Search

Program

Taking an actor-centric viewpoint this workshop discusses a specific group of mobile actors from the Middle East in Eastern Europe and the whole so-called Eastern Bloc at large, looking at the experiences and life trajectories of students, former students, professors, public intellectuals and artists who lived and studied in the metropolises of the Eastern Bloc, and vice versa. It brings together various disciplines (history, sociology, anthropology, Islamic studies) and different case studies in a number of socialist and Middle Eastern countries and micro-historical settings which all analyze how Middle Easterners and Eastern Europeans built up lives and careers by dealing with each other personally and intellectually in various and complex ways. The unique methodological angle of oral histories and analysis of productions from dissertations to films, paintings, dictionaries, teaching materials, features and journal articles give insights into the inner workings of knowledge production and consumption in hybrid settings. The personal relationships and intellectual inter-relations between Soviet socialist teachings and realities, and Arab, Turkish, Iranian or Kurdish national and modernist aspirations engender a fascinating and complex ideological space, characterized by contradictions and tensions yet also infusing an oftentimes strong and long-lasting sense of familiarity and belonging.