Past Events

	Title	Date	Type	Speakers
	The Crisis of Liberal Democracy Today. Is Meritocracy to Blame?	Mon, 31.01.2022, 16:00	Seminars and Colloquia	Ruzha Smilova Ivan Krastev	The Crisis of Liberal Democracy Today. Is Meritocracy to Blame? Mon, 31.01.2022, 16:00 Speakers: Ruzha Smilova Ivan Krastev Series: Seminars and Colloquia The crisis of liberal democracy hardly makes the news today: so often has its imminent death been announced. Yet over the last 15 years organizations responsible for monitoring freedom and democracy in the world have reported a trend of globally declining quality of democracy. Over the course of the Covid-19 pandemic, the pace of this trend has accelerated. Different hypotheses for what went wrong have been advanced. Read more
The Crisis of Liberal Democracy Today. Is Meritocracy to Blame? Mon, 31.01.2022, 16:00 Speakers: Ruzha Smilova Ivan Krastev Series: Seminars and Colloquia The crisis of liberal democracy hardly makes the news today: so often has its imminent death been announced. Yet over the last 15 years organizations responsible for monitoring freedom and democracy in the world have reported a trend of globally declining quality of democracy. Over the course of the Covid-19 pandemic, the pace of this trend has accelerated. Different hypotheses for what went wrong have been advanced. Read more
	North Macedonia As A Test-Case For Europe’s Credibility	Wed, 26.01.2022, 11:00	Panels and Discussions	Ivan Vejvoda Ruzha Smilova Zoran NechevNikola Dimitrov	North Macedonia As A Test-Case For Europe’s Credibility Europe's Futures Panel Discussion Wed, 26.01.2022, 11:00 Speakers: Ivan Vejvoda Ruzha Smilova Zoran NechevNikola Dimitrov Series: Panels and Discussions North Macedonia - after the historic Prespa Agreement reached with Greece in June 2018 - has been blocked from moving forward on its EU accession path from October 2019 by France and since last year by Bulgaria. Albania's EU fate is coupled to that of North Macedonia. This issue has a broader significance for the EU enlargement policy as well as for the credibility of the EU as a peace project and for its declared geostrategic goals. Read more
North Macedonia As A Test-Case For Europe’s Credibility Europe's Futures Panel Discussion Wed, 26.01.2022, 11:00 Speakers: Ivan Vejvoda Ruzha Smilova Zoran NechevNikola Dimitrov Series: Panels and Discussions North Macedonia - after the historic Prespa Agreement reached with Greece in June 2018 - has been blocked from moving forward on its EU accession path from October 2019 by France and since last year by Bulgaria. Albania's EU fate is coupled to that of North Macedonia. This issue has a broader significance for the EU enlargement policy as well as for the credibility of the EU as a peace project and for its declared geostrategic goals. Read more
	Shifting Sands: The Lure of “Alignments a la Carte” and the True Meaning of “America is Back”	Tue, 25.01.2022, 18:00	Lecture	Soli Özel Ivan Krastev	Shifting Sands: The Lure of “Alignments a la Carte” and the True Meaning of “America is Back” Tue, 25.01.2022, 18:00 Speakers: Soli Özel Ivan Krastev Series: Lecture Because the Trump administration was such a harrowing experience for most European countries, for the EU itself and many others around the world the election of Joe Biden resulted in a deep sigh of relief. In power, Biden moved fast domestically and talked the good talk towards allies in various platforms. Yet, nearly ten months into his term Biden’s policies suggest a surprising degree of continuity with his immediate predecessor. He is also finally putting more substance into President Obama’s “pivot to Asia” strategy. In an age when the United States turns its attention and most of its resources to competing with China and containing Beijing’s ambition, what is Europe to do? In light of the American nonchalance about European allies, is the “strategic autonomy” championed by President Macron of France the way out? Should Europeans really choose between China and the US as Washington clearly wants them to? Would German disdain for claiming strategic leadership and the Europeans’ own complacency turn Europe into a geopolitical void? The new era in international relations is full of surprises and fluidity. Nimble political reflexes and strategic will are of utmost importance. Will the EU deploy them where it can and must? Read more
