Course info

Ostap Sereda

Public Sphere and Political Violence in Multiethnic Cities of Eastern and Central Europe (Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries)

 

Brief course description:

The course aims at exploring key aspects of urban modernity in Eastern and Central Europe from the time of intensive imperial urban reforms until the WWII when the ethnic cleansings perpetrated by the Nazi and Stalinist regimes profoundly transformed the region and destroyed the multiethnic character of its cities.  We shall analyze transformation of urban social space and of imperial institutions that made the emergence of public sphere possible, and trace down the increasing “nationalization” of the public sphere and urban politics through the long nineteenth century, with special attention to those milieus that continued to exist “beyond nationalism”. One of the key questions of the course is whether the formation of modern urban cultures and growth of modern nationalism are mutually reinforcing or contradictory processes? Turning to the 20th century, we will re-examine the main concepts and cases of social and ethnic violence and discuss how the public sphere survived under various totalitarian and authoritarian regimes.

 

The following topics will be discussed during the course:

 ·       Conceptual and historiographic orientation. Modern urbanity, public sphere and political violence

·       The Enlightenment, imperial urbanism and emergence of urban public sphere at the turn of the nineteenth century

·       Revolutionary 1848 and after. Growth of urban politics, public sphere and nationalism

·       Anti-Jewish pogroms and ethnic violence

·       ‘National indifference’ versus urban national mobilization

·       Public sphere and nationalist violence in the interwar period

·       Public sphere under the Stalinist rule in the USSR

·       World war two: whither a public sphere in the bloodlands?

Course Requirements

·       Regular preparation and active participation in the discussions in classroom (30% of the final grade)

·       Oral presentation in the class (30% of the final grade). Each student is expected to give a presentation (max. 15-20 minutes) addressing one of the topics listed in the course schedule. Presentations should provide a summary and critical review of one or two of the listed additional readings or present a special case of a city from the regions under consideration. In addition to the presentation, two or three questions might be prepared for discussion during the class.

·       Final Paper or “open-book exam” (40% of the final grade). At the end of the course students are expected to either write an 3000-4000 words long essay or to take an “open-book exam.” Students should choose the topic of their final paper and discuss it with the instructor by 10 March, otherwise they shall prepare for the exam (the questions will be announced in advance). The essay might be based on the materials discussed during the oral presentation in the class.