Local communities at the Slavic-Italian-German borderland and the legacy of the Habsburg monarchy

The project consists of a cycle of lectures by leading scholars whose research deals with the problem of multiethnic communities in the (post-)Habsburg area. The cases of Trieste, South Tyrol, Rijeka and Habsburg Dalmatia will be discussed, in order to present a complex web of interests and relations within the mixed society of the empire. The Austro-Hungarian political system formed a frame for development of different micro-systems, where the crucial question of sustainability and common policy used to meet various answers. The aim of the project is to examine precisely this problem of coexistence and cooperation at a local level, and the relation between a specific political system (which was a supra-national idea of the Habsburg monarchy) and local structures. On the other hand, all scholars discuss the question of the Habsburg legacy, or the afterlife of the imperial system, which could be seen as a source of a certain cultural unity of the Central Europe. The invited scholars adopt the methodological and theoretical approach of the social and cultural history. Four scholars answered the invitation: Michael Wedekind (Bremen), Natka Badurina (University of Udine), Marta Verginella (University of Trieste and Ljubljana), Daniel Baric (University Paris-Sorbonne). We propose four meetings from October to January (once a month), a lecture followed with discussion, registered if possible in order to publish it on-line.

Join us at the particular lectures:

1. Michael Wedekind (Bremen), Continuities and Discontinuities: Late Habsburg Rule in the Alpine-Adriatic Borderlands and its Aftermath, 21.10.2024

2. Natka Badurina (Udine), Sense of National Belonging in Rijeka after WWI: Between Passion and Indifference, 18.11.2024

3. Marta Verginella (Ljubljana), title to be determined, 20.01.2025

4. Daniel Baric (Paris-Sorbonne), The rediscovery of the Habsburg Legacy in Croatia and Socialist Yugoslavia: the role of Istria and Dalmatia, 17.02.2025

All lectures and discussions will take place at the Austrian Forum of Culture at 7/9 Próżna st., 6 pm.

The event is organized in cooperation with the Institut of Slavic Studies of the Polish Academy of Sciences.

Contact persons: Maciej Falski (mfalski(a)uw.edu.pl), Ewa Wróblewska-Trochimiuk (ewa.wroblewska(a)ispan.edu.pl)