Shifting Sands: The Lure of “Alignments a la Carte” and the True Meaning of “America is Back” Tue, 25.01.2022, 18:00 Speakers: Soli Özel Ivan Krastev Series: Lecture Because the Trump administration was such a harrowing experience for most European countries, for the EU itself and many others around the world the election of Joe Biden resulted in a deep sigh of relief. In power, Biden moved fast domestically and talked the good talk towards allies in various platforms. Yet, nearly ten months into his term Biden’s policies suggest a surprising degree of continuity with his immediate predecessor. He is also finally putting more substance into President Obama’s “pivot to Asia” strategy. In an age when the United States turns its attention and most of its resources to competing with China and containing Beijing’s ambition, what is Europe to do? In light of the American nonchalance about European allies, is the “strategic autonomy” championed by President Macron of France the way out? Should Europeans really choose between China and the US as Washington clearly wants them to? Would German disdain for claiming strategic leadership and the Europeans’ own complacency turn Europe into a geopolitical void? The new era in international relations is full of surprises and fluidity. Nimble political reflexes and strategic will are of utmost importance. Will the EU deploy them where it can and must? Read more
	Governing through Contradictions.	Tue, 18.01.2022, 16:00	Seminars and Colloquia	Ayşe Çağlar Ulrike Flader	Governing through Contradictions. Soft Authoritarianism and the Affective Management of the Opposition in Turkey Tue, 18.01.2022, 16:00 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. Soft Authoritarianism and the Affective Management of the Opposition in Turkey Tue, 18.01.2022, 16:00 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
	Slavic Bazaar: Performances and Instrumentalizations of the Slavic discourse 1791 - 2017	Mon, 10.01.2022, 16:00	Seminars and Colloquia	Katherine Younger Ludger Hagedorn Tomáš Glanc	Slavic Bazaar: Performances and Instrumentalizations of the Slavic discourse 1791 - 2017 Mon, 10.01.2022, 16:00 Speakers: Katherine Younger Ludger Hagedorn Tomáš Glanc Series: Seminars and Colloquia The ideology of Slavic unity and reciprocity has been a crucial pattern of European thought and culture since the beginning of the 19th century, and it is still relevant today. In his presentation, Tomáš Glanc will discuss the development, the teleology, and the typologies of this heterogeneous discourse. The talk will outline performative practices of “Slaventum” rich in contradictions, geopolitical phantasms and geopoetic fictions. Glanc will use examples from different disciplines such as literature, art, linguistics, but also referring to political essays, institutional history, and the history of gymnastics. Read more
Slavic Bazaar: Performances and Instrumentalizations of the Slavic discourse 1791 - 2017 Mon, 10.01.2022, 16:00 Speakers: Katherine Younger Ludger Hagedorn Tomáš Glanc Series: Seminars and Colloquia The ideology of Slavic unity and reciprocity has been a crucial pattern of European thought and culture since the beginning of the 19th century, and it is still relevant today. In his presentation, Tomáš Glanc will discuss the development, the teleology, and the typologies of this heterogeneous discourse. The talk will outline performative practices of “Slaventum” rich in contradictions, geopolitical phantasms and geopoetic fictions. Glanc will use examples from different disciplines such as literature, art, linguistics, but also referring to political essays, institutional history, and the history of gymnastics. Read more
