Potential Solidarities. (Popular) Cultural Alliances and Political Engagements with and within East-Central Europe
The conference—inspired by the recent concurrent rise of solidarity movements and right-wing populist politicians who reject the ideas of universal solidarity—aims at a critical and multidisciplinary reflection on the forms of solidarity in and with East-Central Europe from the 1980s until now, with a special focus on its (popular) cultural manifestations and formulations. We propose to consider East-Central Europe as a specific laboratory of solidarity that allows us to think about solidarity as a still-valuable critical and political concept. We want to pay attention to East-Central Europe as a burgeoning site of creative forms of social togetherness and inquire how culture, including its popular forms, may be considered a platform for international, intercultural, intergender, interclass, and interethnic alliances.
Programm
Wednesday, 23 Oct 2025
Venue: University of Potsdam, Am Neuen Palais 10, house 8, room 0.60/0.61, 14469 Potsdam
9.00
Opening
9.30
GLOBAL SOLIDARITIES
- Manuela Boatča: Unequal Citizenships: Europe’s East between the EU Solidarity Fund and the Political Economy of Cultural Differences
- Kamila Fiałkowska: Borders of Solidarity: Humanitarian Crisis on the Belarus Border and the Withering of Support for Ukrainian Forced Migrants
11.30
SOLIDARITIES OF PROTEST
- Natalia Moussienko: Art Solidarities: From Art of Maidan to Art of War in Ukraine (2013–2025)
- Volha Davydzik: Grief as Relationality and the Shift from Savior to Survivor in Contemporary Revolutionary Movements
14.30
SOLIDARITIES IN TIMES OF WAR
- Magdalena Marszałek: Writing and Solidarity in Times of War
- Tetiana Portnova: Volunteer Movement in Contemporary Ukraine as a Form of Social Solidarity: Artistic Representations and Attempts of Scientific Research
- Svitlana Pidoprygora: Solidarity with Ukraine in International Comic Projects: From Wartime Testimonies to Superhero Narratives
19.00
Venue: Einstein Forum, Am Neuen Markt 7, 14467 Potsdam
DICTIONARIES OF SOLIDARITY: WRITING IN DARK TIMES
Literary evening with Julia Cimafiejeva and Ostap Slyvynsky
Thursday, 24 Oct 2025
Venue: University of Potsdam, Am Neuen Palais 10, house 8, room 0.60/0.61, 14469 Potsdam
9.00
FEMINIST SOLIDARITIES
- Jacek Kołtan: Late Emancipation in Late Modernity: Women’s Protests in Times of Illiberalism
- Joanna Sieracka: Feminism in Poland after Solidarność: Broken Genealogies and Counter-Histories
11.00
POTENTIAL KINSHIPS
- Robert Kusek: An Impossible Comradeship: Central Europe, South Africa, and the Limits of Transcolonial Ecumene
- Thục Linh Nguyễn Vũ: To Care beyond Kin: The Case of the Polish-Vietnamese Hospital in Vinh
- Todd Sekuler: Queer Kinship Objects: A Kin-Aesthetic Ethnography of the Kreatywne Stany Chorobowe Exhibitions
14.30
POTENTIAL HISTORIES THEN AND NOW
- Tadeusz Koczanowicz: Between East and West: Jan Strzelecki’s Socialist Humanism and Polish Revolutionary Traditions
- Aleksandra Szczepan: Living Together: Potential Solidarities in Polish TV (1980–2000)
16.30
ARCHIVES OF SOLIDARITY
Plenary discussion