We had a great seminar on April 4th as part of our project. Our guest speaker was Ewa Kopczyńska (Institute of Sociology, Jagiellonian University), who shared her research on wine-making in Lubusz Land.
She explored how Lubusz wine is a cultural, social and material object that reflects the history and identity of this region. We enjoyed her fascinating talk and the lively discussion that followed!
At the beginning of February our researchers, Karina Hoření and Michal Korhel, participated in the 8th International Conference “Divided, Yet Together: Borders in Oral History Perspective” in Bratislava organised by Czech Oral History Asocciation. They gave the presentation “Rozhovory s novousadlíkmi ako spôsob hľadania nemeckých „duchov“ v povojnovom Československu a Poľsku”.
IMPORTANT STATEMENT
As a research team, we find disturbing the circumstances, in which the conference took place. Therefore, we issued a separate statement, which reads as follows.
The main organizer of the conference was the Czech Oral History Association (COHA). The atmosphere of the event has been influenced by the ongoing investigation of the two former directors of the association, Miroslav Vaněk and Pavel Mücke, who are accused of numerous cases of sexual abuse and long-standing misuse of power at the institutions they led.
The serious allegations, which are outlined in the statements by the Faculty of Humanities of Charles University and were addressed in the Czech press as well, point to a long term inappropriate behavior of both university lecturers and structural problems of Czech academia.
These issues were raised by our team at the conference. We appreciate that, despite the initial hesitation, the situation was debated during the event and that consequently it resulted in the decision of COHA to amend its code of ethics. Hopefully, it will clear the path for how the association proceeds in such cases from now on.
The question of ethical standards of research is particularly important in such a vulnerable field as oral history. There is no solid line dividing us as scholars from us as humans. Therefore, in academia as well as outside of academic context, it is unacceptable to work with people who violate all these standards by their everyday behavior.
We hope that the case will be investigated properly and the appropriate consequences will be drawn. It is to be hoped that it will mark the beginning of change in Czech and Slovak academic institutions.
You can support Call for Action to End Gender Based Violence in Academia with your signature here
or you can support legislative change of definition of rape in Czech legal system here.
The theme of the first issue of the journal “Academia” (Polish Academy of Sciences) in 2023 is groundbraking scientific discoveries and their application for the benefit of humanity. Karolina Ćwiek-Rogalska had the opportunity to talk about ERC StG and say in which way this project is innovative and special.
Speaking of cemeteries and hidden monuments, in Nová Lehota (originally a separate village, nowadays a district of Handlová) there is one too! When in 2015 a group of local activists renovated a historical „mortuary“ from the 19th century, inside they added memorial plaques with the names of all 1.450 Germans forcibly resettled from Nová Lehota after WWII.
Karolina Ćwiek-Rogalska, claims they do! She addressed that matter on December 7, 2022, invited by Professor Justyna Olko, chief director of the Center for Research and Practice in Cultural Continuity at the Faculty of “Artes Liberales” (University of Warsaw). At the seminar “Decolonizing approaches to studying linguistic-cultural heritage”, Karolina asked “how to decolonize ghosts?” and explained what layers of formerly German landscapes in Poland, Czechia and Slovakia can be investigated using hauntology.
On December 7, 2022, we had the pleasure of hosting a workshop with Anna Kurpiel (Centrum Studiów Niemieckich i Europejskich im. W. Brandta, Uniwersytet Wrocławski) and Katarzyna Maniak (Uniwersytet Jagielloński) who shared with us the results of their project “The reality of things in the post-conflict space. The role of objects in the creation of Wrocław and Szczecin imagined worlds”, financed by the National Science Centre.
We were discussing how currently the descendants of the settlers approach formerly German objects and to what extent the class they belong to affects their views on the subject. We were particularly interested in methodological topics and comparing our experiences with fieldwork.
The Institute of Contemporary History in Prague (Ústav pro soudobé dějiny AV ČR, v.v.i., Akademie věd České republiky) has organized a meeting (30.11.) where David Kovařík had the presentation “Perished Settlements in Moravia and Silesia: A Contribution to the Transformation of the Cultural and Settlement Landscape in the years 1945-1989” (in Czech language). Karina Hoření was one of two discussants of the presented lecture.
“Things that were left after previous settlers are like ghosts. You can’t simply get rid of them, they remind you of the culture of antecedents, you try to enter into dialogue with them, learn how to live with them as well as how to exorcise them.”
On November 21, 2022, Karolina Ćwiek-Rogalska, during an event organized by the Science Festival in Warsaw, the Polish Academy of Sciences and Wszechnica, gave a lecture in the Hall of Mirrors of the Staszic Palace in Warsaw.
Karolina Ćwiek-Rogalska, as a stipendist of Gifted Programme created by Krajowy Fundusz na rzecz Dzieci (Polish Children’s Fund), gave a lecture connected to her research for next generation of scholarship holders.