In October 2006 the History Department at the Central European University launched a major Comparative History Project (CHP), co-directed by Péter Apor, Constantin Iordachi and Balázs Trencsényi. The project was funded by the Higher Education Support Program of the Open Society Institute, Budapest and administered by the help of CEU’s Special Projects Office. The main objective of the initiative was to create a forum for rethinking issues of comparative history in Europe and worldwide, combining the perspectives of both academic research and teaching. In the three-year time frame, we developed Comparative History as a stream/grouping of courses within a set of target departments in our Region – Central Europe, South East Europe, Eastern Europe --, with CEU acting as the core and the co-ordinator of the group. It pursued a double, intellectual and practical agenda: to formulate a regional focus for history teaching and research in Central, Eastern and Southeastern Europe, as well as to strengthen the presence of CEU’s History Department in the region.
PROJECT SUMMARY
Despite much talk about the need to study history comparatively, historical studies have largely remained a national (and frequently parochial, nationalistic, state-controlled) enterprise. While many European historical ‘schools’ and authors have been advocating the development of comparative history, this field is still in its incipient phase. Theoretically and methodologically, comparative history arguably lags behind comparative research in other disciplines (such as comparative literature, comparative politics, comparative sociology, etc.).
With the intention to fill this gap, the long-term goals of the project were the following:
- to form groups of researchers in Comparative History
- to train instructors teaching history with a comparative-transnational edge
- to develop a set of courses in Comparative History at each target department and to develop a set of teaching materials for these courses.
Main outcomes of the project:
During the time frame of the project, three major annual conferences were organized, also with the purpose to bring together prominent East- and West-European scholars. Besides the three annual conferences, the project covered a number of transnational workshops each year to be hosted by the partner institutions from the region. The workshops aimed at developing inter-regional cooperation, and at allowing eligible higher education institutions to launch international scholarly collaboration in a chosen field and to invite scholars from regional universities to take part in these events. The workshops led to the development of a regional/trans-national research network and also the devising of a curriculum of trans-national history. A faculty and PhD student mobility scheme was also included in the framework to enable the partners to develop parallel seminars and a core of researchers and professors in the field of comparative history. Eligible applicants of faculty and student exchange were coming from/going to another institution from the following countries: Russia, Ukraine, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Moldova, Romania, Bulgaria, Serbia, Montenegro, Macedonia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, Albania. The CHP selected partners for the creation of streams of courses from four partner departments: University of Chisinau, Iasi, RGGU Moscow and University of Tbilisi. The CHP managed to expand collaboration to the Baltics, in Lithuania where a stream in comparative history has been taught.
CHP created a common-shared parallel textbook, the Comparative History Reader Vol. I-II., edited by Apor, Péter, Constantin Iordachi and Balázs Trencsényi, the first volume of which was published in 2021 by CEU Press. The reader is to be made available for all the participants for teaching purposes, with a comprehensive bibliography of readings and collected texts translated and published for a broader public in English. Finally, one of the main outcomes of the project is the volume edited by Blomqvist, Anders E. B, Constantin Iordachi and Balázs Trencsényi: Hungary and Romania Beyond National Narratives (Peter Lang, Oxford, Bern, Berlin, Bruxelles, Frankfurt am Main, New York, Wien, 2013).
See https://pasts.ceu.edu/publications-supported-pasts-inc-0
The network of CHP extended to the following institutions:
- Department of General Contemporary History, Faculty of Philosophy, University of Belgrade
- Institute of Contemporary History, Belgrade
- Department of Political Science, University of Bucharest
- Faculty of History, Moldova State University, Chisinau
- Faculty of History, Babes-Bolyai University of Cluj
- Faculty of History, Mohyla Academy, Kiev
- State Pedagogical University, Kharkhiv
- Ivano Franko National University of Lviv
- Smolny College, Sankt-Petersburg
- European University, Sankt-Petersburg
- Russian State University for the Humanities, Moscow
- Faculty of History, St. Kliment Ohridsky University, Sofia
- Center for Advanced Studies, Sofia
- Faculty of History, University of Zagreb
- Faculty of Political Science, University of Zagreb
- University of Pula
- University of Zadar
TIMELINE
6-11 November, 2006
Conference “Comparative History in/on Europe: The State of the Art”
International Conference Sponsored the CEU-HESP Comparative History Project,
Central European University, Budapest
The conference provided an occasion to formally start a regional inter-university cooperation, and featured, among others, our distinguished colleagues Jürgen Kocka, Jörn Rüsen, Antonis Liakos, Matthias Middell, Stefan Troebst, Wendy Bracewell, and Miroslav Hroch. A number of major comparative projects, recently finished or ongoing, were introduced during the conference.
