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Academic Positions

  • 2020 2025

    Research Associate

    European University Institute, Florence

  • 2022

    Visiting Professor

    University of Lorraine, France

  • Since 2019

    Full Professor of Contemporary Transnational History

    University of Luxembourg

  • 2019

    Project Leader

    Innoviris Brussels, Belgium

  • 2018 2019

    Visiting Fellow

    Imre Kertesz Kolleg – Friedrich Schiller University, Jena (Germany)

  • 2018

    Project Leader - Citizen Science Project

    Austrian Science Fund (FWF)

  • 2014 2018

    Elise Richter Fellow

    Austrian Science Fund (FWF)

  • 2011 2014

    Lise Meitner Fellow

    Austrian Science Fund (FWF)

  • 2011 2013

    Postdoctoral Research Grant

    Polish Ministry of Sciences and Higher Education

  • 2011

    Bronisław Geremek Postdoctoral Fellowship

    The College of Europe Natolin Campus, Warsaw

  • 2011

    Postdoctoral Researcher

    German Historical Institute, Warsaw

  • 2009 2011

    Postdoctoral Researcher

    Exceptional Research Fund of Catholic University of Leuven

  • 2009

    Visiting Scholar

    Warsaw University with scholarships from the Flemish Community, the Polish State, Warsaw University and the Polish History Museum

  • 2007

    Visiting Scholar

    Institute for Russian History in Moscow, the Russian Academy of Sciences

  • 2005 2008

    Scientific Co-operator in History

    Catholic University of Leuven, Flemish Fund for Scientific Research

  • 2005 2007

    Researcher

    Several short research stays, Warsaw University

Education

  • Habilitation 2018

    Modern and Contemporary History

    Borderland children in Europe (1871-1940)

    University of Vienna, Austria

  • Ph.D. 2005-08

    Doctoral Student in History

    Straddling the Iron Curtain? Migrants' War Memories

    Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium

  • MASTER 2003-04

    Central and Eastern European Studies

    Magna cum laude

    Jagiellonian University, Poland

  • MASTER AFTER MASTER 2002-03

    Policy Economics

    Magna cum laude

    Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium

  • MASTER 2000-02

    Slavic Studies

    Maxima cum laude

    Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium

  • BACHELOR 1998-2000

    Slavic Studies

    Magna cum laude

    Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium

  • GRAMMAR SCHOOL 1992-1998

    Old Greek and Latin

    Cum laude

    Jesuit College Turnhout

Languages

  • Dutch
  • English
  • German
  • Polish
  • French
  • Russian
  • Luxembourgish

Academic interest

  • Comparative and transnational history
  • 20th century European history
  • Migration history
  • Central and Eastern Europe
  • Oral history
  • Border regions
  • Children and youth

Interview with Professor Machteld Venken

Intervista, European University Institute, 11 November 2021



Across the Steppes

In December 2007, the Association of Soviet Citizens' choir in Belgium performed the song 'Across the Steppes' at a local Christmas Market. Belgians embrace the charming vodka-drinking babushkas as ‘our Buena Vista Social Club’. They no longer focus on the propagandistic content of their Soviet songs, but on the Roma folk melodies accompanying their lyrics. Even a reference to comrade Kliment Efremovich Voroshilov, army officer and later intimate friend of Stalin, does not hinder the choir members from receiving constant praise. My own song recordings are included in my PhD thesis.

www.machteldvenken.com

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    24.02.22, 5 am

    Researching the Collecting, Preserving, Analysing and Disclosing of Ukrainian Testimonies of the War

    Team
    • Principal Investigators: Prof. Machteld Venken (Luxembourg), Dr. Anna Wylegała (Poland), Dr. Natalia Otrischchenko (Ukraine)
    U-CORE Team in Luxembourg
    • Dr. Inna Ganschow
    • Dr. Kateryna Zakharchuk
    • Iryna Yeroshko, PhD candidate
    • Alexandre Germain, technician
    About

    In early March 2022, loosely affiliated researchers from Ukraine, Poland, Luxembourg and the UK started documenting the wartime and refugee fate of Ukrainians. U-CORE moves from spontaneous data collection to well-structured empirical research. It researches the heuristic gesture of collecting, preserving, analysing and disclosing testimonies of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The project includes researchers from Luxembourg, Poland and Ukraine.

    This research project has received bilateral funding from FNR (Inter) and NCN (Opus) (Grant Agreement No INTER/NCN/23/17880643).

    More: c2dh.uni.lu

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    Open Education Project

    East Meets West − Contacts, Connections and Convergences in (Post-) Cold War Europe (2021−2022)

    This MA course focuses on transnational European history during the Cold War and its aftermath. While discourses on the Cold War and the Iron Curtain portray a deeply divided Europe, those illuminating European integration emphasise unity and the crossing or even overcoming of state border lines. In this course we unravel contacts, connections and convergences within and between different parts of Europe from below and up close. No prior knowledge, experience or skills in transnational history, Cold War history or transformation history are required. Each lecture provides you with an abstract, information about the author and suggested reading materials from the author that will help you to deepen your understanding of the individual topics.

    More: uni.lu


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    Popkult60

    Transnational Popular Culture – Europe in the long 1960s

    The objective of the Popkult60 project is to analyze European cultural transfers in a transnational perspective in the “long” 1960s. This Research Group is financed by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) in Germany and the National Research Fund (FNR) in Luxembourg. The interdisciplinary team is composed of researchers from the Luxembourg Centre for Contemporary History (C2DH), the Institute for History (IHIST) at the University of Luxembourg, and the Historisches Institut (Lehrstuhl für europäische Zeitgeschichte and Lehrstuhl für Kultur- und Mediengeschichte) of Saarland University and the Bereich Interkulturelle Wirtschaftskommunikation at the Friedrich-Schiller University Jena.

    More: popkult60.eu


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    Sociobord

    Social Politics in European Borderlands. A Comparative and Transnational Study, 1870s-1990s

    Team
    • Principal Investigator: Prof Laura Lee Downs (European University Institute)
    • Senior research fellow and project manager: Dr Dominika Gruziel (European University Institute)
    • Research associate: Dr John Paul Newman (Maynooth University)
    • Research associate: Prof Machteld Venken (University of Luxembourg)
    • Research associate: Dr Tatiana Zhurzhenko (University of Vienna)
    About

    The project seeks to reframe the history of welfare and social care in modern Europe by restoring to view the contribution of families and associations to shaping welfare systems in three borderland regions of north-western, eastern, and south-eastern Europe from the 1870s till the 1990s. The project goes beyond the role of municipalities in welfare, which has been the object of extensive research. It investigates how families and voluntary associations negotiated over entitlements to welfare, focusing in particular on support to children, veterans and working-class women.

    More: sociobord.eui.eu

    This project has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant agreement No 882549)

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    Top Citizen Science Project

    Talking borders. From Local Expertise to Global Exchange (Austrian Science Fund, 2018)

    This project combines methodologies from border studies and citizen science in order to come to understand the potentials and limits of bringing in non-scientific expertise in the generation of knowledge. On the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the TCS experiment turns an academic conference into a site of scientific investigation where 66 non-trained experts (Bachelor students in the humanities from border regions throughout the ex-Habsburg area) met 24 trained experts (border scholars) as equals for a cross-disciplinary experiment. The TCS project asks: (1) what do borders mean to border scholars? (2) What do borders mean to young adults from the (ex-) Habsburg area? And: (3) what new knowledge does a global encounter between non-trained and trained border experts reveal?

    Final report

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    Border Studies: A Global Overview

    University of Vienna (2018)

    I took the initiative to organise a "global view" track on the Association for Borderlands Studies 2nd World Conference and provide an overview over the state of the arts in border research worldwide. The Global Track consisted of seven panels in total, each focuseing on processes of border-making and its consequences in a respective region. To enable the broader public, other scholars and students around the world to profit from the concentrated knowledge present at the conference, these panels were filmed and made accessible on youtube. The project was carried out in cooperation with Astrid Fellner (University of Saarbrücken) and with the support of Manuel Neubauer, Bärbel Schlimbach and Christian Leeb.

    Africa:

    Middle East:

    North America:

    Western Europe:

    Latin America:

    Eastern Europe:

    Asia:

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    An Oral History of Female Scientists

    Gender Equality and Diversity Unit at the University of Vienna (2017-2018)

    Autobiographies of female scientists are rare. In a Master Seminar taught at the Department of Education of the University of Vienna, students conducted biographical interviews with female scientists. The Gender Equality and Diversity Unit at the University of Vienna contacted the alumni participants to its Mentoring Program for postdoctoral female scientists. 15 interviews with interested female scientists were carried out, and 17 research papers were written. In line with the wishes of the interviewers and interviewees, some of the data were later archived in the Oral History Archiv at the University of Graz, and in the digital archive of the University of Vienna, Phaidra.