	The Post-Coloniality of Asylum Infrastructure	Mon, 13.12.2021, 17:00	Seminars and Colloquia	Ayşe ÇağlarPaolo Novak	The Post-Coloniality of Asylum Infrastructure Mon, 13.12.2021, 17:00 Speakers: Ayşe ÇağlarPaolo Novak Series: Seminars and Colloquia This presentation takes as its object of analysis and investigation asylum seekers’ reception centres in a central Italian province. It builds upon literature concerned with the logistification of asylum to conceive these centres as nodes of the EU humanitarian border, yet it moves beyond the exclusive concern with the migrant-border dialectic that characterises most literature on the subject. In its attempt to dig deeper into the social ontology of the humanitarian border, the presentation de-centres the logistical gaze cast on asylum management characterising this literature by foregrounding instead the productive relation between the humanitarian border and the place-specific social dynamics that explain its emergence and reproduction in concrete settings. Accounting for the multiple and variegated histories, stories, agencies and trajectories that become entangled in the rooms of these reception centres, the paper argues that critical border scholars need to move beyond an exclusive concern with the border-migrant dialectic, and to reorient our attention towards an appreciation of borders’ place-specific configurations. In bringing to the fore the unevenness of these entanglements in each of these reception centres, the presentation also suggests recalibrating contemporary concerns with the coloniality of asylum, of migration, and of infrastructure. The expression ‘postcoloniality of asylum infrastructure’ wants to entangle colonial world-making legacies with everyday practices of place-making. Read more
The Post-Coloniality of Asylum Infrastructure Mon, 13.12.2021, 17:00 Speakers: Ayşe ÇağlarPaolo Novak Series: Seminars and Colloquia This presentation takes as its object of analysis and investigation asylum seekers’ reception centres in a central Italian province. It builds upon literature concerned with the logistification of asylum to conceive these centres as nodes of the EU humanitarian border, yet it moves beyond the exclusive concern with the migrant-border dialectic that characterises most literature on the subject. In its attempt to dig deeper into the social ontology of the humanitarian border, the presentation de-centres the logistical gaze cast on asylum management characterising this literature by foregrounding instead the productive relation between the humanitarian border and the place-specific social dynamics that explain its emergence and reproduction in concrete settings. Accounting for the multiple and variegated histories, stories, agencies and trajectories that become entangled in the rooms of these reception centres, the paper argues that critical border scholars need to move beyond an exclusive concern with the border-migrant dialectic, and to reorient our attention towards an appreciation of borders’ place-specific configurations. In bringing to the fore the unevenness of these entanglements in each of these reception centres, the presentation also suggests recalibrating contemporary concerns with the coloniality of asylum, of migration, and of infrastructure. The expression ‘postcoloniality of asylum infrastructure’ wants to entangle colonial world-making legacies with everyday practices of place-making. Read more
	Limits and Divisions of Human Histories	Tue, 07.12.2021, 18:00	Lecture	Andrzej Nowak Katherine Younger Ludger Hagedorn	Limits and Divisions of Human Histories A Contemporary Eastern European Perspective on Reinhart Koselleck's Historical Anthropology Tue, 07.12.2021, 18:00 Speakers: Andrzej Nowak Katherine Younger Ludger Hagedorn Series: Lecture The theory of history, as presented by Reinhart Koselleck (1923-2006), offers an intellectually tempting structure of three anthropological distinctions that prescribe figures of all possible histories (individual and collective): sooner or later, inside and outside, above and below. The first one signifies the span between being born and having to die, which makes every life unique and at the same time part of a particular generational experience. It could also be rendered as “old” and “new”. Uses of the second pair might be analysed as a contrast between public and private, or as a contemporary fear stemming from the contrast between “home” and “intruders”. The third pair Andrzej Nowak will try to “translate” not just in “master” and “slave” categories, but