For centuries the area of today’s Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania has been shaped by different national and ethnic groups. This symposium will examine the (re)imagining and (re)interpreting of spaces, symbols and sites in the of Baltic region from the 19th to the 21st century. Presenters will address historical difficulties with “mapping” this multi-ethnic region as well as current issues connected with the region’s recent history after the dissolution of the Soviet Union.
Thursday, October 9, 2014 (Alcoa Room, Pitt School of Law, 2nd floor)
Introduction: Ron Linden (EUCE/ESC of the University of Pittsburgh)
Keynote 5.30pm Jeffrey Sommers (University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee): Baltic Tiger or Paper Tiger? Unraveling of Europe’s Social Model in Latvia
Friday, October 10, 2014 (Humanities Center, 602 Cathedral of Learning)
Panel 1, 8.45–10.15am
Between the Russian and the German Empire: National Borders and Imaginations
Gregor Thum (University of Pittsburgh): German Culture and Russian Citizenship in Russia’s Baltic Provinces
Jörg Hackmann (University of Szczecin): Mapping the Baltic Region, 1850-1940
Panel 2, 10.30am–12.00pm
The Baltic Region after World War I: the Impact of Nationalism(s)
Adam Brode (University of Pittsburgh): Pride of Place: Symbolic Capital in Riga’s Churches
Andrejs Plakans (Iowa State University): Nationalizing Public Spaces: The WWI Latvian Riflemen in Latvian Memory
Jean-Monnet Symposium
1989 and Beyond: Contested Sites of Memory in Post-Communist Space
Panel 3, 3.00–4.30pm
Daina Stukuls Eglitis (George Washington University): The Baltic Way 1989–2014: Revolution, Remembrance, and Regret in Post-Communist Latvia
Jennie Schulze (Duquesne University): Estonia’s Bronze Soldier Crisis: Kin-state Activism and Minority Policies
Panel 4, 4.45–6.15pm
Neringa Klumbyte (Miami University): Affective Histories in Post-Soviet Lithuania
Katja Wezel (University of Pittsburgh): Riga’s “Corner House” – From a Soviet Place of Terror to a Latvian Site of Remembrance?
The symposium is free and open to the public.
