International Workshop

“Mobilities” in the Black Sea Region

New Europe College Bucharest (21 Plantelor St.)

20–21 May 2016

www.nec.ro

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“MOBILITIES” IN THE BLACK SEA REGION

During the past decades, the construction of the Black Sea Region as a meaningful area of

scholarly research has followed different methodological approaches and concepts. New Europe

College (NEC), an Institute for Advanced Study in Bucharest, has contributed to this academic debate

by hosting six international colloquia and workshops on the history, present, and prospects of the area,

organized in the framework of its Black Sea Link Fellowship Program (2010–2015).

For this year’s workshop, now integrated into the Pontica Magna Fellowship Program, we

propose to look at the Black Sea Region as a space of motion, movement, migration, transfer,

circulation, flow, etc. By employing this relatively new concept – “mobility” (which does not aim to

hierarchize the research object, but to ask for actors, trajectories, borders, or communication) –,

different layers of dynamics in the Black Sea Region can be analyzed, aspects that usually remain

little visible when a more “classical” approach focused on politics, economics, or religion is used.

Methodological papers on the “mobility turn” in the social sciences, and empirical case studies

on several types of concrete “mobilities” in the area (such as human migrations, trade, cultural and

academic exchanges) will reveal some of the durable features and the variables of these “mobilities”

across space and time in the Black Sea Region.

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PROGRAM

FRIDAY, MAY 20TH

10.00–10.15

Welcome address

Valentina SANDU–DEDIU

Rector, New Europe College

10.15–10.45

Keynote Speaker

Şerban PAPACOSTEA

Corresponding Fellow of the Romanian Academy

The Black Sea as a Crossroads. A Romanian View

10.45–11.15

Discussions

11.15–11.45

Coffee Break

11.45–13.15

Session 1

Politics and Mobility in the Black Sea Region in the 21st Century

Moderator:

Carmen SCHEIDE

Universität St. Gallen

11.45–12.05

Igor DELANOË

French–Russian Analytical Center Observo (French–Russian Chamber of Commerce), Moscow /

Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute CIES / Kadir Has University, Istanbul

Military Balance in the Black Sea Region

12.05–12.25

Carter JOHNSON

Department of International Affairs, National Research University – Higher School of Economics,

Moscow / American Councils

Ethnic Migration and the End of Civil War: How Demographic Changes Impacted the Georgia–

Abkhazia Conflict (1992–2008)

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12.25–12.45

Aram TERZYAN

Yerevan State University, NEC Alumnus

The Evolution of the European Union’s Conception in Foreign Policy Discourse of Armenia:

Implications for the U-turn and the Path Beyond the Association Agreement

12.45–13.15

Discussions

13.15–15.00

Lunch

15.00–17.00

Session 2

Economic Mobility in an Imperial Borderland

Moderator:

Katharina BIEGGER

Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin

15.00–15.20

Volodymyr KULIKOV

“V. N. Karazin” Kharkiv National University, NEC Alumnus

Labour Mobility in Company Towns in the Late Russian Empire

15.20–15.40

Andrei EMILCIUC

Institute of History of the Academy of Sciences of Moldova, Chişinău

Mobility of Merchants in the Southern Regions of the Russian Empire: State Regulations and

Community Perception (First Half of the 19th

Century)

15.40–16.00

Igor LYMAN & Victoria KONSTANTINOVA

Berdyansk State Pedagogical University

“Mobilities” of “Russian” Cities of the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov Area in the Period of the

Russian Empire: Study by the Research Institute of Urban History

16.00–16.30

Discussions

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16.30–16.45

Coffee Break

16.45–17.45

Roundtable:

Academic Mobility in the Countries around the Black Sea. Opportunities and Challenges

Moderator: Constantin ARDELEANU

NEC Long Term Fellow / “The Lower Danube” University of Galaţi

19.30

Dinner

SATURDAY, MAY 21ST

09.30–11.30

Session 3:

Geographic Displacement, Social Mobility, and Symbolic Transfers in an East-European

Borderland

Moderator:

Oliver REISNER

School of Arts & Sciences, European & Caucasian Studies, Ilia State University, Tbilisi

09.30–09.50

Andrei CUŞCO

“Ion Creangă” State Pedagogical University in Chişinău, NEC Alumnus

Marginality, Stigma, and Uncertain Identities: Trajectories of Bessarabian Emigrés in Romania

09.50–10.10

Diana DUMITRU

“Ion Creangă” State Pedagogical University in Chişinău, NEC Alumna

Five Lives of a Holocaust Survivor: Shifting Identities and Loyalties in the Context of Migration

10.10–10.30

Vitalie SPRÎNCEANĂ

George Mason University, NEC Alumnus

Moldovan Baptists Building the Global Christendom: “DivitiaGratiae” University from Chişinău

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10.30–10.50

Petru NEGURĂ

“Ion Creangă” State Pedagogical University in Chişinău, NEC Fellow

The First Moldovan Students in Romania (1990–1991): Social Conversion, Anomie, and Shifting

Identities

10.50–11.30

Discussions

11.30–11.45

Coffee Break

11.45–13.15

Session 4:

Merchants and Commercial Mobility in the Black Sea Basin

Moderator:

Uku LEMBER

NEC Fellow

11.45–12.05

Marco CASSIOLI

Aix-Marseille University, NEC Alumnus

Mobility and Wax Trade in the Black Sea Region: the Merchants of Kilia (14th

Century)

12.05–12.25

Ekin MAHMUZLU

Boğaziçi University, Istanbul

Institutional Change in Marketing and Mobility of Merchants and Commodities in East Anatolian

Black Sea ports and Its Hinterland between 1830s–1910s

12.25–12.45

Discussions

12.45–13.30

New Books on the Black Sea Area

13.30–15.00

Lunch

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15.00–16.30

Session 5

Diasporas, Migration, and Mobility in the Danubian Principalities / Romania in the 19th

Century

Moderator:

Dietmar MŰLLER

Leipzig Centre for the History and Culture of East Central Europe

15.00–15.20

Constantin IORDACHI

Central European University, Budapest

Collective Imperialism and Freedom of Navigation: The European Commission of the Danube

15.20–15.40

Dimitrios M. KONTOGEORGIS

International Hellenic University, Thessaloniki

From the Eastern Mediterranean to the Romanian Ports. Mobility Trajectories of Greek

Merchants, Seafarers and Workers at the Lower Danube during the Long 19th

Century (c. 1829–

1914)

15.40–16.00

Nicoleta ROMAN

“Nicolae Iorga” History Institute, Bucharest

Women Travellers and (Pre)Modern Romania: Profiles, Interests and Expectations

16.00–16.30

Discussions

16.30–16.45

Conclusions

Constantin ARDELEANU

NEC Long-Term Fellow / “The Lower Danube” University of Galaţi

The Black Sea and Its “Mobilities”

EVENT ORGANISED WITH THE SUPPORT OF VOLKSWAGENSTIFTUNG

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The workshop is organized within the framework of the Pontica Magna Fellowship Programme

in partnership with the Center for Governance and Culture in Europe

(St. Gallen University)

and is supported by

VolkswagenStiftung

NEW EUROPE COLLEGE Str. Plantelor 21, Bucureşti 023971

Tel.: (+4) 021 307 99 10

Fax: (+4) 021 327 07 74 E-mail: nec@nec.ro

http://www.nec.ro/