Comparing Anti-Gender Politics in CEE and NME countries (Antigender-Politics)
COST Action (CA23149) aims to advance a comprehensive and interdisciplinary understanding of anti-gender politics as a growing threat to democracy, equality, and fundamental rights in Europe. By analysing how anti-gender actors, discourses, and policies challenge democratic institutions and social justice frameworks, this Action provides critical and historically informed insights into the political, social, and cultural transformations reshaping contemporary Europe.
CA23149’s mission is to establish a collaborative, interdisciplinary network that critically examines the emergence and impact of anti-gender politics across Europe. It shall foster comparative, intersectional, and cross-sectoral analyses of anti-gender movements and their implications for democratic governance. By fostering dialogue among researchers, policymakers, and civil society, the Action aims to:
• Analyse the political, social, and cultural dynamics driving anti-gender movements in CEE and NME regions.
• Compare national and regional responses to these movements, identifying patterns and divergences.
• Develop evidence-based recommendations to strengthen democratic institutions and promote gender equality.
• Empower civil society organizations and activists to effectively counteract anti-gender rhetoric and policies.
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‘And what next, everyday man’. Images of the Occupied Polish Territories in the Light of the Competition Diaries of the Western Institute (2025-2026)
Project conducted in collaboration with the University of Warsaw (Prof. Jerzy Kochanowski), funded by the German-Polish Science Foundation (100-2025-00987) (2025-2026)
The aim of the project is to publish selected diaries by Poles from competitions between 1945 and 1948 organised by the Western Institute [Instytut Zachodni] in Poznań on the German occupation of Poland during the Second World War by placing them in an open access online repository and publishing a digital and paper source edition in German and Polish. The Poznań collection contains accounts written shortly after the end of war hostilities describing the hardships of the occupation in the everyday lives of the Polish population of Greater Poland [Wielkopolska] and Central Poland. The entire collection of memoirs of the Western Institute [Instytut Zachodni] written down up to the year 1948 is of great value for research into the emerging culture of remembrance of the Second World War and the commemoration of the horrors of the occupation in the Eastern Bloc at that time. The style and content of the Poznań memoirs, unlike those of the later decades of communist Poland, have not been altered by post-war communist propaganda and the passage of time. The project draws on the latest findings of Polish, German and Anglo-Saxon historiography on the German occupation of Poland and other European countries.
Upper Silesia transcontinental. Migration Rural-urban migration in the global North, South, and East
Project conducted in collaboration with Jagiellonian University in Krakow (Dr. M. Jarząbek), funded by the German-Polish Science Foundation (100-2025-00911) (2025-2028)
Project Researcher at RUB: Dr. Andrzej Michalczyk
Eastern Central Europe is rarely included in global historical studies and treated as part of global dynamics. The project asks how and to what extent people from Upper Silesia participated in global processes of “urbanization” and contributed to the spread of urban lifestyles, or remained aloof from them. The historical roots of today's social polarization between “elites” and “ordinary people,” between ‘educated’ and “uneducated,” were already evident in the 1940s to the 1970s, when an overwhelming majority of the population moved to urban environments. The genesis of the dominance of urban values and norms, which we take for granted today, is analyzed in the politically opposing systems in West Germany and the USA (capitalism), in Poland (communism), and in the Global South (e.g., Brazil); it is precisely in these countries that many people today are receptive to populist messages. The focus is on family, education, work, consumption of goods and media, spatial and social mobility, discrimination, and racism. In this way, the study aims to highlight key aspects for understanding the experiences of “ordinary people.” It asks whether migration from rural areas to cities was accompanied by traumatic experiences, a lack of recognition, feelings of inferiority, and the struggle against social “glass ceilings.” Or did the new income opportunities in cities (including for women) mean more freedom and respect? The comparative approach, which looks at three systems with their convergences but also asynchronous developments in states that all saw themselves as modernizers, will provide essential insights into the analysis of social transformations.
Promoting identities in a multilingual oil boom town through securitization: strategies and local politics in Drohobycz before 1918
Since the late 1860s, Polish actors at the provincial and municipal levels had resolved the language issue as they understood it. The practices associated with the enforcement of the language issue at the local and provincial levels were presented as essential security issues for the respective ethnic groups. This research project aims to focus on the resonance of Galician security discourses related to the language issue in the Galician oil boom town of Drohobycz, examining the relationship between securitization and nationalizing policies at the local level. As an industrial city in the Habsburg crown land of Galicia and Lodomeria, Drohobycz occupied a unique position in the comparatively less industrialized Galicia, while its predominantly Jewish population was not unusual for the cities of eastern Galicia. As in numerous other industrial cities, the population grew rapidly due to the rural-urban exodus of poorer, uneducated classes, making the social question an urgent problem, especially due to the influence of modern political parties. The project therefore examines the interactions between linguistic, national, and social issues and focuses on the respective strategies and policies, in particular those aimed at securing the linguistic question.
