18.12.2019: Politics of Trans(re)lation. Theorizing (Ways out of) Postsocialism

Panel Discussion

Date & Time: 18 December 2019, 6.15 pm
Venue: Sprechsaal Galerie, Marienstraße 26, 10117 Berlin

Politics of Trans(re)lation. Theorizing (Ways out of) Postsocialism

Prof. Dr. Martin Müller (Lausanne), Scholar at University Lausanne, Department of Geography and Sustainability

Prof. Dr. Michał Buchowski (Poznań/Frankfurt (Oder)), Director of the Institute of Anthropology and Ethnology

Dr. Marina Simić (Belgrade), Scholar at Belgrade University, Department of Political Science

Moderation: Dr. des. Clara Frysztacka (Frankfurt/Oder)

Living (after) the socialist past(s) is a hybrid condition of walking through a grey zone between threatening invisibility and impairing essentialization. In search of a bearing point in this seemingly temporary state, one can never be sure if the voice one is trying to master is not that of a ventriloquist, promising to deliver us from the liminal aphasia. Perhaps, it is through the work of skepticism towards the possibility of a complete translation into the theories from elsewhere (e.g. post-colonialism), that the “post” in post-socialist can be truly deciphered. If so, then what is it that post-socialism can tell us about our own future(s)? Is it a part of the current global condition or rather a placeholder for the transitory destiny of a region coming to terms with its own troubled past? Or is it only a ghost from the realm of hauntology?

The panel discussion is part of the series of events „’68 NOW. Europäische Verflechtungen“ - a cooperation between Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung (bpb) and Europa-Universität Viadrina, in collaboration with the Visual Culture Research Center (VCRC), Kyïv.