Conference “Potential Solidarities”at the University of Potsdam
The “Potential Solidarities” conference – inspired by the recent concurrent rise of solidarity movements and right-wing populist politicians who reject the ideas of universal solidarity – aims at 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 it 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.
PROGRAM
23 October 2025 (Thursday)
9:00 OPENING
9:30–11:00 GLOBAL SOLIDARITIES
Manuela Boatča (University of Freiburg)
Unequal Citizenships: Europe’s East between the EU Solidarity Fund and the Political Economy of Cultural Differences
Kamila Fiałkowska (University of Warsaw)
Borders of Solidarity: Humanitarian Crisis on the Belarus Border and the Withering of Support for Ukrainian Forced Migrants
11:30–13:00 SOLIDARITIES OF PROTEST
Natalia Moussienko (Modern Art Research Institute of the National Academy of Art of Ukraine, Kyiv)
Art Solidarities: From Art of Maidan to Art of War in Ukraine (2013–2025)
Volha Davydzik (University of Lüneburg)
Grief as Relationality and the Shift from Savior to Survivor in Contemporary Revolutionary Movements
14:30–16:45 SOLIDARITIES IN TIMES OF WAR
Magdalena Marszałek (University of Potsdam)
Writing and Solidarity in Times of War
Tetiana Portnova (University of Potsdam)
Volunteer Movement in Contemporary Ukraine as a Form of Social Solidarity: Artistic Representations and Attempts of Scientific Research
Svitlana Pidoprygora (University of Innsbruck)
Solidarity with Ukraine in International Comic Projects: From Wartime Testimonies to Superhero Narratives
19:00–21:00 DICTIONARIES OF SOLIDARITY: WRITING IN DARK TIMES
Literary evening with Julia Cimafiejeva and Ostap Slyvynsky
Einstein Forum, Am Neuen Markt 7, 14467 Potsdam
Link to register to the Zoom event
24 October 2025 (Friday)
9:00–10:30 FEMINIST SOLIDARITIES
Jacek Kołtan (European Solidarity Centre, Gdańsk)
Late Emancipation in Late Modernity: Women’s Protests in Times of Illiberalism
Joanna Sieracka (University of Wrocław)
Feminism in Poland after Solidarność: Broken Genealogies and Counter-Histories
11:00–13:15 POTENTIAL KINSHIPS
Robert Kusek (Jagiellonian University, Kraków)
An Impossible Comradeship: Central Europe, South Africa, and the Limits of Transcolonial Ecumene
Thục Linh Nguyễn Vũ (Free University of Berlin)
To Care Beyond Kin: The Case of the Polish-Vietnamese Hospital in Vinh
Todd Sekuler (University of Zurich)
Queer Kinship Objects: A Kin-Aesthetic Ethnography of the Kreatywne Stany Chorobowe Exhibitions
14:30–16:00 POTENTIAL HISTORIES THEN AND NOW
Tadeusz Koczanowicz (University of Fribourg)
Between East and West: Jan Strzelecki’s Socialist Humanism and Polish Revolutionary Traditions
Aleksandra Szczepan (University of Potsdam)
Living Together: Potential Solidarities in Polish TV (1980–2000)
16:30–18:00 ARCHIVES OF SOLIDARITY (plenary discussion)
Organizers
Magdalena Marszałek, Tetiana Portnova, Aleksandra Szczepan
Contact
szczepan@uni-potsdam.de
Supported by DFG, Potsdam Graduate School and Kommission für Forschung und wissenschaftlichen Nachwuchs
In cooperation with Einstein Forum Potsdam