Presenter: Jakub Straka (Masaryk University)
Topic: “Behind the Iron Curtain: Art, Cultural Encounters, and State Control in 1960s Czechoslovakia”
Respondent: Patryk Tomaszewski (Fordham University)
Abstract: This paper explores the period of political liberalisation in communist Czechoslovakia (1963-1968), a brief but significant opening in which cultural exchange with Western countries became possible on an unprecedented scale. These encounters took multiple forms and were often marked by ambiguity and risk. One striking example is the case of the French artist Serge Oldenburg, whose 1966 arrest and subsequent three-year imprisonment exposed the limits of tolerance within a still highly securitised system. Another episode from 1967-1968 follows the young West German gallerist René Block, who clandestinely carried a collection of paintings across the Iron Curtain to donate them to the village of Lidice - a potent symbol of Nazi terror.
By examining these two episodes, the paper asks what such exchanges reveal about Czechoslovak society during this moment of cautious opening. It also reflects on what these historical cases might suggest about the dynamics of cultural contact, political control, and symbolic gesture in the present day.
About the International, Global, and Transnational History Workshop
We are thrilled to announce that the International, Global, and Transnational History Workshop will be supported by ISERP, along with Professors Mark Mazower, Adam Tooze, and Matthew Connelly.
This newly designed workshop builds on its earlier version (International History Workshop) but aims to expand its scope - geographically, chronologically, and methodologically. A key new feature is the inclusion of a respondent for each guest speaker, fostering deeper engagement with the presented work.
Our goal is to bring together a diverse group of graduate students, post-doctoral fellows, and faculty members interested in comparative, transnational, global, and international subjects. The workshop will meet weekly on Wednesdays, from 5:00–6:30pm, in Fayerweather Hall, Room 413 unless otherwise specified, and will serve as a forum for discussing work-in-progress.
We hope you will find this schedule as engaging as we do and that many of you will join us this semester! To receive the paper (which will be distributed approximately a week in advance), please RSVP using this link. Only registered participants will receive the papers.
April 1st
Presenter: Daniel Quiroga-Villamarín (University of Vienna)
Topic: “Ahead of the Times: Erecting the United Nations Headquarters in New York City’s 'Empire State’ (1939-1952)”
Respondent: Kim Phillips-Fein (Columbia University)
April 8th
Presenter: Paris Papamichos-Chronakis (Royal Holloway, London)
Topic: “Dark Cosmopolitanism: Greek Αntisemitism in Mediterranean Perspective, 1840-1914”
Respondent: Louis Fishman (CUNY)
April 15th
Presenter: Hongyi Yu (Columbia University)
Topic: “The Revival of the Interpersonal Propaganda Against the Backdrop of Cinematic Exchange Between Socialist China and North Korea in the 1960s”
Respondent: Elidor Mëhilli (Hunter College, CUNY)
April 22nd
Presenter: Patrick Cohrs (University of Florence)
Topic: “Transformative Learning: The Remaking of World Order in the Long 20th Century”
Respondent: Adam Tooze (Columbia University)
April 29th
Presenter: Glenda Sluga (European University Institute)
Topic: “What Does International, Global, and Transnational History Really Mean?”
Respondent: Matthew Connelly, Mark Mazower, and Susan Pedersen (Columbia University)