    More:
    wirtschaftsgeschichte.uni-graz.at
    www.phaidra.univie.ac.at

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    Children in European Borderlands

    Austrian Science Fund (2012-2018)

    This project compares nationalisation, national identifications and social life worlds of the young who grew up in European border regions of annexation in the 20th century. It selects the two case-study regions Eupen-St.Vith-Malmedy (Belgium) and East Upper Silesia (district Lubliniecki, Poland) and presents a diachronical comparison of both post-World War periods (1920/22-1939/40 and 1944/45-1960). What the project seeks to examine is how nationalisation campaigns attempted to raise the young to be full members of the nation and how the young practiced affirmation or articulated distance towards nationalisation. As such, it shows what historiography can gain from an approach centred on the young and bridges the subdisciplinary gap between Western and East Central European historiography.

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    Ex-combatants in Poland

    Polish Ministry of Sciences and Higher Education/History Meeting House (2009-2013)

    Team
    • Project Leader: Machteld Venken, PhD
    • Joanna Wawrzyniak, PhD (University of Warsaw)
    • Piotr Filipkowski, PhD (Polish Academy of Sciences)
    • Krzysztof Marcin Zalewski, PhD (Polish Academy of Sciences)
    • Jarosław Pałka, PhD (History Meeting House)
    About

    I composed a research team to gather and analyse biographical interviews with former Allied soldiers in Poland. Disguised during communism, the old men are now experiencing societal rehabilitation and are remembered as liberators of Europe. Setting up and leading this research project served to anchor me within the major Polish institutions pertaining to my field. The interviews are archived in the Center for Historical Research and Documentation on War and Contemporary Society (Belgium) and the History Meeting House (Poland).

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    Slavic Migrants in Belgium

    Flemish Fund for Scientific Research (2005-2008)

    I developed a comparative and entangled history of the settlement process of Slavic immigrant men and women who entered Belgium in the aftermath of World War II. On the crossroads of living historiographical developments, my work is innovative in the fields of World War II memory, East-West relations, and migration history. During the project, I was trained as a Contemporary Historian with a pan-European focus. I conducted archival research in Belgium, Poland and Russia and carried out 24 interviews with migrants in Belgium in Dutch, French, Polish and Russian. The interviews are archived in the Center for Historical Research and Documentation on War and Contemporary Society.

www.machteldvenken.com

Boards and Committees

  • 2024

    Member of the International Committee of the Association of American Historians

  • 2024

    Member of the Scientific Committee of the conference ‘En finir avec la Seconde Guerre mondiale ? Les civils, entre libération et reconstruction (Europe de l’Ouest), juin 1944-1946’

  • Since 2022

    Head of the research area 'Contemporary History of Luxembourg' of the Luxembourg Centre for Contemporary and Digital History

    University of Luxembourg

  • 2020 2024

    Member of the Evaluation Jury, MA in European History

    University of Luxembourg

  • 2022 2023

    Evaluator of the Horizon 2020 Project ‘Ithaca. Interconnecting Histories and Archives for Migrant Agency’

    European Research Council

  • 2023

    Member of the Program Committee of the conference ‘Frontières et sociétés frontalières au sein de l’espace franco-luxembourgeois du XVe siècle à nos jours’

    University of Lorraine

  • 2020 2022

    Panel Member of the History Panel evaluating applications

    Academy of Finland

  • 2021

    Member of the Selection Committee for an Assistant Professorship in Transmedia Storytelling

    University of Luxembourg

  • 2019

    Panel Member of the Evaluation Commission

    Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes (Czech Republic)

Supervision Postdoctoral Researchers

  • 2024 2026

    Inna Ganschow: ‘Designing a best practice digital workflow for oral testimonies in times of war’ (FNR/NCN funding)

  • 2024 2026

    Kateryna Zakharchuk: ‘Interviewing Ukrainian citizens with temporary refugee status and (digital) source criticism’ (FNR/NCN funding)

  • 2022 2025

    Federica Moretti: 'Transcending national borders through educational practices: the Children's Castle in Luxembourg’ (ERC funding, co-supervision with Prof. Laura Lee Downs)

  • 2021 2024

    Estelle Bunout: ‘Parsing migration paths from administrative language with digital tools. The case of Luxembourg’ (co-supervision with Prof. Denis Scuto)

Supervision PhD Candidates

  • 2024 2028

    Ira Yeroshko: ‘Ukrainian testimonies of the Russian invasion. Visualisation criticism of artistic and digital storytelling’ (FNR/NCN funding)

  • 2024 2028

    Joanna Urbanek: ‘KZ Syndrome. Traumatic experience of Auschwitz in medical records, psychological discourse and its cultural representation (1945-1992)’ (co-supervision with Prof. Valérie Rosoux)

  • 2022 2026

    Nicolas Arendt: ‘The Transformation of ARBED 1973-2001. A trans-European business and labour history’ (FNR AFR funding, co-supervision with Prof. Philipp Ther)

  • 2022 2026

    Véronique Faber: ‘A Transregional History of the Luxembourg City Funfair’ (DFG/FNR)

  • 2020 2024

    Johanna Jaschik: ‘Digitally Reconstructing the Mental Maps of Ukrainian Students during the Transformation (1989-1995)’

Member of Doctoral Supervising Committee

  • 2024 2028

    Loris Pagnani, Luxembourg Institute of Socio-Economic Research

  • 2023 2026

    Corina Ostafi, University of Luxembourg

  • 2020 2026

    Thomas Briamont, University of Liège

Dissertation Defence Jury Member

  • 2024

    Member of the Jury, Jiyu Choi

    University of Strasbourg

  • 2024

    President of the Jury, Arnaud Sauer

    University of Luxembourg, Ecole Supérieure Normale (Paris)

  • 2023

    Member of the Jury, Simon Petitot

    University of Lorraine

  • 2022

    Member of the Jury, Stéphane Einrick

    University of Lorraine

  • 2022

    Member of the Jury, Jakub Gałȩziowski

    University of Warsaw

  • 2021

    Member of the Jury, Izabela Mrzygłód

    University of Warsaw

  • 2020

    President of the Jury, Anita Lucchesi

    University of Luxembourg

  • 2011

    Supervisor of four MA theses: KU Leuven, European Studies Programme

  • 2007

    Co-supervisor of two MA theses: KU Leuven, History

Editorial Activities

  • Since 2020

    Co-editor of De Gruyter Book Series Migrations in History

  • Since 2019

    Member of the editorial board of the international peer-reviewed journal Eurasia Border Review

    Hokkaido University

  • Since 2019

    Member of the editorial board of the international peer-reviewed journal Borders in Globalization Review

    University of Victoria

  • Since 08.2012

    Initiator and co-editor of the Peter Lang Book Series: Studies in Contemporary History

  • Since 09.2011

    Co-founder and member of the editorial board of Tijd-Schrift (a Belgian scientific journal)

Books and Special Issues

  • Venken, Machteld. Die Peripherie im Zentrum. Schule und Grenze im Europa der Zwischenkriegszeit, Marburg, Verlag Herder-Institut, 2023.

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  • Viola, Lorella, Venken, Machteld, and Verheul, Jaap (eds.). Migration Studies and the Digital: Datafication, Implications and Methodological Approaches, in: Frontiers in Human Dynamics (Special Issue) 5 (2023).

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  • Venken, Machteld, and Frandsen, Steen Bo (eds.). Debordering and Rebordering. Central and South Eastern Europe after the First World War, Milton Park, New York, Routledge, 2022.

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  • Venken, Machteld, Kaisto, Virpi and Brambilla, Chiara (eds.). Children, Young People and Borders. A Multidisciplinary Outlook, Milton Park, New York, Routledge, 2022.

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  • Venken, Machteld. Peripheries at the Centre. Borderland Schooling in Interwar Europe, New York, Berghahn Books, 2021. Read more

    Download PDF | Download EPUB

    Reviewed in:

    National Identities (2022)

    Slavic Review 81 (2/2022)

  • Kind-Kovács, Friederike and Venken, Machteld (eds.). 1918, 1945, 1989: Childhood in Times of Political Transformation: Part I, in: Journal of Modern European History (Special Issue) 19 (2021).

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  • Kind-Kovács, Friederike and Venken, Machteld (eds.). 1918, 1945, 1989: Childhood in Times of Political Transformation: Part II, in: Journal of Modern European History (Special Issue) 19 (2021).

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  • Venken, Machteld, Kaisto, Virpi and Brambilla, Chiara (eds.). Children, Young People and Borders: A Multidisciplinary Outlook, in: Journal of Borderlands Studies (Special Issue) 36 (2021).

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  • Venken, Machteld and Frandsen, Steen Bo (eds.). The Dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy: Border Making and its Consequences, in: European Review of History / Revue européenne d'histoire (Special Issue) 26 (2020).

