(Fwd) Conference: Biographies and the Division of Europe

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International Conference

B I O G R A P H I E S  A N D  T H E  D I V I S I O N  O F  E U R O P E

BERLIN, 17 - 20 FEBRUARY, 1999


The Institute of Social Sciences at the Technical University of Berlin
is pleased to announce the International conference 'Biographies
and the Division of Europe', which is organised in co-operation
with the 'Sektion Biographieforschung der Deutschen Gesellschaft
für Soziologie' (Section of Biographical Research in the German
Sociological Association).

The conference will be held in English.


I S S U E S

As a result of World War II a historical new division between the
‘East’ and the ‘West‘ of Europe was created. In this process a
polarising re-structuration of societies on both sides of the ”Iron
Curtain” took place. In consequence lifeworlds, biographies and
public discourse developed differently on the two sides of the
system border. After 1989 a new period of transition started,
affecting biographical orientations, familiy life, milieus, generational
and gender relations. At present this process is taking place
more dramatically in the societies of the former East-European
countries than in the Western part. The conference will largely
concentrate on topics from these countries.
The purpose is to deal with the following questions:
· What impact did and still does the violent division of Europe have
on biographies and in families over more generations?
· In what way was the constitution of state communist societies
interwoven with the emergence of specific biographical patterns?
· How did relations to ‘others’ develop?
· How was migration and living between the systems experienced?
· What changes and biographical re-orientations are connected
with the transition of postcommunist societies after 1989?



P R O G R A M M E


W E D N E S D A Y, February 17, 1999

19.00 Welcome and Registration
'Ernst-Reuter-Haus', Straße des 17. Juni 112, 10587 Berlin


T H U R S D A Y, February 18, 1999

9.00 OPENING of the Conference

Wolfram Fischer-Rosenthal, Institut fuer Sozialwissenschaften TU
Roswitha Breckner, Organising Committee
Introduction: Ursula Apitzsch, Sektion Biographieforschung

9.40 - 12.00 PLENARY

Wolfram Fischer-Rosenthal (Berlin):
Biographies in European Modernity

Erhard Stölting (Potsdam):
The ‘East’ of Europe - A Historical Construction

12.15 - 13.00 2 parallel Sessions

SESSION 1:
TO LIVE IN STATE COMMUNIST SOCIETIES AND WITH THEIR
BORDERS. BIOGRAPHIES IN TENSION BETWEEN
PERSON-MILIEU-STATE

Zdzislaw Krasnodebski (Bremen):
Political Biographies in Poland and Germany - a Comparison

SESSION 2:
TO LIVE WITH 'OTHERS': DRAWING UP, CROSSING, CHANGING
AND DISSOLVING FRONTIERS IN AND BETWEEN ETHNICAL
AND CULTURAL MILIEUS

Yvonne Schütze (Berlin):
‘We are similar in the sense that we are different’. Social
Relations between Russian Jewish Migrants and the Host
Society. A Comparison between Germany and Israel

13.00 - 15.00 Lunch

15.00-18.00 Continuing 2 parallel Sessions

SESSION 1:

Helena Flam (Leipzig):
Regime-related Anxieties of the East German and Polish
Bystanders

Zdenek Konopasek (Prague):
What Made State Socialism Durable? The Constitution of
Political Power Based on the Pursuit of Biographical
Projects in Every Day Life

Petar Vodenicharov (Blageovgrad, Bulgaria):
Communist Modernisation and the Constitution of New Publicity.
Gender and Age Identities

Dorothee Wierling (Berlin):
Parents and Politics. Childhood in the German Democratic
Republic in the 1950s

Ina Dietzsch (Potsdam):
The Construction of the Border Between East and West Germany
in ‘Bowing Letters’

Vera Sparschuh (Berlin):
The Biography of the Biographers. Some Remarks Concerning
the History of the Social Sciences in East Germany


SESSION 2:

Ingrid Oswald & Viktor Voronkow (Magdeburg, St. Petersburg):
Tricky Hermeneutics. About Understanding the Other in
German-Russian Research

Laszlo Kurti (Miskolc, Hungary):
>From Darkest Transylvania to Window Socialism: Romania
and Hungary in the Western Imagination

Eva Kovacs (Budapest):
State Border and Identity in Eastern Europe. A Case Analysis

Susana Kusá (Bratislava):
‘We and Others’. Divisions in Family History Narratives from an
Ethnically Mixed Village

Julia Vajda (Budapest):
Dividing Experiences in a Catholic-Jewish Family


F R I D A Y, February 19, 1999

9.00 PLENARY

Gabriele Rosenthal (Kassel):
WW II: Transgenerational Transmission of Violence and Trauma

10.00 Coffee Break

10.30 - 13.00 3 parallel Sessions

SESSION 3:
HISTORICAL AND PRESENT TIME HORIZON OF DIVISION.
CONSEQUENCES OF WAR, PERSECUTION, AND EXTERMINATION
IN EASTERN EUROPE

Shimon Redlich (Beer Sheva, Israel):
Memories of War and Holocaust: Jews, Poles and Ukrainians
from a Town in Eastern Galicia

Eva Brücker (Oranienburg):
Living with Concentration Camp Memories. Biographies of
Ukrainian Survivors of Sachsenhausen

Bettina Völter (Berlin):
Biographical Work in Families of Jewish Emigrants who
returned to the German Democratic Republic

Kaja Kazmierska (Lodz):
Polish - German Relationships Based on Eastern Border
Polish Narratives on the Experiences of World War II


