CBEES Newsletter

CBEES is a multidisciplinary research centre at Södertörn University, Sweden. The CBEES newsletter is published four times per year. Publisher: Anu-Mai Kõll, anu-mai.koll@sh.se Editor: Ninna Mörner, ninna.morner@sh.se Subscriptions: cbees@sh.se Visit our website: www.sh.se/cbees

Issue 1 - 2012

Nicholas Aylott is new research leaderNicholas Aylott has been appointed as research leader at CBEES for the theme of The Social Landscapes of the Political. His first day in the post is on 1 March.Nicholas Aylott is senior lecturer in Political Science at Södertörn University. His current research projects are on the Nordic model of democracy and the Baltic states (within the Nordic Spaces research programme), Europeanisation and Nordic political parties (ENoPP), and pre-electoral coalitions in the Nordic region. He is also involved in the British Political Studies Association’s specialist group on Scandinavian Politics (SPSG).

We posed four questions to our new research leader:

1. Which are your main research questions, and how are they connected to the Baltic Sea and Eastern Europe area?

My main research interests are pretty mainstream within political science: state institu-tions, elections and, above all, political parties. Most of my work hitherto has been focused on Nordic party politics, especially Swedish. However, not least since arriving at Södertörn in 2006, I’ve been increasingly interested in parties in the Baltic States. I currently lead a research project that seeks to compare political institutions in the Nordic and Baltic regions. I have also been looking at how Estonian parties select their election candidates.

2. What did you know about CBEES and the research theme when you accepted the position?

I had learned quite a lot about CBEES over the years. I have colleagues who have moved to the centre from political science and sociology and, of course, we’ve also had PhD students who have moved in the other direction. I have also been involved with various CBEES schemes like visiting scholars and special conferences, so I’d already got to know a lot of the people there, especially the administrative staff.

3. What can we expect when you take over as research leader? For example, do you intend to develop certain topics or perspectives in the theme, or add new projects?

I don’t have too many specific projects in mind at this stage, but I do plan to develop the social science theme within CBEES by stimulating the strengths that we have at Södertörn, such as the study of representative institutions. Promoting co-operation between social sci-entists based in CBEES and in the PESO research area is something that I see as a priority. I also look forward to exchanging ideas with the other research leaders.

4. What do you believe the upcoming years at CBEES will be like for you as a researcher? What expectations do you have regarding new contacts, new perspectives, and new opportunities?

I think I have two main personal objectives. First, I’m looking forward to the new challenges involved in the position of research leader, especially the leadership aspects of it. Second, I want to use a base in CBEES to further my research interests in Baltic party politics. I’m re-ally keen to get started on both.

More information about Nicholas Aylott can be found on his homepage>>Contact Nicholas Aylott at nicholas.aylott@sh.se

Walnuts and iconsThe next edition of Baltic Worlds will be published at the end of March. It includes a number of scholarly, reviewed essays: on telephony during the Soviet era and the associated myths that have been reproduced in film and literature, on new findings around the handling of the no-torious Rosenholz files and also a review of the position and rights of minorities in Serbia and Croatia. The breadth of the essays is an excellent illustration of the multidisciplinary emphasis that is found at both Baltic Worlds and CBEES.

Other planned articles deal with modern icon-painting, interviews with women entrepreneurs in Russian communi-ties and a journey through Gaugauzien, where walnuts and wine are important industries (the above photo was taken by contributor Torgny Hinnemo).

Don’t miss the long interview that Pro-fessor Johan Öberg conducted with the famous Soviet historian Sheila Fitzpat-rick.

The most recent issue, no. 4 2011, is available for down-load from the website, where the new articles on our election coverage are also available.

Subscribe, free of charge, to the printed version via the website.On the Baltic Worlds’ website it is now also possible to select articles that cover a particular country in Baltic Worlds’ and CBEES’ focus area. Follow the link and select a country>>.

