(3-5 February 2022)
ONLINE – Conference
of the Research Network
Ambivalences of the Soviet:
Diaspora Nationalities between Collective Experiences of Discrimination and Individual Normalization, 2020-2023
funded by the Niedersächsische Vorab/Volkswagen Foundation
Registration and Information: ambivalenzen@uni-goettingen.de
Day 1 (Feb. 3)
14:30-16:30 Opening (Alina Jašina-Schäfer, Bundesinstitut für Kultur und Geschichte der Deutschen im östlichen Europa, Kerstin Bischl, University of Göttingen)
Panel 1: Sources of Local Histories
Daria Svirina (University of Tyumen) “They categorically denied propiska for us because we are Germans”: Internal migration of Soviet Germans after 1955.
David Jishkariani (Ilia State University) Ethnic Deportations from the Georgian SSR of the 1940s and 1950s and their reflection in the KGB and Central Committee Archives of Georgia
Tamta Melashvili (Ilia State University) Oral histories and the transmission of memories of German descendants in Georgia today.
Discussant: Kerstin Bischl (University of Göttingen)
Chair: Hans-Christian Petersen (Institute for Migration Research and Intercultural Studies/Bundesinstitut für Kultur und Geschichte der Deutschen im östlichen Europa)
16:30-17:00 Break
17:00-18:30 Keynote Lecture I: Ekaterina Emeliantseva Koller (University of Zurich): “Flexible Socialism” and Disintegration: Conceptualizations and practices”
Chair: Anke Hilbrenner (University of Göttingen)
18:30 Spatial Chat
Day 2 (Feb. 4)
10:00-11:30 Panel 2: Mobile Memories: Relations and Negotiations
Oliver Reisner (Ilia State University) Deportation of the Germans from Georgia and its afterlife in memories from a comparative perspective.
Helene Henze (Nordost-Institut) A Russian-German “1968”? The Russian-German Departure Movement in a Transnational Context
Alina Jašina-Schäfer (Bundesinstitut für Kultur und Geschichte der Deutschen im östlichen Europa) On hard and dignified labour: Female repatriates remembering socialist past in present Germany.
Discussant: Darja Klingenberg (University Viadrina Frankfurt Oder)
Chair: Dmytro Myeshkov (Nordost-Institut)
11:30-14:00 Break
14:00-15:30 Panel 3: Multiple Identities and Trajectories of Belonging
Nino Aivazishvili-Gehne (University Vienna) “Jewish by Faith, Georgian by Origin”: Multiple Belongings of Migrants from the Former USSR and reconfigurations of community after emigration in Germany.
Cristiana Lucchetti (Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München) Language attitudes and the construction of group identity amongst post-Soviet immigrants in Israel and Germany. A comparative analysis.
Mariana Irby (University of Pennsylvania) Striving for Futures Past: Citizenship and Belonging among Tajik Migrants in Urban Russia.
Discussant: Concha Maria Höfler (Nottingham Trent University)
Chair : Alina Jašina-Schäfer (Bundesinstitut für Kultur und Geschichte der Deutschen im östlichen Europa)
15:30-16:00 Break (incl. 10 Mins of Sitting Yoga with Anke Hilbrenner)
16:00-17:30 Keynote Lecture II. Tsypylma Darieva (Centre for East European and International Studies): Journey to the Future? Conceptualizing homeland travel and constructing bonds to the homeland (in post-Soviet Armenia and beyond).
Chair: Jannis Panagiotidis (Research Center für the History of Transformations, University Vienna)
17:30 Spatial Chat
Day 3 (Feb. 5)
10:00-11:30 Panel 4: Migration, Resettlement and Spaces of Remembrance
Daniel Gebel (Bundesinstitut für Kultur und Geschichte der Deutschen im östlichen Europa) “In Siberia one was freer”: The ambivalence of the Soviet periphery.
Anna Tchintcharauli (Ilia State University) An official and oral history from the Soviet regime until today: how Soviet politics affected the memory of the Caucasus highlanders.
Ulrike Huhn (University of Göttingen) The Leningrad Jewish independent movement of the 1980s and the quest for Jewish heritage in the Ukrainian and Belarusian shtetls.
Discussant: Joachim Tauber (Nordost-Institut)
Chair: Kerstin Bischl (University of Göttingen)
11:30-12:00 Break
12:00-13:30 Roundtable “Possibilities, boundaries and un/problematic translations of Concepts: Diaspora in focus”
with :
Anke Hilbrenner (University of Göttingen).
Concha Maria Höfler (Nottingham Trent University),
Hans-Christian Petersen (Institute for Migration Research and Intercultural Studies/Bundesinstitut für Kultur und Geschichte der Deutschen im östlichen Europa),
Chair: Jannis Panagiotidis (Research Center für the History of Transformations, University Vienna).