Routes and Roots: Migration and Displacement in Eastern Europe

Since the modern era, the space of Eastern Europe has been part of major transnational movements of people. These included the labor migrations of the 19th century, which connected the region with the United States, Canada, and South America. The wars that erupted in the region, starting with the Great War, caused unprecedented flows of refugees and spurred the establishment of humanitarian institutions. The forced deportations under totalitarian regimes further reshaped the idea of home for hundreds of thousands of individuals. The post-WWII period was marked by the rapid growth of new urban centers and internal migration processes. Today, the ongoing Russian war against Ukraine has produced new waves of refugees and internally displaced persons, once again compelling us to reflect on the future of the nation. These movements have consistently crossed the borders and boundaries of Eastern Europe, connecting it to global dynamics through countless individual stories. Such developments make Eastern Europe an illustrative case for studying migration and mobility, tracing how movements of people have shaped societies across centuries. They also raise fundamental questions: Are we living in a society characterized more by movement than stability? How do disruptions and the traumas of displacement affect our sense of belonging?

Students and faculty will participate together in a rich program of lectures, methodological seminars, and workshops involving work with primary sources. The curriculum will actively engage with the urban space of Lviv and its surroundings — a landscape deeply marked by upheavals and displacements of people and institutions. Participants will engage in methodological discussions about the imperial context, the role of the borders, and the development of welfare as a migration effect. They will explore individual case studies reflecting the impact of migration and forced movement on intellectual trajectories. The issue of displacement concerns not only people but also material culture. Accordingly, students will work with the archival resources of Lviv, exploring displaced photo collections from occupied territories, such as the project City in the Suitcase. During the Summer School, participants will also visit institutions in Lviv and Drohobych committed to the preservation of displaced artifacts, for example, the new space After Silence. 

One day of the school will be dedicated to the practical workshop, working with the new educational platforms: REESOURCES. Rethinking Eastern Europe, developed by the Center for Urban History and Migration History Open Educational Resource of the Central European University. Students will present their own research projects and receive feedback and mentoring support.

The school will take place simultaneously in Budapest and Lviv in a mixed format of online and offline meetings and seminars. Participants of the school will be the students of the Invisible University for Ukraine, a program of the Central European University for Ukrainian undergraduate and graduate students living in Ukraine or in exile whose studies have been affected by the war. The name of this program refers to various underground and emigrant educational initiatives of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries in Eastern Europe, as well as to the tradition of "Invisible Colleges."

Organizers:

• Lucija Balikić, Olha Stasiuk, Balázs Trencsényi, Kinga Ágnes Páll (CEU); 
• Nadiia Chervinska, Daiva Tereščenko (IUFU); 
• Sofia Dyak, Maryana Mazurak, Vladyslava Moskalets  (Center for Urban History); 
• Taras Fedirko (IWM Vienna); 
• Yuliia Karpets, Arina Kravchenko (Kyiv-Mohyla Academy); 
• Valerie Karpan, Maryna Khrypun (University of Coimbra); 
• Ostap Sereda (Ukrainian Catholic University, BCB Berlin); 
• Denys Tereshchenko (European University Institute); 
• Diána Vonnák (Czech Academy of Sciences).

The team of the Center:

• Vladyslava Moskalets, program development;
• Sofia Dyak, consulting;
• Maryana Mazurak, organizational support;
• Sofia Andrusyshyn, logistics;
• Oleksandr Dmytriyev, technical support;
• Yaryna Paniv, financial support.

Credits

Сover Image: Jerzy Lewczyński (1924-2014) – Nasze powiększenie – Nysa 1945, z kolekcji Muzeum Historii Fotografii w Krakowie / from the collection of the Museum of Photography In Kraków