Aktuelles
KI im philologischen Kontext. Grundlagen, Praktiken, Reflexion, Kritik
reclaiming transnationalism
An online seminar series, focused on East/Central Europe within the international and transnational academic and cultural context. First seminar: 16 October 2025
In an age when walls are being rebuilt — physically, politically, and epistemically — transnationalism is no longer just a buzzword. It has re-emerged as one of the most pressing cultural and intellectual questions of our time. Brexit, Trump’s return, and the steady rise of nationalist and illiberal movements across Europe and beyond have shaken the very idea of cross-border solidarities. Yet these new nationalisms are themselves transnational phenomena: they feed on circulating narratives, shared symbols, and contagious affects that move across borders and media.
Our seminar series, Reclaiming Transnationalism, revisits the concept as both an analytical framework and a socio-cultural phenomenon. Rather than seeking a comprehensive account of neo-nationalisms, we focus on concrete lines of inquiry: transnational comparisons, cultural and literary production across genres and media, and the symbolic geographies of contested borderlands such as the Donbas or Upper Silesia. We explore how transnationalism emerges in video games, literature, film studies,memory practices, and intellectual life — as method, as critique, and as lived cultural reality.
By centering East-Central and Eastern Europe, we test the promise and limits of transnationalism in regions marked by shifting borders, imperial legacies, migration, and conflict. Together, our speakers will ask: not only what transnationalism is, but what it does.
Programme (2025–2026):
- 16 Oct — Ilya Gerasimov (Chicago): ‘The Postnational Constellation’ 27 Years Later
- 20 Nov — Andrii Portnov (Sofia): How to Write a Transnational History of Ukraine
- 27 Nov — Imme Klages (Mainz): Transnational Film History: The Digital Platform Filmexil.de and the Günter Peter Straschek Archive
- 11 Dec — Víctor Navarro-Remesal (Mataró): Regionality, History, and Game Studies
- 15 Jan — Gisèle Sapiro (Paris): What Does Transnationalism Mean? Some Reflections through the Sociology of Intellectuals and of Culture
- 22 Jan — Jasmina Lukić (Vienna): Transnational Turn in Literary Studies
- 29 Jan — Eneken Laanes (Tallinn): Memory and Environment
Seminars begin at 12:00 (CET), with the exception of the first one, to be held on 16 October at 20.00 (CET). Zoom link for the seminars (valid for all sessions): LINK
This seminar series is jointly organised by Natalya Bekhta (Tampere), Stanisław Krawczyk (Wrocław), Jana-Katharina Mende (Halle), Denys Shatalov (Kryvyi Rih/Berlin) and Oleksandr Zabirko (Regensburg) within the framework of the research network “Young Network TransEurope ” based at the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities.