Events / Program: Guests of the Institute

	Title	Date Sort descending	Type	Speakers	Register
	Balaton. Novellen	Mon, 03.05.2021	Lecture	Ludger Hagedorn Noémi Kiss	Facebook-Stream	Balaton. Novellen Mon, 03.05.2021 Speakers: Ludger Hagedorn Noémi Kiss Series: Lecture Ungarn in den 1980er-Jahren: Der Balaton, oder Plattensee, ist ein beliebtes Urlaubsziel. Hier liegen Menschen von beiden Seiten des „Eisernen Vorhangs“ einträchtig nebeneinander am Strand, durch den Mauerbau getrennte Familien machen gemeinsam Ferien. Read more
Balaton. Novellen Mon, 03.05.2021 Speakers: Ludger Hagedorn Noémi Kiss Series: Lecture Ungarn in den 1980er-Jahren: Der Balaton, oder Plattensee, ist ein beliebtes Urlaubsziel. Hier liegen Menschen von beiden Seiten des „Eisernen Vorhangs“ einträchtig nebeneinander am Strand, durch den Mauerbau getrennte Familien machen gemeinsam Ferien. Read more
	Alien Logic	Tue, 11.05.2021	Lecture	Ayşe Çağlar Martin Burckhardt Timothy Snyder		Alien Logic Tue, 11.05.2021 Speakers: Ayşe Çağlar Martin Burckhardt Timothy Snyder Series: Lecture Bronislaw Malinowski has shown with his ethnological studies that a supposedly primitive society can be of astonishing complexity, as well as why the structure of this order remains obscure to its members. Obviously, modern societies also suffer from system blindness – why else is digitization said to have chiliastic, diabolic, magical powers? In a continuation to his cultural-theoretical investigations on the genealogy and philosophy of the machine, Martin Burckhardt explores the question of how the self-enchantment of rationality can occur, and to what extent the operating system of the attention economy can be read as an outsourced unconscious. This, in turn, leads back to the point of departure: what perspective must a contemporary social anthropologist take in order to read the present? Read more
Alien Logic Tue, 11.05.2021 Speakers: Ayşe Çağlar Martin Burckhardt Timothy Snyder Series: Lecture Bronislaw Malinowski has shown with his ethnological studies that a supposedly primitive society can be of astonishing complexity, as well as why the structure of this order remains obscure to its members. Obviously, modern societies also suffer from system blindness – why else is digitization said to have chiliastic, diabolic, magical powers? In a continuation to his cultural-theoretical investigations on the genealogy and philosophy of the machine, Martin Burckhardt explores the question of how the self-enchantment of rationality can occur, and to what extent the operating system of the attention economy can be read as an outsourced unconscious. This, in turn, leads back to the point of departure: what perspective must a contemporary social anthropologist take in order to read the present? Read more
	History of the Shoah and Politics of History in Post-Communist Lithuania	Tue, 08.06.2021	Lecture	Christoph Dieckmann Marci Shore Viktoras Bachmetjevas		History of the Shoah and Politics of History in Post-Communist Lithuania Tue, 08.06.2021 Speakers: Christoph Dieckmann Marci Shore Viktoras Bachmetjevas Series: Lecture History has become a deeply contentious topic in the post-communist space, particularly with regard to World War II, Communism, and Nationalism. Memories are not static, and our increasing historical knowledge is embedded within a dynamic contemporary context. This means that both history and the politics of history are developing and changing. Christoph Dieckmann, one of the leading historians of the German occupation in Lithuania, shared his experiences and impressions of the politics of history in Eastern Europe from the perspective of a German historian. Read more
History of the Shoah and Politics of History in Post-Communist Lithuania Tue, 08.06.2021 Speakers: Christoph Dieckmann Marci Shore Viktoras Bachmetjevas Series: Lecture History has become a deeply contentious topic in the post-communist space, particularly with regard to World War II, Communism, and Nationalism. Memories are not static, and our increasing historical knowledge is embedded within a dynamic contemporary context. This means that both history and the politics of history are developing and changing. Christoph Dieckmann, one of the leading historians of the German occupation in Lithuania, shared his experiences and impressions of the politics of history in Eastern Europe from the perspective of a German historian. Read more
	Democracy - A Fragile Way of Life	Tue, 15.06.2021	Lecture	Shalini Randeria Till van Rahden		Democracy - A Fragile Way of Life Tue, 15.06.2021 Speakers: Shalini Randeria Till van Rahden Series: Lecture After the Cold War ended, liberal democracy was taken for granted. Now it is in crisis: citizens distrust parliamentary politics, the people’s parties are losing members and votes, and social media are crowding out public debates. Challenging the sense of despair that informs recent studies on how democracy dies, Till van Rahden argued that it might prove more useful to explore what keeps it alive. A fruitful point of departure is the insight that democracy is not only a matter of elections and political parties, constitutions and parliaments, but is grounded in democratic experiences. The attention is less on how democratic government works, but on what equality, freedom, and justice feel like. A focus on democratic forms and aesthetics allows us to revisit the cultural and social foundations of democracy. No matter how stable a democracy may seem, it will wither and perish without ways of life that allow for and encourage democratic experiences. Read more
