Transformative Podcast

Who are the people who left Russia after the beginning of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022? Is this an exodus of politically active liberals in opposition to the regime? What role does the military mobilization of young men play? Where do people go, and what do they do in their places of exile? In this episode, Félix Krawatzek (ZOiS Berlin) discusses some key insights of his research on the topic with RECET scientific director Jannis Panagiotidis.

Félix Krawatzek is Head of the Research Unit Youth and Generational Change at the Center for East European and International Studies (ZOiS) and Associate Member at Nuffield College (University of Oxford). His research focuses on the comparative analysis of politics in Eastern and Western Europe, with a particular interest in the role of youth, the significance of historical representation in political processes, and issues of migration and transnationalism. Since September 2022, he has been leading the ERC-funded project Moving Russia(ns): Intergenerational Transmission of Memories Abroad and at Home (MoveMeRU).

What does radio tell us about state socialism and the post-1945 history of Czechoslovakia? In this episode, Rosamund Johnston tells Jelena Đureinović about radio and politics in socialist Czechoslovakia, highlighting the role of radio reporters and reception among listeners and discussing the contemporary implications of the study of Cold War radio.

Check out Rosie's newest book "Red Tape. Radio and Politics in Czechoslovakia, 1945-1969" published with Stanford University Press.

Rosamund Johnston is the Principal Investigator of Linking Arms: Central Europe´s Weapons Industries, 1954-1994 at RECET. She is the author of Red Tape: Radio and Politics in Czechoslovakia, 1945-1969 which appeared with Stanford University Press in March 2024. Her research has been published in Central European History and a number of edited volumes. She has also written for the Journal of Cold War Studies, East Central Europe, Harvard Ukrainian Studies, Scottish newspaper The National, and public broadcaster Czech Radio. Johnston is the author of one book of public history, Havel in America: Interviews with American Intellectuals, Politicians, and Artists, released by Czech publisher Host in 2019. 

The always growing knowledge production about socialist Yugoslavia has not sufficiently or adequately addressed the histories of Albanians in Yugoslavia. During the socialist period, many Albanians migrated in search of work from Kosovo and Macedonia to other parts of Yugoslavia, mostly to the country's northwest. In this episode, Rory Archer (RECET/Research Plattform "Transfromations and Eastern Europe") tells Jelena Đureinović (RECET) about the social history of Yugoslav Albanian labour migration during socialism, focusing on its background, perception, and the heterogeneous nature of the Albanian micro-communities across Yugoslavia.

Dr. Rory Archer is a social historian of 20th century Southeast Europe whose work focuses on labour history and gender history in socialism, housing, everyday life and popular culture. He leads a research project about the intra-Yugoslav Albanian migration funded by the Austrian Science Foundation at the University of Graz.

Over the past year and a half, RECET has carried out its very first youth project titled "Knowledgeable Youth: Science Communication in Times of War". Together with our partners Eurozine and Radio Orange, we reached out to Ukrainian refugee youngsters living in Vienna and invited them to get to know the world of academic research and science communication. You are listening to the first of four podcast episodes produced by Ukrainian youths who arrived in Vienna following the start of the Russian invasion. The youngsters interview the founder of their school Iryna Khamayko and share insights into their lives and diverse school experiences after arriving in Vienna as refugees.

Project lead (RECET): Irena Remestwenski
Project lead (Eurozine): Carine Chen
Youngsters: FREE PEOPLE School 
Organisational assistance & PR: Leonid Motz

Originally produced by Margit Wolfsberger and Mischa Hendel for Radio Orange. Remixed by Leonid Motz.

Funded by the Cultural Department (MA7) of the City of Vienna.

Who were the Yugoslav Casanovas of mass tourism? What are the practices of othering and meanings behind romantic and sexual encounters of local young men and foreign female tourists in the Yugoslav Adriatic? In this episode, Anita Buhin tells Jelena Đureinović about so-called galebovi (seagulls) in socialist Yugoslavia and various economic, cultural and social aspects of this phenomenon, typical for the broader Mediterranean region and the development of mass tourism.

Dr. Anita Buhin is a cultural historian of socialist Yugoslavia in the Mediterranean context whose work focuses on the relations between popular culture and tourism. She is a postdoctoral researcher at the Institute of Contemporary History at the NOVA University of Lisbon and holds a PhD from the European University Institute. Her book Yugoslav Socialism ‘Flavoured with Sea, Flavoured with Salt’: Mediterranization of Yugoslav Popular Culture in the 1950s and 1960s under Italian Influences was published with Srednja Europa in Zagreb in 2022.