Past Events

	Title	Date	Type	Speakers
	The Limits of Migration Control	Tue, 22.03.2022, 18:00	Lecture	Dariusz Stola Ivan Vejvoda Ranabir Samaddar	The Limits of Migration Control What We Can Learn from Polish Communists (now that they are gone) Tue, 22.03.2022, 18:00 Speakers: Dariusz Stola Ivan Vejvoda Ranabir Samaddar Series: Lecture Thanks to a historically unprecedented system of police control, transnational mobility from European communist states is probably the best documented social phenomenon of its kind and a unique experiment in the limits of the state control of mobility. This lecture presented some of the conclusions of Stola’s research project on migrations from communist Poland. These migrations underwent a marked evolution, from the movement of millions of people in the 1940s; to almost nil under the non-exit policy of the early 1950s; to the reemergence and gradual expansion of transnational mobility, especially within the Soviet bloc, between 1956 and 1980; to mass population flows in the late 1980s. Each trip outside the bloc, and indeed each trip abroad for most of the duration of communist rule, required applying for a permit from the Security Service. This procedure resulted in an archival collection of passport files that fills some 60 kilometers of shelf space. Despite the constraints, more than two million people eventually left Poland for good, and temporary movements occurred on a mass scale, pioneering forms of mobility that continued well after 1989. This lecture shed light on the key factors and currents of migration in communist Poland, as well as the evolution of the migration regime, from early imitation of the Soviet model to its eventual implosion. Read more
The Limits of Migration Control What We Can Learn from Polish Communists (now that they are gone) Tue, 22.03.2022, 18:00 Speakers: Dariusz Stola Ivan Vejvoda Ranabir Samaddar Series: Lecture Thanks to a historically unprecedented system of police control, transnational mobility from European communist states is probably the best documented social phenomenon of its kind and a unique experiment in the limits of the state control of mobility. This lecture presented some of the conclusions of Stola’s research project on migrations from communist Poland. These migrations underwent a marked evolution, from the movement of millions of people in the 1940s; to almost nil under the non-exit policy of the early 1950s; to the reemergence and gradual expansion of transnational mobility, especially within the Soviet bloc, between 1956 and 1980; to mass population flows in the late 1980s. Each trip outside the bloc, and indeed each trip abroad for most of the duration of communist rule, required applying for a permit from the Security Service. This procedure resulted in an archival collection of passport files that fills some 60 kilometers of shelf space. Despite the constraints, more than two million people eventually left Poland for good, and temporary movements occurred on a mass scale, pioneering forms of mobility that continued well after 1989. This lecture shed light on the key factors and currents of migration in communist Poland, as well as the evolution of the migration regime, from early imitation of the Soviet model to its eventual implosion. Read more
	The ‘Authoritarian International’	Mon, 21.03.2022, 16:00	Seminars and Colloquia	Ludger Hagedorn Martin Krygier Ricardo Pagliuso Regatieri	The ‘Authoritarian International’ Contemporary Far-Right Wing and Politics of Irrationality: Brazil in a Global Context Mon, 21.03.2022, 16:00 Speakers: Ludger Hagedorn Martin Krygier Ricardo Pagliuso Regatieri Series: Seminars and Colloquia Ricardo Regatieri offered a Zeitdiagnose of the contemporary world focusing on lies and conspiracy theories in the age of internet, and showed how the political and communicational environment has been fertile for the rise of far-right wing leaders, parties and movements on the global level. Following that, he presented five key elements of bolsonarismo, pointing out its political rhetoric and practical consequences. He proposed that Bolsonaro and bolsonarismo can only be properly understood when considered in the intersection between global tendencies and local drivers. Read more