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Socialist aesthetics under scrutinyMargareta Tillberg, Associate professor of history and theory of art and design, starts research at CBEES in January 2012 within the framework of the project: “Sovjetisk design. Modernism från Baltikum och Norden - en officiell anomali inom socialistisk estetik under det kalla kriget” (Soviet Design. Modernism from the Baltic and Nordic countries – an official anomaly within Socialist aesthetics during the Cold War).

Via an independent foundation, Riksbankens Jubileumsfond (RJ), you are conducting a project about Soviet design in which you will study Soviet design magazines. What is the purpose of your study and what do you expect we can learn from the results?

I will be looking at Russian-language design magazines that were published during the Soviet era, primarily during the 1960s and 1970s. The purpose of my project is to examine how different Soviet republics related to Russia, particularly Moscow, from where everything was governed. I will be looking at the Baltic States: the Estonian, the Latvian and the Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republics, as well as Finland and Sweden to some extent. These are countries with a welfare system from which Moscow was interested in learning when the country was in a deep crisis after Stalin and WWII. The fascinating thing about research is that you never know what the results will be. Naturally, I have a working hypothesis and intuition as a starting point, but in my previous research my experience has been that the results have been considerably more interesting than my initial starting point. This is the driving force, the engine, that keeps work going. I also believe and hope that my alternative perspectives will be valuable to others in their work.

You have previously conducted research into Soviet design. Tell us a little about this.

In my research, design means more than just surface. Design is a materialised reality and comprises the symptom, so to speak, of an idea about how the world is constructed, realised in the manner that the system allows. The visualised and materialised reality – the visual, how it smells, feels, how heavy something is in the hand, etc., i.e. the man-made world, is part of a whole world view. In this way, design science (a subject that is not found at any Swedish universities, but is seeing rapid international development) can help us to understand the shape of the world, by seeing an entirety that includes economics, engineering sciences and culture – art, aesthetics and literature. Design is an important lever for modernisation and a phenomenon that should be further researched so as to understand current events as a kind of visual rethorics which includes search for a identity. Russia is a country with big words but, when I lived there, there was no toilet paper or washing detergent. Design is about organising the world for people’s welfare; one of my questions is whether design existed at all in the Soviet Union.

Why are you so fascinated by Soviet design?

I lived in Russia both before and after the wall came down; five years in total. Four years in Moscow and one year in Leningrad, as it was called then. I have also crossed the border hundreds of times as a travel guide and interpreter. One of the things that fascinated me was how different everything was, what it looked like, smelled, felt; just 1-2 hours’ flight from Stockholm. It was just chance that it was Russia, as I travelled a lot with my family as a child. I’ve travelled around the world. As a Swede, with a Swedish passport, I’ve had the privilege of free choice. Since then I’ve remained attached to this part of the world which, as it’s said, is one-sixth of the world’s surface, so there’s a lot of interest that hasn’t yet been explored. I’ve also been attracted by the fact that Sweden has such a complicated relationship with its neighbours, particularly Russia, but also Germany (where I have lived for eight years). This means that I can also learn something about my own country, and in extension something about myself. I think it’s important to learn to change perspective in order to understand complex events and, from this, to become able to communicate with people from other fields in society.

How can the research environment at CBEES help you in your work?

I am very happy to have the opportunity to work at CBEES. It has researchers from around the world with many different areas of expertise, but who specialise in the Baltic region and Eastern Europe, countries in search of their identity, but many of them with a long tradition of learning which we lack here in Sweden. After working for six years at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science in Berlin, which is also a multidisciplinary forum, I know how creative this can be and the dynamics that can arise thanks to unexpected meetings. At the Max Planck Institute they understand the importance of long-term investments and research being autonomous. In Germany, Bildung has a different meaning to Sweden’s closest equivalent, bildning. They have also realised that the social sciences and humanities are important to a society’s wellbeing and survival, just like the natural sciences and major industries. They have learned this from their history. We still have a good way to go in Sweden, where I can’t see any collective political vision that expresses genuine interest and humility as regards knowledge and learning. Who formulates what our future looks like? Sweden needs many more forums for discussion and cooperation, including between people with knowledge and expertise, which is where CBEES can play an important role. I also hope to be able to cooperate in building a platform for visual studies with a specialisation in art and design, which does not just include the West– these are major fields which expand rapidly but that are heavily underrepresented in Sweden.

