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Verschlagwortet: History

New Avenues in Global History

By Sebastian Conrad. In this moment of rapid political and cultural change, a reassessment of what global history stands for, what it can contribute and where its limits lie is a timely exercise. Global history as a subfield has had a fast and successful career. Virtually unknown at the turn of the century, it has by now acquired an almost ubiquitous presence in the discipline. This first phase, the era of the field’s establishment was followed by a series of critical assessments. In the wake of the financial crisis, and then the worldwide populist turn of the 2010s, the globalizing trends of the previous decades gave way to anti-globalizing movements and talk of a “backlash” and a “decoupling” of the world. What’s next?

War, Migration, Memory: Perspectives on Russia’s War Against Ukraine – An Introduction

How does war reshape collective memory, migration, and identity? Read a preview of Viktoriya Sereda and Andrii Portnov’s introduction to the recently published anthology “War, Migration, Memory: Perspectives on Russia’s War Against Ukraine” exploring the ongoing impact of Russia’s aggression against Ukraine. It delves into questions of belonging, historical memory, and societal transformation through essays written by Ukrainian scholars amid war and displacement.

Why the Past Matters: Personal Reflections on the Advantage and Disadvantage of History for Life

By Zahiye Kundos. For the past hundred and fifty years or so (feel free to count differently), Arabs –  whether  Muslims, Christians, or Jews – have been dealing with relative loss of control over their lives in part due to living without self-sovereignty. Such collective experience is manifest in the feeling of being lost in history, exhausted from Sisyphean efforts to connect to that past and achieve radical changes in their present, moving in a circle between glances of hope and long periods of depression. The result is a stuttering tongue, a symptom of a bruise in their heart. Generation after generation, but this heart injury doesn’t get old; the bruise continues to be blue.   

Decolonizing Family Metaphors in the Context of the Russian-Ukrainian War and Beyond

By Illia Ilin. The recent history of Ukraine can be metaphorically described as a journey to break away from the abusive “triune Russian people” family and reconnect with the democratic “European peoples” family. This long process of decolonization has been ongoing for over 30 years and signifies the reclamation of Ukrainian territories, history, and identity by the Ukrainian people. This article will explore the family metaphors of (de)colonization of Russia and unified Europe in relation to Ukraine, and the potential for their expansion and decolonization.

Navigating Bureaucratic Hurdles: Tuberculosis and Healthcare Access in Republican Istanbul

By Zehra Betül Atasoy. Tuberculosis, often referred to as consumption or phthisis, was one of the most dreaded diseases of the 19th and 20th centuries on a global scale. From the 1930s to the 1960s, the period on which this piece focuses, tuberculosis claimed a significant number of lives each year in Turkey. The absence of a structured and centralized TB treatment and prevention system left countless individuals grappling with the disease alone. However, one of the reasons for the lack of access to treatment was the cumbersome bureaucratic processes, exacerbating social class disparities.

An Unruly Persianate

By Purnima Dhavan. The Persianate world has long been defined as a distinct historical formation in the premodern era with a beginning and an end. More recently, scholars have rightly started to question this premature assumption of its demise. The special issue of Philological Encounters extends and complicates the argument about the long life of the Persianate. One hesitates to call it an afterlife, as it seems the “death” of the Persianate never happened.

The Anticolonial Solidarity Campaign of 1962 in the Hungarian Countryside: An Attempt to Make Global Connections

By Réka Krizmanics. This article discusses a case study of an anticolonial solidarity campaign in the Hungarian countryside based on the archival records of the Hungarian Women’s National Council (HWNC), focusing on spaces and protagonists that are rarely centered in similar investigations. By expanding on this example, it seeks to demonstrate some of the difficulties that arose for women in their practical work that underpinned an important anticolonial initiative.

Sovist’ (Conscience) – A closer look by Oleksii Isakov

By Oleksii Isakov. Ukrainian Dreams, a special film event taking place for the first time in Berlin, aims to decolonise and remap Ukrainian cinema by emphasizing its position within the global cultural context and by bringing the works of Ukrainian directors out of the shadow of the mostly hegemonic Soviet and Russian past. Sovist’ (1968), directed by Volodymyr Denysenko (1930-1984), is one of the films that certainly deserve a closer look.

The Wondrous World of Omar El-Zeenni

By Sana Tannoury-Karam, with translations by Fatima Kassem Moussa. In 1918, Omar el-Zeenni looked around him and declared “The world is madness”. Indeed, by the end of the First World War, el-Zeenni’s world was turning upside down. Born in Beirut in 1895, Omar el-Zeenni belonged to the “last Ottoman generation” that had come of age in the last few years of the Ottoman empire’s existence and whose politicization occurred during the First World War.