The ‘Authoritarian International’ Contemporary Far-Right Wing and Politics of Irrationality: Brazil in a Global Context Mon, 21.03.2022, 16:00 Speakers: Ludger Hagedorn Martin Krygier Ricardo Pagliuso Regatieri Series: Seminars and Colloquia Ricardo Regatieri offered a Zeitdiagnose of the contemporary world focusing on lies and conspiracy theories in the age of internet, and showed how the political and communicational environment has been fertile for the rise of far-right wing leaders, parties and movements on the global level. Following that, he presented five key elements of bolsonarismo, pointing out its political rhetoric and practical consequences. He proposed that Bolsonaro and bolsonarismo can only be properly understood when considered in the intersection between global tendencies and local drivers. Read more
	War in Europe – Again	Sun, 20.03.2022, 11:00	Panels and Discussions	Dariusz Stola Ivan Vejvoda Serhii PlokhiiChristine Ockrent, Cathryn Clüver Ashbrook	War in Europe – Again Debating Europe - Europa im Diskurs Sun, 20.03.2022, 11:00 Speakers: Dariusz Stola Ivan Vejvoda Serhii PlokhiiChristine Ockrent, Cathryn Clüver Ashbrook Series: Panels and Discussions Diplomatic efforts between the US, Europe and Russia have failed dismally. Russia has invaded Ukraine, a sovereign European nation, with a massive military onslaught. An independent European country is being subjected to an attempt at recolonization. The world order created after 1989 has been disrupted and Europe is on the back foot. Europe and the United States are responding through sanctions and support to Ukraine. Some are calling this “Putin’s war”. How far will Russia go? Is the intent regime change in Kyiv? Is Ukraine the endgame? Will it end up in a quagmire with fierce civil resistance? Is the West’s response adequate to the challenge? Is this a second Cold War? And is Putin “isolating” Europe by strengthening his alliance with China? What is the future of Europe’s geopolitical promise of being a strategic actor? Read more
War in Europe – Again Debating Europe - Europa im Diskurs Sun, 20.03.2022, 11:00 Speakers: Dariusz Stola Ivan Vejvoda Serhii PlokhiiChristine Ockrent, Cathryn Clüver Ashbrook Series: Panels and Discussions Diplomatic efforts between the US, Europe and Russia have failed dismally. Russia has invaded Ukraine, a sovereign European nation, with a massive military onslaught. An independent European country is being subjected to an attempt at recolonization. The world order created after 1989 has been disrupted and Europe is on the back foot. Europe and the United States are responding through sanctions and support to Ukraine. Some are calling this “Putin’s war”. How far will Russia go? Is the intent regime change in Kyiv? Is Ukraine the endgame? Will it end up in a quagmire with fierce civil resistance? Is the West’s response adequate to the challenge? Is this a second Cold War? And is Putin “isolating” Europe by strengthening his alliance with China? What is the future of Europe’s geopolitical promise of being a strategic actor? Read more
	Digital Humanism	Thu, 17.03.2022, 18:00	Lecture	Hannes Werthner Ludger Hagedorn Nena MočnikHenriette Spyra, Michael Wiesmüller	Digital Humanism A New Fellowship Program in Cooperation with the Federal Ministry for Climate Action Thu, 17.03.2022, 18:00 Speakers: Hannes Werthner Ludger Hagedorn Nena MočnikHenriette Spyra, Michael Wiesmüller Series: Lecture A New Fellowship Program in Cooperation with the Federal Ministry for Climate Action Read more

	European Strategic Autonomy - What Now in the Western Balkans	Tue, 15.03.2022, 18:00	Panels and Discussions	Ioannis Armakolas	European Strategic Autonomy - What Now in the Western Balkans A Europe's Futures Event Tue, 15.03.2022, 18:00 Speakers: Ioannis Armakolas Series: Panels and Discussions The Russian invasion of Ukraine is a watershed moment for the European Union’s geopolitical ambitions. It also brings the Western Balkans back on the strategic map. In this region in Europe, uncompleted reform processes, persisting socio-economic fragilities, ethnonational and bilateral issues and stalled EU accession perspectives have lastingly fuelled key vulnerabilities, which external actors, like Russia, have been keen on exploiting. What is the impact, actual and potential, of the Russian war in Ukraine on the Western Balkans? How to align the enlargement policy with the EU’s crucial quest for strategic autonomy? What are Member states’ national perspectives on these important questions? Read more
