HERE

Conference participants are responsible for arranging the accommodation and travel. However, discounted rates for the HOTEL BERLIN can be arranged by organizers and announced to selected participants upon request.

The Third Euroacademia Conference: Re-Inventing Eastern Europe

The full conference program is available by clicking on each panel’s tab below

Thinking Europe – East and West: Reflections on Politicized Identities, Historical Perceptions and Invented Regions

(Chair Emanuel Crudu, IMT Institute for Advanced Studies, Italy)

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  Paul Gillespie, School of Politics and International Relations, University College Dublin
  A Typology of Political Identity in the Deepening Eurozone New approaches and a new vocabulary are needed to express this problem in scholarly writing, political discourse and popular engagement. This paper presents a theoretical framework on multiple political identity and European integration developed to analyze variations in how national and European identifications are combined.

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  Ana Milosevic, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium
  A Locus for European Identity? Understanding the Role of Historical Memory in Attitudes of the MEPs towards the House of European History This paper explores perceptions of the MEPs towards the HEH, trough lenses of their own 'European identities' understanding to what extent is historical memory important for the construction of European identity. The analysis is based on a distinction between civic, cultural and instrumental components of identity.

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  Katarzyna Kucaba, University of Leicester, UK
  Response to Recession through Life Satisfaction in Europe: One Voice or Many? It is asserted that economic crises tend to be followed by crises in happiness. However, Europe does not react to crisis in a unified way. Some nations maintained their happiness despite difficult situation. It is hard to predict how countries will react to future events in Europe but it won’t be as “one voice”.

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  Emanuel Crudu, Euroacademia (Paris, Lucca & Brussels)
  The Power of Naming and Subaltern Identities in Europe: Eastern Europe as Internal Other The discourse on core-periphery, new Europe/old Europe is rather gaining increasing ground in the arena of European identity narratives voiced by the EU. This paper proposes an unfolding view of the EU as a sort of post-modern neo-medieval empire (Zielonka 2006) in which narratives of othering towards Central and Eastern Europe preserve their salience. The paper advances a research puzzle rather than making definitive statements.

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Readings of the Past: On History and Memory in Central and Eastern Europe

(Chair: Ekaterina Bagreeva, Russian Economic University of G. V. Plekhanov, Moscow)

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  Aya Hino, Goldsmiths, University of London, UK
  Politics of Othering: Anglo-American Politicians and Intellectuals and the Representation of Socialist Yugoslavia This paper seeks to thematize this observation by exploring how the Western, in particular Anglo-American, intellectuals and politicians imagine Socialist Yugoslavia and how Yugoslavs challenge, or even negate, Western imageries of themselves.

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  Jakub Havlíček, Department of Sociology and Cultural Anthropology, Faculty of Arts, Palacký University, Olomouc, Czech Republic
  History, Memory, and Religion in the Czech Lands The paper deals with the role of religion in the process of defining Czech national identity. Its theoretical background is based on the combination of K. Dobbelaere’s concept of secularization with the sociopolitical conflict model as defined by P. S. Gorski.

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  Marko Krtolica, Department of Constitutional Law and Political Systems at the Faculty of Law ‘Iustinianus Primus’, Skopje
  The Process of Lustration in Republic of Macedonia: Facing the Past or Facing Political Opponents This paper attempts to reveal the approach chosen by the political elites toward the lustration process. While doing that, we will rely on the method of analysis, historical, normative and political method. The overall conclusion is that the decision to begin the lustration process came too late and that in the Macedonian model of lustration prevails the moment of political confrontation of the ruling party with its political opponents.

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  Dagmar Kusa, Bratislava International School of Liberal Arts, Slovakia

  Veronika Klempova, Bratislava International School of Liberal Arts, Slovakia

  Arnold Kiss, Bratislava International School of Liberal Arts, Slovakia
  Impact of Cultural Trauma References in Political Discourse: Trianon and the Genesis of Status and Citizenship Laws in Hungary and Slovakia Trianon trauma and reactions to it color the Slovak-Hungarian relations, having led to a cycle of reinforcing reactions from the side of the Slovak and Hungarian political elites, culminating in introduction of double citizenship for Hungarians living abroad and the Slovak reaction of introducing automatic withdrawal of Slovak citizenship from those who voluntarily obtain citizenship of another state.

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Art as Cultural Diplomacy: (Re)Constructing Notions of Eastern and Western Europe

(Chair: Cassandra Sciortino, University of California, Santa Barbara, USA)

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  Samuel Adams, University of Southern California, USA
  Bertolt Brecht and the Socialist Origins of West German Theater West German theaters also mobilized their audiences, involved them in participatory scenes, staged dramas in alternative locations, and championed the collective theater model pioneered by Brecht. This paper argues that what has long been considered an avant-garde West German theater aesthetic was in fact fundamentally Brechtian with its very foundation in GDR culture.

