+++ Due to the Covid19 pandemic we had to cancel the 2021 workshop. A 2022 relaunch sadly will not be possible. +++

How is a historical caesura actually defined? When do moments and places become “historical” and how do we codify this status? Who appears in such narratives and who is excluded? The fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 represent key historical caesuras in the extensive upheavals and transformational processes of the 1980s and 1990s. 30 years later, these dates are still prominent in German and Russian collective memories – with Berlin as a “historically significant” site both in the experiences and memories of 1989 and 1991.

Taking the transformations of urban space as a starting point, we will consider how different groups in Germany and Russia perceive these historical turning points, and examine methods and approaches that public history can offer. Moving within a broad time frame from the mid-1980s to 2021, this takes us to a wide yet closely intertwined range of topics: narratives of liberation or turmoil, archives and counter-archives, forms of marginalization, state diplomacy, civic activism, nationalism and right-wing violence.

The 12-day workshop Remembering 1989_1991 will be held in late September/early October 2021 in Berlin. The program includes seminars, excursions, lectures, and discussions. It is aimed at humanities and social science students attending German and Russian universities who have experience, or are interested, in cultural memory and public history.

A project by Svenja Heißner, Karoline Punke, Eugenia Scanferla, and Julia Schulte-Werning.
In cooperation with the Department of Didactics of History at Freie Universität Berlin and the Department of Applied History at Yaroslavl State Pedagogical University. 
Supported with funds from the Bundesstiftung zur Aufarbeitung der SED–Diktatur (Federal Foundation for the Study of the Communist Dictatorship in Eastern Germany)
Contact: remembering.1989.1991@gmail.com
Project website: https://remembering-1989-1991.com (offline)

Workshop

What the workshop entails

The workshop will be held in Berlin over a total of 12 days including the arrival and departure days, leaving 10 active workdays. The program includes lectures, practical seminars, discussions, excursions, and guided tours. During the workshop, participants will develop essay-style blog posts, which will be published on the project´s website. To ensure mutual understanding and a broad discussion, we hand out a corpus of literature in advance.

Language: The primary language for reading, discussing, and interacting will be English. Russian-German translation will also be provided as a backup to ensure that everyone can participate as fully as possible, but good English language skills are a compulsory requirement for participation.

Number of participants: 20 from Germany and Russia, ideally 10 from each country.

Organizational details

Expenses: There is no participation fee. All fees regarding excursions, workshops and materials are covered. Travel expenses, accommodation as well as public transport fees are fully financed. Breakfast and lunch are provided for.

For participants travelling from Russia: After you notify us of your intended participation, we will send you information about a preferred Moscow-Berlin group flight connection. When you confirm, we will book the tickets and forward them to you. Please note that if you make your own travel bookings we will be unable to refund your expenses.

Accommodation: We offer shared accommodation (double bedrooms in hostel, including breakfast) for all participants not based in Berlin.

Who can participate

The workshop is open to advanced BA, MA, and early-stage PhD students of all subjects and programs, who are formally enrolled at universities in Germany or the Russian Federation. We especially encourage students of history, social studies, cultural studies, museology, and public history to apply. Good English language skills are required (at least Level B2). A basic knowledge of German and/or Russian is not a formal requirement but would be useful.

Program

Day 1: Arrival (27 Sep 2021)

Day 2: Public history I (28 Sep 2021)

What is "public history" as an academic discipline and which practical approaches does it offer? The introduction to the key notions of public history lies out the distinctions to historiography or applied history. We will debate the terms "politics of history" and "culture of remembrance" and its respective dynamics, actors and settings.

• Welcome and introduction
• Key note and discussion: Concepts of public history
• Seminar: Politics of history
• Seminar: Culture of remembrance

Day 3: Public history II (29 Sep 2021)

How to account for the inherent plurality of voices and perspectives? Addressing participation, oral history and media formats, we will look into particular issues and practical approaches of public history.

• Seminar: Inclusion, diversity and participation
• Seminar: Oral history
• Seminar: History education and media formats
• Follow-up discussion and briefing on the web presentation

Day 4:  Caesuras and experiences (30 Sep 2021)

Establishing basic knowledge on historical events in Germany and Russia from the 1980s to 2021, we will focus on dimensions of "caesuras" and "experiences". What narratives revolve around "1989" and "1991"?

