Forschungsprojekt
Laufend
A Land on the Move: Transnational Perspectives on Belarusian History and Culture
Laufzeit
2024 - 2027
The project challenges dominant binaries – such as center vs. periphery, large vs. small, developed vs. developing – by exploring questions of hegemony, connectivity, and global parallels. It further aims to support Belarusian scholars at risk and enhance the visibility of Belarusian studies within European and global academic contexts.
The project unites four researchers working on the following case studies:
Ala Pihalskaya, who investigates the history of a multilingual printing house in 19th century Wilno, uncovering its role in facilitating cultural and intellectual exchange across linguistic and national boundaries.
Uladzimir Valodzin, who examines Jewish emigration activists from the Soviet peripheries, revealing the complexities of identification and self-representation in late Soviet and Israeli societies.
Pavel Voinitski, who explores the symbolic meanings embedded in Belarusian war memorials, analyzing how collective memory intersects with national and transregional narratives.
Tatsiana Astrouskaya, who focuses on the transnational aspects of dissent in the national republics of the Soviet Union, with particular attention to Soviet Belarus.
A central question unites these inquiries: How can we write the history of a land that is historically and culturally heterogeneous, politically unstable, yet capable of sustaining a distinct cultural and civic identity through the upheavals of history? The project also addresses how continuity and change, resilience and violent transformation are reflected in cultural history and contemporaneity of Belarus.