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  Eva Sepping, Estonian Academy of Arts
  Creating Common Ground Among Minority and the Majority Through Artistic Practice in Estonia The presentation uses the case of Estonia as an example to explore the relations between two main ethnic or language speaker groups, Estonians and Russians. Estonia with other East European countries has often been labelled in terms of nationalism particularistic and ethnic. However, the concept is rather political than analytical.

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  Camelia Lenart, State University of New York in Albany
  The Curious Case of Martha Graham in Romania Two of Martha Graham’s biographers asserted in their books that Romania was the only communist country ever toured by the famous dancer, positioning the alleged visit during the first State Department tour of Graham to Eastern Europe in 1962. As my research demonstrates, the statement is incorrect, as Graham did not dance in Romania neither then, nor later.

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  Eleanor Shapiro, Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley, CA, U.S. and Fulbright Fellow, 2013-14, Krakow, Poland
  The Sound of Change: Jewish Music in Post-Communist Poland The present convergence in Poland of three factors—a conducive geopolitical environment, increased economic resources and incentives, as well as an ideological proclivity on a national level, has opened a new space for engaging with the country’s multicultural heritage. While initiatives such as the Jewish Culture Festival in Cracow began just before the demise of the communist regime in 1989, many smaller communities have only more recently started to explore the multicultural aspects of their collective past.

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  Andreas Kloth, Independent Researcher, Dortmund, Germany
  A Diaspora Phenomena Turns to a Hobby – German Choirs in Crimea/Ukraine The German minority in Crimea was given the opportunity to go and live in Germany. Most of them did so. Nowadays, only 3000 ethnic Germans still live in Crimea. But the German choirs stayed alive, there are still people singing in these choirs. I found out and describe how the population (Russians, Ukrainians, Tatars, Poles etc.) “took over” these choirs after the leaving of the German minority and why people sing in a German singing choir without knowing German.

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Identities and The Cities: Transition and Change in Urban Image Construction in Central and Eastern Europe

(Chair: Camelia Lenart, State University of New York at Albany, U.S.A.)

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  Aleksandar Joksimović, The Berlage / TU Delft – Faculty of Architecture, The Netherlands
  Urban Transformation in a Post-Socialist Society: From Unity to Separation This paper argues for a specific understanding of the Post-socialist city, where city is defined by architectural singularities that emerged as consequence of often individual, opportunistic ideas. Nevertheless, these building types are not autonomous objects but rather interdependent entities that reshaped public life and urban conditions in all of these cities.

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  Luca Palermo, Department of Humanities and Cultural Heritage, Second University of Naples, Italy
  The Colored Democracy of Edi Rama: Art and Beauty as Forms of Political Action Rama, first an artist, second the mayor of Tirana and last the Prime Minister of Albania, chose the color, art and beauty as devices to renew the hope among his people and he was right. Through this policy of the arts Edi Rama has been able to give new life to Tirana: citizens, surrounded by beauty, feel now safer and they have found their civic identity as well as they have developed a strong sense of belonging to the urban community.

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  Galen Gibson-Cornell, Fulbright Fellow to Hungary
  Budapest (Re)imagined: Creatively Examining Urban Street-Poster Aesthetics in Hungary’s Capital My art practice involves exploring the city’s walls and urban spaces, photographing and collecting scraps of torn posters. I then use this documentation as a starting point for exploration: I recontextualize the collected information, often by using traditional poster-printing techniques such as lithography, or silkscreen-printing. Then I reintroduce this transformed information back into the urban environment by pasting my own posters or photographs back into the environment, or by installing larger works or performances in urban settings.

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  Natalia Skoczylas, University of Maria Sklodowska Curie, Lublin
  Presence, Absence, Distance and the Identity Manipulations – Berlin After the Wall In my paper, I will tackle the issue of how public space and architecture are means, tools, witnesses and strong forms of expression in the political and social struggle. Just a few very strong but special examples show the powers, sides, interests that express many interesting and actual phenomena nowadays.

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Eastern Europe and the EU: Assessing Normative Claims – Security, Perceptions and the Process of Integration

(Chair German Mendzheritskiy, Librarium Archives Russe de la Presse Ancienne)

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  Mehmet Gökay Özerim, Yasar University, Izmir, Turkey
  Diverging Security Belongings in Eastern Europe: Is a Security Community Possible? The paper will examine the concrete outputs of the security belonging perception of these countries by analyzing their alliances with the other countries in the region, their membership of international organizations and their approach to the specific security challenges in a comparative perspective.