• Key note and discussion: "1989" as caesura
• Key note and discussion: Experiences of "1991"
• Session: Locating and discussing "dates"

Day 5: Transitional justice, archives and counter-archives (1 Oct 2021)

Collective memory and historical research are tightly connected. How do societies deal with past experiences of state violence? Addressing archives and counter-archives, we will look at institutional settings and forms of civil activism and issues of transitional justice in Germany and Russia.

• Guided tour and discussion: Memorial sites and archives on the GDR
• Seminar: State and civil-society research in Russia

Day 6: How museums are shape (2 Oct 2021)

• Guided tour: Soviet presence in Berlin
• Exhibition tour and discussion: Exhibiting the Soviet Union before and after 1989/1991

Day 7: Free (3 Oct 2021)

Optional program (German Unity Day)

Day 8: Events and appropriations of "1989" (4 Oct 2021)

How has Berlin been shaped by its history of division? How do populists and right-wing groups appropriate the history of the rise and fall of the Berlin Wall? We will address strategies to confront populism in museums and on memorial sites.

• Key note and discussion: Rightwing populism
• Seminar: Looking into source material
• Guided Tour: Sites of the Wall

Day 9: Countering hegemonies and filling the gaps (5 Oct 2021)

The German "unification" was accompanied by an upsurge of nationalism and racist violence, yet these experiences are often sidelined. We will look at initiatives aimed at challenging the hegemonic discourse and ask how memory and counter- memory can come together.

• Panel discussion with contemporaries and activists: Intersectional perspectives on the "unification"
• Seminar: Juxtaposing narratives and present projects

Day 10: Post-Soviet media as sites of memory (6 Oct 2021)

How do different media formats in Russia depict the period following the dissolution of the Soviet Union? What does the narrative of the "wild 90s" entail? We will take a closer look at the impact of different media and how they might open up "alternative" routes to memory.

• Seminar: Russian memory sites on the 1990s
• Seminar: Post-Soviet cinema
• Concluding discussion: Comparative perspectives on "1989" and "1991"

Day 11: Impressions (7 Oct 2021)

Processing and reflecting on the workshop's program, we will elaborate blog posts for our website. The workshop is wrapped up by a feedback session and an evening event.

• Collaborative work on the web presentation
• Feedback session
• Workshop conclusion

Day 12: Departure (8 Oct 2021)

Application

Please submit the following documents in English by e-mail:

• Application form (available for download soon)
• Letter of motivation
• CV
• Confirmation of current university enrolment
• Transcripts, diplomas, and certificates regarding education and experience, if applicable

Application deadline: 30th July 2021

Contact: remembering.1989.1991@gmail.com

Please use the keyword “Application” as the message subject.

If you would like to ask for any further information about the organizational details, workshop program, or application process, do not hesitate to contact us using the e-mail address above. Please contact us if you have difficulty completing the form.

Your participation will be confirmed by mid-August 2021.

About Us

Remembering 1989_1991 is a project by Svenja Heißner, Karoline Punke, Eugenia Scanferla, and Julia Schulte-Werning.

We are a group of four MA students and recent graduates of history based in Berlin, Bologna, and Vienna. We met in 2019 at a DAAD-funded summer school organized by Prof. Oxana Nagornaja at the State Pedagogical University in Yaroslavl (Russia), titled Applied History: Current Past in Public and Digital Education Spaces and Museums.

This was a very stimulating experience, and debate with local scholars and fellow participants gave us new insights into public history and politics of history. We observed how the conceptual foundations and methods taught and practiced in Germany and Russia sometimes differed widely, and we adopted this as a starting point for our workshop Remembering 1989_1991, conceived as a “follow-up” event.

Our aim is to introduce students to the diverse aspects of public history, while also prompting discussion and fostering educational networks linking German and Russian scholars. Intent is to induce a multi-layered, self-reflective engagement with the workshop topic, probing common tropes and critically examining personal experiences, perspectives, and positions.

We look forward to meeting you there!

HINWEIS 

Die URL https://remembering-1989-1991.com ist nicht mehr aktiv.