Athens – 11 April 2022
Call for Papers
Organizers:
Fridtjof Nansen Institute (FNI), Athens School of Fine Arts (ASFA), Norwegian Institute at Athens (NIA), Royal Norwegian Embassy in Athens, Research Centre for the Humanities (RCH), Democritus University of Thrace (DUTH), University of Crete (UOC).
Conference Scientific Committee:
Iver Neumann (FNI), Ada Dialla (ASFA, RCH), Morten Andersen (NUPI), Efi Avdela (UOC), Athena Syriatou (DUTH).
Secretary: Athena Bozika (RCH)
The last decades have seen a rise in historical studies that problematize the concept of the global as a uni-directional interpretive paradigm. Within this wider perspective, the local, national, transnational, trans-cultural remain relevant.
In the proposed scientific meeting we would like to study themes such as the following:
(a) how contemporary European history is defined, fertilized or challenged by local/national histories, such as the Greek or the Norwegian histories, which may be at the periphery of the imagined European geography but which are placed within the different cultural and political context of north and south;
(b) whether such dimensions transform – or not – the existing ways of writing European history;
(c) finally, is it possible for a ‘peripheral’ perspective to renew the prospects and expectations in the understanding of the centre, and in this manner perhaps go beyond the West-centered study and thinking of Europe, which, in spite of the criticism it has suffered in the last thirty years, still continues to ‘colonize’ the writing of history. We offer these questions in the spirit of understanding European peripheries as lying as it were between traditional imperial cores such as Madrid, London, Paris, Istanbul and Moscow on the one hand, and culturally distinct colonies on the other.
In other words, if we understand Greece and Norway as “center” in relation to the non-European peripheries, then how we can re-conceptualize the notions of “center” and “periphery” and finally the notion of Europe.
More concretely the conference aims to:
- Undertake an interdisciplinary critical and comparative line of research on
a) how the two modern nation states, which were both established in the 19th century, can be studied based on the concept of the centre/periphery as a historical, geographical, economic, social and cultural construct;
b) how such an approach could drive to a critical re-examination and re-thinking of this old dichotomy between “center” and “periphery”. - Enhance the dialogue in a promising research area on the occasion of the recent Bicentennial initiatives 1821-2021, which would serve as an inspiration for future research and academic networking.
Baseline Questions:
- How did Greece and Norway experience the centre/periphery relationship in key historical times (1814-1821, pre-WW1, WW2, Cold War, Globalization era, etc.)? How this dichotomy has affected the way these two countries have been studied (in historical, sociological or anthropological perspectives)?
- Is it possible to apply the concept of trauma in order to study in depth these historical periods?
- In which way did the Congress of Vienna (1814-1815) and great – power politics generally impinge upon the formation of the new nation-states in the post Napoleonic period and up until the post-war?
- Taking the above as a point of departure, how is the centre/periphery focus relevant to current global issues of identity, economy and politics? For example, right-wing and populism in general have been utilizing it in its discourse of hate speech.
We invite interested applicants to submit a 500-word abstract and a short CV by 30 October 2021 to this email address: abozika@rchumanities.gr with reference “Greece – Norway” .
The successful applicants will be notified by late November 2021.
Please note that the working language of the conference is English.
The conference has no registration fees. We aim to provide accommodation for a limited number of participants who cannot benefit from the financial support of their institution. Interested applicants should state this clearly in their paper proposals.
Download this Call for Papers here.