Project CECMS: Comparative Central and East European Culture and Media Studies

1) The aims & scope of CECMS: Comparative Central and East European Culture and Media Studies are multi-institutional, international, and interdisciplinary team research projects including conferences and publications on contemporary culture and media in the regions of the European Union of its eastward expansion starting with 2004. The project is in response to the recognition that culture ought to be a major factor in the shaping of the European Union in addition to an economics-driven construct. A debated notion, Central and East Europe is defined here as a geographical region stretching from the former East Germany (Mitteldeutschland) to Austria, Romania, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Bulgaria, Poland, the Baltic countries, Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia, the Ukraine, etc., thus including the Habsburg lands and German influence and their spheres of interest at various times including now. An "imagined" (Anderson) and "in-between peripheral" (Tötösy) landscape of culture and history, since 1989-90 and the end of the Soviet empire the countries of Central and East Europe have engaged in a restructuring of their political, economic, social, and cultural environments and societies. While this reshaping of the region is still on-going, there is a new Central and East Europe in place now, politically, socially, economically, and culturally, and it is the situation, achievements, and shortcomings of this new Central and East Europe that the project is designed to study. For the conceptual framework the present project is based on, see Steven Tötösy de Zepetnek, "Comparative Cultural Studies and the Study of Central European Culture," Comparative Central European Culture, Ed. Steven Tötösy de Zepetnek, West Lafayette: Purdue UP, 2002. 1-32., online in Kakanien Revisited <http://www.kakanien.ac.at> at <http://www.kakanien.ac.at/beitr/theorie/STotosy1.pdf>, for a bibliography for the study of Central and East European culture, see Steven Tötösy de Zepetnek,"Selected Bibliography for the Study of Central European Culture" in Comparative Central European Culture, Ed. Steven Tötösy de Zepetnek, West Lafayette: Purdue UP, 2002. 189-206 <http://www.thepress.purdue.edu/series/compstudies.asp> & <http://clcwebjournal.lib.purdue.edu/ccs-purdue.html>, online in in CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture (Library) (2002-) at <http://clcwebjournal.lib.purdue.edu/library/centraleuropeanculture(bibliography).html>, for a bibliography in comparative cultural studies, see Steven Tötösy de Zepetnek, Steven Aoun, and Wendy C. Nielsen, "Bibliography for Work in Comparative Cultural Studies (History, Theory, Method)" in Comparative Literatue and Comparative Cultural Studies, Ed. Steven Tötösy de Zepetnek, West Lafayette: Purdue University Press, 2003. 285-342., online in CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture (Library) (2002-) at <http://clcwebjournal.lib.purdue.edu/library/comparativeculturalstudies(biblio).html>.

2) Project CECMS: Comparative Central and East European Culture and Media Studies is a continuation of work on/in Central and East European culture by Steven Tötösy de Zepetnek based on a number of international gatherings organized by Tötösy as well as co-organized with various colleagues in Canada, the USA, and in Europe since 1999 as well as publications followed by these conferences -- see below in 3) -- including
    2.1 the invitational international conference Central European Culture Today hosted by the Canadian Centre for Austrian and Central European Studies at the University of Alberta, Canada, September 1999;
    2.2 the symposium Comparative Culture and Hungarian Studies at the 24th Annual Conference of the American Hungarian Educators' Association at John Carroll University in Cleveland, USA, March 1999;