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  • Venken, Machteld (ed.) Borderland Studies Meets Child Studies. A European Encounter. Frankfurt am Main, Peter Lang, 2017.

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  • Röger, Maren and Venken, Machteld (eds.). Growing up in the Shadow of the Second World War. European Perspectives, in: European Review of History / Revue européenne d'histoire (Special Issue) 22 (2015).

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  • Pałka, Jarosław, Venken, Machteld, and Zalewski, Krzysztof Marcin. Żołnierze 1. Dywizji Pancernej generała Maczka. Doświadczenie i pamięć. Gdańsk, Muzeum Drugiej Wojny Światowej (Museum of the Second World War), 2013.

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    Reviewed in:

    Kultura i Społeczeństwo

  • Venken, Machteld. Straddling the Iron Curtain? Immigrants, Immigrant Organisations, War Memories, Frankfurt am Main, Peter Lang Verlag, 2011.

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    Reviewed in:

    European Review 20 (04/2012)

    Acta Poloniae Historica 106 (2012)

    Migracijske i etničke teme 28 (2012)

    Tijdschrift voor Geschiedenis 1 (2013)

  • Venken, Machteld, Beyers, Leen and Goddeeris, Idesbald (eds.). Families, Foreignness, Migration. Now and Then. (Special issue), in: History of the Family. A Quarterly (International Institute of Social History, Amsterdam) 14 (2009).

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International peer reviewed articles (journals listed in ERIH Plus)

  • Viola, Lorella, Venken, Machteld and Verheul, Jaap. Editorial: Migration Studies and the Digital: Datafication, Implications and Methodological Approaches, in: Frontiers in Human Dynamics 5 (2023), 1-3.

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  • Venken, Machteld. De strijd om de onderwijstaal in de Oostkantons tijdens het interbellum, in: WT. Tijdschrift over de geschiedenis van de Vlaamse beweging 1 (2023), 35-51.

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  • Venken, Machteld and Sauer, Arnaud. Arrival Declaration Forms. A New Gateway for Mapping Migration to Luxembourg, in: Frontiers in Human Dynamics (2022), 1-19.

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  • Venken, Machteld. Transforming Secondary Education in the Belgian–German Borderlands (1918-1939), in: History of Education 51 (2021), 1-22.

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  • Venken, Machteld, Kaisto, Virpi and Brambilla, Chiara. Introduction. Children, Young People and Borders: A Multidisciplinary Outlook, in: Journal of Borderlands Studies (Special Issue) 36 (2021), 149-158.

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  • Venken, Machteld. Borderland Child Heterotopias. A Case Study on the Belgian-German Borderlands, in: Journal of Borderlands Studies (Special Issue) 36 (2021), 159-180.

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  • Kind-Kovács, Friederike and Venken, Machteld. Childhood in Times of Political Transformation in the 20th Century: An Introduction, in: Journal of Modern European History (Special Issue) 19 (2021), 1-11.

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  • Venken, Machteld. Secondary School Principals and Liminality in Polish Upper Silesia (1919-1939), in: Journal of Modern European History (Special Issue) 19 (2021), 206-221.

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  • Venken, Machteld. The Dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy: Border Making and its Consequences, in: European Review of History / Revue européenne d'histoire (Special Issue) 26 (2020), 697-708.

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  • Venken, Machteld. Narrating the Time of Troubles in Polish School History Textbooks (1918-1989), in: Cahiers du Monde russe 57 (2016), 879-902.

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  • Venken, Machteld and Röger, Maren. Growing up in the Shadow of the Second World War. European Perspectives. Introduction, in: European Review of History / Revue européenne d'histoire, Special Issue: Growing up in the Shadow of the Second World War. European Perspectives (Maren Röger and Machteld Venken (eds.)) 22 (2015), 199-220.
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  • Venken, Machteld. Child Forced Labour. An Analysis of Ego Documents Throughout Time, in: European Review of History / Revue européenne d'histoire, Special Issue: Growing up in the Shadow of the Second World War. European Perspectives (Maren Röger and Machteld Venken (eds.)) 22 (2015), 368-388.

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  • Venken, Machteld. Nationalization Campaigns and Teachers’ Practices in Belgian-German and Polish-German Border Regions (1945-1956), in: Nationalities Papers: The Journal of Nationalism and Ethnicity, Special Issue: Border Communities: Microstudies on Everyday Life, Politics and Memory in European Societies from 1945 to the Present (Oates-Indruchova, Libora and Blaive, Muriel (eds.)) 42 2014, 223-241.

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  • Venken, Machteld. Herinneren in een (eens) verdeeld Europa. Consistentie en veranderlijkheid in getuigenissen van oud-strijders, in: Revue belge de philologie et d'histoire / Belgisch tijdschrift voor filologie en geschiedenis, Special Issue: Mondelinge Geschiedenis en Collectieve Herinnering. Tussen representatie en receptie (Wouters, Nico and Aerts koen (eds.)), 92 (2014), 527-544.

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  • Venken, Machteld. De mobilisatie van Poolse oud-strijders in België, 1947-1972. Een andere visie op Poolse migrantenorganisaties, in: Brood en Rozen 3 (2012), 23-45.

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  • Venken, Machteld. Międzynarodowe i lokalne próby aktywizacji byłych żołnierzy Pierwszej Polskiej Dywizji Pancernej w Belgii w latach 1947–1970, in: Pamięć i Sprawiedliwość 17 (2011), 333-351.

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  • Venken, Machteld. Van onzichtbaar naar zichtbaar: van communistes tot slachtoffers en baboesjka’s. Gewezen Ostarbeiterinnen in België, in: Historica. Vereniging voor Vrouwengeschiedenis 3 (2010), 15-20.

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  • Venken, Machteld. Straddling the Iron Curtain? Migrants' War Memories, in: Belgisch Tijdschrift voor Nieuwste Geschiedenis / Revue Belge d'histoire contemporaine 39 (2009), 297-300.

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  • Beyers, Leen. Venken, Machteld and Goddeeris, Idesbald. Families, Foreignness, Migration. An Introduction, in: History of the Family. An International Quarterly, Special Issue: Families, Foreignness, Migration (Venken, Machteld, Beyers Leen and Goddeeris, Idesbald (eds.)) 14 (2009), 125-131.

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  • Venken, Machteld. Bodily Memory: Introducing Immigrant Organisations and the Family, in: History of the Family. An International Quarterly, Special Issue: Families, Foreignness, Migration (Venken, Machteld, Beyers Leen and Goddeeris, Idesbald (eds.)) 14 (2009), 150-164.

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  • Venken, Machteld. Gemengd huwen, nationaliteit en de verschillen voor mannen en vrouwen. Poolse oudgedienden en Ostarbeiterinnen in België tijdens de K oude Oorlog, in: Tijdschrift voor Sociale en Economische Geschiedenis 5 (2008), 23-48.

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  • Venken, Machteld. Constructie en receptie van het collectieve geheugen bij enkele Poolse gewezen divisiesoldaten in België. De Koude Oorlog in praktijken, in: Belgisch Tijdschrift voor Nieuwste Geschiedenis / Revue Belge d'histoire contemporaine 3-4 (2007), 387-417.

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  • Venken, Machteld. Konstrukcja i recepcja pamięci zbiorowej wśród polskich dywizjonistów w Belgii. Zimna wojna w praktyce, in: Przegląd Polonijny 33 (2007), 41-62.

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  • Venken, Machteld. Heeft het Lijfs nog een toekomst? Taalpolitiek in Letland van nabij bekeken, in: Streven 74 (January 2007), 316-324.

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  • Venken, Machteld and Goddeeris, Idesbald. The Nationalization of Identities: Ukrainians in Belgium, 1920-1950, in: Journal of Ukrainian Studies 31 (2006), 89-115.

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Other peer-reviewed articles

  • Machteld Venken, Astrid M. Fellner, Adriana Dorfman, Jussi Laine, Daniel Meier, Laurie Trautman, Dhananjay Tripathi and Wolfgang Zeller. Border-Making and its Consequences: A Global Overview, in: Eurasia Border Review 10 (2019), 59-70.

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  • Andy Byford, Marina Balina, Svetlana Bardina, Vitalij Bezrogov, Sara Pankenier Weld, Machteld Venken, Irina Dudenkova, Svetlana Erpyleva, Anna Kozlova, Angelina Kozlovskaya, Elena Lyarskaya, Aleksandr Lyarskij, Esta Matveeva, Ekaterina Orech, Cécile Pichon-Bonin, Ekaterina Romashina, Elena Yugaj. Forum: V poiskakh detskoy subyektnosti [forum: Children as Subjects], in: Antropologicheskij forum 42 (2019), 9-106.

