EurhistXX

The Network for the Contemporary History of Europe

Chernobyl, etc.: Approaching Disaster Studies 17.01.2006 Apor, Peter <aporpceu.hu>

Why are there apparently so many disastrous events happening nowadays? What is the nature of our contemporary social, political and cultural order that results in the mushrooming of catastrophes? What are their actual consequences - both negative and positive? What is the role of mass media in constructing and perceiving a disaster? What is the role of artists: are they chroniclers, interpreters, profiteers, or healers of disasters? The seminar will consider the concept and phenomenon of disasters as an inherently interdisciplinary object.

Special emphasis will be laid on the role of historical perspectives, however. What unique insights can historical methods and approaches bring? To what extent does the temporalization of the point of view help to unfold the genesis and meaning of disastrous events? How does history, putting a disaster into a historical prospective, help outline both the actual scope of the mishap and its most essential core traits? Which historical genres are useful to describe, comprehend and render familiar the unexpected? What are the methodological and theoretical preconditions for history to help us in understanding disasters? What are the shortcomings of current scholarship? How, speaking more broadly, can sciences and humanities be integrated with the arts? What is the place of history in the research and mitigation of disasters? Does history have the power to promote and foster social and cultural regeneration? What is the role of commemoration and the working through of trauma in mitigating the consequences of catastrophes? Can the history of previous natural and human catastrophes - earthquakes, eruptions of volcanoes or genocide and political terror - help us to learn about contemporary disasters?

The seminar's starting point will be the interdisciplinary discussion of Chernobyl: one of the most developed case studies in 'disaster studies'. What are the achievements of historical research of disasters, first of all of (but not only) Chernobyl? What is known and still remains mysterious about the Chernobyl disaster? Which approaches and frameworks proved to be efficient - and which rather hindered or even failed Chernobyl research? What is so special about contemporary disasters? What do we learn by means of 'disaster studies' about 'the most progressive', 'brave new' technologies: nuclear, information technology, mass media? What about the interaction of natural, technological and social environments? What are the universal traits of contemporary disasters and their social-system-, country-, culture-, origin-specific features? Globalization as a factor in disasters: does it expand the magnitude of the disastrous hazards or help to localize and mitigate their impact?

Scheduled one month ahead of the 20th anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster, the workshop strives to affect the anniversary agenda, to practically help recovery both from Chernobyl and the aftermath of other recent disasters. The seminar will gather an unusually broad circle of expertise, ranging from historians and social scientists to ecologists, nuclear physicists and artists, policy-makers and environmental activists, many of them important witnesses and seasoned field mitigation workers - both from the Central and Eastern European region and worldwide. The three-day event will have several keynote presentations, followed by consecutive panels. The poster session option is considered. A collective volume will be published on the basis of the workshop proceedings. Workshop sessions will be open for CEU students and faculty and the general public. Extensive and in-depth coverage of the event by mass media is expected.

If you are interested to make a presentation please BEFORE JANUARY 31, 2006 send to the Organizing Committee its 1-2 page description (title, abstract, author(s) name, contact info, affiliation) and a half-page resume of your activities and main publications and projects.

NOTE FOR PROSPECTIVE PRESENTERS: For this interdisciplinary event, the preference will be given to papers which combine scholarly thoroughness and multidisciplinarity with broad-audience friendliness, the latter understood both in terms of the choice of topic, ideas, terminology and mode of delivery. One of the aims of the event is to go beyond the communication barriers in the topic of Chernobyl and disasters, to explain the issues usually thought to be complex and almost 'non-perceivable' in an understandable way (but not vice versa, which is often the case in a 'narrow-guild' communication).