Contact Margareta Tillberg: margareta.tillberg@sh.se

Models and prototypes for factory clothing and workwear for the electrical measuring industry in the Soviet Union (ElektroMera).

From an essay by Margareta Tillberg in Baltic Worlds 2010:2.

Fatherhood in RussiaThe project “What does it mean to be a father? State, civil society and citizen discourses about fatherhood in Russia” aims to deconstruct fatherhood discourses in Russia. Father-hood is studied via three subprojects that focus on different arenas: the state, civil society and the individual citizen. The subprojects are united under a common theoretical umbrella, building on Michel Foucault’s concept of “bio-politics”.

Several kinds of methods and material are used: a survey of citizens in St Petersburg; semi-structured interviews with individuals in St Petersburg, with state officials and with staff and directors of a civil organisation (called “Daddy-school”); participants in this organisation’s activities are interviewed in focus groups; current and historical state documents (popula-tion and family policies), and documentation from the civil society organisation.

The scholarly contributions consist of the illumination of the previously under-researched Russian fatherhood discourses. Moreover, the concept of bio-politics is applied to a Russian context, something rarely done in previous research. Using bio-politics as an analytical point of departure makes it possible both to put fatherhood in a wider political context in the in-tersection between public and private, and to say something about the relations between the state, civil society and citizens. This is particularly interesting in the case of Russia, since the country is experiencing a severe population decline, which links the private (i.e. childbirth) to the public (population reproduction).

Further information, contact project leader Johnny Rodin, PhD, Political Science:johnny.rodin@sh.se

Two new research partnershipsTwo new agreements on research cooperation and student/teacher mobility have been signed, one with the Herder Insti¬tute in Germany and one with the Aleksanteri Institute in Finland. You are welcome to contact Lena Arvidson for more information about the agreement with Alek-santeri: Lena Arvidson, lena.arvidson@sh.se.

The agreement between Herder and CBEES covers staff and postgraduate student exchanges, as well as knowledge exchanges. There is also an ambition to cooperate on project work. Please contact Anu-Mai Kõll for further information about the agreement: anu-mai.koll@sh.se.

This summer, the Herder Institute is inviting qualified junior scholars to an international and interdisciplinary summer school, 19-25 August. The topic is “Human Migration and Social Integration in 19th and 20th Century European Societies” and the application deadline is 31 March. The Herder Institute is also seeking contributions for an interdisciplinary conference on “Representing the Past in Architecture”, to be held in Vilnius on 8-11 October. The deadline for applications is 30 April. Further information contact Dr Heidi Hein-Kircher, forum@herder-institut.de.

Application for admission to doctoral studentships

BEEGS - Baltic and East European

Graduate SchoolThe Baltic and East European Graduate School (BEEGS) is part of the Centre for Baltic and East European Studies, CBEES. Applications for admission to BEEGS are invited once per year. We wel-come applicants from all over the world.

Research at CBEES/BEEGS focuses on the Baltic region and Eastern Europe, and successful applicants for the student-ships must focus their research on this region.

We require fluency in English, since this is the working language at BEEGS. All doctoral students receive a salary, office space and other benefits for a period of four years.

Call for applications 2012:Applications for a total of 14 doctoral studentships are invited in the following research areas and subjects:

- Critical Cultural Theory: Aesthetics, Gender Studies, Media and Communica-tion, Studies and Philosophy

- Environmental Studies

- Rhetoric, in cooperation with Uppsala University

To submit, please follow the link>>.

For general information about doctoral studies at Södertörn University, follow this link>>.

The deadline for applications is 1 March 2012. The first date of employment is 1 September 2012.

Further information: Ann-Cathrine Jun-gar, Director of Studies, beegs@sh.se.

Birgitta Almgren given a special farewellBirgitta Almgren, Professor of German Studies, was given a special farewell on 8 February with a seminar and party.