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  • Zalewski, Krzysztof Marcin and Venken, Machteld. Boso, ale na rowerze. De helaasheid der dingen in Polen , in: Filter. Tijdschrift over vertalen (Themanummer Verhulst) 22 (2015).

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  • Венкен, Махтельд. Як спів може надати сенсу воєнному досвіду. Остарбайтерки в Бельгії повоєнного періоду, in: Україна модерна, Міжнародний інтелектуальний часопис (2015).

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  • Venken, Machteld. Тілесна пам'ять: іммігрантські організації та родина (вступ до проблеми), in: East-West Journal, Kharkiv University (2009), 193-218.

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  • Venken, Machteld. Heeft het Lijfs nog een toekomst? Taalpolitiek in Letland van nabij bekeken, in: Het Beste van De Tijdschriften (Culturele en Literaire Tijdschriften Vlaanderen), gelegenheidsbundel naar aanleiding van de Antwerpse boekenbeurs (2007), 72-75.

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  • Venken, Machteld. Letters Connect People and People? The Communist ‘Polonia’ Society and Polish Immigrants in Belgium, 1956-90. Transnationalism avant la lettre?, in: Journal of Intercultural Studies, Newcastle University, Special Issue: Writing Home (Rygiel, Philippe (ed.)) (2007), 25-38.

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Articles published without peer review

  • Beyers, Leen and Venken, Machteld. Geschiedenis van integratie? Een historische kijk op vestigingsprocessen na migratie, in: Mededelingenblad van de Belgische Vereniging voor Nieuwste Geschiedenis (2006), 13-16.

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  • Venken Machteld. Polen in Wit-Rusland: Een boksmatch met internationaal karakter, in: Oost-Europa Tijdingen (2005), 36-41.

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  • Venken Machteld. De diversificatie van de Poolse energiesector, in: Oost-Europa Tijdingen (2005), 43-47.

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Book chapters

  • Venken, Machteld. History Education in Luxembourg’s Secondary Schools in the 1950s–1970s: Ideas and Experiments, in: Colla, Piero S. and Di Michele, Andrea (eds.). History Education at the Edge of the Nation. Political Autonomy, Educational Reforms, and Memory-shaping in European Periphery, Cham, Palgrave Macmillan, 2023, 79-99.

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  • Venken, Machteld. Native Borderland Children in the Belgian-German and Polish-German Borderlands. Comparing Verification and Nationalisation Narratives After the Second World War, in: Wylegała, Anna, Rutar, Sabine and Łukianow, Małgorzata (eds.). No Neighbors' Lands in Postwar Europe. Vanishing Others, Houndsmill, Palgrave Macmillian, 2023, 101-125.

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  • Jaschik, Johanna and Venken, Machteld. Dialoguing Borders in the Post-Soviet Space through Citizen Science – Ukrainian Borderland Perspectives, in: Von Löwis, Sabine and Eschment, Beate (eds.). Post-Soviet Borders. A Kaleidoscope of Shifting Lives and Lands, London, Routledge, 2022, 67-84.

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  • Venken, Machteld. Introduction. The Dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy: Border Making and its Consequences, in: Venken, Machteld, and Frandsen, Steen Bo (eds.). Debordering and Rebordering. Central and South-Eastern Europe after the First World War, Milton Park, Routledge, 2022, 1-12.

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  • Venken, Machteld. Borderland Child Heterotopias: A Case Study on the Belgian-German Borderlands, in: Venken, Machteld, Kaisto, Virpi and Brambilla Chiara (eds.). Children, Young People and Borders. A Multidisciplinary Outlook., London, Routledge, 2022, 11-32.

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  • Venken, Machteld, Kaisto, Virpi, and Brambilla, Chiara. Introduction. Children, Young People and Borders: A Multidisciplinary Outlook, in: Venken, Machteld, Kaisto, Virpi and Brambilla Chiara (eds.). Children, Young People and Borders. A Multidisciplinary Outlook., London, Routledge, 2022, 1-10.

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  • Venken, Machteld. Les anciens légionnaires et la protection sociale au Luxembourg. Une approche transnationale, in: Camarda, Sandra, Reinert, Francoise, Sauer, Arnaud and Scuto, Denis (eds.). Légionnaires. Parcours de guerre et de migrations entre le Luxembourg et la France, Luxembourg, Silvana Editoriale, 2020, 168–179.

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  • Venken, Machteld. Did Communist Children’s Television Communicate Universal Values? Representing Borders in the Polish Series Four Tank-Men and a Dog, in: Blaive, Muriel (ed.). Perceptions of Society in Communist Europe: Regime Archives and Popular Opinion, London, Bloomsbury Academic, 2019, 159-176.

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  • Venken, Machteld. Die vergessene Sicht der Kinder. Grenzregionen als Brennpunkte politischer Spannungen, in: Lejeune, Carlo, Brüll, Christoph and Quadflieg, Peter (eds.). Grenzerfahrungen Band 4: Staatenwechsel, Identitätskonflikte, Kriegserfahrungen (1919-1945): Eine Geschichte der Deutschsprachigen Gemeinschaft, Eupen, Grenz-Echo, 2018, 308-317.

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  • Venken, Machteld. Introduction: Borderland Studies Meets Child Studies. A European Encounter, in: Venken, Machteld (ed.). Borderland Studies Meets Child Studies. A European Encounter, Frankfurt am Main, Peter Lang, 2017, 11-41.

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  • Christiaens, Kim, Goddeeris, Idesbald and Venken, Machteld. Rząd belgijski na londyńskim wygnaniu, in: Żurawski Radosław Paweł (ed.), Struktury władzy na emigracji, Kraków, Arcana, 2014, 399-413.

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  • Venken, Machteld. 'You still live far from the Motherland, but you are her son, her daughter'. War Memory and Soviet Mental Space (1945-2011), in: Mink, Georges and Neumayer, Laure (eds.). History, Memory and Politics in Central, East and South East Europe, Houndsmill, Palgrave Macmillan, 2012, 54-67.

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  • Venken, Machteld. ‘I am also a Foreigner, but with Me it’s Different’: Polish Displaced Persons, War Memory and Ethnification in Belgium, in: Kleist, Olaf and Glynn, Irial (eds.). History, Memory and Migrant Incorporation: How Perceptions of the Past Affect the Reception of Immigrants, Houndsmill, Palgrave, 2012, 49-67.

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  • Venken, Machteld. The Communist ‘Polonia’ Society and Polish Immigrants in Belgium, 1956-90, in: Rygiel Philippe and Squires Graham (eds.). Hearing from Home, Paris, Edition Publibook, 2012, 43-58.

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  • Venken, Machteld. Включенное наблюдение и/или интервью? Собирание коллективных и/или личных воспоминаний? Case-study в Бельгии, in: Grinchenko, Gelinada and Khanenko-Friesen, Natalia (eds.). In Search of Voice: Oral History as Theory, Method, and Source, Kharkiv, Torgsin Plus, 2010, 64-73.

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  • Venken, Machteld. Wie Singen Kriegserlebnissen Sinn verleihen kann. Ostarbeiterinnen im Belgien der Nachkriegszeit, in: Boesen, Elisabeth and Lenz, Fabienne (eds.). Migration et mémoire. Concepts et méthodes de recherche / Migration und Erinnerung. Konzepte und Methoden der Forschung, Berlin, LIT Verlag, 2010, 159-189.

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  • Venken, Machteld. Tussen Oost en West. De oorlogsherinneringen van migrantenvrouwen en -mannen tijdens de Koude Oorlog, in: Wouters, Lisa and Wallemacq, Catherine (eds.). Akten van het colloquium Genderstudies: een genre apart? Savoirs de genre: quel genre de savoir? 2009, Brussel, Sophia vzw, 2010, 79-93.

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  • Venken, Machteld. Polish Liberators and Ostarbeiterinnen in Belgium during the Cold War. Mixed Marriages and the Differences for Immigrant Men and Women, in: Schrover, Marlou and Yeo, Eileen (eds.). Gender, Migration and the Public Sphere, 1850-2005, Londen, Routledge, 2010, 54-75.

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Book reviews

  • Machteld Venken. Book review. James A. Banks (eds.). Citizenship Participation and Global Migration. ‘Implications for Theory, Research, and Teaching’ , American Educational Research Association, Washington, 2017, in: Journal of Borderlands Studies (2019), DOI: 10.1080/08865655.2019.1646154.

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  • Venken, Machteld. Book Review. Kulczycki, John J. Belonging to the Nation. Inclusion and Exclusion in the Polish-German Borderlands 1939-1951, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, London, England, 2016, in: Slavonic & East European Review, 95 (2017), 579-580.

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  • Venken, Machteld. Book review. Menno Spierling and Michael Wintle (eds), European Identity and the Second World War, Houndmills, Palgrave Macmillan, 2011, in: Journal of Contemporary History, 49 (2014), 853-854.

