Methodologies of Working in Cold War Archives. Facts, Values and Archival Ecologies
October 14-16, 2021

There is a limited number of physical and virtual places. Requests will be met on a first come first served basis, registrations are to be sent to Nora Ungar until October 7.

Please indicate your preferences regarding the days (day 1, day 2, day 3) and the type of participation (in person or online).

IMPORTANT: The event can be attended only with a valid immunity certificate (EU, Hungarian or vaccination certificate of these countries). Participants will be asked to show their immunity certificate together with a personal identification document to the organizers and security guard when checking-in for the event onsite. Entry is allowed in masks only. Please check CEU's Coronavirus Protocol for further information.

14 Oct.
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9:00 INTRODUCTORY REMARKS: ISTVÁN RÉV (OSA)
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9:30-11:00 PANEL 1: BEYOND CONTRUCTIVISM: THE TRUTH VALUE OF ARCHIVAL DOCUMENTS
Discussant: Manuela Ungureanu (University of British Columbia) ONLINE

Yulia Gradskova (Stockholm University), Studying Women’s Rights and Solidarity with Women from the Global South through the Documents of the WIDF in the Soviet Archives

James A. Kapaló (University College Cork), A Feast for the Senses: Secret Police Archives as Sources for the Study of Lived Religion during Communism ONLINE

Ioana Macrea-Toma (OSA), Not Every “Controversy” has Two Equally Valid Sides. A Plea for a Non-Symmetrical Reading of Archival Ecologies
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11:30-13:00 PANEL 2: INFORMATION VERSUS KNOWLEDGE: ASSESSING THE RELEVANCE OF POLICY RECORDS BEYOND PROPAGANDA WARS
Discussant: Adela Hîncu (Center for Advanced Studies, Sofia)

Mara Mărginean (George Barițiu Institute of History, Cluj-Napoca), Planning, Provisioning, and Struggling with Definitions: Assessing Well-Being in the 1950s Romania

Vojtěch Ripka (Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes, Prague), Beyond Comparison and Reliability: Key challenges Using the Sociological Surveys by the RFE/RL and by the Czechoslovak Authorities and Ways Forward

Kateryna Burkush (European University Institute, Florence) Invisible, Uncontrollable, Inconvenient: Who is the Seasonal Worker of the State Soviet Archive? ONLINE
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15:00-16:30 PANEL 3: HOW TO TRANSCEND COLD WAR DICHOTOMIES? ARCHIVAL LOGICS RE-CONCEPTUALIZED
Discussant: Andreea Deciu-Ritivoi (Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh) ONLINE

Irina Gordeeva (Leibniz Center for Contemporary History), Exploring Archives of Transnational Movements of the Cold War Period: Experiences and Challenges ONLINE

Szabolcs László (Indiana University), Interlocking Truth Regimes. Internationally Mobile Scholars as Targets of Cold War Agendas

Anna Mazurkiewicz (University of Gdansk), Searching the Cold War Era Archives for Traces of Exile Agency within US-led “Winning Hearts and Minds” Campaigns

Viviana Iacob (Ludwig Maximilians University, Munich), East European Theater Revisited. The Archives of International Organizations and the Cold War
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17:00 KEYNOTE LECTURE: STEPHEN KOTKIN (PRINCETON UNIVERSITY)
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15 Oct.
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9:30-11:00 PANEL 4: REVISING CANONIC NARRATIVES THROUGH THE ARCHIVES’ NON-CASE-BASED CORPORA
Discussant:  Marsha Siefert (CEU)

Georgi Georgiev (CEU), Noise in the Archives: Studying the Cold War through Sound Descriptions ONLINE

Oksana Sarkisova (OSA), Going Live: Perestroika-Time TV and Transformation of Soviet Media Landscape

Luca Szemetová (University of St Andrews), Archiving on the Screen – Remediating Private (Counter)Histories through Hungarian Documentary Cinema
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11:30-13:00 PANEL 5: ARCHIVES AND COUNTER-ARCHIVES: COLD WAR’S TRUTH REGIMES
Discussant: Luka Lisjak Gabrijelčič

Anastasia Felcher (OSA), What is a Monument in the Cold War? Assigning Categories to Cultural Heritage in the Counter-archives on East-Central Europe

Corneliu Pintilescu (George Barițiu Institute of History, Cluj-Napoca), Cold War Hermeneutics. Radio Free Europe’s and the Securitate Narratives on Urban systematization in Ceaușescu’s Romania

Isabel Ströhle How to Investigate Identical Conclusions of Opposed Truth Regimes: Albanian Disloyalty in “Yugoslav” Archives, Ilegalja “Counter-Archives” and Beyond
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15:00-16:30 PANEL 6: COMPLEMENTING ARCHIVES: [ETHICAL] POSSIBILITIES OF HISTORICAL RECONSTRUCTION THROUGH ARCHIVAL SOURCES IN THE AFTERMATH OF STATE VIOLENCE
Discussant: András Mink (OSA)

Mihaela Șerban (Ramapo College of New Jersey), Archival Legal Discourses and the Construction of Truth Regimes ONLINE

Leyla Safta Zecheria (West University of Timișoara), How Representational Transformations of Care Homes for Children with Disabilities around the End of the Cold War Shape Present Day Memory Landscapes in Romania

Anca Șincan (Gheorghe Șincai Institute, Romanian Academy), Confessions and Pastoral Letters in Secret Police Archives: The Ethics of Archival Research

Lilia Topouzova (University of Toronto), The Voice of the Witness in Secret Police Files
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17:00-18:15 WORKSHOP 1: METADATA IS POLITICAL: REVEALING 'TACIT NARRATIVES' IN POST-YUGOSLAV ARCHIVES (ONLINE)

Csaba Szilágyi (OSA & University of Amsterdam)

Perica Jovchevski (OSA and CEU)
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16 Oct.
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9:30-11:00 PANEL 7: ARCHIVAL CURATION AND HISTORICAL OUTCOMES
Discussant: István Rév (OSA)

Yohann Morival (University of Lille, Sciences Po Paris), Contributions of an Entry through Disorganized Archives of an East-West private Economic Club (1978-1989)

Victoria Phillips (London School of Economics), Awash in Information: Strategies for Cross-reading Digital Archives with Physical Materials

Nikolai Vukov (Bulgarian Academy of Sciences), Archives as Biographies. Documenting the Landscape of Political Immigration during and After the Cold War Era

Robert Parnica (OSA), Adrian Matus (OSA & European University Institute, Florence), The power of the Telexes: Curating Transatlantic Radio Free Europe Internal Cold War Communication
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11:30-13:00 WORKSHOP 2: DIGITAL HISTORY AS A COLLABORATIVE PRACTICE: EXPERIENCES FROM THE CEU SUN COURSE “CULTURES OF DISSENT IN EASTERN EUROPE”
Discussant: Karl Hall (CEU)

Jessie Labov (CEU)

Piotr Wciślik (CEU, Polish Academy of Sciences)

Ana Ljubojevic (University of Graz)

Agustín Cosovschi (University of Paris)

Tamás Scheibner (ELTE, Budapest)
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