Participants:
Constantin ARDELEANU, Oleksandr AVRAMCHUK, Oksana BLASHKIV, Anna GAIDASH, Sophio KAVTARADZE, Izabella KIMAK, Marta KOVAL, Andrii KOZACHUK, Charles SABATOS, Mariya SHYMCHYSHYN, Iryna YAKOVENKO, Marek WILCZYŃSKI

Abstract

The workshop’s aim is to deepen our understanding of the cultural and intellectual presence of the Central and Eastern European diasporas (Czech, Hungarian, Jewish, Polish, Romanian, Ukrainian, etc.) in North America. We seek to explore the historical backgrounds of the transatlantic migration, patterns, and dynamics of the “new” immigration to Canada and the USA; Central and Eastern European migratory experiences in the 20th century, and their literary (fictional/nonfictional) representations; histories of diasporic literatures, and their coexistence with the mainstream American and Canadian literatures. Young and experienced scholars are encouraged to submit papers addressing the following aspects:

-theoretical approaches to migratory processes, integration, assimilation, and the diasporas;
-histories and geographies of Central and Eastern European im/migration and re-emigration/return migration;
-preservation of ethnic identities vs. cultural assimilation, the Old Country vs. “the new home”;
-Central and Eastern European intellectual and cultural heritage in North America;
-literary and transmedia narratives about immigrants and immigration;
-narratives of trauma in diasporic literatures;
-individual, collective, and cultural memory, remembering and nostalgia in fiction, nonfiction, and poetry;
-ethnic and hybrid identities in diasporic literary narratives;
-contacts/non-contacts, silences/cultural dialogues of the diasporas in Canada and the USA with their countries of origin;
-translations of anglophone texts into Central and Eastern European languages (Czech, Hungarian, Polish, Romanian, Ukrainian, etc.);
-readership and perception of diasporic literary texts in Central and Eastern Europe.

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PROGRAM

9.45 – 9.50 Opening

9.50 – 12.45 Panel 1. Polish, Czech, Ukrainian Intellectuals and Literati in Exile
Chair: Constantin ARDELEANU

Marek WILCZYŃSKI, University of Warsaw (Poland)
Polish Writers in the US after September 1939

Charles SABATOS, Yeditepe University, Istanbul (Turkey)
Czech Exile Writing in North America and Zdeněk Němeček’s Tvrdá země

Oksana BLASHKIV, University of Siedlce (Poland)
Émigré Scholars from Central and East Europe in American Slavic Studies

Anna BENDRAT, Maria Curie-Skłodowska University in Lublin (Poland) (online)
Uprooted and Unheard: Narrating the Histories of Eastern European Women Immigrants to the United States

Oleksandr AVRAMCHUK, John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin (Poland)
Silenced Minds: America, Exiled Intellectuals and the Future of the Soviet Empire, 1945–1991

12.45 – 13.40 Lunch break

13.40 – 16.00 Panel 2. At the Intersections of Immigrant Identity and Memory
Chair: Iryna YAKOVENKO

Marta KOVAL, Institute of English and American Studies, University of Gdansk (Poland)
Between Remembrance and Erasure: Generational Conflicts in Askold Melnyczuk’s Migrant Narratives

Izabella KIMAK, Maria Curie-Skłodowska University in Lublin (Poland) (online)
On Homes Present and Past: Space, Memory, and Nostalgia in Polish Chicagoan Writing

Anna GAIDASH, Borys Grinchenko Kyiv Metropolitan University (Ukraine)
Political Implications of the Holodomor in Olha Mak’s Stones Under the Scythe

Andrii KOZACHUK, Borys Grinchenko Kyiv Metropolitan University (Ukraine) (online)
Preservation of People’s Historical Memory in the Diaspora Through Literary Translation: A Case Study of Roma Franko

16.00 – 16.30 Coffee Break  

16.30 – 18.15 Panel 3. In Transition: Uprooted Church, Relocated Art, Displaced Literary Institutions
Chair: Oksana BLASHKIV

Mariya SHYMCHYSHYN, Kyiv National Linguistics University (Ukraine), University of Manitoba (Canada) (online)
Churches as Diaspora Space in Natalie Kononenko’s Ritual on the Prairies: Growing a Ukrainian Canadian Identity

Sophio KAVTARADZE, Vanda Art Gallery (Georgia) (online)
Relocated Art as Cultural Memory in Georgian and Ukrainian Heritage

Iryna YAKOVENKO, Borys Grinchenko Kyiv Metropolitan University (Ukraine), New Europe College Bucharest (Romania)
DP Camps in Ukrainian Émigré Literature and Periodicals

18.15-18.30 Conclusion

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This workshop is organized within the Sustaining Ukrainian Scholarship program supported by the VolkswagenStiftung (Germany).