At the Edge of Empire: Spaces, Borders and Boundaries in Central Europe and Beyond

Organized by Paul Lerner (History), Sarah Pratt (Slavic Languages and Literatures) and Thomas Seifrid (Slavic Languages and Literatures)

This series conceives of Central Europe as a unique space, a crossroads of peoples, cultures and power, an area of religious — Catholic, Orthodox, Muslim and Jewish — co-existence and confrontation, a meeting ground of nationalities, ethnicities and languages and the terrain upon which the 20th century’s major ideologies, communism, fascism, liberalism, confronted each other. Central Europe provides an extraordinarily rich (and still under-researched) case study of empire and its impact on national identities.

Thursday, November 5, 2009
Spaces, Borders and Boundaries in Central Europe and Beyond

Tuesday, December 1, 2009
Cultural Borderlands and Ambiguities of Empire

Thursday, March 4, 2010
Central Europe under Communism: Material and Consumer Cultures