Our Activities

Conference (24 September 2011).
"Germanness Beyond Germany."
The Call for Papers (as a Word document).
The Conference flier (as a Word document).

This conference aims to explore how Germans beyond the core German region of Central Europe imagined their collective loyalties. The conference explores the interaction between Germanness and other political loyalties that can be credibly described as “national.” We are particularly interested in contributions that help undermine the problematic yet persistent dichotomy of “civic nationalism” vs. “ethnic nationalism.” Papers examine both non-German regions of the Habsburg Empire and its successor states (Hungary, Galicia, and Transylvania), and German communities in the Pacific region (Australia, New Zealand, Tonga).

The conference will take place in OK 406 (the Wood Seminar Room) at Victoria University in Wellington, New Zealand. It is free and open to the public. For further information, contact Alexander Maxwell.

Public Talk (9 September, 2011), 12:00 noon.

Jacob Edmond, (Otago University).
"Poetic Correspondences: Arkadii Dragomoshchenko and Lyn Hejinian." This talk took place in the Wood Seminar Room (Old Kirk room 406). It was free and open to the public. See the flier (as a word document).

Conference (26 March 2011).
"Sexualities and Science in Eastern Europe."
Co-sponsored by the Russian Programme of University of Canterbury.
The Call for Papers (as a Word document).
The Conference schedule (as a Word document).

This conference examined the development of sexology and sexual psychology from the nineteenth century to the present, with a special emphasis on Eastern Europe (including Russia), the region which produced such “seminal” figures as Sigmund Freud, Károly Mária Kertbeny, Aleksandra Kollontai, Richard von Krafft-Ebing, and Leopold Sacher-Masoch.

Speakers included Tatjana Buklijas (University of Auckland, NZ), Aleksandr Etkind (King's College, Cambridge, UK), Eduard Iskhakov (Ufa Law Institue, Russian Federation), and Shannon Woodcock (La Trobe, Melbourne, Australia).

The conference took place in Murphy 101 at Victoria University in Wellington, New Zealand. It was free and open to the public. For further information, contact Alexander Maxwell.

Conference (28-29 August 2010).
"National Bodies in Eastern Europe."
Co-sponsored by the Russian Programme of University of Canterbury.
The Call for Papers (as a Word document).
The Conference schedule (as a Word document).

This conference explored the spread of nationalized thinking as it relates to the body. How did people in central Europe, Eastern Europe, and the Balkans classify each other in terms of national concepts? Speakers from Austria, Indiana, Japan, and New Zealand spoke about bodily practices, literary concepts of the body, national sexuality, and eugenics.

The conference took place in Murphy Lecture Hall 101 (MY 101) at Victoria University in Wellington, New Zealand.

Public Talk (18 May, 2010), 12:00 noon.

Caroline Sawyer, (Victoria University, Law).
"Stateless in Europe: Legal Faces of Nationalism in Estonia and Slovenia." This talk took place in the Wood Seminar Room (Old Kirk room 406). It was free and open to the public. See the flier (as a word document).

 

Conference (20-21 March 2010).
"The 'East-West' Discourse: Symbolic Geography and its Consequences."
The Conference schedule (as a Word document).
The Conference Flyer (as a Word document).
The Call for Papers (as a Word document).

This conference examined the rhetoric of "East vs. West" in various historical contexts and problematized its implcit assumptions.  Twenty-one speakers from Australasia, Europe and America presented papers. The keynote speaker was Charles Ingrao of Purdue University. A generous donation from the of the Polish Embassy helped make this event possible. The organizers wish to thank her excellency ambassador Beata Stoczyńska. The conference took place at Victoria University in Wellington, New Zealand. It was free and open to the public.

Selected papers presented at this conference will appear in an edited volume published by Peter Lang. Sacha Davis "East-West Discourses in Transylvania," pp. 127-154; Vesna Drapac, "Yugoslav Studies and the East-West Dichotomy," pp. 93-126; Alexander Maxwell, "Bridges and Bulwarks: A Historiographic Overview of East-West Discourses," pp. 1-32; and Glyn Parry, "Conceptions of the East: Medieval and Early Modern Europe," 33-50.

 

Public Talk (9 March, 2010), 12:30 pm.

Gergely Galantha, (Central European University, Budapest).
"Death to Fascism, Freedom to the People! The Extradition of Hungarian War Criminals to Yugoslavia." This talk took place in the Wood Seminar Room (Old Kirk room 406). It was free and open to the public. See the flier (as a word document).

 

Public Talk (23 Feb, 2010), 2:30 pm.