Lectures were held by Petra Garberding, Ph.D. in Ethnology at Uppsala University, Markus Huss, doctoral student in Comparative Literature at Södertörn University, Sture Packalén, Professor of German at Mälardalen University and Charlotta Seiler Brylla, Associate Professor in German at Stockholm University. Discourse-historical methodology, Peter Weiss, Werther’s suffering and East German training miracles were the themes under discussion.

Around fifty guests participated in the celebration of their popular research colleague and teacher, Birgitta Almgren, who is now retiring but will continue as Professor Emerita.

The title of the invitation “Not just research…” alludes to Birgitta Almgren’s much publicised book, “Not just Stasi…”

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The NATURE/CULTURE InitiativeAwareness that humans depend on functioning ecological systems for our survival and wellbeing is now increasingly recognised and manifested in various policy frameworks for sustainable development. However, ecologically sustainable economic and social/cultural development is formed in the intersections between ecological and cultural perspectives, desires, interpretations, and knowledge. The concept of nature is deeply cultural, just as the inhabited physical landscape results from cultural activities. Culture is itself a way of relating to natural and geographical locations. Human situatedness and living conditions encapsulate physical or material needs, as well as a sense of time, space and social relations; not least in terms of how physical geography, seasons, climates, mobility, and borders are presented to the senses. Nature itself is hetero-geneous; it is a material and lived reality, but at the same time it is the subject of cultural and political representation and signification.

The Nature/Culture Network Initiative is a transdisciplinary initiative that highlights these manifold intersections of culture and nature. As a CBEES-based project, our focus is on the Baltic-Polar region and Eastern Europe, but our perspective is comparative and we will actively seek to draw in work from other areas as well. Disciplinary boundaries are themselves historically contingent, thus the idea behind the network is to approach conceptual geography as a crossroads for research agendas and contending interests. Aesthetics and sustainability, life sciences and space, history and ideologies, narration and gender, technology and landscaping – all are taken into consideration, beginning with a series of seminars at CBEES in the spring of 2012. Read more on CBEES web site>>

Contact: Monica Hammer, Knowledge and Sustainability Theme, monica.hammer@sh.se, Charlotte Bydler, Cultural Theory Theme, charlotte.bydler@sh.se, Mark Bassin, professor of the history of ideas, mark.bassin@sh.se

Conferences & WorkshopsThis spring CBEES is arranging, or co-arrang-ing, the following events:

14-15 March 2012Thematic Workshop: Knowledge and Sustain-abiltity (KnowSus).Further information: Monica Hammer, monica.hammer@sh.se

26-27 april 2012Workshop: Politics of Memory - Politics of forget-ting: Nostalgia in Russia and (Eastern) Europe. Further information: Ann-Cathrine Jungar, ann-cathrin.jungar@sh.se

May 2012Workshop: The Roma/Gypsies in Romania . the Last Drop. Ethic conflicts in RomaniaFurther information: Per Bolin, per.bolin@sh.se

Updated information on conferences and work-shops you find on CBEES’ web site.

CERES funding availableThe Nordic Network on Choices, Resources and Encoun-ters in Russia and Other European Post-Socialist States (CERES), funded by Nordforsk, grants funds for arrang-ing workshops within the network’s field of interest. Workshops are funded in accordance with certain criteria and should contain the specified information. Please read more here>>

The main aim of the CERES network is to strengthen the Nordic academic expertise on Russia and Eastern Europe, an area that is relevant politically, culturally, and economi-cally to each Nordic country.

The next application period starts in March 2012 and ends at the beginning of May 2012. There will be two applica-tion deadlines per year; these are announced on CERES web site.

Visiting researchers spring 2012This spring, CBEES will have nine visiting researchers, for a few weeks or for several months; they are briefly presented below. CBEES’ website has more information and contact details.

Anna Mrozewicz, Postdoc, Institute for Nordic Studies and Language Studies, University of Copenhagen, Denmark. Currently working with the project, “Eastern Bloc Noir Images of ‘Eastern Europe’ in Danish and Scandinavian literature film and art 1980-2010”.At CBEES she will work on her project using her own funding. Date of visit: March.

