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  Roots of illiberal memory politics.

  By Andrea Petö on 8 mars, 2018

  In 2016, commemorations of the 60th anniversary of the 1956 Hungarian Revolution brought new conflicts in memory politics. This article analyzes the reasons for women’s absence from the historiography of the 1956 Revolution and discusses how the polypore state is using the populist turn to introduce hegemonic narratives and to include women in the narrative of “national feminism”.

  Category: Scientific articles

• 

  Monuments as reminders and triggers

  By Yuliya Yurchuk on 10 november, 2017

  There are parallels in discussions about monuments in Ukraine and the USA. The reminder of the Soviet past (or in the American context, of the Confederacy) is an abject that is difficult to assimilate. On the one hand, the abject is our unwillingness to see the past and accept it; on the other hand, for those who associate themselves with this past, this is the threat of castration because through the negation of a given past a certain group is cast out from the space of representation. That is why it is questionable whether a monument can be inclusive at all. Which memory does the monument recall? Which past is castrated when a new monument is built? Which groups are fighting for recognition and representation? Which groups lose this right? These questions confront researchers and memory workers and are discussed in this essay.

  Category: Scientific articles

Just in

• Aspects of Romani demographics in the 19th century Wallachia,

  In Romani Studies, the second half of the 19th century witnessed a great migration of the Roms from the two Rumanian provinces of Wallachia and Moldavia as a result of the abolition of slavery (also called “Emancipation”, which ushered in the massive liberation of the Romani slaves in 1856 at the initiative of the Prime Minister Mihail Kogălniceanu). However, this period is still poorly explored, particularly from a linguistic and ethnologic point of view.

  By Julieta Rotaru Inga kommentarer till Aspects of Romani demographics in the 19th century Wallachia,

• Lithuania – a century of remembering & forgetting

  During 1918 all three Baltic countries managed to escape the Russian grip and enjoyed some two decades of independence before they came under Russian/Soviet rule again. Despite the fact that the loss of their independence lasted for the following 50 years, all three countries celebrate their centenary this year. So how are the past 100 years described? During my years as a journalist in Vilnius, one of my major interests was precisely the way in which the country portrayed its own history. Over the years I pinpointed facts and covered aspects of this history that were not often highlighted in official speeches or by mainstream media. In the following I will focus on two topics in the case of Lithuania — the Soviet period and the Jews.

  By Påhl Ruin Inga kommentarer till Lithuania – a century of remembering & forgetting

• Charter 97 and the shrinking space for free media in Belarus

  Independent media in Belarus is experiencing continued difficulties due to President Alexandr Lukashenko’s repressive policies. To avoid censorship, a number of independent media outlets, such as the most popular news site Charter 97, have chosen to work from abroad. Although this might give them maneuvering space to go on reporting, it also means that many Belarusian citizens do not have access to a sufficient amount of opposition news.

  By Marina Henrikson Inga kommentarer till Charter 97 and the shrinking space for free media in Belarus

• The Post-Gypsy Lore Moment: Defining Romani Studies

  This is a very interesting discussion that Kimmo Granqvist moderates here. It is unusual to have scholars reflecting on the potential of their discipline, so this is a great occasion for Romani studies. If one looks at the contributions closely, one can see the emergence of a struggle by scholars to wriggle their way out of a long-standing and narrow agenda created for the study of “gypsy” issues and to demarcate a wider territory called Romani Studies.

  By David Gaunt Inga kommentarer till The Post-Gypsy Lore Moment: Defining Romani Studies

• “Being a part of the community that is being investigated creates a number of complications”

  Corina Ceamă, Ion Duminică, Ian Hancock, Tomasz Koper, and Hristo Kyuchukov reflect on their views and aspirations for Romani Studies, as well as their own roles as Roma scholars.

  By Kimmo Granqvist Inga kommentarer till “Being a part of the community that is being investigated creates a number of complications”

• Migration vs. Inclusion: Roma Mobilities from east to west

  The Roma migrations, which are becoming more topical today, have prompted policies giving attention to issues of Roma inclusion first in the East, but then also in the West. Inclusion policies have, by and large, failed to improve the situation of Roma communities. In order to achieve a better understanding of these issues, we argue that attention should be paid to Roma as distinct ethnic communities, but that are still integral parts of their respective civic nations

  By Elena Marushiakova and Vesselin Popov Inga kommentarer till Migration vs. Inclusion: Roma Mobilities from east to west

• Romani writers and the legacies of Yugoslavia

  This article discusses Yugoslavia’s ethnic and Romani policies and the activities for maintaining common cultural practices among Romani writers and activists after the dissolution of the federation as a political entity, and it examines literary activities and narratives related to Yugoslav topics and the way in which they sustain and demonstrate Romani (post-)Yugoslav belonging. The article argues that a sense of Yugoslav belonging and cooperation has been maintained among Romani writers and activists with explicitly positive references to the legacies of Yugoslavia. These tendencies contrast with the official post-Yugoslav political discourse among the rest of the ethnic and national communities’ leaderships, which have been to a great extent built on criticizing Yugoslav policies and ideologies.