https://pasts.ceu.edu/events/2006-11-06/comparative-history-inon-europe-state-art
14-31 May, 2007
Special Seminar On Religions and Modernities in a Global Age
by José Casanova, Georgetown
CEU, Budapest
Offered jointly by the Religious Studies Program/Department of History, CEU, the CEU-OSI Comparative History Project and the Higher Education Support Program.
The seminar serveed as the forum for a systematic analysis of global religious trend and for a critical discussion of contemporary debates on religion and politics, including Eastern Europe. Among the topics covered were: Secularization and Religious Revivals, Private and Public Religions, Religious Fundamentalisms and Secular World Views, Catholic and Muslim Politics Compared, Transnational Migrations, Transnational Religions and Diversity. Each session started with a lecture and were followed by seminar discussion.
1 June, 2007
“Comparative History: Theory And Practice”. International Workshop within the Comparative History Project
The State University of Moldova, Chisinau
https://pasts.ceu.edu/events/2007-06-01/comparative-history-theory-and-practice
12-13 September, 2007
“Historiography And Politics In Western And Eastern Parts Of Romanian Space”
The State University of Moldova, Chisinau
Workshop within the Comparative History Projectwith the participation of historians from Oradea, Iasi, Cluj and Chisinau.
2007 Fall
Workshops:
1. Volgograd, I. Kurilla, Fate of Art of History
2. Sofia, Grozev, History, Diplomacy and International Politics
3. Kharkiv, Astakhova, History of Formation of European education contacts
3. Tbilisi, Javakhia, Self-identification in the Byzantine space
17-19 April, 2008
“Comparative History in/on Europe: New Approaches to Comparative History in Central, Eastern and Southeastern Europe”
Centre for Advanced Study, Sofia, Bulgaria
2nd Annual Conference of the OSI-CEU Comparative History Project. Organized by the History Department and Pasts, Inc. Center for Historical Studies, CEU, in collaboration with East-Central Europe/L'Europe du Centre Est. Eine wissenschaftliche Zeitschrift and the Centre for Advanced Study, Sofia, Bulgaria.
https://history.ceu.edu/events/2008-04-17/comparative-history-inon-europe-new-approaches-comparative-history-central-eastern
11-14 September, 2008
“Shared/Entangled Histories: Comparative Perspectives on Hungary and Romania” Conference and Workshop
Babeş-Bolyai University, Cluj, Romania
Co-organized by the Centre for Baltic and East European Studies, CBEES, Södertörn University College and the CEU-HESP Comparative History Project, History Department, Central European University, in collaboration with the Department of Political, Administrative and Communicational Sciences, and the Department of Sociology and Social Work, Babeş-Bolyai University, as well as the Romanian Institute for the Study of National Minority Issues. The conference was sponsored by the Centre for Baltic and East European Studies, CBEES, Södertörn University College; Swedish Institute, and by the Higher Education Support Program, Central European University.
https://pasts.ceu.edu/events/2008-09-11/sharedentangled-histories-comparative-perspectives-hungary-and-romania
https://pasts.ceu.edu/events/2008-09-12/sharedentangled-histories-comparative-perspectives-hungary-and-romania
27-29 May 2010
“Comparative Studies Of Communism: New Perspectives”
Third Annual Conference of The OSI-CEU Comparative History Project
CEU, Budapest
Organized by the History Department and Pasts Inc., Center for Historical Studies, and sponsored by the Higher Education Support program of the Open Society Institute.