Herbert Kitschelt, Professor in Political Science, Duke University. He focuses on the performance of post-communist successor parties, diverse trajectories of market-liberalizing economicreforms, and modes of linkage building between citizens and politicians. Date of visit: May.

Gabriella Ilonski, Professor at Corvinus University, Budapest. She is involved in a research project on governments in Europe, which is funded by the Foundation for Baltic and East European Studies. The project started in 2011 and links ten senior scholars in the Baltic and East Central Europe with Södertörn University for the purpose of conducting cutting-edge comparative research on the formation and stability of national governments. Date of visit: May-June.

Tiina Kirss, Professor in Cultural Theory, University of Tallinn, Estonia. She applies post colonial theory in her interpretations of Estonian authors and her main research interest is memory and oral history. Her research is multidisciplinary and uses a gender perspective. Date of visit: March-May.

Birgit Sauer, Professor of Political Science at the Institute of Political Science, University of Vienna. She is the Austrian organizer of the international Research Network on Gender, Politics and the State (RNGS). Her research interests include gender and governance, comparative gender policies, state theory, and gender and globalization. She also studies the relations between gender, religion, Islam, migration and democracy. Date of visit: March-May.

Nadezdha Azhgikhina PhD in Russian Literature and journalist, is involved in a project called “Russian Media and Civil Society from Totalitarian Order to Freedom Time” focusing on the idea of freedom in Russian society and its interpretation and realisation in the media and in social practice. Date of visit: April-May.

William Pridemore, Professor and Director of Graduate Studies in the Department of Criminal Justice at Indiana University, faculty member of the Russian and East European Institute and the Department of Sociology and Associate Director of the Consortium for Education and Social Science Research. His main research interest is the impact of social structure, economic transition, and alcohol consumption on homicide and suicide in Russia. Date of visit: 12 February – 1 July.

Sasha Tsenkova, Professor of Planning and International Development, University of Calgary, Faculty of Environmental Design, Canada. Her research interests are urban politics, globalisation, sustainable cities, urban growth and community planning. She is involved in projects to develop a more efficient and effective housing system in Riga, and developing a sustainable city strategy for Sofia. Date of visit: May-June.

Ana Maria Despa, PhD student at the Valahia University of Targoviste, Romania. Her research theme is “The history of diplomatic relations between Romania and Norway 1905-1947”, as seen in a larger perspective, providing an example of relations between distant countries. Her work at CBEES will be linked to BEEGS. Date of visit: January-June.

Anna Mrozewicz

Tiina Kirss

Birgit Sauer

Nadezdha Azhgikhina

Sasha Tsenkova

Post-doc positionsThis year there will be two new post-doctoral researchers linked to the research theme The Social Landscapes of the Political. Dominika Polanska published her thesis in 2011, in which she examined residential differentiation in Poland since 1989, with a focus on the emergence and popularity of gated communities.

Carl Marklund published his thesis 2008. It was entitled Bridging Politics and Science and provided a comparative conceptual history of “so-cial engineering” in Sweden and the USA during the interwar period. He has a background as a researcher at the University of Helsinki.

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CBEES NewsletterThe next issue of CBEES News-letter will be published in May 2012. Subscriptions: cbees@sh.se

Doctoral coursesTruth, Construction and Subjectivity: Contemporary Issues in the Theory of Scientific Knowledge, 7.5 credits 27 February - 1 April 2012This course presents some of the important positions taken in the debate on opportunities to search for and produce knowledge and truth. It includes phenomenology and hermeneutics, genealogy and discourse analysis, the sociology of knowledge, deconstruction, feminist critique of science and postco-lonial critique of science.Contact: Hans Ruin, Professor, Philosophy, Södertörn University, hans.ruin@sh.se

English for Doctoral Students, 7.5 creditsThis course is designed for doctoral students who wish to work actively on their English language skills for academic and professional purposes.Contact: Liz Kella, Associate Professor in English: 08-608 45 29 or liz.kella@sh.se

