Poster for the Event "Was ist `Osteurpoa´?

Was ist „Osteuropa“? Geschichte und Gegenwart eines widersprüchlichen Konzepts

Anastasia Tikhomirova (Journalist ZEIT and ZEIT Online), Hans-Christian Petersen (Bundesinstitut für Kultur und Geschichte des östlichen Europa Oldenburg), Artur Weigandt (Author and Journalist), Klaas Anders (RTG Contradiction Studies)

10/29/2024 7:00 pm

Bibliothek der Weserburg Museum für moderne Kunst

Since the total invasion of Ukraine by the Russian army, the term “Eastern Europe” has been omnipresent – whether in social media posts or feature articles: Everyone is talking about “Eastern Europe”. But what does “Eastern Europe” actually mean? Who belongs to it and who doesn’t? How useful is it to lump Russia, Poland, the Czech Republic and Ukraine into one category? Are there “good” Eastern Europeans who are allowed to be in the EU and NATO, and “bad” ones who (have to) stay out?

We want to discuss these and other questions together with our guests. The focus will be on the contradictions that characterize the concept of “Eastern Europe” – a concept whose meaning is negotiated daily between Western ideas and a multitude of complex identities.

An event by

Forschungsstelle Osteuropa, Worlds of Contradiction, globale° Festival für grenzüberschreitende Literatur, DFG-Graduiertenkolleg “Contradiction studies”, Weserburg Bremen

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decolonial scholarship

“Creating decentralizing and decolonizing scholarship on contradiction, contradictory phenomena, and contradicting processes is a challenging task.”

Kerstin Knopf
Is contradiction eurocentric?

“Is contradiction a eurocentric concept, operational phenomenon, and instrument of power?”

Kerstin Knopf
every day

“Living in contradictions is what we experience every day. Why do we know so little about it?”

Gisela Febel
coherence in thought

“The imperative of non-contradiction generally produces a coherence in thought that is often at odds with social complexities.”

Yan Suarsana
power and resistance

“Michel Foucault says: “Where there is power, there is resistance, and […] this resistance is never in a position of exteriority in relation to power” (History of Sexuality I, The Will to Knowledge, 1976, p. 95)”

Gisela Febel