European Strategic Autonomy - What Now in the Western Balkans A Europe's Futures Event Tue, 15.03.2022, 18:00 Speakers: Ioannis Armakolas Series: Panels and Discussions The Russian invasion of Ukraine is a watershed moment for the European Union’s geopolitical ambitions. It also brings the Western Balkans back on the strategic map. In this region in Europe, uncompleted reform processes, persisting socio-economic fragilities, ethnonational and bilateral issues and stalled EU accession perspectives have lastingly fuelled key vulnerabilities, which external actors, like Russia, have been keen on exploiting. What is the impact, actual and potential, of the Russian war in Ukraine on the Western Balkans? How to align the enlargement policy with the EU’s crucial quest for strategic autonomy? What are Member states’ national perspectives on these important questions? Read more
	The Future of Work: Is Artificial Intelligence a New Road to Serfdom?	Tue, 15.03.2022, 18:00	Lecture	Robert Skidelsky	The Future of Work: Is Artificial Intelligence a New Road to Serfdom? Lecture and Discussion with Lord Robert Skidelsky Tue, 15.03.2022, 18:00 Speakers: Robert Skidelsky Series: Lecture In contemporary discussions about the future of artificial intelligence we often lose our heads. While economists offer bleak predictions of mass job losses and a deepening of already widespread precarity, Silicon Valley utopians insist that new technologies are bringing us ever closer together and will one day deliver us from work, disease and poverty. But when human life is reduced to a set of rational processes waiting to be optimized, we risk losing sight of the irreducible quality of human experience. The talk shed new light on the dream of machinery and the entailed dichotomy of liberation versus control. With his characteristic attention to the subtleties of the human condition, Robert Skidelsky offered a challenging account of what it means to pursue the good life in the age of the machines. Read more
The Future of Work: Is Artificial Intelligence a New Road to Serfdom? Lecture and Discussion with Lord Robert Skidelsky Tue, 15.03.2022, 18:00 Speakers: Robert Skidelsky Series: Lecture In contemporary discussions about the future of artificial intelligence we often lose our heads. While economists offer bleak predictions of mass job losses and a deepening of already widespread precarity, Silicon Valley utopians insist that new technologies are bringing us ever closer together and will one day deliver us from work, disease and poverty. But when human life is reduced to a set of rational processes waiting to be optimized, we risk losing sight of the irreducible quality of human experience. The talk shed new light on the dream of machinery and the entailed dichotomy of liberation versus control. With his characteristic attention to the subtleties of the human condition, Robert Skidelsky offered a challenging account of what it means to pursue the good life in the age of the machines. Read more
	Der Krieg ist wie Giftmüll im Fluss	Fri, 11.03.2022, 19:30	Other	Raphaela Edelbauer, Milena Michiko Flašar, Karl-Markus Gauß, Sabine Gruber, Maja Haderlap, Tanja Maljartschuk, Barbi Markovic, Doron Rabinovici, Christoph Ransmayr, Robert Schindel, Ferdinand Schmalz, Franz Schuh	Der Krieg ist wie Giftmüll im Fluss Stimmen für die Ukraine Fri, 11.03.2022, 19:30 Speakers: Raphaela Edelbauer, Milena Michiko Flašar, Karl-Markus Gauß, Sabine Gruber, Maja Haderlap, Tanja Maljartschuk, Barbi Markovic, Doron Rabinovici, Christoph Ransmayr, Robert Schindel, Ferdinand Schmalz, Franz Schuh Series: Other Österreichische Autorinnen und Autoren lesen Texte von Literatinnen und Literaten aus der Ukraine, aber auch aus Belarus und Russland. Diese literarischen Stimmen zeugen von der Gegenwart des Krieges gegen die Ukraine, vom Mut der Menschen, der Solidarität und der Poesie trotz allem. Read more
Der Krieg ist wie Giftmüll im Fluss Stimmen für die Ukraine Fri, 11.03.2022, 19:30 Speakers: Raphaela Edelbauer, Milena Michiko Flašar, Karl-Markus Gauß, Sabine Gruber, Maja Haderlap, Tanja Maljartschuk, Barbi Markovic, Doron Rabinovici, Christoph Ransmayr, Robert Schindel, Ferdinand Schmalz, Franz Schuh Series: Other Österreichische Autorinnen und Autoren lesen Texte von Literatinnen und Literaten aus der Ukraine, aber auch aus Belarus und Russland. Diese literarischen Stimmen zeugen von der Gegenwart des Krieges gegen die Ukraine, vom Mut der Menschen, der Solidarität und der Poesie trotz allem. Read more
	War in Ukraine and Universal Values	Fri, 11.03.2022, 17:00	Panels and Discussions	Philipp Blom Serhii Plokhii Timothy Snyder	War in Ukraine and Universal Values Fri, 11.03.2022, 17:00 Speakers: Philipp Blom Serhii Plokhii Timothy Snyder Series: Panels and Discussions On 24 February 2022, Russia invaded Ukraine, launching a full-scale war of aggression. This war is the product of imperialism rooted in historical fantasy, intended to deny Ukraine the fundamental right to exist. It is enabled by the Putin regime’s longstanding assault on the very notion of truth. While Ukrainians are left to defend their country, what is at stake goes far beyond the borders of Ukraine. Read more
