Preliminary Programme

Tue 26 February
    14.15
    16.30

Wed 27 February
    8.30
    10.45
    14.15
    16.30

Thu 28 February
    8.30
    10.45
    14.15
    16.30

Fri 29 February
    8.30
    10.45
    14.15
    16.30

Sat 1 March
    8.30
    10.45
    14.15
    16.30

All days
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Tuesday 26 February 2008 14.15
J-1 CUL01 Dynamic Reconstruction of the Past in Societies of Transition
Room 3.1
Network: Culture Chair: Nikolai Vukov
Organizers: Miglena Ivanova, Nikolai Vukov Discussant: Nikolai Vukov
Miglena Ivanova : Inscribing Global Identities into the Urban Space. Recent Bulgarian Graffiti Writers and their Identity Construction
Graffiti writers usually construct partial identities - what you see is the graffito itself, challenging your imagination to ponder who and why has done it. At the same time, while some of the writings easily render themselves to reading, others carefully hide meanings. In the last decade old legible graffiti ... (Show more)
Graffiti writers usually construct partial identities - what you see is the graffito itself, challenging your imagination to ponder who and why has done it. At the same time, while some of the writings easily render themselves to reading, others carefully hide meanings. In the last decade old legible graffiti have steadily been replaced by new, almost illegible ones in Sofia. They consist of a special graffiti names chosen and written as to comply with the global graffiti tradition. Basing herself on a more than 10 years long research on graffiti production in Bulgaria, including interviews with writers and documentation of thousands of pieces, the author argues that the graffiti pseudonyms of the Bulgarian writers signify global identities projected right into the public space. Demonstrating belonging to the global graffiti communities, the Bulgarian writers do their graffiti in a way legible to the foreign graffiti writers, whereas common citizens and guests of the city are supposed to see in them scribbles, strangely deformed letters or unclear symbolic images. The paper is aimed at the explanation of these processes creating new coherences and discrepancies in the local networks of identity construction and identification. (Show less)

Marusa Pusnik : Mediating Communism: Slovenian Media Coverage of the Recent Past and Historical Reprogramming
This paper aims to recapitulate the changes in the politics of media representation of the recent Slovenian past that were brought about by the disintegration of the socialist system in Yugoslavia in 1991. The basic concern is to show how Slovenia deals with its recent communist and Yugoslav past in ... (Show more)
This paper aims to recapitulate the changes in the politics of media representation of the recent Slovenian past that were brought about by the disintegration of the socialist system in Yugoslavia in 1991. The basic concern is to show how Slovenia deals with its recent communist and Yugoslav past in the contemporary culture. On the micro case of documentaries and other media representations of this past period the paper tries to present how media texts serve as a medium for representing, constructing and reshaping the recent Slovenian past. They have power to set an agenda for public debates and to control the knowledge that circulate in the Slovenian society and in this regard also influence the historiography itself. Moreover, also the role of historians who are usually the main actors in these public (mediated) debates is going to be addressed. Such mediated debates and representations of the past that started in the Slovenian media in the late 1990s have shifted the focus away from the socialist and Yugoslav experience and have set new firm boundaries between dead, socialist, Balkan past and lively, capitalist, Western present in Slovenia. The paper argues that media reinterpretations of the communist and Yugoslav past try to eliminate the Yugoslav period and the communist past from people’s perceptions and memories. Moreover, these media texts present the process of reshaping the specific political and socio-economical system and of redefinition of common antifascist past experience in the people’s memories and their personal experiences. (Show less)

Sylvia Stancheva : (Re)presenting History in Museums in post-socialist Bulgaria
The majority of museums in Bulgaria are those of national history. During the state socialism they were assigned the task of narration and illustration of the nation state, as well as glorification of the communist party. In sprite of the numerous changes in the political, social and economical life in ... (Show more)
The majority of museums in Bulgaria are those of national history. During the state socialism they were assigned the task of narration and illustration of the nation state, as well as glorification of the communist party. In sprite of the numerous changes in the political, social and economical life in Bulgaria after 1989, most of the museums haven’t changed their exhibition policy yet, i.e. they haven’t reconceptualized their perceptions and views of the past. The problematic issue of representing the ambivalent socialist legacy has mainly turned scholarly attention, rather than that of the museum professionals.
This paper would discuss the role of the museums in the construction of national narratives of the past and the opportunities for innovation in their exhibition policy. It would approach the opportunities for representing the controversies of the socialist past within the museum institution, thus turning it into a place for open discussion and debate. (Show less)



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