Conference “Perceptions of the multicultural heritage of the Baltic borderlands in the 19th and 20th centuries”
On 24-26 November 2022, a conference entitled “Perceptions of the multicultural heritage of the Baltic borderlands in the 19th and 20th centuries” was held at the MOBI in Kulice.
The meeting was opened by Dr Paweł Migdalski, project manager and scientific coordinator of the conference, and IH Director Prof. Agnieszka Szudarek. In six panels, 17 speakers from various research centres in Poland and abroad presented their research on the heritage of the borderlands. Many of them dealt with the western and northern Polish lands in particular, and Pomerania in particular, which seems to confirm that they are a very interesting research field for Polish and foreign researchers alike. The conference had an interdisciplinary dimension, as not only historians, but also representatives of archaeology, art history, music studies, literary studies and geography presented their papers. The papers presented were twofold – a broader, cross-sectional approach, such as that taken by Agnieszka Latochy-Wites, Jacek Friedrich or Felix Biermann, or a narrower, more detailed approach, focusing on a fragment of the issue, such as that taken by Paweł Migdalski or Daniel Kalinowski. Such an approach, as well as the relevance of the topics, led to long and often heated discussions, which again showed that, contrary to many popular opinions, issues related to historical policy, heritage, identity and regional studies are an important and emotionally charged research area which should not be marginalised. The meeting also had a somewhat practical dimension, as one of the speakers, Urszula Stawicka, prepared a short concert showing live fragments of the legacy of old music of Pomerania and Mecklenburg. An important and concluding panel was the last part of the conference, in which two Ukrainian researchers presented the situation of cultural heritage in the face of the ongoing war in Ukraine. This look shows that the processes we discuss from a historical perspective are happening today and not far away at all….
We invite you to the photo report.