Multiple Baltics

The International Students of History Association (ISHA) Winter Seminar, titled "Multiple Baltics: Reimagining Social, Cultural and Spatial Dimensions of History," will take place for the first time at the University of Latvia (UL) from December 3 to 7 of this year.

The seminar will gather young researchers and students of history and related disciplines from 15 countries in Rīga to execute an intense and experimental academic program. The content of the seminar is primarily shaped by the ideas and research projects of Master's and Doctoral students, offering a fresh perspective on the history of the Baltic region from emerging scholars.

7 Interactive Workshops in Parallel Sessions

The seminar features seven interactive and intensive workshops organized in parallel sessions:

• Critical Cultural Heritage: Workshops will focus on the analysis of complex narratives, conflicts, and transformations within the Baltic urban environment, including the critical interpretation of monuments.
  Workshop leaders: Kristina van Kuyck (Dublin City University, Ireland), Elina Ziehm (Leipzig University, Germany), Anika Olbrisch (Greiswald University, Germany).
• Digital History: Workshops will discuss the suitability of digital methods for historical research, the diversity and challenges of historical data, and big data in historical science. Participants will be introduced to the manuscript recognition platform Transkribus and will utilize the medieval manuscript collections of the Latvian State Historical Archives (LNVA LVA) within the workshop.
  Workshop leaders: Haralds Matulis (University of Latvia, Latvia), Anna Pečerska (Riga Technical University, Latvia), Elīza Dāldere (Helsinki University, Finland), Rūta Bruževica (Tallinn University, Estonia).
• PhD Workshop: This session is specifically focused on Master's students' research ideas for doctoral development, as well as reflections on research outcomes by current PhD students.
  PhD workshop is led by: Konrad Gergely (European University Institute, Italy) and Viktória Švigárová (Pavol Jozef Šafárik University in Košice, Slovakia).

Academic Contributions and Source Immersion

The academic content of the seminar will be supplemented by the internationally recognised perspective of the University of Latvia's lecturer Mārtiņš Mintaurs on 20th-century Baltic cultural history in his talk "The Baltic World in History and Heritage Representations: Looking Back at the 20th Century." Gustavs Strenga, Associate Professor at the Latvian Academy of Culture and one of the most internationally known researchers of the Baltic medieval period, will deliver a lecture on the reception of Baltic medieval history and historical memory, contextualized by the collective monograph "Doing Memory: Medieval Saints and Heroes and Their Afterlives in the Baltic Sea Region (19th–20th centuries)" (De Gruyter, 2024), which he edited and contributed.

Researchers Alise Akermane-Pokšāne and Jānis Ķimsis from the Latvian Biomedical Research and Study Centre will address the challenges of working in an interdisciplinary team and understanding the differences between various scientific languages in the workshop "Boxes, barriers and embarrassment: the not so attractive side of interdisciplinary research."

Seminar participants will also engage directly with historical sources by visiting the University of Latvia Library's collection of rare books and manuscripts, "Bibliotheca Rigensis," which is arguably the oldest collection of its kind in the Baltic Sea region, to learn about its history and research potential.

The seminar is supported by the Advancement of Association of Baltic Studies (AABS) Academic Events & Projects Grant as well as University of Latvia Student's Council. The seminar is co-organised by the Faculty of Humanities (University of Latvia) and the International Students of History Association (ISHA).