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  • Venken, Machteld. Book Review. Dénes: Liberty and the Search for Identity. Liberal Nationalisms and the Legacy of Empires, in: European Review (Cambridge University Press) 17 (2009), 638-641.

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  • Venken, Machteld. Book Review. What We Remember. The Construction of Memory in Military Discourse by Mariana Achugar, in: Paradigmatics 18 (2008), 814-815.

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Other

  • Contributor: Cauvin, Thomas, Montt, Maria, Will, Stoutamire and Sophia Vohra. Creating Publis History Master Programs: International Guidelines, International Federation for Public History, 2022.

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  • Venken, Machteld. East meets West - Contacts, Connections and Convergences in (Post-) Cold War Europe, Open Educational Resource - Luxembourg Centre for Contemporary and Digital History (2021-2022). Youtube Channel
  • Venken, Machteld. Talking Borders. From Local Expertise to Global Exchange, in: Heigl, Florian and Ernst, Marlene (eds.). Austrian Citizen Science Conference 2018. Abstract Book, Salzburg, Frontiers, 2018, 94-97.

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  • Lara Valencia, Francisco and Venken, Machteld. Message Regarding Academic Freedom, petition launched on 10 July 2018 on Change.org (333 signatures)

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  • Venken, Machteld and Neubauer, Manuel (eds.). Association for Borderlands Studies 2nd World Conference, Border-Making and its Consequences: Interpreting Evidence from the ‘post-Colonial’ and ‘post-Imperial’ 20th Century. Conference Booklet (Vienna, University of Vienna, 2018).

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  • Venken, Machteld. Een gemeenschappelijke Europese geschiedenis? Niet voor vandaag, in: De Wereld Morgen (27 January 2017).

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  • Editorial: Venken, Machteld and Daenen, Roel. Editoriaal. Grenzeloos, in: Tijd-Schrift 3 (2014), 4-5.

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  • Editorial: Venken, Machteld. Editoriaal. Erfgoed en migratie, in: Tijd-Schrift 2 (2012), 4-5.

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  • Leaflet: Venken, Machteld. De soldaten van de Eerste Poolse Pantserdivisie. Hun geschiedenis., in: Pools Instituut in Brussel (eds.). Gelegenheidsbrochure naar aanleiding van 70 jaar bevrijding van België (2014), 6-21.

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  • Working Paper: Venken, Machteld. Migration and War Memory in a European Perspective? A Case-Study on Displaced Persons in Belgium, in: College of Europe Natolin Papers 5 (2011).

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  • Opinion Article: Venken, Machteld. Polen ernstig uit balans, in: De Standaard (12 April 2010), 18.

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  • Unpublished Expertise Paper: Venken, Machteld. Experiences of Women and Children during World War II (written on request of the Museum of the Second World War, Poland), 2010.
  • Unpublished PhD Thesis: Venken, Machteld. Straddling the Iron Curtain? Migrants' War Memories, Catholic University of Leuven, 2008.

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  • United Nations UNECE Gas Centre (with the cooperation of Machteld Venken) Report on the Gas Company and Market Structure in the European Part of the UNECE Region. Geneva, United Nations, 2005.

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  • Unpublished Master Thesis: Venken, Machteld. The Diversification of the Polish Natural Gas Market in an Enlarged European Union, Jagiellonian University, 2004.

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  • Unpublished Master Thesis: Venken, Machteld. Nieuwe syntheses? Het opera-oeuvre van Krzysztof Penderecki, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, 2002.

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List of Presentations

    2024

  • Presenter: Witnessing the Now: Challenges for Emergency Archiving and Oral History following the Russian Invasion of Ukraine. Event: Post-War Memory Seminar, Catholic University of Louvain, 29.01.2024.
  • Panel Organiser: Hands-On Digital Workshop: Automatic Speech to Text Transcription. Workshop: U-CORE,The European Studies Unit of the Institute of Philosophy and Sociology, Polish Academy of Sciences, 24.01.2024.
  • Chair: Timetable and Division of Tasks between Teams. Workshop: U-CORE,The European Studies Unit of the Institute of Philosophy and Sociology, Polish Academy of Sciences, 23.01.2024.
  • Presenter: Temporalities of Mixed Economies of Veteran Welfare in the Greater Region after the First World War. Research Seminar: Luxembourg Centre for Contemporary and Digital History, University of Luxembourg, 17.01.2024.
  • 2023

  • Presenter: The Spatiality and Temporality of Borders. Conference: SOCIOBORD - Social Politics in European Borderlands. A Comparative and Transnational Study, 1870s-1990s, European University Institute, 13.12.2023.
  • Workshop Moderator: European Citizen Science in Luxembourg - A Scholarly Perspective, University of Luxembourg, 04.12.2023.
  • Presenter: Healing the Nation. Summer Camps for Children in the Belgian-German Borderlands. Workshop: Children, Borders and Intersectional Constellations of Mixed Economies of Welfare, University of Luxembourg, 01.12.2023.
  • Workshop Co-Organiser: Children, Borders and Intersectional Constellations of Mixed Economies of Welfare, University of Luxembourg, 01.12.2023.
  • Presenter: Remigration to Luxembourg. Examining a New Research Question by Means of Digital Hermeneutics. Workshop: Digitising, Georeferencing and Modeling Administrative Historical Data, University of Luxembourg, 19.10.2023.
  • Workshop Co-Organiser: Digitising, Georeferencing and Modeling Administrative Historical Data, University of Luxembourg, 19.10.2023.
  • Presenter: 24.02.2022, 5am. Testimonies from the War. Project Overview from Luxembourg. Event: WARTEST Workshop, University of Luxembourg, 25.09.2023.
  • Workshop Organiser: 24.02.2022, 5am. Testimonies from the War. Workshop: WARTEST, University of Luxembourg, 25.09.2023.
  • Keynote Lecture: Order(s) of Difference for Borderland Children: Education and Welfare. Conference: International Conference on Order(s) of Difference in Childhood and Education, Goethe-University Frankfurt, 20.09.2023.
  • Presenter: Le problème de la Silésie. Study Day: La redistribution des cartes. Les nouvelles frontières en Europe et le droit des peuples (1917-1924). Histoire et mémoire, University of Liège, 12.05.2023.
  • Panel Organiser: History Education at the Edge of the Nation. Conference: European Social Science History Conference 2023, University of Gothenburg, 13.04.2023.
  • Presenter: Teaching History in Luxembourgish Secondary Schools in the 1950s-1970s: Ideas and Experiments. Conference: European Social Science History Conference 2023, University of Gothenburg, 13.04.2023.
  • Panel Organiser (with Rachid Belkacem): Construire les frontières par le bas. Event: Frontières et sociétés frontalières au sein de l’espace franco-luxembourgeois du XVe siècle à nos jours, Luxembourg, 24.03.2023.
  • Discussant (with Christoph Brüll and Maxime Kaci): Frontières et sociétés frontalières au sein de l’espace franco-luxembourgeois du XVe siècle à nos jours. Event: Frontières et sociétés frontalières au sein de l’espace franco-luxembourgeois du XVe siècle à nos jours, Luxembourg, 24.03.2023.
  • Keynote Lecture: A Gender Perspective on the Self-Mobilisation of Migrants, Their History and Memory. Conference: Civil Engagement Transfers between Eastern Europe and the Low Countries. Agency and action in Czech, Slovak, Hungarian and Polish émigré communities during the Cold War, Catholic University of Leuven, 01.03.2023.
  • Panel Organiser: Veterans' Welfare in European Borderlands through the 20th Century. Conference: Third World Conference of the Association for Borderlands Studies, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, 16.02.2023.
  • Presenter: How to Develop a Veteran Policy in a Country without an Army? Borderland Veterans and the Grand-Duchy of Luxembourg after the First World War. Conference: Third World Conference of the Association for Borderlands Studies, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, 16.02.2023.
  • Presenter: Border Temporalities in the Greater Region. Conference: Third World Conference of the Association for Borderlands Studies, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, 14.02.2023.
  • Chair: Social Policies and Welfare for Children and Women in European Borderlands. Conference: Third World Conference of the Association for Borderlands Studies, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, 13.02.2023.
  • 2022

  • Presenter: Arrival Declaration Forms. A New Gateway for Mapping Migration to Luxembourg. Conference: Borders In Flux and Border Temporalities In and Beyond Europe, University of Luxembourg, 16.12.2022.
  • Conference Co-Organiser: Borders In Flux and Border Temporalities In and Beyond Europe, University of Luxembourg, 15.12.2022.

