The hybrid workshop brought together NTUS researchers and assistants (Emilia Palonen, Ruta Kazlauskaite, Marina Vulovic, Ilana Hartikainen, Sabine Volk, Ionut-Valentin Chiruta, and Vica Protovin) and hosted a wonderful academic guest, Angelina Lucento. Together, they all discussed the politics of space and time in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) over the course of three days.
The first day featured intense discussions on theories of affect, politics of space, and how we can use the populism formula (developed by Emilia Palonen) in a spatial context. As a cherry on top, NTUS guest Angelina Lucento delivered a gripping lecture about the political power of public art in Ukraine and the former Soviet Union, tying these themes in with the current political situation in CEE in a joint discussion at the end.
The second day spotlighted NTUS researchers’ own work on spatiality, temporality and collective subjectivity in various CEE contexts, from Kosovo, Hungary, the Czech Republic and Slovakia, to Poland, Romania and eastern Germany. The discussions created a good basis for the further planning of a joint volume that will be one of the final results of the project. Lastly, Ionut Chiruta tuned in from the workshop to host a session in the “Ukrainian Voices” lecture series, which featured emerging scholars Olena Yermakova and Michael Cole, both of whom spoke about the transformation of physical space in Ukraine in light of Russia’s war against the country.
Last but not least, the intense discussions and the planning of the joint volume continued over lunches, dinners, and breakfast on the third day, and finished over some beers in a local pub. The discussion will resume in August, when NTUS will meet again at the ECPR General Conference in Innsbruck, Austria.