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  Marília Bortoluzzi Severo
  Security and Integration Issues in the Relations between the European Union and the Western Balkans This paper, therefore, aims to build a state of art about the question if the EU’s enlargement towards the Western Balkans may be seen as an example of the EU’s normative power with hegemonic content. This study does not ignore that there is major advantages of replacing the normative power concept by the concept of hegemony. Indeed the very meaning of the normative concept implies some hegemonic extent.

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  Mirela Veleva-Eftimova, Department of European Studies, Faculty of Philosophy, University of Sofia
  Bulgaria’s Inclusion into the Eastern Enlargement of the EU The EU neglected Bulgarian slow progress in a few occasions and stated its position as equal as the other candidate states of Central and Eastern Europe. In this context, the political rhetoric about double standards in the EU Eastern enlargement is incorrect. The purpose of the presentation will be to survey Bulgarian inclusion in EU Eastern enlargement regardless of the delay in Bulgarian first step to Community.

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  Migena Pengili, Independent Researcher, IR and Security Studies, Padova, Italy
  Why “Yes” and Why “Not” Can Albania Be Europeanized. Actors and Factors Why ‘yes’ and why ’not` can Albania be Europeanized? This paper seeks the answer by identifying and analyzing the actors and factors that errand the process of Europeanization in the country. Hence, while the net advantages of EU membership have an important systemic impact on the international and domestic performance of Albania, Europeanization associates with major problems in the country.

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  Liljana Siljanovska and Vlera Ejupi, South East European University
  The Demystifying of the European Politics on Enlargement: The Case With the Republic of Macedonia  Even though the agreements are considered as a key determinant for the existence and functioning of the Union, the European practice shows that their influence is not as big as it is usually assumed.

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Facing Europeanization – East and West: Models for Change, Migration and Strategies of Cultural Resistance

(Chair: Lia Tsuladze, Tbilisi State University, Georgia and Research Fellow, St. Antony’s College, University of Oxford)

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  Slavko Kulić, Director, Institute on World Problems – for Europe, Zagreb, Croatia
  Geobiosocial instead of Geobiopolitical Re-Inventing of Europe: New Approach to the Sociology of Europe Re-inventing is necessary for the construction of Europe instead of its destruction. Eastern Europe can not be the periphery of the Western Europe, in the function of submission of the global capitalism system; old concept in the new form of the ultimatum of Western Europe towards Eastern Europe; EU-Directives demand re-inventing of the colonisation (attaching to the Western Europe, based on the power gained between the first and twenty-first centuries.

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  Gerhard Eichweber, Value Group, Switzerland
  Old Prejudice vs. New Paradigms: Eastern Europe – From the Frying Pan into the Fire? The Key to Stable Economy & Prosperity with the fall of the "iron curtain", the impetus of US-American influences in Eastern Europe has promoted "new concepts" quickly adopted as misleading rules, which serve none of Europe's and its citizens interests. Less: Any of the long repressed interests, identities and individual social developments of East European peoples, based on the long repressed riches of their own ethnic and cultural identities: their own uniqueness and, thus, qualitative diversity.

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  Ekaterina Bagreeva, Russian Economic University of G. V. Plekhanov

  German Mendzheritskiy, Librarium Archives Russe de la Presse Ancienne
  Qualitative and Quantitative Changes in Migration from the Countries of the Former Soviet Union to Germany and Norway The migration from the countries of former Soviet Union brought to Germany and Norway thousands of migrants between 1990 and 2013. The report is based on the results from field research on Russian speaking migrants in Norway and Germany, conducted by the authors during 2008-2010 (qualitative and quantitative), continuing of this research in 2012-2013 (qualitative), as well as the data from the relevant statistical and empirical sources.

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  Lia Tsuladze, Tbilisi State University and Research Fellow, St. Antony's College, University of Oxford
  Strategies of Cultural Resistance to EUropeanisation in Eastern Europe and its Margins The paper discusses the strategies of cultural resistance to EUropeanisation in Eastern Europe (the cases of Romania and Poland) and its margins (the case of Georgia). Based on the in-depth interviews and focus groups with Romanian, Polish and Georgian youth, the author argues that the EUropeanisation discourses display ambivalent identities that constantly negotiate between the EUropeanising forces and the national.

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Central East European Economies: Trade, Development and Structural Change in the Region

(Chair: Anca Voicu, Rollins College, Florida, USA)

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  Inmaculada Martínez-Zarzoso, Georg-August University of Göttingen and University Jaume I

  Anca M. Voicu, Rollins College, Florida, USA

  Martina Vidovic, Rollins College, Florida, USA
  Production Networks in Europe: A Natural Experiment of the EU Enlargement to the East This paper focuses on the 2004 enlargement of the European Union to the East and treats it as a natural experiment to investigate two issues:first, whether there has been a trade creation effect in final and intermediate goods and second, to what extent this effect has been more pronounced for final or for intermediate goods.

