7th annual ‚Rethinking 20th Century Europe – Postgraduate Conference‘: Historia Europeana Network (Web) together with Department of History of Masaryk Univ. and Moravian Matice (Matice moravská)

Time: 20.-21-10.2020
Venue: South Moravian Region Conference Hall, Brno
Proposals by: 19.04.2020

Feeling of home is, as such, paramount to just about everyone – it can involve an actual building, a city or a home county, as well as a certain community that a person considers themselves to be a part of. Home is a source of safety and happiness and thus, people spend considerable effort building it. They are willing to fight and die to protect it. However, sometimes the circumstances push people to leave their homes for various reasons. Other times, they lose the feeling of home without leaving the actual place they live at.

During our two-day meeting, we will try to approach the idea of home from all the different points of view and we will try to find an answer to some of the most peculiar questions: What was the idea of home for individuals, groups, movements and even states? How did they use it to construct their identity or as a tool of political struggle or propaganda? What kinds of different ideas of home might there be? How did people fight for their home? How did they deal with loosing it? What was it like to look for new home or to try to return to the old one? What was the role of memories of a home lost in this process?

To answer these questions, a wide variety of approaches and theoretical concepts can be used. The work may focus on political history (e.g. utilizing the ideal of happy home in political struggle), history of ideas, memory studies, the question of exile in its widest sense, the history of everyday life and the question of gender roles or the role of home in the constructions of national, religious, social or sexual identities. The problem can also be approached in an interdisciplinary manner. The articles should focus both on wider ideas and specific events.

The outcome, however, should not only be a detailed look on a specific or regional topics, but also a take on their international significance, or at the very least on their wider context and comparison. Especially welcome are contributions on homes of non-majority groups and movements. Read more … (PDF)