    2.3 the symposium Comparative Cultural Studies and Post-1989 Central European Culture of the Hungarian Discussion Group at the annual convention of the MLA: Modern Language Association of America in Washington, D.C., USA, December 2000;
    2.4 the symposium Comparative Cultural Studies at the conference The Contemporaneousness of the Non-Contemporaneous hosted by the Research Institute for Austrian and International Literature and Cultural Studies <http://www.inst.at> in Vienna, Austria, November 2002;
    2.5 the panel "The 2002 Nobel Prize in Literature of Imre Kertész" co-organized with Louise O. Vasvári (State University of New York Stony Brook) at the 28th Annual Conference of the AHEA: American Hungarian Educators, Columbia University, New York, USA, April 2003;
    2.6 the international conference The Cultures of Post-1989 Central and East Europe <http://clcwebjournal.lib.purdue.edu/library/centraleuropeconference(2003).html> co-organized with Carmen Andras (Gheorghe Sincai Institute) and Magdalena Marsovszky (Munich) in Targu-Mures / Marosvásárhely / Neumarkt, Romania, August 2003;
    2.7 the panels Interculturalities and Comparative Cultural Studies at the conference The Unifying Aspect of Cultures <http://www.inst.at/> hosted by the Research Institute for Austrian and International Literature and Cultural Studies, Vienna, Austria, November 2003;
    2.8 the international conference Atlantic Europe and the New Partnership, co-organized with Markus Vogt (Deutsche Bundeswehr Reservistenverband, Halle) <http://clcwebjournal.lib.purdue.edu/library/atlanticeuropeconference04.html>, University of Halle-Wittenberg, Halle, Germany, March 2004;
    2.9 The symposium Comparative Literature, Cultural Studies, and Comparative Cultural Studies <http://www.outreach.psu.edu/programs/ACLA/default.asp?WhichPage=posted> at the ACLA: American Comparative Literature Association 2005 Annual Meeting, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, USA, March 2005;
    2.10 the international symposium Comparative Cultural Studies, co-organized with Louise O. Vasvári (State University of New York Stony Brook) within the 6th International Congress of Hungarian Studies <http://www.hungkong.unideb.hu/>, Debrecen, Hungary, August 2006;
    2.11 the international symposium Comparative Cultural Studies and Central and East European Studies, co-organized with Louise O. Vasvári (State University of New York Stony Brook) at the annual conference of the American Hungarian Educators Association <http://www.magyar.org/ahea/>, New York, April 2007.

3) The above conferences resulted in various publications including selected and peer-reviewed papers in
    3.1 the peer-reviewed scholarly journal CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture <http://clcwebjournal.lib.purdue.edu> (ISSN 1481-4373);
    3.2 the collected volume Comparative Central European Culture. Ed. Steven Tötösy de Zepetnek. Purdue Books in Comparative Cultural Studies <http://clcwebjournal.lib.purdue.edu/ccs-purdue.html> & <http://www.thepress.purdue.edu/series/compstudies.asp>. West Lafayette: Purdue University Press, 2002. ISBN 1-55753-240-0. 6x9. 217 pages, bibliography, index. Paperback US$ 24.95. Orders to <http://www.thepress.purdue.edu> or 1-800-247-6553. The volume contains selected papers of conferences organized by the editor, Steven Tötösy, in 1999 and 2000 in Canada and the US on various topics of culture and literature in Central and East Europe. Based on the (contested) notion of the existence of a specific cultural context of the region defined as "Central Europe," contributors to the volume discuss comparative cultural studies as a theoretical framework (Steven Tötösy), modernism in Central European literature (Andrea Fábry), Central European Holocaust poetry (Zsuzsanna Ozsváth), gender in Central European literature and film (Anikó Imre), Austroslovakism in the work of Slovak writer Anton Hykisch (Peter Petro), Kundera and the identity of Central Europe (Hana Pichova), public intellectuals in Central Europe after 1989 (Katherine Arens), contemporary Austrian and Hungarian cinema (Catherine Portuges), the notion of peripherality in contemporary East European culture (Roumiana Deltcheva), and Central European Jewish family history in the film Sunshine (Susan Rubin Suleiman). The volume includes a bibliography for the study of Central European culture (Steven Tötösy), biographical abstracts of contributors, and an index;
