Queering 20th-Century East Central Europe. Archives – Emotions – Histories

Shaped by the overlapping legacies of empire, war, authoritarian regimes, state socialism, and post-socialist transition and transformation, these histories complicate linear narratives of progress and call for innovative methodological and comparative approaches. 

In Prague, we invite participants to approach these questions through the lenses of archives, emotions, and histories. Attention to secrecy and disclosure, to silences and absences in the archive, and to the affective dimensions of memory and everyday life opens up new ways of writing queer histories in the region. These perspectives not only uncover hidden or suppressed voices but also reimagine the very forms of knowledge and evidence on which queer historiography can be built.

Prof. Ann Cvetkovich (University of Texas at Austin) will deliver the keynote lecture “Feeling My Way through the Archives: A Journey in Queer Method” to frame and inspire our discussions. Her influential work on the archive of feelings and on the intersections of affect, memory, and queer culture has profoundly shaped queer studies and historiography. Therefore, her speech will provide a conceptual anchor for exploring how emotions, archives, and intimate experiences can serve as vital sources for rethinking queer histories in 20th-century East Central Europe.

The Prague Branch of the German Historical Institute Warsaw (Part of the Max Weber Foundation), in cooperation with the Faculty of Humanities at Charles University in Prague, the Institute of Contemporary History of the Czech Academy of Sciences, and the Herder Institute for Historical Research on East Central Europe (Institute of the Leibniz Association), invites scholars to participate in this follow-up conference.

Inclusive follow-up event
This conference builds on the preparatory workshop held in Marburg in 2025, where researchers began conceptualizing queer histories in East Central Europe and presented early stages of their projects. In Prague, we seek to carry this conversation forward by bringing the original group into dialogue with a broader community of scholars. Participants from the workshop will present further developed versions of their work, while the conference also invites new contributors whose research is at an advanced stage and ready for publication.
The event is thus conceived as both a continuation and an expansion: it refines the debates initiated in Marburg while opening space for new perspectives, approaches, and case studies. Depending on the range of submissions, the program may combine a workshop-style format with a broader conference setting. The ultimate goal is to situate individual papers within wider historiographical debates and to prepare contributions for a planned special issue(s) or edited volume, reflecting the intellectual directions developed across both events.

Themes and scopes
The conference continues to explore queer lives and identities in East Central Europe across the twentieth century, situating them within broader political, social, and cultural transformations. We invite contributions that address queer experiences in their full diversity, from imperial and interwar contexts through wartime occupations and state socialist regimes to post-socialist transitions and contemporary anti-gender mobilizations, while also addressing the wider social, cultural, and political contexts that shaped them.