War in Ukraine and Universal Values Fri, 11.03.2022, 17:00 Speakers: Philipp Blom Serhii Plokhii Timothy Snyder Series: Panels and Discussions On 24 February 2022, Russia invaded Ukraine, launching a full-scale war of aggression. This war is the product of imperialism rooted in historical fantasy, intended to deny Ukraine the fundamental right to exist. It is enabled by the Putin regime’s longstanding assault on the very notion of truth. While Ukrainians are left to defend their country, what is at stake goes far beyond the borders of Ukraine. Read more
	The Declaration of Universal Human Rights at Seventy-Five	Mon, 07.03.2022, 16:00	Seminars and Colloquia	Adam Sitze Ludger Hagedorn Martin Krygier	The Declaration of Universal Human Rights at Seventy-Five Mon, 07.03.2022, 16:00 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, 16:00 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
	No End to History	Tue, 01.03.2022, 18:00	Lecture	Katherine Younger Serhii Plokhii	No End to History The Post-Soviet Space Thirty Years after the Fall of the USSR Tue, 01.03.2022, 18:00 Speakers: Katherine Younger Serhii Plokhii Series: Lecture Thirty years ago, the world lived through one of the most optimistic moments of the 20th century. Communism—and the Soviet Union with it—had collapsed, the Cold War had come to an end, and democracy was on the rise around the globe. We are now in probably the grimmest moment since the start of the 21st century. The Cold War is making its way back, hot war has returned to the geographic center of Europe, and democracy is facing the most profound challenges since the end of World War II. Nowhere were the expectations for the arrival of a new era so high, and nowhere did they crash with such tragic consequences, as in the former Soviet space. Looking back, we see that 1991 did not mark the end of history, either as the ideological evolution of humankind or as a scholarly discipline that has documented the lengthy and painful disintegration of most of the world’s empires. What we see today is the continuing process of the disintegration of the USSR, complete with efforts to establish spheres of influence, border disputes, and open warfare. We also see Russia’s return to the international scene as it attempts to claim the role of not only a regional but also a global power, akin to the role played by the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union. In this lecture Serhii Plokhii will discuss the developments of the last thirty years in the lands that once belonged to the USSR, bringing history in to explain the most recent developments in the region. Read more
No End to History The Post-Soviet Space Thirty Years after the Fall of the USSR Tue, 01.03.2022, 18:00 Speakers: Katherine Younger Serhii Plokhii Series: Lecture Thirty years ago, the world lived through one of the most optimistic moments of the 20th century. Communism—and the Soviet Union with it—had collapsed, the Cold War had come to an end, and democracy was on the rise around the globe. We are now in probably the grimmest moment since the start of the 21st century. The Cold War is making its way back, hot war has returned to the geographic center of Europe, and democracy is facing the most profound challenges since the end of World War II. Nowhere were the expectations for the arrival of a new era so high, and nowhere did they crash with such tragic consequences, as in the former Soviet space. Looking back, we see that 1991 did not mark the end of history, either as the ideological evolution of humankind or as a scholarly discipline that has documented the lengthy and painful disintegration of most of the world’s empires. What we see today is the continuing process of the disintegration of the USSR, complete with efforts to establish spheres of influence, border disputes, and open warfare. We also see Russia’s return to the international scene as it attempts to claim the role of not only a regional but also a global power, akin to the role played by the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union. In this lecture Serhii Plokhii will discuss the developments of the last thirty years in the lands that once belonged to the USSR, bringing history in to explain the most recent developments in the region. Read more