rather as “pupil” and “teacher”, or even “therapist” and “patient”. Nowak will try to read Koselleck’s structure in a perspective offered by spatial/temporal concepts of contemporary “Europe in progress” (or “Europe in crisis”), as well as in another, non-political perspective of esthetic renditions of the three above mentioned Koselleck’s abstract pairs ¬ in Andrzej Wajda’s “Birchwood” movie, the last scene of Richard Strauss’s “Rosenkavalier”, and in Philip Larkin’s poem: “An Arundel Tomb”. The question is whether love can be included into these conflicting pairs as a possible factor transcending their structures? Read more
Limits and Divisions of Human Histories A Contemporary Eastern European Perspective on Reinhart Koselleck's Historical Anthropology Tue, 07.12.2021, 18:00 Speakers: Andrzej Nowak Katherine Younger Ludger Hagedorn Series: Lecture The theory of history, as presented by Reinhart Koselleck (1923-2006), offers an intellectually tempting structure of three anthropological distinctions that prescribe figures of all possible histories (individual and collective): sooner or later, inside and outside, above and below. The first one signifies the span between being born and having to die, which makes every life unique and at the same time part of a particular generational experience. It could also be rendered as “old” and “new”. Uses of the second pair might be analysed as a contrast between public and private, or as a contemporary fear stemming from the contrast between “home” and “intruders”. The third pair Andrzej Nowak will try to “translate” not just in “master” and “slave” categories, but rather as “pupil” and “teacher”, or even “therapist” and “patient”. Nowak will try to read Koselleck’s structure in a perspective offered by spatial/temporal concepts of contemporary “Europe in progress” (or “Europe in crisis”), as well as in another, non-political perspective of esthetic renditions of the three above mentioned Koselleck’s abstract pairs ¬ in Andrzej Wajda’s “Birchwood” movie, the last scene of Richard Strauss’s “Rosenkavalier”, and in Philip Larkin’s poem: “An Arundel Tomb”. The question is whether love can be included into these conflicting pairs as a possible factor transcending their structures? Read more
	The One That Got Away / Everyday Life During Armed Conflicts	Mon, 06.12.2021, 16:00	Seminars and Colloquia	Dimiter Kenarov Keith Krause Ludger Hagedorn Paweł Pieniążek Soli Özel	The One That Got Away / Everyday Life During Armed Conflicts Joint Fellows Colloquium Mon, 06.12.2021, 16:00 Speakers: Dimiter Kenarov Keith Krause Ludger Hagedorn Paweł Pieniążek Soli Özel Series: Seminars and Colloquia In this Joint Fellows Colloquium we had presentations from two of our current Fellows, both from the Milena Jesenská Fellowship Program for Journalists, Dimitar Kenarov and Paweł Pieniążek. Dimitar Kenarov is a freelance journalist and poet based in Sofia, Bulgaria. Paweł Pieniążek is a Polish journalist covering conflicts in Eastern Europe and the Middle East. Read more
The One That Got Away / Everyday Life During Armed Conflicts Joint Fellows Colloquium Mon, 06.12.2021, 16:00 Speakers: Dimiter Kenarov Keith Krause Ludger Hagedorn Paweł Pieniążek Soli Özel Series: Seminars and Colloquia In this Joint Fellows Colloquium we had presentations from two of our current Fellows, both from the Milena Jesenská Fellowship Program for Journalists, Dimitar Kenarov and Paweł Pieniążek. Dimitar Kenarov is a freelance journalist and poet based in Sofia, Bulgaria. Paweł Pieniążek is a Polish journalist covering conflicts in Eastern Europe and the Middle East. Read more