Securing a nation - Nationality Question and Language Policy in Southern Hungary 1860-1890
After entering the era of nationalism, the Kingdom of Hungary was home to multiple communities, building their nations in different places. The main security conflicts of the nationality question could both be coped on a national (state) and a regional level. The most plausible target to examine this national policy of the latter is the municipalities and communes of Southern Hungary, as this was the most diversified area of the Kingdom of Hungary (and of Europe) and this heterogeneity premised security-related political conflicts closing to the age of nationalism. The examination of the former required research on what spheres did the non-Hungarian elite want to secure in matters of language usage, recognition as a nation, national assemblies and symbols etc. and which of these were perceived as a threat to the Hungarian elite’s conception of the integrity of the state. The 1865-1868 legislatures regulated these matters, which provide an assessment on why the compromise attempt failed. On the local level the language usage of the administration and the individuals was the theme where security the security interests collided.
At the end of the 1860s decade, after several attempts, the state level happened to provide some assurances for the Orthodox (Romanian and Serb) cultural identity’s survival, although still not as much as the respective ethnic groups/nationalities deemed necessary for a long-term security. Therefore, the Hungarian state policy was constantly viewed as a threat with fluctuant intensity by the non-Hungarian elites. We find an overlapping of a vast majority of the interests. Which could be simplified as: one party’s security was seen as a threat to the another party. This stalemate was kept through the era of the Austria-Hungarian Monarchy, however with some differences in the execution of the Nationality Act and different policies on the local (municipal and communal) levels. On the level of the municipalities, the main question is if practical changes were made in the local authorities’ language usages and policies towards the Serb, Bunjevci, German and other nationalities/national minorities.
“The Formation of a ‘Preventive Modernity’: Discourses, Practices, and Networks of the German Anti-Tobacco Association (1870-1935)”
This research project examines the formation of a preventive modernity using the German Anti-Tobacco Association as a case study. Amidst the expanding consumer culture of the early 20th century, the association established a normative counter-model to liberal market logic. The study considers organized tobacco criticism as an active producer of an alternative modernization trend. It analyses the discursive construction of the endangered national body as well as the propagation of a disciplined subject responsible for the collective. The period under investigation, from the German Empire to the turning point of 1935, reveals the transformation of this civil society prevention project into an instrument of state leadership “from above.” The study thus contributes to the genealogy of the preventive self and historicizes the modern conflict between individual pleasure practices and forward-looking concern for the body.
Cultural and historical legacies of flight and migration: Descendants of German and (German) Jewish Bukovinians from a transgenerational perspective
This doctoral project examines the cultural and historical legacies of flight, resettlement, and expulsion using the example of the descendants of German and (German-)Jewish Bukovinians. The focus is on the question of which elements of the former homeland of Bukovina and the associated experiences continue to have an impact across generations and how they are passed on or renegotiated in memories, narratives, and practices. Bukovina is understood as a cultural-historical field of memory and reference that is both mythically charged and shaped by concrete traditions, narratives, and practices. The primary object of investigation in this work is oral history interviews with German and (German-)Jewish Bukovinian descendants, supplemented by autobiographical texts, travelogues, and digital contributions from later generations. The aim is to identify the dynamics of continuities and breaks in four spheres of legacy—cultural practices and traditions, social affiliations and organizations, spatial references and narratives of origin, and political-historical consciousness—and to reflect on them in a comparative synthesis for German and (German-)Jewish descendants. The approach of cultural-historical legacies also makes it possible to get to the bottom of questions of historical authenticity. By first taking into account the entire spectrum of transmission, the concept of cultural-historical legacies allows us to understand, in a second step, how actors themselves formulate claims to authenticity and how such attributions become part of the processes of negotiating memory culture. The study thus contributes to research on transgenerational memory, the aftermath of flight and migration, and the significance of Bukovina as a historical and cultural space of memory.
Davis Pumpurins, M.A.: Subjectivity and the Agrarian Reform of the Republic of Latvia (1920-1937)
The Agrarian Reform of the Republic of Latvia was a complex process involving new legislation, international discussions, public debates in the press and land redistribution. The scale and impact of the reform transformed both the structure of Latvian society and the rural landscape. Members of society experienced this subjectively, depending on whether they gained or lost property. The concept of subjectivity as an object of study has attracted the attention od researchers in various fields. In historical research, for instance, it is regarded as an individual's personal experience interacting with political, social and cultural factors. I aim to explore how different members of society experienced the land reform by examining 'ego documents', such as diaries, memoirs and interviews. These documents provide a personal perspective on events as they were experienced.
"Interconnections between West German and Polish architects and urban planners during the Cold War"
Industrialization, language issues, and securitization processes in Pilsen 1860-1914
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Last update: Mar 20, 2026