    3.3 the collected volume The New Central and East European Culture. Ed. Steven Tötösy de Zepetnek, Carmen Andras, and Magdalena Marsovszky. Aachen: Shaker Verlag <http://www.shaker.de/>, 2006. 380 pages, Index, Bibliography. Euros 49.80. The volume is a collection of selected papers presented at an international conference held in Targu-Mures / Marosvásárhely / Neumarkt, Romania, August 2003 as well as papers submitted for publication in the volume following an open call for papers. Contributors to the volume are Carmen Andras, "Romania and Its Images in Contemporary British Literature"; Anca Baicoianu, "(Ab)uses of Memory in Postcommunism and Postcolonialism"; Milena Blazic, "Childhood in Anne Frank's and Zlata Filipovic's Diaries"; Iulian Boldea, "Autobiographical Writing and History in Post-1989 Romanian Literature"; Daniel Brett, "The Revival of Radical Movements in Poland and Romania since 1989"; Luminita Chiorean, "Codrescu and Retrospection on Poetic Identity"; Simion Costea, "Central and East Europe and the History of the European Union"; Roumiana Deltcheva, "Slavi's Show and Post-1989 Bulgarian Television Culture"; Ana Maria Dobre, "Traditions of the Centralist State and Post-1989 Romania"; Cristina Maria Dogot, "Central and East Europe, the State, and the Challenges of Modernity"; Thomas Dörfler, "About the Problematics between East Germany and West Germany"; Maria-Ana Georgescu, "Aspects of Interethnicity in Post-1989 Romania and Hungary"; Valentina Glajar, "The Czech-Sudeten German Conflict in post-1989 Literary and Filmic Narratives"; Bridget Guzner, "Post-1989 Central and East European Holdings of the British Library"; Monica Heintz, "Culture, Society, and Economic Crises in Post-1989 Romania"; Eva R. Hudecova, "Cosmopolitanism and Imagination in Central and East Europe before and after 1989"; Mihaela Irimia, "Chronotopes of Postcommunist Times"; Alexandru Dragos Ivana, "City Space, Bucharest, and the Location of Memory"; Neringa Klumbyte, "Village Communities and Remembering Socialism in Lithuania"; Endre Kukorelly, "Nine Passages on (Literary) Criticism in Hungary"; Erol Kulahci, "The European Union and Central and East European Socialist Parties"; Arina Lungu, "Memory and the Media in Post-1989 Central and East Europe"; Marin Marian-Balasa, "Music, Musicology, and Hungarian and Romanian Nationalisms"; Magdalena Marsovszky, "Cultural Essentialism and the Exclusion of the Other in Post-1989 Hungary"; Giuseppe Munarini, "The Greek-Catholic Church of Romania in Post-1989 Romanian and Italian Historiography and Media"; Roman Pasca, "Space, Time, and New Media in Post-1989 Romania"; Virgil Stanciu, "Translation in (Post-1989) Romania"; Archimandrite Pavel Stefanov, "Towards a History of Ethnic Minorities in Bulgaria after 1989"; Smaranda Stefanovici and Ramona Hosu, "Co-operation in Higher Education between Romania and the United Kingdom after 1989"; Arturas Tereskinas, "Sexual Minorities, Mass Media, and Civil Society in Postcommnist Lithuania"; Steven Tötösy de Zepetnek, "Central and East Europe, Kertész, and Memoir Literature"; and Louise O. Vasvári, "Sexual Discourse in Post-1989 Hungarian Literature," and an Index of terms and names.
    3.4 the collected volume Discourses of the Holocaust. Ed. Steven Tötösy de Zepetnek and Louise O. Vasvári. Books in Comparative Cultural Studies <http://www.thepress.purdue.edu/series/compstudies.asp> & <http://clcwebjournal.lib.purdue.edu/ccs-purdue.html>. West Lafayette: Purdue University Press, forthcoming in 2008;
    3.5 the collected volume Comparative Cultural Studies and Hungarian Studies. Ed. Steven Tötösy de Zepetnek and Louise O. Vasvári. Aachen: Shaker Verlag <http://www.shaker.de/>, forthcoming in 2008.

