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| Semester | spring semester 2024 |
| Course frequency | Once only |
| Lecturers | Olena Palko (olena.palko@unibas.ch, Assessor) |
| Content | This seminar will focus on the history, effects and legacy of the imperial collapse and subsequent cases of interethnic violence in Eastern and Central Europe during the first half of the 20th century. In particular, we will consider concerns and anxieties faced by national governments at the time when “the world of empires” was reconfigured as “the world of nations”. Essentially, newly formed governments in the region were ethnically heterogeneous states, yet conceived as nation-states. Hence their desire to decrease the status of national minorities, either by assimilation, population transfer, or even ethnic cleansing. Equally, we will examine available strategies and reactions of those minorities to oppose central policies of homogenization. The seminar will be structured around three case studies, covering the period between 1921 to the late 1940s. The first case study is the Greek-Turkish borderlands, with a particular focus on the Greek-Turkish forced population exchange in 1923. The second case study is the Polish-Ukrainian borderlands, Eastern Galicia, the area of national radicalization among Ukrainians resulting in interethnic violence, with a particular focus on the massacre of the Polish population during the Second World War (the Volhynia massacre of 1943). The third case study is the Czech-German borderlands, or the Sudetenland, and the expulsion of ethnic Germans from Czechoslovakia after the Second World War. At the seminar, students will analyze primary sources and secondary literature to understand the historical context, attempt to deconstruct the historical events and the interests of the actors involved, as well as contextualize today’s contested memory of the past in the respective countries. |
| Comments | As part of the seminar, selected students will have an opportunity to participate in the excursion to Thessaloniki and the region of Thrace in early June 2024, titled “Thessaloniki/Saloniki/Selanik. Northern Greece between Empire and Nation-States” |
| Admission requirements | This seminar is limited to 25 participants. If the course is oversubscribed, the lecturer reserves the right to ask students for a letter of motivation. In general the course is for Master's students and advanced Bachelor's students of history who have completed the basic level (evidence: three Proseminars, three Proseminar papers). |
| Language of instruction | English |
| Use of digital media | No specific media used |
| Interval | Weekday | Time | Room |
|---|---|---|---|
| wöchentlich | Monday | 10.15-12.00 | Departement Geschichte, Seminarraum 4 |
| Date | Time | Room |
|---|---|---|
| Monday 26.02.2024 | 10.15-12.00 | Departement Geschichte, Seminarraum 4 |
| Monday 04.03.2024 | 10.15-12.00 | Departement Geschichte, Seminarraum 4 |
| Monday 11.03.2024 | 10.15-12.00 | Departement Geschichte, Seminarraum 4 |
| Monday 18.03.2024 | 10.15-12.00 | Departement Geschichte, Seminarraum 4 |
| Monday 25.03.2024 | 10.15-12.00 | Departement Geschichte, Seminarraum 4 |
| Monday 01.04.2024 | 10.15-12.00 | Ostern |
| Monday 08.04.2024 | 10.15-12.00 | Departement Geschichte, Seminarraum 4 |
| Monday 15.04.2024 | 10.15-12.00 | Departement Geschichte, Seminarraum 4 |
| Monday 22.04.2024 | 10.15-12.00 | Departement Geschichte, Seminarraum 4 |
| Monday 29.04.2024 | 10.15-12.00 | Departement Geschichte, Seminarraum 4 |
| Monday 06.05.2024 | 10.15-12.00 | Departement Geschichte, Seminarraum 4 |
| Monday 13.05.2024 | 10.15-12.00 | Departement Geschichte, Seminarraum 4 |
| Monday 20.05.2024 | 10.15-12.00 | Pfingstmontag |
| Monday 27.05.2024 | 10.15-12.00 | Departement Geschichte, Seminarraum 4 |
| Modules |
Modul: Areas: Osteuropa (Master's degree program: European History in Global Perspective) Modul: Aufbau Geschichte: Ostmitteleuropa (Bachelor's degree program: Eastern European Studies) Modul: Aufbau Geschichte: Russland / Sowjetunion (Bachelor's degree program: Eastern European Studies) Modul: Aufbau Geschichte: Südosteuropa (Bachelor's degree program: Eastern European Studies) Modul: Aufbau Neuere / Neueste Geschichte (Bachelor's degree subject: History) Modul: Epochen der europäischen Geschichte: Neuere / Neueste Geschichte (Master's degree program: European History in Global Perspective) Modul: Europäisierung und Globalisierung (Master's Studies: European Global Studies) Modul: Geschichte Ostmitteleuropas (Master's degree subject: East European History) Modul: Geschichte Russlands und der Sowjetunion (Master's degree subject: East European History) Modul: Geschichte Südosteuropas (Master's degree subject: East European History) Modul: Neuere / Neueste Geschichte (Master's degree subject: History) Module: The Urban across Disciplines (Master's degree program: Critical Urbanisms) |
| Assessment format | continuous assessment |
| Assessment registration/deregistration | Reg.: course registration; dereg.: not required |
| Repeat examination | no repeat examination |
| Scale | Pass / Fail |
| Repeated registration | no repetition |
| Responsible faculty | Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, studadmin-philhist@unibas.ch |
| Offered by | Departement Geschichte |