    Conference Report:

    H-Soz-Kult (2023)

  • Chair: Remembering as Bordering. Conference: Borders In Flux and Border Temporalities In and Beyond Europe, University of Luxembourg, 15-16.12.2022.
  • Introductory Words. Conference: Borders In Flux and Border Temporalities In and Beyond Europe, University of Luxembourg, 15.12.2022.
  • Moderator: Roundtable - Legal and Data Protection. Conference: Witnessing the Now. Challenges for Emergency Archiving and Oral History following the Russian Invasion of Ukraine, University of Luxembourg, 24.11.2022.
  • Presenter: Friends and/or Enemies? Conflicting Loyalties among Soldiers Fighting both in the German Army and the Allied Forces. Conference: WARLUX International Conference. The Impact of War Experiences in Europe, University of Luxembourg, 27.10.2022.
  • Conference Co-Organiser: Voices from the War – Path to Peace: Ukrainian and International Insights, University of Luxembourg, 20.10.2022.
  • Presenter: Testimonies from the Russian Invasion of Ukraine. Conference: Voices from the War – Path to Peace: Ukrainian and International Insights, University of Luxembourg, 20.10.2022.
  • Introductory Words. Conference: Voices from the War – Path to Peace: Ukrainian and International Insights, University of Luxembourg, 20.10.2022.
  • Moderator: Discussion with Christoph Brüll. Workshop: Popkult60 - 12. Workshop der Forschungsgruppe 'Populärkultur transnational - Europa in den Langen 1960er Jahren', Maison Robert Schuman, Luxembourg, 14.07.2022.
  • Introduction (with Andreas Fickers): Diskussion zum Spannungsfeld 'Transregionalität - Zwischenräume'. Workshop: Popkult60: 12. Workshop der Forschungsgruppe 'Populärkultur transnational - Europa in den Langen 1960er Jahren', Maison Robert Schuman, 13.07.2022.
  • Presenter: Talking Borders, History and Digital Hermeneutics. Workshop: Multimodal Digital Oral History - The Forward-View Seminar, University College London (UCL) Centre for Digital Humanities, 13.07.2022.
  • Presenter: Testimonies from the War. Workshop: 'Oral History Meets European Integration Studies', Robert Schuman Initiative, University of Luxembourg, 11.07.2022.
  • Presenter: Return Migration, Welfare, and the French-Luxembourg Borderlands after the First World War. Conference: ReMIGRA: Return Migration as an Interdisciplinary Research Area, University of Innsbruck, Innsbruck, 23.06.2022.
  • Presenter (with Arnaud Sauer): Visualizing the habitation practices of migrants in Dudelange (1924). Conference: 22. Internationale Migrationskonferenz: Multicultural Conviviality, Centre de Documentation sur les Migrations Humaines, 16.06.2022.
  • Presenter at Book Discussion: Peripheries at the Centre. Borderland Schooling in Interwar Europe. Conference: PIASA’s 8th World Congress, Białystok, 11.06.2022.
  • Organiser of Book Discussion: Peripheries at the Centre. Borderland Schooling in Interwar Europe. Conference: PIASA’s 8th World Congress, Białystok, 10.06.2022.
  • Moderator: Digital History. Conference: DH Benelux, University of Luxembourg, Luxembourg, 02.06.2022.
  • Film Discussant: 'Occupation and Liberation' (with film director Evelina Kelbecheva). Event: OpenScreen. Doc&Talk, Ciné Le Paris, Bettembourg, 01.06.2022.
  • Moderator: Future Development of the Initiative. Event: Witnessing the Now. Challenges for Emergency Archiving and Oral History following the Russian Invasion of Ukraine, German Historical Institute Warsaw, 28.05.2022.
  • Presenter: Comparative Research on the Impact of war on Individuals in Luxembourg during WWII and Today. Event: Witnessing the Now. Challenges for Emergency Archiving and Oral History following the Russian Invasion of Ukraine, German Historical Institute Warsaw, 27.05.2022.
  • Discussant: Facing Violence. When and Why to Document War Experiences? Event: Witnessing the Now. Challenges for Emergency Archiving and Oral History following the Russian Invasion of Ukraine, German Historical Institute Warsaw, 27.05.2022.
  • Moderator: Bruggen bouwen tussen academische historici, heemkundigen en erfgoedwerkers. Event: Dag van de Nieuwste Geschiedenis. Publieks- en lokale geschiedenis in België: stand van zaken, uitdagingen en perspectieven, Eupen, 20.05.2022.
  • Organiser: Bruggen bouwen tussen academische historici, heemkundigen en erfgoedwerkers. Event: Dag van de Nieuwste Geschiedenis. Publieks- en lokale geschiedenis in België: stand van zaken, uitdagingen en perspectieven, Eupen, 20.05.2022.
  • Presenter: The Future of the History of Cross-Border Cooperation. Event: Archives for the History of Cross-Border Cooperation in the Greater Region, University of Luxembourg, Luxembourg, 24.03.2022.
  • Workshop Co-Organiser: Archives for the History of Cross-Border Cooperation in the Greater Region. Event: Workshop on Archives for the History of Cross-Border Cooperation in the Greater Region, University of Luxembourg, Luxembourg, 24.03.2022. Read more
  • Presenter: The War in Ukraine and History. Event: Conscious and Cultural Student Association, Talk 8, University of Luxembourg, Luxembourg, 16.03.2022.
  • 2021

  • Guest Lecture: Peryferia w Centrum: Szkolnictwo pogranicza w międzywojennej Europie. Event: Centre de civilisation française et d'études francophones en Pologne, 16.12.2021.
  • Presenter: Peripheries at the Centre. Borderland Schooling in Interwar Europe. Conference: Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies 53rd Annual Convention (online), 03.12.2021. Watch here
  • Panel Organiser: Book Discussion of 'Peripheries at the Centre: Borderland Schooling in Interwar Europe'. Conference: Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies 53rd Annual Convention (online), 03.12.2021.
  • Presenter: The Belgian/Luxembourgish/German/French Borderlands and Veterans after the First World War. Workshop: European University Institute SOCIOBORD Veteran Welfare, 30.11.2021.
  • Presenter: Peripheries at the Centre. History of Borderlands as an Alternative History of Europe. Research Seminar: SOCIOBORD Lecture Series, European University Institute, 29.11.2021.
  • Presenter: Peripherien im Zentrum. Schulbildung im Grenzland im Europa der Zwischenkriegszeit. Research Seminar: FLUXUS – Série de conférences au sujet des migrations et des frontières dans l’espace de la Grande Région, 24.11.2021. Watch here
  • Presenter: Peripheries at the Centre. Borderland Schooling in Interwar Europe. Research Seminar: Modernity and Society (MoSa), Catholic University of Leuven, Leuven, 17.11.2021.
  • Presenter: Childhood in Times of Political Transformation in the 20th Century. Event: Transformative Seminar, Research Center for the History of Transformations, University of Vienna, 11.11.2021. Watch here
  • Presenter: Bevrijders aan het werk: Hoe vonden de Polen in Nederland en België hun draai na de oorlog? Event: Polen in Beeld, Oorlogsmuseum Gdynia, Axel, 28.10.2021.
  • Presenter: Jahrmärkte in Grenzräumen. Eine transnationale Geschichte des Luxemburger Vergnügungsparks. Workshop: Populärkultur transnational - Europa in den langen 1960er Jahren, Saarland University, 22.10.2021.
  • Organiser: Temporalities and Migratory Border-Crossings in Literature and other Discourse (Prof. Dr. Johan Schimanski). Research Seminar: Border Temporalities Lecture Series Autumn 2021, University of Luxembourg, 12.10.2021.
  • Chair: Temporalities and Migratory Border-Crossings in Literature and other Discourse (Prof. Dr. Johan Schimanski). Research Seminar: Border Temporalities Lecture Series Autumn 2021, University of Luxembourg, 12.10.2021.
  • Presenter: Towards a Digital Oral History Database in Luxembourg. Workshop: The Magic of Metadata and Ticklish Taxonomies for Oral History, University of Sussex, 22.09.2021.
  • Presenter: Województwo śląskie inaczej. Peryferie w centrum. Szkolnictwo na peryferiach w międzywojennej Europie. Conference: X Konferencja Komitetu Badań nad Migracjami, Polska Akademia Nauk (KBnM PAN), Warsaw (online), 17.09.2021.
  • Keynote Lecture: Transnational Families and Childhood throughout the 20th Century. Conference: Transnational Families and Childhood in Modern History: Perspectives and Challenges, Ruhr University Bochum, 03.09.2021.
  • Chair: Meeting the Editors: De Gruyter Book Series 'Migrations in History'. Conference: 18th International Migration Research Network Annual Conference, Luxembourg (online), 09.07.2021. Watch here
  • Presenter: Codification and Analysis of Migration Paths Through Nodegoat on the Basis of the Declaration of Arrival Sheets of Migrants to the Iron Basin of the Grand-Duchy of Luxembourg. Conference: 18th International Migration Research Network Annual Conference, Luxembourg (online), 07.07.2021. Watch here
  • Panel Organiser: Political Rupture, Transformation and Childhood/Children in Europe (1914–50). Conference: Society for the History of Childhood and Youth - 11th Biennial Conference, Galway (online), 24.06.2021.
  • Presenter: Secondary School Principals. Transformation Practices in Polish Upper Silesia (1919–1939). Conference: Society for the History of Childhood and Youth - 11th Biennial Conference, Galway (online), 24.06.2021.
  • Presenter: Scientific Research on Former Ostarbeiterinnen. Event: Destination Sweetheart – Red Star Line Museum - Gespreksavond ‘Ostarbeiterinnen’, Red Star Line Museum Antwerp, 22.06.2021.
  • Keynote Lecture: Peripheries at the Centre. A Framework of Comparison. Conference: 21th International Conference on Migration 'Border Thinking', University of Klagenfurt, 17.06.2021.
  • Panel Organiser: De-centralized Histories of Education. Non-Binary and Postcolonial Approaches. Conference: ISCHE 42. Looking from Above and Below: Rethinking the Social in the History of Education, 16.06.2021.
  • Presenter: Peripheries at the Centre. Borderland Schooling in Interwar Europe. Conference: ISCHE 42 Looking from Above and Below: Rethinking the Social in the History of Education, 16.06.2021.
  • Presenter: Towards the UniGR-CBS Working Group 'Border Temporalities'. Event: 7. Seminar UniGR-Center for Border Studies. Literaturen und Repräsentationen der Grenze, Université de Lorraine, 21.05.2021.
  • Introduction: Webinar by Dr. Piero-D. Galloro. Event: FLUXUS – Série de conférences au sujet des migrations et des frontières dans l’espace de la Grande Région, 12.05.2021.
  • Keynote Lecture: War Heroes Became Deserters and War Whores Turned into Singing Babushkas: Displaced Persons and Gender in Cold War Belgium. Conference: Who Is a Refugee? Shifting Categorizations in Forced Migration, Oulu University (online), 22.04.2021.
  • Panel Organiser: Peripheries at the Centre: Borderland Schooling in Interwar Europe. Conference: Association for Borderlands Studies Virtual Conference, 17.04.2021.
  • Presenter: Peripheries at the Centre: Borderland Schooling in Interwar Europe. Conference: Association for Borderlands Studies Virtual Conference, 17.04.2021.
  • Chair: Abandoned, Orphaned & Displaced: Histories of Children's Destitution and Relief. Conference: European Social Science History Conference 2021, Leiden University (online), 25.03.2021.
  • Organizer: Border Making and its Consequences after the First World War: the Habsburg Case. Conference: European Social Science History Conference 2021, Leiden University (online), 27.03.2021.
  • Presenter: The Western European Borderlands. Overview of Possible Case-Studies. Event: Kick-Off Meeting EU Advanced Grant SOCIOBORD, European University Institute, Florence (online), 05.03.2021.
  • Presenter: Elite School Principals and Democratic Citizenship in the Belgian-German Borderlands (1919-1939). Conference: Europäische Grenzregionen. Neue Wege im Umgang mit historischen Raum- und Grenzkonzeptionen in der Geschichtswissenschaft, University of Cologne (online), 26.02.2021.
  • Keynote Lecture: Migration, Borderlands and International Law in 20th Century Continental Europe. Conference: Castle Talks on Cross-Border Cooperation. The migration crisis. A challenge for border regions, University of Strasbourg (online), 18.01.2021.
  • Discussant: Migration Crisis and Human Rights: A Challenge for the EU. Conference: Castle Talks on Cross-Border Cooperation. The migration crisis. A challenge for border regions, University of Strasbourg (online), 18.01.2021.
  • Presenter: De Gruyter New Book Series 'Migrations in History'. Conference: American History Association (online), 12.01.2021. Watch here
  • 2020