https://pasts.ceu.edu/events/2010-05-27/comparative-studies-communism-new-perspectives
Clusters
Cluster 1: streams in comparative history at partner departments:
- State University of Moldova, Chisinau
Society in Antiquity
Europe between Middle Ages and Modernity
International Relations and Totalitarian Regimes in the 20 Century
The Contemporary International System: Reality and Perspectives
Svetlana Suveica, Theory, Methodology and Case Studies of Comparative Historical Approach
Ion Gumenii, Religious Policy at the Western Peripheries of Russian Empire (A comparative Study of Bessarabia and Northwestern Regions
Igor Sarov, Comparative Historiography as Intellectual Tradition
Bessarabia in Russian and Romanian Historiography of the 19th Century
Ion Eremia, Imperial Policies in Southeastern Europe (Comparison of the Empires of Russia, Poland and the Habsburg Monarchy)
- Alexandru Ion Cuza University, Iasi
Gabriel Leanca, Alexandru Istrate, Comparative History of the European Societies (18th-20th centuries)
Andi Michalache, Gabriel Leanca, Trends and Ideas in Recent Historiography
Ion Ioncioaia, University, Knowledge and Politics of Higher Education in Central and Eastern Europe (1860-1989)
Gabriel Leanca, Nineteenth Century Socialism in Europe and the Leftwing in Romania: A History of Transfers
Ovidiu Buruiana, Politics and Society in Central Europe: A Comparative Perspective on the Political Formations in Romania, Czechoslovakia, Hungary and Poland in the 20th Century
- New Bulgarian University, Sofia, Roumen Daskalov
Nikolai Vukov, Anthropology of Socialism
- RGGU, Moscow
Natalia Boltunouva, Assistant Professor, Russian School of Anthropology, Tsar/Emperor discourse in state topography of Moscow and St. Petersburg (17th – 18th centuries)
Galina Babkova, From autocracy to the “legal monarchy”: legal thought, tradition and system in 18th century Russia. A comparative perspective
- University of Tbilisi
Bejan Javakhia, East and West in the Middle Ages - A Comparative Perspective
Malkhaz Toria, Perception of Time and Sense of History in the Middle Ages (Georgian, Byzantine, West European historiography Traditions)
Nino Chikovani, Perception and Representation of History. Politics of Memory (The Caucasus and eastern Europe)
Khatuna Diasamidze, USSR/post-soviet States Politics
David Matsaberidze, Nationalism after Empires: Caucasus and Balkans in Comparative Perspective
Nino Kighuradze, History as a Science
Cluster 2: core courses in comparative history promising to lead to streams:
Volgograd State University, Ivan Kurilla, Comparative History of Russian-American Relations
Catholic University, Lviv, Oleksander Zaytsev, Integral Nationalism and Fascism in East Central Europe, 1918-1939
Aleksander Ignjatovic, Belgrade, Architecture and National Identity of Serbia and Central and South East Europe (19-20 century)
Alena Lyubaia, Comparative history of Christianity confessions in Eastern Europe (14-17 centuries)
Elena Sobko, The Russian Empire and the Habsburg Empire in the 18th century
Vjeran Pavlakovic, Comparative Culture of Memory
Murat Lamulin, The EU and Central Asia: Impact of Eastern Europe Experience
Beknazarova Kyal Salijanovna, Comparative History
Diana Stah, British Socio-Cultural History from the Early Modern Period to the Post-Industrial Era
Bojan Tasevski, Teaching Comparative History in Eastern Europe
Cluster 3: courses in comparative history taught with the support of the CHP
State University of Belarus, Minsk
Siarhei Sarko, Mythologia Albaruthenica Comparativa in the Circum-Baltic Context
Valery Yevarouski, Intellectual History of the Great Duchy of Lithuania
Yana Tarasyuk, Enlightenment in the Great Duchy of Lithuania (European and East European contexts)
Ivan Novik, National Linguistics and Soviet Language Policy in Belarus and Ukraine between 1920-1939
Teaching Comparative History in Lithuania
Vilnius University
Zenonas Norkus, Contemporary Comparative Historical Sociology, 64 hours
Vladislav B. Sotirovic, The Meeting Grounds of Civilizations, 1683-up to the Present: Comparative History of Central and South Eastern Europe.
Vytautas Magnus University, Kaunas
Andrzej Pukszto, National Movements in Central East Europe, 32 hours
European Humanities University (Vilnius, Belorussian University in exile)
Marina Sokolova, Comparative History of North-Eastern Europe