Old and new borders (crossed)

In the summer semester of 2018, the lecture series* will focus on the East Central European region and its borders (and the crossing of those borders) over the past few centuries.

The series is prompted by the supposedly new symbolic boundaries between East and West, which followed the old political and militarized borders of the postwar order (“Iron Curtain”) that had been torn down. The perception of the years 1989–90 and 2004 (when the first eight East Central European countries joined the EU), that an era of uninterrupted European integration—of a continent steadily growing together—was now beginning, has seemed to prove problematic since at least 2008–2009 and, more acutely, since the summer of 2015. Or is this simple narrative about very old divisions, old walls, and their apparent overcoming after 1989 and 2004 not true at all?

This lecture series aims to address this complex of issues in a total of eight sessions and ask: What border-drawings and border-crossings—both historical and contemporary—have been and continue to be observed between and within Eastern and Western Europe? What forms and modes of mutual perception, influence, and negotiation have emerged? What were the reasons for drawing borders, how (im)permeable were they, and how and why were they suspended, circumvented, or replaced with new borders? What exchanges and learning processes between East and West took place and are being implemented today—not least in specific regional and local projects? Which approaches were successful, and which were not? What future possibilities are opening up today and in the foreseeable future?

Beyond this fundamental scope of issues, the lecture series addresses the specific regional dimension. The Zittau/Görlitz University of Applied Sciences is located in a centuries-old border region—in the tri-border area between Germany (Saxony/Prussia), Poland, and the Czech Republic (Bohemia). For the University and the Upper Lusatia region, this therefore raises specific questions about borders and the crossing of borders in the past, present, and future—questions that will be the focus of several lectures.

Speakers from Germany, Poland, and the Czech Republic will examine the issues of borders and border demarcations between East and West from historiographical, geographical, spatial science, and social and cultural science perspectives. One lecture deliberately crosses this (socio-geographical) boundary. Mr. Steffens (TU Dresden) shifts the perspective to examine the significance of borders for (educational) inclusion processes.

The first lecture in the series will take place on April 5 from 4:15–5:45 p.m. in Lecture Hall 1.01 in Building GI (Blue Box). It will focus on the topic“Intersubjectivity, Borders, and Alterity. Social Relationships in Interaction with Culture and Society.” The lecture will be given by Diplom-Paed. Jan Steffens (TU Dresden, Institute of Educational Sciences).

An overview of all lectures can be found in the program or in the HSZG’s calendar of events.

* Organized as part of the East-West College, which is supported by the Zittau/Görlitz University of Applied Sciences and the Institute for Cultural Infrastructures in Saxony (IKS).