The panel discussion is part of the conference "The Future of Central and East European Studies in the Light of Russia's War of Aggression Against Ukraine", which took place on October 17-19th 2024, Warsaw

In this panel discussion we aim to wrap up the conference by considering the status of Central and East European Studies within a global context. Russia’s war against Ukraine has certainly brought focus to the region, and it is to be hoped that – given the naked imperialism of Putin’s invasion – a reassessment of the political, cultural, and historical character of Central and Eastern Europe will be called for within academia worldwide. But is this in fact happening? Can we say that Central and Eastern Europe as a distinct region has obtained its own agency, and that research in and of this area has become more subject oriented? We will ask, too, about the relationship between scientific discourse and political discourse – is the former guided by the latter, and if so to what effect? How shall CEE Studies be positioned within the global “marketplace of ideas”? What are the unique characteristics and challenges of the CEE discourse, and what might it potentially contribute to Western scholarship? Lastly, we shall consider which research perspectives are most useful and need further exploration, and how researchers across disciplines might find ways to address these needs.

Moderator: Dr. Ian Garner, Center for Totalitarian Studies, Pilecki Institute

Panelists:

• Prof. John Micgiel, East European Centre, University of Warsaw
• Dr. Tetiana Portnova, University of Potsdam
• Prof. Mark Kramer, Harvard University
• Prof. Igor Kąkolweski, Centre for Historical Research of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Berlin

John S. Micgiel is a historian specializing in the modern history of East Central Europe. Having received his Ph.D. from Columbia University, he spent nearly three decades teaching in the University’s School of International and Public Affairs where he was, among other administrative assignments, long-time Director of the Institute on East Central Europe.  For many years he has been recurring Visiting Professor at Warsaw University’s East European Centre. Professor Micgiel has authored or edited more than a dozen books on the region and is a frequent visitor to its academic institutions. His most recent monograph is on US-Polish intelligence cooperation during World War Two and is entitled Project Eagle: The Top Secret OSS Operation that sent Polish Spies Behind Enemy Lines (Essex, CT: Stackpole Books, 2024).

Tetiana Portnova is a historian specializing in intellectual history, urban history and museology. Since November 2023, Portnova has been working as a research associate at the University of Potsdam (DFG position). In 2012-2021 Portnova was an Associate Professor at the Chair of Historiography, Source and Archival Studies of the Dnipro National University. Since 2021 she has been working as a Senior Research Fellow at the Dmytro Yavornytsky Dnipro National History Museum.

Mark Kramer is Director of Cold War Studies at Harvard University, a Senior Fellow of Harvard's Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies, and Director of the Sakharov Program on Human Rights. Originally trained in mathematics at Stanford University, he went on to study international relations as a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University and an Academy Scholar at Harvard, where he subsequently joined the faculty. In addition to teaching international relations and comparative politics at Harvard, he has been a visiting professor at Yale University, Brown University, Aarhus University in Denmark, and American University in Bulgaria. He has written or edited many books and articles on a variety of topics.

Igor Kąkolewski is the director of the Centre for Historical Research of the Polish Academy of Sciences (CBH PAN) in Berlin and a professor at the University of Warmia and Mazury in Olsztyn (Poland). Historian, educator, exhibition organizer, and a member of the Joint German-Polish Textbook Commission. In his research Kąkolewski deals with the early modern history of Poland in the European context and German-Polish-Jewish relations. From 2012 to 2020 he was the Polish scientific coordinator on the Polish-German joint history textbook “Europe – Our History”.

Visit the conference website: https://instytutpileckiego.pl/en/badania/fall-conference