Ethnicity, Nationalism and Historical Memory

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Ethnicity, Nationalism and Historical Memory

• Mikael Zolyan

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For graduate level students of

• History
• Political Science
• Cultural / social anthropology
• Sociology
• Other disciplines in social sciences (e.g. social
  psychology)

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Why it is important for our region

• The newly emerging nation-states in the territory
  of the former Soviet Union are today facing the
  challenge of reinterpreting their past. The
  communist internationalist past is replaced by
  narratives of national history, which quite often
  represent conflicting claims of competing
  national projects. Nationalism replaces communism
  as the main force that shapes the images of the
  past. In their turn newly emerging (or
  re-emerging) narratives of the past influence
  relations between the new nation-states as well
  as interethnic relations within them.

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Introduction. What is a Nation? Nations and
Ethnic Groups. Ethnicity, Nationality and
Nationalism

• An overview of the basic concepts in the field of
  studies of national identity will be offered. A
  special focus will be made on analyzing the
  differences and similarities of such concepts as
  nation and ethnic group, nationality and
  ethnicity. The term nationalism with its
  positive, neutral and pejorative uses will be
  examined

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Typology of Nationalism Eastern and Western,
"Ethnic" and "Civic" Nationalism.

• The different varieties of nationalism will be
  analyzed. The focus will be made on the
  distinction between the Eastern or ethnic and
  Western or civic nationalisms. How these
  concepts emerged? How analytically and
  practically useful are these distinctions?

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Nationalism and Modernization Nationalism and
the Industrial Society

• What is modernity? What is modernization? The
  concept of modernity as one of the essential
  themes of social sciences. Interpretations of
  nationalism as a specifically modern phenomenon.
  The links between modernization and emergence of
  nationalism.

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Constructivist approaches to Nationalism
Imagining the Nation and Inventing the National
Tradition

• What is constructivism in social science?
  Constructivist theories of nationalism. Benedict
  Anderson and the imagined communities. Eric
  Hobsbawm and the invention of tradition.
  Post-modern approaches nation as a discourse.

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Nationhood and Collective Memory in Western Europe

• The French Revolution and the spread of the ideas
  of nationalism. The civic and ethnic trends
  within the Western European nationalism.
  Construction of national memory as part of the
  nation-building process.

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Nationalism, memory and nationhood in
Central-Eastern Europe

• The time zones of Europe how existence of
  multinational empires influenced the path of
  nation building in Central and Estern Europe.
  Nation-states and minorities in Central-Eastern
  Europe.

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Nation-Building, Memory and the Fall of
Communism Rethinking History in the
Post-Socialist Eastern Europe and Eurasia

• The Soviet experience of writing history the
  Soviet Union as a country with unforeseeable
  past. Official and non-official memory under
  totalitarian regime. Rewriting history after the
  fall of Communism how nationalism substitutes
  communism as the ideological framework for
  interpreting history.

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Dealing with the Empires legacy Reinterpreting
History in Post-Soviet Russia

• The Russian identity between empire and
  nation. The Soviet identity how successful was
  the Soviet project of creating the Soviet
  people? Post-Soviet Russians in search of
  identity rossiyane (civic concept of
  Russiannes) and russkie (ethnic concept of
  Russianness). Communists and democrats the
  division over the interpretations of the Soviet
  past.

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Ethnic Conflict and Images of History the case
of North Caucasus

• The relations between Chechens and the Russian
  state from 19th century to 1991. The conflict in
  Chechnya from 1991 to this day. The Chechen
  version of the past freedom fighters against an
  empire. The Russian version of the past
  Russias mission civilisatrice in the Caucasus.

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Ethnic Conflict and Images of History the case
of the Georgian-Abkhazian and Georgian-Ossetian
Conflicts

• Majority and minority nationalism and the
  emergence of conflict in Georgia. The Georgian
  nationalist view of the Abkhaz and the Ossetians
  guests on our land. The Abkhaz and Ossetian
  perspectives minority nationalism and
  interpretation of Georgia as a small empire.

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Ethnic Conflict and Images of History the case
of Nagorno-Karabakh

• The case of Nagorno-Karabakh a paradox of the
  Soviet nationality policy. Historiography battles
  over Nagorno-Karabakh in 1960-1980s. The Armenian
  view of the conflict a return of the past. The
  current conflict and the narratives of history in
  Azerbaijan.

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Historical Memory and Nationalism in 21st century
Europe Nations and National Histories in an era
of Globalization

• Globalization, Euro-integration, regionalism what
  do they mean for nation-states? Will the
  nation-state and national history survive the
  21st century? Alternatives to national histories
  is a European History possible.

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Selected literature

• Anderson B.. Imagined Communities. London New
  York Verso, 1991.
• Elley G. and R.G. Suny. Becoming National a
  Reader. Oxford University Press, 1996.
• Gellner. E. Nations and Nationalism. London,
  1983.
• Hobsbawm E. T. Ranger (ed). Invention of
  Tradition. Cambridge University Press. 1992.
• Hosking G. and G. Schopflin (ed). Myths and
  Nationhood. London Hurst Company, 1997.
• Høris O., Yürükel S.M.(eds). Contrasts and
  Solutions in the Caucasus. Aarhus University
  Press, 1998.
• Hutchinson J.and A. Smith. Nationalism Reader.
  Oxford University Press, 1994.
• Hutchinson J. , Smith A., Ethnicity Reader.
  Oxford University Press, 1996.
• Karny Y., Highlanders a Journey to the Caucasus
  in Quest of Memory. New York Farrar, Strauss and
  Giroux, 2000
• Nahaylo B., V. Swoboda, The Soviet Disunion,
  London, Hamish Hamilton, 1990
• Nora P. (under the direction of). Realms of
  Memory Rethinking the French Past, Volume 1,
  Conflicts and Divisions. Columbia University
  Press, 1996.
• Panossian R. (ed.). Nationalism and History the
  Politics of Nation Building in Post-Soviet
  Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia. Toronto 1994
• Shnirelman V., The Value of the Past Myths.
  Identity and Politics in Transcaucasia. Osaka,
  2001.
• Smith, ?., National Identity. London, 1991.
• Shnirelman V., The Value of the Past Myths.
  Identity and Politics in Transcaucasia. Osaka,
  2001
• Todorova M., Imagining the Balkans. Oxford
  University Press, 1997.

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• THANK YOU !!!