  By Sofiya Zahova 1 kommentar till Romani writers and the legacies of Yugoslavia

• Romani immigrants from Romania in Poland in the 1990s. Ethnographic observations

  This paper presents a handful of ethnographic observations concerning the Romanian Romani people migrating to Poland in the 1990s. This migration wave, although not very well known in the world, became a very important factor influencing, among others, the perception of the Romanian Roms, the Romani people in general, and even citizens of Romania as such by Poles. For Romani immigrants, this was most often the first opportunity to stay abroad

  By Sławomir Kapralski and Paweł Lechowski Inga kommentarer till Romani immigrants from Romania in Poland in the 1990s.

• The life trajectories of Roma women living in poverty. Tackling intersectional discrimination

  The focus of this work is on the position of Roma girls/women who have a different set of privileges as well as rights and often experience multiple forms of discrimination in relation to a number of categories of difference. Specifically, the life trajectories of three Roma women living in poverty and experiencing different levels of discrimination are presented and examined. Highlighting the multiple positioning that constitutes their everyday life, these life trajectories show that gender, ethnicity, socio-economic status and other categories of difference are not distinct and isolated realms of experience and that the impact of their intersections needs to be foregrounded. In sum, these brief excerpts undeniably show how discrimination has consistently denied these Roma women personal development, self-esteem, decent living conditions, livelihood opportunities and institutional services.

  By Lynette Šikić-Mićanović Inga kommentarer till The life trajectories of Roma women living in poverty.

• The communist authorities’ refusal to recognize the Roma as a national minority. A moment in the history of the Roma in Romania, 1948 –1949

  This paper deals with the moment in 1948–1949, when the representative organization of the Romanian Roma unsuccessfully tried to obtain for them from the communist authorities the status of a national minority. For the Romanian Communist Party, the Roma represented a population that had to be brought into its sphere of influence. Discussions on the establishment of the People’s Union of the Roma lasted for several months but eventually led to the rejection of the request of the Roma leaders. The institutions involved in these discussions created documents, some of which are kept in the archives and allow us to study this moment in time.

  By Viorel Achim Inga kommentarer till The communist authorities’ refusal to recognize the Roma as a national minority.

• Call for papers: Human Trafficking - a crime with too few convictions and too many victims International conference 21 -22 February 2019 in Riga, Latvia.
  The Council of the Baltic Sea States (CBSS) in cooperation with the Centre for Baltic and East European Studies (CBEES) at the Södertörn University, Sweden aims to bring together PhD students, researchers and research scholars from European countries and the CBSS Member States to exchange and share their experiences and research results in order to contribute to more effective prosecution of human trafficking cases. >>
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  Elections in over 20 different countries are covered here.>>
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• Baltic Worlds covers; the Baltic Sea Region, Eastern Europe, Russia, Caucasus and the Balkan area.
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• reviews

  1. From Soviet seclusion to West European integration. The development of Baltic air connections

     Mobility and regionalization: Changing patterns of air traffic in the Baltic Sea Region in connection to European integration. Jan Henrik Nilsson, Geographia Polonica 2018. Vol. 91:1, pp 77–93.

  2. Exploring the topography of the power play. By concentrating on the periphery

     Movers and Shakers of Soviet Ukrainian culture in the 1920s–1930s, “Beau Monde on Empire’s Edge. State and Stage in Soviet Ukraine”, Mayhill C. Fowler, University of Toronto Press, 2017.

  3. As Brezhnev saw it. Diaries of a “stable decline” in three volumes

     Brezhnev, Leonid, Rabochie i dnevnikovye zapisi, V 3-kh tomakh, Moskva: Istoricheskaya literature, 2016, 3 500 pages.

  4. Uprootedeness in the Polish-German Borderlands. The meaning of the transformation revised

     Dystopia’s Provocateurs: Peasants, State and Informality in the Polish-German Borderlands, Edyta Materka, Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 2017, 234 pages.

  5. The avant-gardist Ivan Aksionov. A life marked by ruptures and paradoxes

     Vid avantgardets korsvägar: Om Ivan Aksionov och den ryska modernismen [At the cross roads of the avant-garde: On Ivan Aksionov and Russian modernism, Lars Kleberg, Stockholm Natur & Kultur, 2015, 248 pages.

  6. All reviews