	Junior Visiting Fellows’ Conference Winter 2021	Fri, 03.12.2021, 09:30	Conferences and Workshops	Ayşe Çağlar Filip Milačić Františka Schormová Geoffrey Aung Giorgia Donà Jeremy Adelman Katherine Younger Mallika Leuzinger Oksana Klymenko Pavel Horák Ruzha Smilova Sebastian Haug Teresa Baron Victoria Fomina Doğuş ŞimşekStefan Segi, Julian Strube	Junior Visiting Fellows’ Conference Winter 2021 Fri, 03.12.2021, 09:30 Speakers: Ayşe Çağlar Filip Milačić Františka Schormová Geoffrey Aung Giorgia Donà Jeremy Adelman Katherine Younger Mallika Leuzinger Oksana Klymenko Pavel Horák Ruzha Smilova Sebastian Haug Teresa Baron Victoria Fomina Doğuş ŞimşekStefan Segi, Julian Strube Series: Conferences and Workshops The Junior Visiting Fellows' Conference is a bi-annual event at the Institute for Human Sciences that gives the Junior Fellows to present their work and research in a day-long conference. A traditional, semester-closing, celebration of the talented young researchers that is as old as the Institute itself, is always organized by the Junior Fellows themselves and usually includes Senior Fellows, Staff members and Alumni among others as commentators and discussants. Read more
Junior Visiting Fellows’ Conference Winter 2021 Fri, 03.12.2021, 09:30 Speakers: Ayşe Çağlar Filip Milačić Františka Schormová Geoffrey Aung Giorgia Donà Jeremy Adelman Katherine Younger Mallika Leuzinger Oksana Klymenko Pavel Horák Ruzha Smilova Sebastian Haug Teresa Baron Victoria Fomina Doğuş ŞimşekStefan Segi, Julian Strube Series: Conferences and Workshops The Junior Visiting Fellows' Conference is a bi-annual event at the Institute for Human Sciences that gives the Junior Fellows to present their work and research in a day-long conference. A traditional, semester-closing, celebration of the talented young researchers that is as old as the Institute itself, is always organized by the Junior Fellows themselves and usually includes Senior Fellows, Staff members and Alumni among others as commentators and discussants. Read more
	The Precarious Lives of Syrians: Temporary Protection and the Turkey/EU Deal	Tue, 30.11.2021, 17:00	Seminars and Colloquia	Ayşe ÇağlarFeyzi Baban	The Precarious Lives of Syrians: Temporary Protection and the Turkey/EU Deal Tue, 30.11.2021, 17:00 Speakers: Ayşe ÇağlarFeyzi Baban Series: Seminars and Colloquia Turkey currently hosts over 4million Syrian refugees who have no prospects of gaining long-term legal status. Their precarious lives are further complicated with the EU’s ongoing collaboration with Turkey to prevent them from claiming refugee status in the EU member states. The EU’s externalization efforts through its cooperation with Turkey further contribute to the precarious lives of Syrians and enable European states to ignore their international obligation to protect Syrians. In my talk, I will discuss elements of “architecture of precarity,” which defines the living conditions of Syrians and their legal prospects for status as a series of structurally conditioned obstacles. Domestic and international, these obstacles are designed to prevent Syrian refugees from claiming legal protection and attaining long-term legal status, including citizenship. While this “architecture of precarity” is most visible in Turkey’s treatment of Syrians, its legal elements such as externalization and ambiguous legal status are increasingly used by many states worldwide to circumvent the international legal framework of refugee protection. Read more
The Precarious Lives of Syrians: Temporary Protection and the Turkey/EU Deal Tue, 30.11.2021, 17:00 Speakers: Ayşe ÇağlarFeyzi Baban Series: Seminars and Colloquia Turkey currently hosts over 4million Syrian refugees who have no prospects of gaining long-term legal status. Their precarious lives are further complicated with the EU’s ongoing collaboration with Turkey to prevent them from claiming refugee status in the EU member states. The EU’s externalization efforts through its cooperation with Turkey further contribute to the precarious lives of Syrians and enable European states to ignore their international obligation to protect Syrians. In my talk, I will discuss elements of “architecture of precarity,” which defines the living conditions of Syrians and their legal prospects for status as a series of structurally conditioned obstacles. Domestic and international, these obstacles are designed to prevent Syrian refugees from claiming legal protection and attaining long-term legal status, including citizenship. While this “architecture of precarity” is most visible in Turkey’s treatment of Syrians, its legal elements such as externalization and ambiguous legal status are increasingly used by many states worldwide to circumvent the international legal framework of refugee protection. Read more