Wandelust event organized by artist Lucie Králíková. For several years now, a group of volunteers has been caring for the damaged cemetery of the original German inhabitants in the village of Čermná (German: Leukersdorf) near Ústí nad Labem (Aussig). This initiative, of which there are many similar ones in the Czech borderlands, is unique in that it included not only work on the graves but also an artistic performance in a local abandoned church. This event, which makes use of the specific necromantic atmosphere of abandoned sacred buildings in the former German borderlands while further aestheticizing it, attracted a diverse audience. Art school students, local residents, a Slovak writer, and finally two ethnologists researching the borderlands, all came together to pull weeds and plant new flowers. This event shows how Czech collective memory has established a way of remembering the German past and who the actors are that make it happen.

Lately, Michal Korhel had the pleasure of participating in the international conference “Das ‘Erbe’ – Praktiken und Akteure in grenzüberschreitender Perspektive”, organized by the Deutsch-Tschechische and Deutsch-Slowakische Historikerkommission. The event took place from October 8–11 in the historic town of Kutná Hora, Czechia.

In his presentation, “Die Geister von Hauerland: Deutsches Erbe der Region Oberes Neutra seit 1945”, Michal shared insights from his ongoing research into the Hauerland region in central Slovakia — a once predominantly German-speaking area deeply affected by the post-1945 transformations. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork, oral history, and archival sources, he examined how the traces of German heritage continue to exist in ambiguous and often ghostly forms, resonating with the philosophical concept of hauntology.

The presentation sparked a discussion around the interpretive potential of hauntology in historical studies, the role of local actors in shaping memory cultures, and the complex issues of guilt and reconciliation in postwar relationships between Germans and settlers. Michal also received valuable feedback and suggestions for further research — including a tip about a site rumored to be literally haunted by German ghosts.

Michal extends his thanks to the organizers and all fellow participants for the enriching exchange, thought-provoking questions, and inspiring conversations during these memorable days in Kutná Hora.

On October 9, Karolina presented her work on the Polish part of her research at the seminar of the Institute of Political Studies of the Polish Academy of Sciences. Her talk focused on the methodological challenges of working with hauntology, both in archival research and in ethnographic fieldwork. She discussed the underexplored topic of the second generation of settlers, as well as the methodological questions that arise when working with non-institutional archives, such as materials preserved privately in family homes rather than in public repositories. Karolina also reflected on how spaces, much like objects, undergo processes of resemanticization, acquiring new meanings through use, memory, and everyday practice.

The discussion that followed centered on both methodological and theoretical concerns, including the role of fact and conjecture in recounting histories, and the specific historical trajectories of the formerly German territories incorporated into Poland after 1945.

Karolina expresses her gratitude to the organizers for the invitation and for a rich and stimulating discussion that further deepened the methodological dialogue within our project.