Metodija Koloski, President, United Macedonian Diaspora.
“Integrating Macedonia into Global Institutions: The Role of the Macedonian Diaspora.” This talk took place in the Wood Seminar Room (Old Kirk room 406). It was free and open to the public. See the flier (as a Word document).

 

Public Talk (10 Feb, 2010), 3:00 pm.

Robert Imre, University of Newcastle.
"Re-imagining Borders: Hungary and 'its own' sub-Regions." This talk took place in the Wood Seminar Room (Old Kirk room 406). It was free and open to the public. See the flier (as a Word document).

Public Talk (10 September 2010), 10 am.
Des Brennan, Canterbury University, (Christchurch) "Poland, Lithuania and Ukraine: Relations in the Aftermath of EU Enlargement." This talk took place the Wood Seminar Room (OK 406) at Victoria University, Wellington. It was free and open to the public. See the flier (as a Word document).

Film Evening (25 August 2009).
"Sisters from Siberia"
Russel Campbell, Victoria University (Welllington), will show and discuss his new documentary, "Sisters from Siberia" (Vanguard films, 2009). The film traces the life of Wellington City Councilor Stephanie Cook, who adopted Katya (9) and Nadya (4) from a Siberian children's home, and the family's relationship to Wellington's Russian emigre community. This event took place in the Wood Seminar Room, Old Kirk Building, Victoria University, Wellington. It was free and open to the public.

Public Talk (30 July 2009).
Alexander Maxwell, Victoria University (Wellington) "Consumption, Manliness and Nationality in Central Europe.” This talk, at the invitation of James Watson, took place in Main Building Room 102, Massey University, Manawatu Campus, Palmerston North. It was free and open to the public.

Public Talk (28 July 2009).
Gürer Karagedikli, Bilkent Üniversitesi (Ankara). " ‘Turkey for the Turks, Greece for the Greeks’: The 1923 Greco-Turkish Population Exchange." This talk took place in room 301, Old Kirk Building, Victoria University, Wellington. It was free and open to the public. See the Flyer (as a Word document).

Public Talk (24 March 2009).
Mate Tokić, Freie Universität (Berlin): "Black Shirts, Red Menace: Croatian Separatist Terrorism and the Cold War." This talk took place in the Wood Seminar Room (Old Kirk room 406). It was free and open to the public. See the Flyer (as a Word document).

Conference (12 December 2008).
"Hungarians and Their Neighbors: Conflict and Nationality in Central Europe."
The Conference schedule (as a Word document).

This conference, convened by John Perkins, explored ethnicity in Hungary before the 1918 partition. Various papers examined ethnic communities in the Hungarian kingdom: Sacha Davis spoke about Transylvanian Saxons, Alexander Maxwell about Magyars and Shannon Woodcock about Gypsies (Roma).

The conference took place at Macquarie University, Australian History Museum, Building W6A, room 127. The conference had no registration fee and was open to the public.

Conference (4 October 2008).
"Polish Culture, Polish Experiences"
The Conference schedule (as a Word document).
The Conference s chedule (as a printable flier in .pub format).
The call for papers (as a Word document).

Speakers at this one-day conference include Lech Mastalerz (Polish Ambassador to New Zealand), Eva Polonska-Kimungyui (Monash University in Melbourne), and Desmond Brennan (Canterbury University in Christchurch).

The conference was held at the Kelburn Campus of Victoria University, Wellington in the Wood Seminar Room (Old Kirk room 406). The conference had no registration fee and was open to the public.

Selected papers from this conference were published in a special issue of the New Zealand Slavonic Journal, vol. 42 (2008). Glyn Parry, "English Magicians and the Crown of Poland: John Dee, Edward Kelly, and Albrecht Łaski, 1583-1585," pp. 79-100; Alexander Maxwell, "Walerjan Krasiński's Panslavism and Germanism: Polish Goals in a Pan-Slav Context," pp. 101-120; Richard Millington, "Dissent in the Nation of Nobles: The Polishness of Joseph Roth's "The Bust of the Emperor," pp. 120-136; Filip Slaveski, "Competing Occupiers: Bloody Conflicts between Soviet and Polish Authorities in the Borderlands of Post-War Germany and Poland, 1945-46," pp. 137-55.

Public Lecture (8 August 2008).
Peter Barrer (Christchurch), "National Identity in Popular Music and Rap in Slovakia." The talk took place in the Wood Seminar Room (Old Kirk room 406). It was free and open to the public.

Public Lecture (14 July 2008).
Alexander Maxwell, Victoria University (Wellington) "A Historian Examines Slovak Dialectology." The talk took place at Room 509, Arts Centre, University of Melbourne. It was free and open to the public.