Power, State and Nationalism in East/Central Europe

Course papers should be full-length fieldwork synopses, with a realistic empirical point of departure and a defined theoretical focus. They should include discussions of the field itself (and relevant literature about the field), discussions of method (and practical questions of access to the field), of relevance and of field ethics. Fieldwork should be planned for a specific time and for one or more specific places.

As far as places are concerned, you are restricted only to Eastern Europe, from former East Germany to Nort-Eastern Siberia, from the Baltics to Central Asia. We strongly suggest, however, that groups that include students from Vilnius should choose their place somewhere in Lithuania or its vicinity: Estonia, Latvia, Belarus, Poland, Kaliningrad, since the Lituanians will be in a good position to supply reliable information about the situation "on the ground".

Theoretically, you are constrained to two overarching themes, to which we want your research to contribute: (1) power (and the state) and (2) nationalism (and the state). In other words, we want you to look, on the one hand, for phenomena related to power, resistance, politics, globalization, legitimacy, authority, hierarchy etc. On the other hand we want you to look for nationalism, identity, symbolism, narratives, collective representations and social memory.

For example, you might write that:
"XXX has written part 2.a and 3.c, in addition, he/she has contributed significantly to part 4.d. XXX has also collected much of the material used in parts 2.a-c, 3.c and 4."