CEERES

Steven Zipperstein, “Mythology, Historicity, and the 1903 Kishinev Pogrom: How a Riot Changed 20th Century Jewish History;”

3/29/2012, Rosenwald 405, 1101 E. 58th St. at 4:30 p.m. (free)

Steven J. Zipperstein, Daniel E. Koshland Professor in Jewish Culture and History at Stanford University, has published widely in European Jewish history and literary biography. Among his books are: Elusive Prophet: Ahad Ha’am and the Origins of Zionism (1993); Imagining Russian Jewry: Memory, History, Identity (1999); and Rosenfeld’s Lives: Fame, Oblivion, and the Furies of Writing (2008). Continue reading →

April 5, 2012
University of Chicago
Haskell 315
4:30pm
Co-Sponsored by CEERES and the Anthropology of Europe Workshop

The Politics of Memory and the Greek Civil War

Loring M. Danforth and Riki van Boeschoten

Recent work in anthropology and oral history on the “politics of memory” contributes greatly to an understanding of the “memory wars” that continue to be fought over one of the most tragic and controversial episodes of the Greek Civil War: the evacuation of children from northern Greece by the Greek Communist Party in 1948. In this paper I offer an “ethnography of memory” of Lia, a village in Epirus that has been transformed into a “memorial village” as a result of the success of Eleni, Nicholas Gage’s best-selling account of the execution of his mother by the communists after she helped him escape from the village. I analyze local memories of the evacuation of children from the village in 1948, the ambivalent feelings residents of Lia continue to nurture about Nicholas Gage’s book, and the controversy surrounding the village guesthouse built in memory of Gage’s mother. I conclude by considering the interaction of the global and the local by analyzing the comments left by visitors in the guest book of the guesthouse and the efforts villagers make in their everyday lives to mend their social relations and heal the traumas of the past.

Please join the Russian Studies Workshop for the next meeting of the on Tuesday,
February 28th. We will be discussing a chapter draft by Natalie Belsky (Department
of History, University of Chicago) entitled “The Challenges of Uplotnenie: Housing
Conflicts between Evacuees and Local Residents at Sites of Resettlement During
the Second World War.”

Location Change: Please note that this workshop will take place in the Social
Science Tea Room!

Refreshments will be available at 4:15, and we will begin our discussion at 4:30.

Russian Studies Workshop
Tuesday, February 28th, 4:30-6:00 (snacks from 4:15!)
Social Science Tea Room (SSRB 201)

The paper and Natalie’s letter to workshop participants is now available on the
workshop’s chalk site under “Current Paper.” If you do not
have access to the chalk site, please email me at nbelsky@uchicago.edu, and I will
be glad to send you a copy. Please also contact me if you have any questions,
comments, or otherwise need assistance.

Please join the Russian Studies Workshop TODAY!

We will be welcoming Dr. Eugene Raikhel (Department of
Comparative Human Development, University of Chicago) and discussing his paper
entitled “A clinical cult of personality? Hypnosis, belief and the therapeutic
economy of Russian addiction medicine.”
Refreshments will be available at 4:15, and we will begin our discussion at 4:30.

Russian Studies Workshop
Tuesday, February 7th, 4:30-6:00 (snacks from 4:15!)
John Hope Franklin Room (SSRB 224) Continue reading →