Call for Contributions: “At home in the diaspora”
The online portal "Copernico. History and Cultural Heritage in Eastern Europe" is now calling for contributions to our next thematic focus: “At home in the diaspora”. The goal is to capture the diversity of life experiences in the diaspora of refugees from Eastern Europe.
The second world war led to migration on an unprecedented scale. For many people this meant having to leave their home regions forever. Eastern Europe was particularly affected by flight and displacement due to the new political situation emerging there. While German refugees and displaced persons often settled in the occupied zones of what was to become the Federal Republic of Germany and the German Democratic Republic, the destination for many, for example, those from the new Soviet republics in the Baltic region or former forced laborers from Poland was still uncertain. They became displaced persons (DPs) and were allocated to numerous camps while new host countries for them were sought. The United States, Canada and Australia were particularly popular countries, but the path to these far-off goals was strewn with bureaucratic obstacles and time-consuming selection processes. Many DPs did not manage to get overseas and remained in Europe, for example in West Germany. Institutions like the Baltic University in Exile in PInneberg, Hamburg became important stopovers, particularly for young people. Those who managed to get overseas, for example, to Australia, were able to start a new life in their host countries after years of uncertainty, although these were often marked by war and post-war experiences. The new circumstances offered them new opportunities, although they also needed to preserve the culture that they had brought with them and to work towards the liberation of the occupied territories they had left behind. Diaspora communities were often and continue to be politically active: they are interested in what is happening in their old home and want to contribute to changing the situation there. At the same time they need to adapt to their host community.
The goal of the Copernico thematic focus is to capture the diversity of life experiences in the diaspora of refugees from Eastern Europe, and to make it accessible to a wider audience. We are interested in contributions that address issues such as:
- How did individual people, families or whole groups cope with the experience of the diaspora?
- What happened to the networks that were established over the subsequent decades? How important was their shared language and culture? For refugees from Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, for example, was there also a common Baltic diaspora experience?
- What is the experience of the second or even third generation? How important are cultural norms and the common language of their parents and grandparents for them?
- What happened as the long political transformation took place? Were people drawn back to the countries of their forefathers? Did they find what they had expected? How did relationships develop between those who had never been away and those who had chosen or been forced into exile?
- What was the relationship between the host community and the refugees from Eastern Europe? How did the two groups influence each other?
Contributions on the whole region of Eastern Europe are welcome.
Members of the Latvian diaspora in New York at the beginning of the 1960s. From the left: Fridrihs Milts, Gunars Saliņš, Linards Tauns, Teodors Zeltiņš, Mirdza Nāruna–Bogdanoviča, Vitolts Kalniņš (at a dining table in the artist’s workshop in Fridrihs Milts’ basement). New York, Hell’s Kitchen neighbourhood. RTMM 552518 / Rakstniecības un mūzikas muzejs,
Members of the Latvian diaspora in New York at the beginning of the 1960s. From the left: Fridrihs Milts, Gunars Saliņš, Linards Tauns, Teodors Zeltiņš, Mirdza Nāruna–Bogdanoviča, Vitolts Kalniņš (at a dining table in the artist’s workshop in Fridrihs Milts’ basement). New York, Hell’s Kitchen neighbourhood. RTMM 552518 / Rakstniecības un mūzikas muzejs,
Formalities
Please submit proposals for contributions in a wide range of formats and with varied content, from general introductory texts to detailed background articles on specific issues. The maximum text length is 12,000 characters including spaces. Other types of text, for example introducing individual historic events, object histories or texts on selected historical sources can also be substantially shorter (4,000 – 6,000 characters).
Contributions of 10,000 characters or more will be published on a publication server and assigned a DOI. All contributions featured on the portal carry citation recommendations, permalinks and license information. All contributions are published in both German and English (usually German contributions are translated into English but, if necessary, contributions can also be submitted in English and then translated into German). Each contribution must be accompanied by at least one attractive, high-resolution illustration, complete with image text and rights clearance. The contributions submitted will be reviewed in line with our internal appraisal procedure. All contributors will retain the usage rights to their own texts. Further information for contributors including in relation to illustrations and keywords can be found in the portal; please address any additional enquiries to copernico@herder-institut.de.
The rules of good academic practice apply.
Submission date and deadlines
Please send an abstract of up to 300 words with a short description of the proposed contribution to copernico@herder-institut.de by 15.11.2024. You will be notified by 20.12.2024 whether your proposal has been accepted. The deadline for submission of completed contributions is 14 March 2025.