  • Co-Presenter (with Johanna Jaschik): Talking Borders. From Local Expertise to Global Exchange. Evidence from a Citizen Science Project. Conference: VIII CONVEGNO SIAA. Fare (in) Tempo. Cosa dicono gli antropologi sulle società dell’incertezza, Parma, Italy (online), 05.12.2020.
  • Panel Moderator: ‘Politics’. Conference: 20th International Conference of Migration, Olten, Switzerland (online), 19.06.2020.
  • Introductory Words. Study Day: Displacement, resettlement, verification and nationalization after the Second World War, University of Luxembourg (online), 13.05.2020.
  • Organiser: Displacement, Resettlement, Verification and Nationalization after the Second World War. Event: MA International Webex Study Day, University of Luxembourg (online), 13.05.2020.

    Read more | Study day programme

  • Organiser: Towards a Spatial Grammar of Luxembourg and Beyond? Workshop: Towards a Spatial Grammar of Luxembourg and Beyond?, University of Luxembourg, Luxembourg, 26-27.02.2020.
  • Presenter: Towards a Spatial Grammar of Luxembourg and Beyond? Workshop: Towards a Spatial Grammar of Luxembourg and Beyond?, University of Luxembourg, Luxembourg, 26-27.02.2020.
  • Introductory Words. Hands-On-History Lecture Randy Widdis: The Spatial Grammar of Borderlands, University of Luxembourg, Luxembourg, 26.02.2020.

    Read more

  • 2019

  • Presenter: Language Learning in the Polish–German and Belgian–German Periphery (1919–1940). Research Seminar: Chair for Eastern European History, University of Göttingen, 17.12.2019.
  • Presenter: Bordering Brussels. Event: Research Symposium – Open Practices IN Education, Leibniz Institute for Research and Information in Education, Frankfurt am Main, 15.11.2019. Read more
  • Presenter: Poolse soldaten in de Kempen en hun rol in de Europese geschiedenis. Event: Turnhout. Heemkundige Kring, Turnhout, 31.10.2019.
  • Presenter: Native Borderland Children in Europe: Comparing Verification and Nationalization Narratives after the Second World War. Conference: No Neighbours’ Land: Postwar Europe in New Comparative Perspective, Warsaw, 24.10.2019.
  • Presenter: Dzieci w regionach pogranicznych (1919-1940). Event: History Institute, University of Warsaw, 24.10.2019.
  • Presenter: The Ambiguity of Germanness among Borderland Youth: A Preliminary Comparison. Conference: Housing, Leisure and Everyday Life: Societies under German Occupation, Imre Kertesz Kolleg, Friedrich Schiller University of Jena, 18.10.2019.
  • Presenter: Borderland Children, A Conceptual Introduction. Event: Institute for Advanced Study, Central European University, Budapest, 05.06.2019.
  • Conference Co-Organiser (with Dr. Friederike Kind-Kovacs): Beyond 1989: Childhood and Youth in Times of Political Transformation in the 20th Century, Institute for Advanced Study, Central European University, Budapest, 05-07.06.2019.
  • Presenter: Borderlands and Children in Interwar Europe. Research Seminar, University of Regensburg, 16.05.2019.
  • Moderator: European Union: Immigration and Border Control. Event: Association for Borderlands Studies Annual Meeting, San Diego, USA, 25.04.2019.
  • Presenter: Borderland Children Ego Documents from Once Upon a Time: Delusions or Gateways to a New Understanding of the Past? Event: Association for Borderlands Studies Annual Meeting, San Diego, USA, 25.04.2019.
  • Presenter: Borderland Child Ego Documents. An Alternative Gateway to the Past? Research Seminar: European University Institute, Florence, 12.03.2019.
  • Organiser: Borderland Pupils in Interwar Europe. Research Seminar: Imre Kertesz Kolleg / Institute for Advanced Studies, Friedrich Schiller University, Jena, 28.01.2019.
  • 2018