Democracy - A Fragile Way of Life Tue, 15.06.2021 Speakers: Shalini Randeria Till van Rahden Series: Lecture After the Cold War ended, liberal democracy was taken for granted. Now it is in crisis: citizens distrust parliamentary politics, the people’s parties are losing members and votes, and social media are crowding out public debates. Challenging the sense of despair that informs recent studies on how democracy dies, Till van Rahden argued that it might prove more useful to explore what keeps it alive. A fruitful point of departure is the insight that democracy is not only a matter of elections and political parties, constitutions and parliaments, but is grounded in democratic experiences. The attention is less on how democratic government works, but on what equality, freedom, and justice feel like. A focus on democratic forms and aesthetics allows us to revisit the cultural and social foundations of democracy. No matter how stable a democracy may seem, it will wither and perish without ways of life that allow for and encourage democratic experiences. Read more
	The Death and Rebirth of Democratic Internationalism: Controversies and Possibilities	Mon, 22.11.2021	Lecture	Claus Offe Ludger Hagedorn Micheline Ishay		The Death and Rebirth of Democratic Internationalism: Controversies and Possibilities Mon, 22.11.2021 Speakers: Claus Offe Ludger Hagedorn Micheline Ishay Series: Lecture The current nationalist wave has dampened hopes of managing an array of global challenges: economic, social, environmental, and public health emergencies, along with planning for the long-term impacts of technological innovations in fields like artificial intelligence and bioengineering. This lecture addressed how a new internationalism could reinvigorate policies promoting global governance based on universal human rights. It addressed three questions: what can we learn from past internationalist movements toward a liberal global order? How did the neoliberal order, established after the Cold War, lead to today’s chronic crises? What are possibilities for a future and robust internationalism encompassing three levels: civil society, the state, and global governance? Read more
The Death and Rebirth of Democratic Internationalism: Controversies and Possibilities Mon, 22.11.2021 Speakers: Claus Offe Ludger Hagedorn Micheline Ishay Series: Lecture The current nationalist wave has dampened hopes of managing an array of global challenges: economic, social, environmental, and public health emergencies, along with planning for the long-term impacts of technological innovations in fields like artificial intelligence and bioengineering. This lecture addressed how a new internationalism could reinvigorate policies promoting global governance based on universal human rights. It addressed three questions: what can we learn from past internationalist movements toward a liberal global order? How did the neoliberal order, established after the Cold War, lead to today’s chronic crises? What are possibilities for a future and robust internationalism encompassing three levels: civil society, the state, and global governance? Read more
	The “Sunny” Side Of The Holocaust. Dr. Endre Szántó’s Photo Album From His Forced Labour Service, 1940	Mon, 29.11.2021	Seminars and Colloquia	András Lénárt Ludger HagedornIngo Zechner		The “Sunny” Side Of The Holocaust. Dr. Endre Szántó’s Photo Album From His Forced Labour Service, 1940 Mon, 29.11.2021 Speakers: András Lénárt Ludger HagedornIngo Zechner Series: Seminars and Colloquia “Millions of images taken by SS propaganda teams and a smaller number of photographs taken by victims, bystanders and liberators have survived.” This is possibly the most cited sentence on the topic of Holocaust photography, written by Sybil Milton (Images of the Holocaust, 1986). However, in the case of Hungary only hundreds of images are known, and the systematic exploration of these is yet to take place. Read more
The “Sunny” Side Of The Holocaust. Dr. Endre Szántó’s Photo Album From His Forced Labour Service, 1940 Mon, 29.11.2021 Speakers: András Lénárt Ludger HagedornIngo Zechner Series: Seminars and Colloquia “Millions of images taken by SS propaganda teams and a smaller number of photographs taken by victims, bystanders and liberators have survived.” This is possibly the most cited sentence on the topic of Holocaust photography, written by Sybil Milton (Images of the Holocaust, 1986). However, in the case of Hungary only hundreds of images are known, and the systematic exploration of these is yet to take place. Read more
	Governing through Contradictions.	Tue, 18.01.2022	Seminars and Colloquia	Ayşe Çağlar Ulrike Flader		Governing through Contradictions. Tue, 18.01.2022 Speakers: Ayşe Çağlar Ulrike Flader Series: Seminars and Colloquia Turkey is currently governed by a regime which blurs the line between authoritarian and democratic rule. While some authors tend to interpret this state as a moment of transition towards full authoritarianism, this paper argues that we should rather understand the coevalness of democratic and non-democratic practices as a deliberate and “cunning” mode of government, which we call soft authoritarian. Read more
Governing through Contradictions. Tue, 18.01.2022 Speakers: Ayşe Çağlar Ulrike Flader Series: Seminars and Colloquia Turkey is currently governed by a regime which blurs the line between authoritarian and democratic rule. While some authors tend to interpret this state as a moment of transition towards full authoritarianism, this paper argues that we should rather understand the coevalness of democratic and non-democratic practices as a deliberate and “cunning” mode of government, which we call soft authoritarian. Read more
