IAS Invited Lecture Series in Studies of Eastern Europe and the Post-Soviet Area: History of Violence

Organizers: prof. Maciej Michalski (maciej.michalski@amu.edu.pl), dr. Magdalena Lachowicz (malachow@amu.edu.pl)

Lectures:

Traces of Mass Violence in the Landscape of Central and Eastern Europe

Luba Jurgenson is a full professor in the Department of Slavic Studies at Sorbonne University and the director of the research center Eur’ORBEM, which focuses on the cultures and societies of Eastern, Balkan, and Central Europe. She also serves as the vice-president of Memorial-France, a subsidiary of the Russian International Memorial Association. Jurgenson’s research primarily explores the representations and memory of mass violence in Eastern and Central Europe during the 20th century. Among her most recent publications are Quand nous nous sommes réveillés. Nuit du 24 février 2022 : invasion de l’Ukraine (2023), Le Semeur d’yeux. Sentiers de Varlam Chalamov (2022), and Lo Specchio del Gulag in Francia e in Italia, co-authored with Claudia Pieralli (2019).

Jurgenson holds a doctorate in Slavic Studies (2001) from Paris-IV Sorbonne, with a dissertation on the works of A. Solzhenitsyn and V. Chalamov, and an Habilitation degree (2009) on the theme of trace and testimony in Varlam Chalamov’s work. She has held several editorial roles, including co-director of the collection Texte(s) at Eur’ORBEM editions since 2016, and director of the Usages de la mémoire series at Editions Petra since 2012.

In addition to her academic roles, Jurgenson is actively involved in research coordination. She has been the vice-president of Memorial-France since 2020 and has directed the Eur’ORBEM scientific center since 2019. She has also contributed to various national and international research projects, such as the “Plurality of Memories” program (2018-2022) within the 4EU+ alliance and the “Reception of Soviet Political Repression in the Franco-Italian Cultural Universe” project (2017-2018).

Jurgenson’s distinguished career has been recognized with several honors. She received the Silver Medal of the CNRS in 2023, was awarded the Legion of Honor in 2022, and was named a Chevalier of the Order of Arts and Literature in 2018. In 2015, she won the Valéry Larbaud Prize for her essay Au Lieu du péril (Where There is Danger).

How to network authoritarianism in Russia? The Runet between repression and surveillance in wartime

Françoise Daucé is Professor at the School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences (EHESS) in Paris and member of the Center for Russian, Caucasian, East-European and Central Asian Studies (CERCEC). Françoise Daucé holds a bachelor in history (Rennes University, 1991) and a master degree in political science (SciencesPo Paris, 1993). In 1999, she defended a PhD thesis in political science on the relationship between the army and power institutions in post-soviet Russia. She was director of the Franco-Russian Centre for Social and Human Sciences in Moscow (2000-2002). From 2004 to 2014, she was assistant professor at Blaise-Pascal University in Clermont-Ferrand. In 2011, she defended a habilitation (HDR) on state coercion against civil society in Russia. Since January 2015, she has been Professor at EHESS and Director of the Centre d’études des mondes russes, caucasien et centre-européen (CERCEC – EHESS / CNRS) (2015-2023)

A political sociologist, her research focuses on new forms and practices of authoritarianism in post-soviet Russia. Her work has successively focused on civil-military relations after the end of the USSR (L’Etat, l’armée et le citoyen en Russie postsoviétique. L’Harmattan, 2001) and on coercion against civil society in the 2000s (Une paradoxale oppression. Le pouvoir et les associations en Russie. CNRS Editions, 2013). Her current research work focuses on censorship in the public sphere and the repression of political dissent in Russian society. She coordinated the collective research project “The Net Resisters. Criticism and evasion of digital coercion in Russia” (ResisTIC – 2018-2022). She co-edited the book resulting from this collective project: Françoise Daucé, Benjamin Loveluck, Francesca Musiani (dir). Genèse d’un autoritarisme numérique. Répression et résistance sur Internet en Russie (2012-2022). Editions des Mines, 2023.

She published in a range of journals, including First Monday, Critique Internationale, Revue d’études comparatives Est-Ouest, Europe-Asia Studies, Problems of post-Communism, Journal of Civil Society, Réseaux, Digital Icons, Le Mouvement social and Laboratorium. With A. Blum, M. Elie and I. Ohayon, she published L’âge soviétique. Une traversée de l’empire russe au monde postsoviétique in 2021. She is also the author of : La Russie postsoviétique (Repères, La découverte, 2nd edition, 2019).

Historical memory in the cities with displaced people. What and from where do we know about the history of Vilnius?

Jurgita Verbickienė is a Professor at Vilnius University, where she has made significant contributions to the study of Jewish history in Eastern Europe. She earned her PhD with a dissertation titled “Jews in the Society of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania: Aspects of Coexistence”, under the supervision of Professor Stanislovas Lazutka, successfully defending it on February 26, 2004.

Since 2023, she has served as Chairwoman of the Experts Committee of Humanities and Social Sciences at the Lithuanian Science Foundation. In 2020, she was appointed Head of the Centre for Studies of the History of East European Jewry at Vilnius University’s Faculty of History. Her academic career at Vilnius University includes roles as Professor (since 2019), Associate Professor (2010–2019), and Lecturer (2008–2010) in the Department of Theory of History and History of Culture.

Professor Verbickienė is the driving force behind the Vilnius University research-based initiative “Recovering Memory” (Grįžtanti Atmintis) and has headed the “Memory Diploma” commission, established by the Rector of Vilnius University, since 2016. She has been a member of the joint PhD Committee of Vilnius University’s Faculty of History and the Lithuanian Institute of History since 2012, and served as Head of the PhD seminar from 2013 to 2020.

In addition, she has been involved in curriculum development, serving on the committee for the BA Program in History of Culture and Anthropology since 2014 and heading the specialization and minor program on the History and Anthropology of National Minorities at the Faculty of History in 2015–2016. She is also a member of the Vilnius University Rector’s Advisory Committee for granting professorships and associate professorships (since 2016).