Research Projects
Centre-Periphery Relations in Flux: National Politics in the Soviet Borderlands
Researcher: Dr Michael Loader, Leverhulme Early Career Fellow and LKAS Fellow, Central and East European Studies
PI/Mentor: Professor David Smith, Central and East European Studies
This project examines the radical shifts in centre-periphery relations in the post war USSR under Soviet leaders Joseph Stalin (1944-1953) and Nikita Khrushchev (1953-1964).
Through the eyes of LISA – Civic Room - HLF
‘Through the Eyes of LISA’ was a collaborative research project presented by the Civic Room Gallery with artist Marija Nemčenko and the Baltic Research Unit and CRCEES at the University of Glasgow. Funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund and Creative Scotland, the project sought to reveal hidden narratives of Lithuanian migration and assimilation in Scotland from late 19th century to present day by analysing forms of social heritage. Over a series of workshops from September to December the project used memories, material culture and media accounts of migration stories collected and communicated through the creation of a new archive.
The first influx of Lithuanians to Scotland began in the early 1880s due to economic factors and strategic recruitment by Scottish industrialists. These industrialists employed agents to directly recruit thousands of workers from within Lithuania and disguised the reality of poor working conditions in Glasgow. Such migrant workers were essential to industrialisation in Scotland, which led to Glasgow becoming second city of the British Empire, although this community has never been credited properly by Scottish institutions.
The project ran in parallel with Marija Nemčenko’s exhibition at Civic Room (15th November - 22nd December). This is the final exhibition in the year long programme ‘Of Lovely Tyrants and Invisible Women’ programme curated by Civic Room, investigating themes of spatial politics, gender and racial hierarchies within imperial architecture in Glasgow.
Participation was made open to anyone in the community, but students in CEES and across the University were especially encouraged to take part in order to acquire research skills and gather material and/or ideas for a dissertation or other research project, while also gaining a fuller appreciation of the history of Glasgow, the West of Scotland and their links to Central and Eastern Europe.
Events
Oral History Workshop- University of Glasgow 24th September 2019, led by Professor Geoffrey Swain.
Marija Nemčenko gave a presentation of her ongoing research into the Lithuanian diaspora in Scotland, followed by an Oral History Workshop led by Professor Geoffrey Swain, former Alec Nove Chair in Russian and East European Studies at the University of Glasgow.
Participants received an introduction to oral history and advice on how to conduct and record interviews, including working methodology, best practice and issues such as interviewer bias. The workshop also reflected on the significance of folklore within Lithuanian culture.
The workshop provided participants with the necessary skills to record personal narratives in relation to migration, assimilation and national identity, as part of research on the history of Bellshill’s Lithuanian community.
Object History Workshop - Saturday 26th October 2019
This event involved a research trip by project members and University of Glasgow students to Summerlee Museum of Scottish Industrial life in Coatbridge, to view objects and images in relation to Lithuanians in Scotland and meet with local descendants of Lithuanians who migrated to Scotland more than a century ago. Members of the local Lithuanian-origin community presented objects from their personal archives and participants had the opportunity to learn new research skills and uncover the story of Lithuanians in Scotland from the late 19th to the early 20th centuries.
Peter Kormylo, PhD Researcher at CEES University of Glasgow gave an introduction to archival research and image analysis in relation to his research into the Ukrainian diaspora in Scotland. Former president of the Bellshill Lithuanian Social Club Allan Poutney presented some of the objects he has donated to the museum collection including a Lithuanian Rag Rug made by his mother. Archivist Daina Byautiene and visual artist Marija Nemcenko also presented materials from Daina’s personal archive including early Lithuanian travel documents. Cait McGlinchey presented material and stories in relation to her family’s migration from Lithuania to Glenboig.
For further information contact:
AHRB Project: Ending Nationalism? The Quest for Cultural Autonomy in Inter-War Europe
AHRB Award Ref: MRG-AN10102/APN16232
Term of Project: September 2003-August 2007
Value of Award: £43,890
Award Holder: Dr David J Smith
Co-Applicant: Professor John Hiden
This project re-evaluates the historical background to current debates on nationalism and minority rights in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). Specifically, it examines how inter-war minority activists sought to achieve a definitive solution to the ‘national question’ through their promotion of non-territorial cultural autonomy (NTCA). For its proponents, this principle - first applied in Estonia and Latvia during the 1920s – was couched as one of the key building blocks in the construction of a United Europe. In spite of impending European Union enlargement to CEE, however, this original contribution from the region remains largely unexplored.
The Baltic Issue in Cold War International Relations
David Smith and John Hiden were invited to collaborate on this project, headed by Dr Vahur Made of the Estonian School of Diplomacy, Tallinn and supported by the Estonian Science Foundation (ESF grant no. 4962; see http://www.etf.ee). The project will result in a jointly-edited collection of articles, provisionally scheduled for publication in 2005.
The project focuses primarily on the development of the Baltic policies of Western states after the Second World War. Preliminary research questions:
- How was the Baltic issue influenced by changes in US foreign policy doctrine during the Cold War period (different forms of containment and détente)?
- How did the attitude of European countries, especially that of the Nordic countries and the UK, develop towards the Baltic issue and how was it influenced by US policy?
- What was the role of international organisations in bringing the Baltic issue to the supranational level?
- How effectively was the Soviet Union countering the West’s Baltic policies?
The project also analyses the Baltic issue from the theoretical perspective, in order to locate it within the wider international context of the Cold War. International relations, security and conflict theory will be used. An attempt will be made to target the Baltic issue not only through the traditional realist and geopolitical perspective but also by using alternative approaches such as liberalism, functionalism, institutionalism, structuralism, constructivism, comparative analysis of the Cold War regional conflicts etc.
Public Monuments, Commemoration and the Renegotiation of Collective Identities: Estonia, Sweden and the ‘Baltic World’
'The core meaning of any collective and individual identity - is sustained by remembering' (John Gillis 1994, p.3) and monuments have a crucial role to play in this. As became abundantly clear during and after the collapse of Communism, they act as a 'catalyst' eliciting a variety of individual and group responses and actions, both official and unsanctioned.
The aim of this project is to illuminate key issues of collective identity and identity politics in post-Communist Estonia and the wider Baltic Sea Region through the study of public monuments and practices of commemoration. The project focuses especially upon the city of Narva and the restoration in 2000 of a 'Swedish Lion' monument to mark the 300th anniversary of Sweden's victory over Russia at the first Battle of Narva.
- Who decided to restore the lion and why?
- What meanings have been attached to the monument, both in official discourse and amongst local people?
These are the key questions addressed by our detailed interdisciplinary case study, which draws upon perspectives from politics, sociology, heritage studies and art history.