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1968 in Poland and Czechoslovakia in Comparison
August 31, 2018 - September 1, 2018
The Center is pleased to co-sponsor this conference.
1968 in Poland and Czechoslovakia in Comparison
UNC-Chapel Hill, Friday, August 31 and Saturday, September 1, 2018
Institute for the Arts and Humanities
The year 1968 was a momentous one in many spots on the globe, perhaps no more so than in Poland and Czechoslovakia. With a few exceptions, however, 1968 and its aftermath in these two countries largely have been studied in isolation from each other. This conference seeks to compare each “1968” while exploring transnational linkages that connected events, people, cultural expressions, and processes in Poland, Czechoslovakia, and beyond. Our goal is to explore a number of themes, including but not limited to Jewish history, the history of emigration, and the intertwining of performance, the arts, and politics.
The conference will also include public conversations with Communist-era dissident turned editor-in-chief of Gazeta Wyborcza Adam Michnik and celebrated scholar of Jewish life in Communist Czechoslovakia and 1968 émigré Alena Heitlinger. The first day will also include a screening of “Dworzec Gdański”, named after the train station from which many Polish Jews departed the country amidst the anti-Semitic campaigns of 1968. The conference will conclude with a cabaret performance in Person Recital Hall about the family, memory, and 1968 entitled “Rendezvous in Bratislava.” All events associated with the conference are free and open to the public.
Friday, August 31
University Room, Institute for the Arts and Humanities
2:00-3:30 The Legacies of 1968 in Central Europe in Comparison
Roundtable discussion with James Krapfl, Joanna Nalewajko-Kulikov, and Kieran Williams
Moderator: Karen Auerbach
3:45-5:00 Film showing: “Dworzec Gdański”
Introduced by Joanna Niżyńska
5:30-7:00 A conversation with Adam Michnik, interviewed by Dariusz Stola
Saturday, September 1
University Room, Institute for the Arts and Humanities
9:30-11:00 1968 and Jewish History in Comparison
Jacob Labendz, “A Czech-Jewish Face: Embracing and Fearing Complex Identities (and Loyalties) around 1968”
Karen Auerbach, “Following the Generation of 1968: Joanna Wiszniewicz’s ‘Life Cut in Two’”
Kateřina Čapková, “Antisemitism, Israel, and the Communist Reform Movements in Poland and Czechoslovakia”
Comment: Dariusz Stola
11:15-12:15 A conversation with Alena Heitlinger, interviewed by Rebekah Klein-Pejšová
1:30-2:45 Anti-Semitism, Memory, and Politics
Ilana McQuinn, “How Poland’s Anti-Zionist Campaign Drove Intellectual Politics during the Prague Spring”
Cynthia Paces, “Art of Atonement: The Prague Spring, West Germany, and Lidice”
Comment: Chad Bryant
3:00-4:15 The Arts of and from 1968
Kyrill Kunakhovich, “Polish Culture After March: Art, Politics, and the Crisis of State Socialism”
Lisa Jakelski, “Negotiating 1968 at the Warsaw Autumn International Festival of Contemporary Music”
Comment: Andrea Bohlman
8:00 Performance of “Rendezvous in Bratislava: A Granddad Cabaret” in Person Recital Hall
Participants and affiliations
Kateřina Čapková (Institute of Contemporary History, Czech Republic)
Henryk Grynberg (Independent scholar/writer)
Alena Heitlinger (Trent University)
Rebekah Klein-Pejšová (Purdue University)
James Krapfl (McGill University)
Kyrill Kunakhovich (University of Virginia)
Lisa Jakelski (Eastman School of Music)
Jacob Labendz (Youngstown State University)
Ilana McQuinn (University of Chicago)
Adam Michnik (Editor in Chief, Gazeta Wyborcza)
Joanna Nalewajko-Kulikov, (Tadeusz Manteuffel Institute of History, Polish Academy of Sciences)
Cynthia Paces (The College of New Jersey)
Dariusz Stola (Director, Museum of the History of Polish Jews)
Kieran Williams (Drake University)
Funding for the conference has been generously provided by the Center for Slavic, Eurasian, and East European Studies; the International Visegrad Fund; the Center for European Studies; the Carolina Center for Jewish Studies; the Institute for the Arts and Humanities; the History Department; the Music Department; the Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures; and the Curriculum in Global Studies.