Past Events

How to bring the best ideas to the world and enrich the global conversation in an age of political uncertainty, distraction and AI? From the perspective of somebody who has worked in scholarly publishing all her life, Brigitta van Rheinberg, Associate Director of Princeton University Press, will try to give some answers to this question.

The digital age is conventionally narrated as a Western story, one in which liberal capitalism's institutional flexibility enabled the technological transformation that state socialism's rigidity precluded. This talk challenges that narrative by arguing that the intellectual and institutional history of computing's social promise was a genuinely global one,…

After fifteen years of enjoying constitutional majority, Viktor Orbán's regime is bothered by meeting the challenge of a new adversary, the Tisza Party led by a charismatic politician Péter Magyar. The discussion in the Salon will give an insight in current debates in Hungary on whether the elections will result in a government or regime change, what this…

Was it possible for women positioned at the peripheries of the Cold War to influence it? Could they engage in international politics and further the interests of women at large? The lecture is an attempt of explore mainly forgotten women's gatherings in cities like Tashkent or Havana during 1960s-1980s.

How far did state-socialist regimes in Eastern Europe succeed in realizing their promises of women's emancipation? And how did women's experiences compare with those in Western capitalist societies?

Eugene Finkel's new book "Intent to Destroy" uncovers the roots of the Russo-Ukrainian War. Ukraine is a key borderland between Russia and the West, and, following the rise of Russian nationalism in the nineteenth century, dominating Ukraine became the cornerstone of Russian policy. Today's violence is just a more extreme version of Russia's past efforts.…

Loneliness is more than a private feeling. Sometimes it is a welcome pause from everyday life, sometimes it is the painful experience of exclusion. This ambivalence makes it difficult to grasp loneliness clearly – is it a personal issue, a health risk, or a societal challenge? In recent years, some governments have begun to treat loneliness as something to…

In the field of Eastern European History, the question whether historians have a responsibility to engage in public and political discussions have become particularly urgent after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Can we afford silence in face of the dismantling of democracy in the United States and the rise of anti-democratic parties and movements in…

In our regular Transformative Salon format Polish-American historian Jan T. Gross and Magda Szcześniak reflect on how authoritarian rule can be dismantled in Poland.

Radikal rechte, nationalistische Bewegungen vernetzen sich zunehmend auch international – das gilt für gewalttätige Akteure und die Vernetzung im Internet, aber auch für parlamentarisch aktive politische Akteure wie Parteien und Vorfeldorganisationen.

Eine rechtsextreme Ministerin treibt in der Slowakei den kulturellen Kahlschlag voran. Tausende gehen dagegen auf die Strasse. Ministerin Martina Šimkovičová ist ein Symptom eines gesamteuropäischen, eines globalen Problems. Wie es der österreichische Reporter Martin Pollack klar formulierte: „Was derzeit an kulturpolitischem Kahlschlag in der Slowakei…

The Trasformative Salon will entail the book launch of ”Texts and Contexts from the History of Feminism and Women’s Rights, East Central Europe, Second Half of the Twentieth Century” (CEU Press 2025), accompanied by a discussion

This talk recovers the unique intellectual ferment of the Great Depression era in Poland to show how histories of “elsewhere”–peripheral, rural, and poor nation-states–moved to the center of global affairs and social science.

The Research Center for the History of Transformations (RECET) at the University of Vienna and the Research Platform "Transformations and Eastern Europe" invite to their regular Transformative Salon on 7 March 2024 at 7 PM, this time with Maria Todorova (Professor Emerita at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign).

Gibt es in Deutschland Rassismus gegen Menschen aus dem östlichen Europa? Das auf diesem Salon vorgestellte gleichnamige Buch stellt ein Plädoyer für eine längst überfällige Osterweiterung der Rassismusdebatte dar.

Zwanzig Jahre nach der großen Erweiterungsrunde von 2004 ist es an der Zeit eine Zwischenbilanz zu ziehen: wie hat sich die Osterweiterung auf die EU insgesamt ausgewirkt?

Putin’s war is a “special operation” against modernity. The invasion has been directed against Ukraine, but the war has a broader target: the modern world of climate awareness, energy transition and digital labor. By trading oil and gas, promoting Trump and Brexit, spreading corruption, boosting inequality and homophobia, subsidizing far-right movements and…

The Research Center for the History of Transformations (RECET) at the University of Vienna and the Research Platform "Transformations and Eastern Europe" invite to their regular Transformative Salon, Thursday, 9 November 2023, with Tanja Maier, Ruslana Koziienko and Jenia Yudytska.

Von einer "Spaltung der Gesellschaft" ist immer häufiger die Rede. Auch in der Alltagswahrnehmung vieler Menschen stehen sich zunehmend unversöhnliche Lager gegenüber. So plausibel sie klingen mögen, werfen entsprechende Diagnosen doch Fragen auf ...

Israel lebt seit seiner Gründung mit religiösen, politischen und ethnischen Spannungen. Die rechts-religiöse Regierung, die Ende 2022 ins Amt kam, will diese nun zu ihren Gunsten auflösen. Seit Januar 2023 gehen hunderttausende Menschen auf die Straße. Natan Sznaider wird versuchen, die Proteste im Land theoretisch einzuordnen.

Was können wir aus der Friedens- und Konfliktforschung für ein mögliches Ende des russisch-ukrainischen Krieges lernen? Wie enden Kriege überhaupt und was sind die Schritte vom Ende der Kampfhandlungen bis hin zu einem nachhaltigen Frieden?

The depth of Europe’s present energy predicaments both in relation to fossil fuel energy and the energy transition have a long history going back to the beginning of the 20th century. Europe’s Net Zero 2050 goal represents an attempt to break free of its long-standing foreign energy dependency problem. How can this problem be eliminated?

Policies on the past have been a key component of the program and practice of the populist party ruling Poland since 2015. Polish "memory wars", which proved effective in mobilizing supporters, delegitimizing opponents, and justifying policies are unlikely to disappear.