Thinking the Name: Language, Philosophy, Culture, 7.5 credits4 April - 6 May 2012This course is an introduction in the theory and philosophy of language for those interested in cultural studies and critical theory. The purpose is to make visible the metaphysics of the name and to discuss various strategies of representation critique.Contact: Irina Sandomirskaja, Professor, Cultural Studies, CBEES, irina.sandomirskaja@sh.se

Mapping National Identities: Space, Memory, Power, 7.5 credits8 May - 10 June 2012This course will examine the leading theories on the nature and function of nationalism and identities of nationhood. The focus will be on perspectives that have developed since the political transformations of the late 1980s and early 1990s, but older ideas that are still influential will also be considered.Contact: Mark Bassin, Professor, Cultural Studies, CBEES, mark.bassin@sh.se

More detailed information, please visit BEEGs’ web site.

CBEES’ Advanced Seminars

CBEES Advanced Seminars is a series of lectures, presentations of new publications and discussions of individual academic work-in-progress, all tied to contemporary research in the Baltic Sea region and Eastern Europe.The seminars in this series are held in English and are on Mondays, 13.00-15.00, in the F-builiding, room F 819.

Seminar leaders; Professor Joakim Ekman, joakim.ekman@sh.se, Professor Mark Bassin, mark.bassin@sh.se, Professor Anu Mai Kõll, anu.mai.koll@sh.se

Advanced Seminars until next Newsletter:Mon 27 February Speaker: Irina Sandomirskaja, CBEES Writing the Leviathan, or the Biopolitics of Besiegement: On Lidia Ginzburg’s NotebooksDiscussants: Karin Grelz, Stockholm University and Christian Nilsson; Södertörn UniversityChair: Anu-Mai Köll, CBEES

Mon 5 March Speaker: David Crowley, Royal College of Art, London Landscapes of Memory: Politics, Identity, and the Symbolism of the Ruin in Warsaw after 1944 Discussants: Michal Bron & Anna Mcwilliams, Södertörn UniversityChair: Mark Bassin, CBEES

Mon 12 March Speaker: Igor Torbakov, Centre for Russian and Eurasian Studies, Uppsala University Beyond Eurasianism: Forging Russia’s Euro-Pacific Identity Discussant: Lena Jonson, Sweden Institute of International AffairsChair: Mark Bassin, CBEES

Mon 19 March Speaker: Tiina Kirss, Tallinn University, visit-ing professor at CBEES Cultural Translation of Baltic Life StoriesDiscussant: TBAChair: Anu-Mai Köll, CBEES

Mon 26 March Speaker: Per-Arne Bodin, Stockholm Univer-sity Bakhtin and the Problem of WitchcraftDiscussant: Markus Huss, CBEESChair: Mark Bassin, CBEES

Mon 2 April Speaker: Ana Maria Despa, visiting PhD student at CBEESDiscussant: TBAChair: Joakim Ekman, CBEES

Mon 16 April Speaker: Birgit Sauer, A Framing Approach to Domestic Violence. Experiences from Central and Eastern EuropeDiscussant: TBAChair: Joakim Ekman, CBEES

Please visit CBEES’ web site for update informa-tion and up-coming seminars.

BEEGS: Public defence of thesisSteffen WertherThesis: SS-Vision und Grenzland-Realität - Vom Umgang dänischer und „volksdeutscher” Nationalsoziali-sten in Sønderjylland mit der „großgermanischen” Ideologie der SS English title: SS Visions and Borderland Realities. The Fate of the “Greater Germanic” Ideology in South Jutland

Subject: History, Stockholm University and History, Södertörn University

Public defence of thesis:When? Friday 17 February 2012, 13.00Where? Room MB505, Södertörn University, FlemingsbergLanguage: EnglishFaculty examiner: Peter Haslinger, Professor, Justus Liebig-universität, Giessen and Herder-Institut, Marburg, Germany

Steffen Werther presenting his thesis at the Library on 2 February. Photo: Erik Lundsten

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