SESSION 4:
TO LIVE BETWEEN THE SYSTEMS: REFUGE, EXILE, MIGRATION

Mirjana Morokvasic (Paris):
Escaping Nationalism and Violence in the Post-Yugoslav Space

Lena Inowlocki (Frankfurt):
Representations of the Old World in New World Traditionality:
Families of Jewish Displaced Persons

Mihai D. Gheorghiu (Paris/Iasi):
The Biographical and Generational Constitution of the Romanian
Exile after 1945 and its Influence on the National Elite after 1989

Roswitha Breckner (Halle/Berlin):
The Meaning of the ‘Iron Curtain’ in East - West Migration
Biographies


SESSION 1 Continuing

Kristina Popova (Blageovgrad, Bulgaria):
Ideology and Faith in Generational Relations According to
Autobiographical Memories in Bulgaria

Heinz-Gerd Hofschen (Bremen):
Persistence and Transformation of Working Class Milieus in the
1950s. A Comparison between the GDR and FRG

Ingrid Miethe (Berlin):
Political Activities of Women in the German Democratic Republic
Opposition and their Family Context

Wolfgang Heuer (Berlin):
The Emergence of Civil Courage

13.00 - 15.00: Lunch

15.00-18.00: 2 parallel Sessions


SESSION 5:
PROCESSES OF BIOGRAPHICAL RE-ORIENTATION IN THE
WAKE OF DISSOLVING STATE SOCIALIST SOCIETIES

Viktoria Semjonova (Moscow):
The Message from the Past. Experiences of Suffering Passed
Through Generations

Mihaela Miroiu (Bucharest):
Between Autobiography and CV

Ulrike Nagel (Jena):
Manager Biographies. Economic Rationality and Biographical
Transformation

Victor Susak (Lviv):
Prefiguration, Configuration, and Refiguration of Leaders in
Post-Soviet Ukraine

Simone Kreher (Berlin):
Do We Live with the Myth of Biographical Re-Orientation?


SESSION 6:
TRANSFORMING GENDER RELATIONS

Elena Meshcherkina (Moscow):
The Virtualisation of Female and Male Biographies as
Strategy of Adoption. The Situation in Post-Soviet Russia

Elena Zdravomyslova (St. Petersburg):
A Script of Today’s Russian Feminist Biography

Eva Schäfer (Berlin):
Broken Continuities? The Changing Meaning of Gender in
East German Women’s Lives

Pavla Frydlova and Jana Hradilkova (Prague):
Women’s Memories: Searching for Identity within Socialism

Marina Beyer (Berlin):
Women’s Lives in the German Democratic Republic: The
First Generation (Aufbaugeneration)



S A T U R D A Y, February 20, 1999

9.00 - 12.30 PLENARY

Ilja Srubar (Erlangen):
The Structure of Lifeworld and Transformation of Everyday
Fields of Action

Coffee Break

Conference Observations

Devorah Kalekin Fishman (Haifa, Israel):
Looking on Europe from an Outside - Perspective

12.30 FAREWELL AND END OF THE CONFERENCE




ORGANISING COMMITTEE:
Prof. Dr. Wolfram Fischer-Rosenthal, Technische Universitaet Berlin
Roswitha Breckner, Martin-Luther Universitaet Halle-Wittenberg
Bettina Völter, Technische Universitaet Berlin
Ingrid Miethe, Freie Universitaet Berlin

CONTACT:
Roswitha Breckner
Universitaet Halle-Wittenberg
Institut für Paedagogik
Franckeplatz 1
06110 Halle (Saale), Germany
phone   +49 (0)345 5523825, and +49 (0)30 7844349
fax     +49 (3)345 5527574, and +49 (0)30 78704516
e-mail:         r_breckner at csi.com


REGISTRATION FEES:
until January 15, 1999:    90,- DM / 40,- DM reduced
after January 15, 1999: 120,- DM / 50,- DM reduced

The conference is sponsored by:
'Bundeszentrale fuer Politische Bildung'
'Friedrich-Ebert Stiftung'



R E G I S T R A T I O N   F O R M

please address to:
Prof. Dr. Wolfram Fischer-Rosenthal
Technische Universitaet Berlin
Institut für Sozialwissenschaften
Franklinstr. 28/29, FR 2-5
10823 Berlin, Germany

registration by e-mail and fax accepted:
fax: +49 (0)30 314-79494
e-mail: firo0733 at mailszrz.zrz.tu-berlin.de

To book your place on the conference ‘Biographies and
the Division of Europe’, TU Berlin (17 - 20 February 1999),
please return this form, together with the registration fee of

__    90,- DM / __   40,- DM* (until January 15, 1999)
__  110,- DM / __   50,- DM* (after January 15, 1999)

It is payable either by cheque or by transferring to the account:
Breckner (Conference), Berliner Sparkasse, BLZ: 100 500 00
Account #: 1130153580

Name:                _______________________________
Address:            _______________________________
                            _______________________________
Signature:         _______________________________

* reduced fees are available for students, unemployed and
participants from central-eastern european countries


Roswitha Breckner
Martin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg
Institute of Pedagogy
Franckeplatz 1
D-06110 Halle/Saale
tel. +49 345 55-23825, fax: -27574
e-mail: breckner at paedagogik.uni-halle.de

and: Gothaer Str. 5, D-10823 Berlin
tel.  +49 30 7844349, fax -78704516
e-mail: r_breckner at csi.com