4) A further and as of yet emerging project located at the University of Halle-Wittenberg, Complutense University Madrid, and Purdue University is PCNIC: The Politics of Culture: Nationhood, Interculturalism, and Citizenship in the New Europe (for detail link to <http://clcwebjournal.lib.purdue.edu/orbisinterculturalis.html>): The objective of the five-year 2007-2012 multi-university team project PCNIC: The Politics of Culture: Nationhood, Interculturalism, and Citizenship in the New Europe is to research and to analyze aspects and processes of the politics of culture in the European Union of 27 member states. The objective includes broadly conceived thematic objectives as well as empirical research and analyses resulting in pragmatic proposals. The project is a response to the increasingly discussed recognition that in addition to the given economics-driven construct of the European Union culture ought to be a major factor in the shaping European society in order to respond to the challenges the European Union as a whole and its countries face. In particular, the increasing impact of (im)migration and the ensuing alterations including tensions with regard to the "Other" in all countries of the European Union needs to be studied and reflected on in a comparative context in order to arrive at practical proposals. Thus, the results of the research project should offer both theoretical and applied insights into the processes of culture in the European Union of today in particular with regard to the necessities of the building of an intercultural Europe in practice and including a range of aspects such as education, culture policy, new media and public discourse, etc. The intellectual, theoretical, and methodological foundations of the project are based on the field of comparative cultural studies, an interdisciplinary framework combining disciplines in the humanities and the social sciences. The research projects is organized in thematic modules of 1) Theoretical Frameworks, Methodologies of Research, and Taxonomy; 2) Cultural Essentialism and Citizenship: aspects of (im)migration, diaspora, and the Other, cultural memory, and culture policy; 3) Cultural Identity and the Production of Culture: aspects of the importance and impact of translation in/on the formation of national identities; nationhood and the translation and transfer of culture, the production of culture (print and new media); and 4) Communication, Education, and Citizenship: aspects of the pragmatic levels of the notion of interculturalism in communication and education, the implementation of new media in communication and education, relevance of intercultural mediation. Outcomes of the project include cross-national and global partnerships in scholarship, education, and knowledge management and transfer, networks both virtual and actual for the benefit of nation states in the European Union as well as in working together towards global interculturalism and towards inclusive citizenship. The dissemination of the project's results include the multi-volume publication of books and articles in hard copy and online, publications of interactive new media educational material available online, international conferences and meetings, and the dissemination of the project results in public discourse. Scholars participating in the research project are with expertise in a wide range of fields in the humanities and the social sciences including cultural studies, political science, history, ethnology, psychology, sociology, literature, education, new media, film, cognitive science, cultural anthropology, translation studies, etc. The administrative location of the project is at Complutense University, Madrid (Dámaso López García, Professor & Dean, Faculty of Humanities) and the content conceptualization and organization of the project are by Asunción López-Varela Azcárate (Professor, Complutense) and Steven Tötösy de Zepetnek (Professor, Halle-Wittenberg and Boston). Colleagues at institutions of higher learning in the European Union participating in the research project are from Bulgaria, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Romania, Slovenia, Spain, and the United Kingdom. Colleagues at non-European Union institutions of higher learning and in European Union affiliated countries involved in the project include scholars in Canada, Egypt, Macedonia, Taiwan, Turkey, and the USA. The project is to be submitted in May 2007 for funding in the 2007-2013 FP7 program of the European Union.

5) CECMS Project office is at HIM: Halle Institute of Media, in co-operation with the Department of Media and Communication Studies <http://www.medienkomm.uni-halle.de/institut/>, Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg <http://www.uni-halle.de/MLU/index_e.htm>, Mansfelder Str. 56, D-06108 Halle, Germany. Project head is Prof.Dr. Steven Totosy de Zepetnek (Curriculum Vitae and list of selected publications at <http://clcwebjournal.lib.purdue.edu/totosycv(complete).html>), e-mail: <steven.totosy@medienkomm.uni-halle.de>, Residence 8 Sunset Road, Winchester (at Boston), Massachusetts 01890 USA, phone: 1-781-729-1680.