Archive

Since 2014, the war in Eastern Ukraine has claimed more than 12,000 lives and displaced around 2.8 million people. As well as being a topic for journalists, the fighting and the ensuing upheavals in people’s lives have now made their way into literature. Researcher Nina Frieß, writers Serhij Zhadan and Ziemowit Szczerek and literary studies expert Alexander Chertenko will discuss writings around the war in Ukraine.

Steffi Wurster’s documentary turns the lens on the conflict between the Republic of Moldova and the breakaway territory of Transnistria. The director observes the tranquil scene of a multilateral peacekeeping post and the more confrontational relationships in local and international politics. After the screening, Steffi Wurster will talk to political scientist Nadja Douglas about de facto states in Eastern Europe.

In his dissertation, Johann Zajaczkowski links concepts by Pierre Bourdieau with rebel-to-party and militia-state relations research and employs them for an analyses of the developmental paths of selected pro-Ukrainian volunteer battalions.

There are more than three million migrants from the post-Soviet space and their offspring living in Germany, the majority of them Russian German resettlers and their families. At this event at ZOiS, Igor Eidman will show excerpts from a documentary, followed by a discussion with experts.

Yuri Serebryanski will present Kazakhstan Fairytales to a German public to the first time. He will be joined by ZOiS researchers Nina Frieß, a specialist in literature and cultural studies, and Central Asia expert Beate Eschment to discuss the inspiration for his book, the importance of fairytales in modern society and why these particular stories are not aimed at children.

The public tends to associate Chechnya with two devastating wars, leader Ramzan Kadyrov and violent Islamism. Grozny: Nine Cities – a multimedia project paints a more multifaceted picture.

The recently released book explores the new generation of political actors in Poland, Hungary and Russia, rejecting the consensus around market reforms, democratisation, and rule of law that has characterised the move towards an "open society" from the 1990s on.

In her research project, Dr. Vassilieva analyses the specific relationship between literature and politics that is conditioned by the new model of authorship which is currently emerging in authoritarian Russia.

The documentary D IS FOR DIVISION (2018) explores the border between Russia and Latvia. Following the film screening, we will discuss borders in Eastern European cinema and the potential for conflict in national identity formation.

Anna Schwenck, PhD candidate at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, presents aspects of her submitted dissertation.

As of the 2018/2019 winter semester, the Centre for East European and International Studies (ZOiS), in cooperation with the Freie Universität Berlin, the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin and the Europa-Universität Viadrina Frankfurt (Oder), is opening invitations to a new multidisciplinary research colloquium.

‘Translocality’ has become an important concept in social sciences for depicting the social and cultural representations of a globalizing world ‘from the ground’.

Russia’s present Constitution has been adopted on 12 December 1993 in a referendum.

While the globalisation discourse claims the creation of a 'borderless world' we observe the evolvement of a whole world of new and old borders within the post-soviet space with considerable effects on people living in border regions.

After almost three decades since the dissolution of the USSR, the post-Soviet borders are legitimized by bilateral treaties, in many cases demarcated on the territory and anchored in the ‘geographic imagination’ of the local populations.

At the opening of the exhibition "Transnistria Seen from Within - A Portrait by Young Photographers", Carolina Dutca, Ramin Mazur and Anton Polyakov will be talking about their photographic works and their approach to creating art.