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  Saadet Deger, University of Birmingham, UK

  Somnath Sen, Rollins College, USA and University of Birmingham, UK

  Anca M. Voicu, Rollins College, Florida, USA
  FDI, Growth and Structural Change in Eastern Europe In this paper we look at the growth enhancement and growth retardation of major Central and East European countries (CEEC) during the last decade or so. We observe large advances in growth rates, in the early part of the 2000s, and then a rapid contraction after 2008. This rise and fall in economic growth is mirrored by the corresponding rise and fall of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI).

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  Inmaculada Martínez-Zarzoso, Georg-August University of Göttingen and University Jaume I

  Anca M. Voicu, Rollins College, Florida, USA

  Martina Vidovic, Rollins College, Florida, USA
  Central East European Countries’ Accession into the European Union: Role of the Extensive Margin for Trade in Intermediate and Final Goods We study the effect on trade in intermediates and final goods of the Central East European countries’ (CEECs) accession into the European Union (EU) for the period 1999-2009. In doing so, we estimate a gravity model that incorporates the extensive margin of trade and accounts for firm heterogeneity. We capture the importance of production networks by including imports of intermediates as a determinant of a country’s exports of final goods. We find a positive and significant effect of the CEECs-accession on EU trade in intermediate and final goods.

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  Agnieszka Gehringer, University of Goettingen, Department of Economics

  Astrid Krenz, University of Goettingen, Department of Economics
  European Market Integration and the Determinants of Firm Localization – The Case of Poland The paper analyses empirically the determinants of firms’ localization in Poland. We use regional data of the sixteen Polish administrative regions over the period 2003 to 2010 to examine which role agglomeration forces and other factors played in explaining the choice to operate in a certain location. Our results suggest that agglomeration economies stemming in particular from the R&D sector, as well as human capital and the infrastructure positively influence the regional localization of firms. Poland’s accession to the European Union had a positive impact for the location decision of new firms in the Polish economy.

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Art as Cultural Diplomacy: Identities and Representations of Eastern Europe in Literature and Film

(Chair: Cassandra Sciortino, University of California, Santa Barbara, USA)

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  Josip Kešić, Department of European Studies, University of Amsterdam
  The Unexpected Persistence of Stereotypes: On the East-West Distinction in the Work of Dubravka Ugrešić My argument is that Ugrešić’s critical writings and by extension many other cultural representations – despite the sophisticated attempts to subvert the East-West distinction and the concomitant stereotypes – reinforce the very stereotypes they try to deconstruct. In conclusion, this paper sheds new light on the concrete functioning and persistence of stereotypes in texts where these very stereotypes are undermined by critical, anti-essentialist intellectuals. Indeed, precisely there where we would not immediately expect them.

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  Anna-Maria Meyer, Chair of Slavic Linguistics, University of Bamberg
  A Review of Andrzej Stasiuk’s Image of Europe Stasiuk designs his personal Central Europe, his mała ojczyzna, in the sense of a mental map. He prefers peripheral border areas between Poland and ist Eastern neighbours to centres like Warsaw. Although Stasiuk doubtlessly adds some interesting aspects to the discourse about Europe, his ideas can only serve as an intermediate stage in it. Those who look for seminal ideas will be disappointed.

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  Şeyda Başlı, Mardin Artuklu University and Oxford University
  Merging the Political into the Personal: Identity Formation Narratives in Anayurt Oteli (The Motherland Hotel) This presentation focuses on analyzing multi-layered narrative structure of the novel in order to discuss how Zebercet's personal story is transformed into the realm of discussing how political symbols of social transformation demarcate personal identities and how the personal becomes a metaphor to understand the formation of political collective identities.

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  Peter Seifert, Independent Researcher, Augsburg, Germany
  Nostalgia for a Great Past Tarkovsky in person repeated this assessment not less bluntly in interviews and discussions. Notwithstanding this apparent scepticism, he endeavoured to create a true artistic unity between an important Italian work of art and an important Russian work of poetry: the “Madonna del Parto” (c.1465) by Piero della Francesca and the poem “Ptichka – Little Bird” by Aleksander Pushkin.

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  Flavio Sanza, Swansea University, UK
  Dracula, from History to Cinema The goal of my paper is to present Dracula as the ‘real king’ of the Eastern Europe culture. Vlad of Wallachia was a real character who lived in Transylvania between 1431 and 1476. His nickname “Dracula” comes from Romanian “Dracul” and means “Dragon”. After his death, Vlad earned the surname Tepes (Impaler) because of he was used to impale his enemies.

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