	Framing (State) Fragility	Mon, 14.02.2022	Seminars and Colloquia	Keith Krause Sebastian Haug		Framing (State) Fragility Mon, 14.02.2022 Speakers: Keith Krause Sebastian Haug Series: Seminars and Colloquia The concept of “state failure,” launched in the early 1990s, and its current incarnation as "state fragility," rapidly became an accepted way to frame interventionary policies and practices of major multilateral actors such as the World Bank and the OECD. This talk will trace the genesis and evolution of the state fragility discourse, focusing on the way in which different organizations and actors have shaped the concept to their particular interests. The interaction of expert knowledge-creation and data with multilateral security and development policies also highlights how certain forms of "knowing the world" have been privileged in the constitution of this field of global public policy. The implications of these indicators for security governance and development assistance policies have been profound, in the Global South and beyond. Read more
Framing (State) Fragility Mon, 14.02.2022 Speakers: Keith Krause Sebastian Haug Series: Seminars and Colloquia The concept of “state failure,” launched in the early 1990s, and its current incarnation as "state fragility," rapidly became an accepted way to frame interventionary policies and practices of major multilateral actors such as the World Bank and the OECD. This talk will trace the genesis and evolution of the state fragility discourse, focusing on the way in which different organizations and actors have shaped the concept to their particular interests. The interaction of expert knowledge-creation and data with multilateral security and development policies also highlights how certain forms of "knowing the world" have been privileged in the constitution of this field of global public policy. The implications of these indicators for security governance and development assistance policies have been profound, in the Global South and beyond. Read more
	Telling History: On Creating the Polish History Museum and its Exhibitions	Mon, 21.02.2022	Seminars and Colloquia	Dariusz Stola Ludger Hagedorn Robert Kostro		Telling History: On Creating the Polish History Museum and its Exhibitions Mon, 21.02.2022 Speakers: Dariusz Stola Ludger Hagedorn Robert Kostro Series: Seminars and Colloquia “Storytelling museum” is a concept which arrived in the museum theory in the 1990s as a part of a broader phenomenon in discourse and practice called the new museology. Among the most important features of that concept was the use of new media and scenography in order to create continuity of a historical narrative. Storytelling is connected with an extensive use of electronically processed iconography and media to construct powerful simulacra appealing both to minds and emotions of visitors. That makes a history museum a powerful instrument of interpreting history and influencing audiences. Therefore, museum professionals are situated between the fields that are ascribed to history as a science and memory as a social and political phenomenon. In his talk, Robert Kostro would like to speak about intellectual and practical challenges that are connected with creating the narrative of the exhibitions in Polish History Museum. He will also place the practice of the historical museology of today in the context of different approaches to storytelling in the past. Read more
Telling History: On Creating the Polish History Museum and its Exhibitions Mon, 21.02.2022 Speakers: Dariusz Stola Ludger Hagedorn Robert Kostro Series: Seminars and Colloquia “Storytelling museum” is a concept which arrived in the museum theory in the 1990s as a part of a broader phenomenon in discourse and practice called the new museology. Among the most important features of that concept was the use of new media and scenography in order to create continuity of a historical narrative. Storytelling is connected with an extensive use of electronically processed iconography and media to construct powerful simulacra appealing both to minds and emotions of visitors. That makes a history museum a powerful instrument of interpreting history and influencing audiences. Therefore, museum professionals are situated between the fields that are ascribed to history as a science and memory as a social and political phenomenon. In his talk, Robert Kostro would like to speak about intellectual and practical challenges that are connected with creating the narrative of the exhibitions in Polish History Museum. He will also place the practice of the historical museology of today in the context of different approaches to storytelling in the past. Read more
	The Declaration of Universal Human Rights at Seventy-Five	Mon, 07.03.2022	Seminars and Colloquia	Adam Sitze Ludger Hagedorn Martin Krygier		The Declaration of Universal Human Rights at Seventy-Five Mon, 07.03.2022 Speakers: Adam Sitze Ludger Hagedorn Martin Krygier Series: Seminars and Colloquia In December 2023, the Declaration of Universal Human Rights (UDHR) will turn seventy-five. This talk anticipates that anniversary by considering the contributions made to the UDHR by the Chinese scholar-diplomat Peng Chun Chang (1892-1957). After discussing Chang’s involvement in the drafting of the UNDR’s Article 1, and in particular its reference to “conscience,” it will ask how, if at all, Chang’s contributions might oblige us to rethink longstanding criticisms of the UDHR’s claim to universality. Read more
The Declaration of Universal Human Rights at Seventy-Five Mon, 07.03.2022 Speakers: Adam Sitze Ludger Hagedorn Martin Krygier Series: Seminars and Colloquia In December 2023, the Declaration of Universal Human Rights (UDHR) will turn seventy-five. This talk anticipates that anniversary by considering the contributions made to the UDHR by the Chinese scholar-diplomat Peng Chun Chang (1892-1957). After discussing Chang’s involvement in the drafting of the UNDR’s Article 1, and in particular its reference to “conscience,” it will ask how, if at all, Chang’s contributions might oblige us to rethink longstanding criticisms of the UDHR’s claim to universality. Read more