  • Panel Organiser (with Maciej Górny): Multilingualism in Interwar Poland. Conference: Association for Borderland Studies 2nd World Conference, Budapest, 14.07.2018.
  • Discussant (session sponsored by the German Historical Institute in Warsaw): Multilingualism in Interwar Poland. Conference: Association for Borderland Studies 2nd World Conference, Budapest, 14.07.2018.
  • Keynote Lecture: What is a Borderland Child? Age as a Central Category of Analysis in Border Research. Conference: Association for Borderland Studies 2nd World Conference, Budapest, 14.07.2018. Watch here
  • Book Presentation: Borderland Studies Meets Child Studies. A European Encounter. Conference: Association for Borderlands Studies 2nd World Conference, 11.07.2018.
  • Panel Organiser: Border Studies Meets Citizen Science. Conference: Association for Borderland Studies 2nd World Conference, Vienna, 11.07.2018.
  • Moderator: Border Studies Meets Citizen Science. Conference: Association for Borderland Studies 2nd World Conference, Vienna, 11.07.2018.
  • Presenter: Migration, Trafficking and Borders: Contemporary Global Challenges. Conference: Association for Borderland Studies 2nd World Conference, Vienna, 10.07.2018.
  • Presenter: Borderland Children in Interwar Europe. Conference: Children Born of War, University of Leipzig, 27.06.2018.
  • Presenter: Border-Making and Its Consequences on the Association for Borderland Studies World Conference. The Experience of a Conference Chair, Transcending Borders, Redrawing Perspectives. Research Seminar: University of Graz, 05.05.2018.
  • Panel Discussant: Crossing Borders. Conference: Graduate Conference in European History, University of Vienna, 28.04.2018.
  • Presenter: Remembering 1918. Turning Point for Europe. Research Event: BOZAR Project: 1918. European Modernity One Hundred Years On, Vaclav Havel Library, Prague, 11.04.2018.
  • Panel Moderator: Border Mediascapes. Event: Association for Borderland Studies Annual Meeting, San Antonio, USA, 06.04.2018.
  • Panel Discussant: Perceptions and Mental Maps of the Borderlands. Event: Association for Borderland Studies Annual Meeting, San Antonio, USA, 05.04.2018.
  • Presenter: Language learning in Interwar European Borderlands. Event: Association for Borderland Studies Annual Meeting, San Antonio, USA, 05.04.2018.
  • Presenter: Talking Borders. From Local Expertise to Global Exchange. Conference: Fourth Austrian Citizen Science Conference, University of Salzburg, 02.02.2018.
  • 2017

  • Presenter: Borderland Child Agency? Conference: Memory Studies Association Second Annual Conference, University of Copenhagen, 15.12.2017.
  • Introduction: Reflections on Europe. Event: Herman Van Rompuy's Lecture 'Europe: Reasons for Hope' (with a commentary by Philipp Ther), University of Vienna, 30.11.2017. Watch here
  • Presenter: Polish Soldiers and Ex-Combatants in Belgium, A Short History. Event: Screening of Bart Verstockt's documentary 'Sylwester', Polish Embassy in Belgium, 23.11.2017.
  • Presenter: Language Learning in Interwar European Borderlands. Conference: German Studies Association Annual Meeting, Atlanta, 07.10.2017.
  • Presenter: The Association for Borderland Studies World Conference: Conception and Organisation. Event: 3. Netzwerktreffen für Postdoktoranden der Geschichtswissenschaften in Österreich, University of Vienna, 14.07.2017.
  • Presenter: The Association for Borderland Studies World Conference: Conception and Organisation, Forschungsplattform Historisch-Kulturwissenschaftliche Europaforschung, University of Vienna, 20.06.2017.
  • Presenter: Borderland Studies Meets Child Studies. A European Encounter. Conference: Association for Borderland Studies Annual Meeting, San Francisco, 12.04.2017.
  • Presenter: Language Learning in Interwar European Borderland Primary Schools. A Comparison between Polish Upper Silesia and Eupen-Malmedy, 1919-1925. Conference: Minorities In/At War, Jewish Museum Brussels, Centre d’études et de documentation guerre et société contemporaine, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Brussels, 09.03.2017.
  • 2016

  • Presenter: Social Advance in Interwar European Borderlands. A Compared Analysis of Elite Training in Polish Upper Silesia and the Eupen-Malmedy Region. Research Seminar: Leibniz-Institut für Geschichte und Kultur des östlichen Europa, University of Leipzig, 08.12.2016.
  • Presenter: How Universal Was Communist Children’s Television? Representing Borders in the Polish Series Four Tank-Men and a Dog. Conference: Perceptions of Society at the Top in East Central Europe, 1945-1981, New York University, Prague, 02.12.2016.
  • Presenter: Language Learning in Interwar European Borderland Primary Schools. A Comparison between Polish Upper Silesia and Eupen-Malmedy. Event: Tadeusz Mazowiecki Cycle of Lectures on the History of the Visegrad Countries, 14.11.2016.
  • Presenter: Borderland Studies, Child Studies, Europeanisation. A New Encounter. Conference: Association for Borderland Studies European Conference, University of Luxembourg, Luxembourg, 07.10.2016.
  • Presenter: Children in 20th Century European Borderlands. Event: Mentoring Program for Female Postdoctoral Academics, University of Vienna, 13.06.2016.
  • Presenter: Language Learning as Borderscaping Process in Interwar European Borderlands. Conference: Borderscape as an Interdisciplinary Concept, University of Luxembourg, Luxembourg, 08.04.2016.
  • Presenter: Growing Up in 20th-Century European Borderlands. Conference: European Social Science History Conference, University of Valenica, 30.03.2016.
  • Panel Organiser: Changing Border, Defining Identity. A European Perspective of Shaping Children's Role in Modern Society. Conference: European Social Science History Conference, University of Valencia, 30.03.2016.
  • Presenter: Wie universell war das kommunistische Fernsehen? Neue Ergebnisse über audiovisuelle Medien in der Volksrepublik Polen. Research Seminar: Tadeusz Mazowiecki - Ringvorlesung zur Geschichte Polens, University of Vienna, 18.01.2016.
  • 2015

  • Presenter: Moulding New Citizens for 20th Century Europe? A Comparison of Elite Training in the Belgian-German and Polish-German Borderlands (1920-1940 and 1945-1960). Research Seminar: Zentrum für Zeithistorische Forschung, Potsdam, 04.06.2015.
  • Presenter: Illegal Youth Organisations in East Upper Silesia 1947-1956. Conference: From the Poison Cabinets of Communism. Methodological Questions on Working with Surveillance Files in South-Eastern and Central Europe, Humboldt University, Berlin, 30.04.2015.
  • Presenter: Narrating the Time of Troubles in Polish History Schoolbooks (1918-1989). Conference: Children and War. Reflecting on Wartime Childhood across the Centuries, University of Mainz, 23.03.2015.
  • Conference Organiser: Growing Up in 20th Century European Borderlands, University of Vienna, 15-16.01.2015.
  • Presenter: Elite Training in Interwar Europe. A Perspective from the Border. Research Seminar: University of Vienna, 15-16.01.2015.
  • 2014

  • Presenter: The Best Propaganda is Adventure for Children. The Non-Presentation of the Holocaust in the Polish Television Series “Four Tank-Men and a Dog”. Conference: Genocide at Prime Time - The Holocaust on TV, Wiener Wiesenthal Institut für Holocaust-studien, Vienna, 04.12.2014.
  • Presenter: Comparing Nationalisation and Elite Training in 20th Century European Borderlands. Conference: 46th Annual Convention of the Association for Slavic, East European & Eurasian Studies, San Antonio, Texas, 20.11.2014.
  • Discussant: Publishing in English: Challenges and Chances. Research Seminar: University of Vienna, Institute for Eastern European History, 07.11.2014.
  • Panel Organiser: History of Childhood and Children in 20th Century Europe/ Presentation of the paper: Comparing Nationalisation and Elite Training in 20th Century European Borderlands, 10. Österreichischer Zeitgeschichtetag, University of Klagenfurt, Klagenfurt, 29.09.2014.
  • Presenter: Comparing Nationalisation and Elite Training in 20th Century European Borderlands. Conference: 10. Österreichischer Zeitgeschichtetag, University of Klagenfurt, 29.09.2014.
  • Presenter (together with Grzegorz Kaczorowski): Historia mówiona w powiecie lublinieckim (województwo katowickie). Event: Dom Kultury, Koszęcin, Poland, 05.07.2014.
  • Panel Organiser (with Sławomir Sierakowski, Jessie Labov and Johannes Kontny): Writing Europe and the East-West Divide. Research Event: Institute for Eastern European History, University of Vienna, 09.06.2014.
  • Discussant: Writing Europe and the East-West Divide. Research Event: Institute for Eastern European History, University of Vienna, 09.06.2014.
  • Presenter: Child Forced Labour. An Analysis of Ego Documents Throughout Time. Conference: Storylines and Blackboxes. Konstellationen auto/biographischer Erzählungen über Gewalterfahrungen im Kontext des Zweiten Weltkrieges. Event: Wiener Wiesenthal Institut für Holocaust-Studien, Vienna, 24.05.2014.
  • Presenter (with Krzysztof Marcin Zalewski): Boso, ale na rowerze. De Helaasheid der dingen in Polen. Workshop: Circulation of Dutch Literature, ELTE University, Budapest, 08.05.2014.
  • Organiser of Workshop: The War Children in the War and the Post-war. Conference: European Social Science History Conference, Vienna, 23.04.2014.
  • Presenter (together with Maren Röger): War Children in the Post-war: An Introduction. Conference: European Social Science History Conference, Vienna, 23.04.2014.
  • 2013

  • Presentation: Children of Annexation. A Comparative and Entangled History, 1939-1960. Research Seminar (of Professor Philipp Ther): Institute for Eastern European History, University of Vienna, 09.10.2013.
  • Presenter: Zwangsarbeitserfahrungen polnischer Kinder in Ego-Dokumenten und Selbstzeugnissen. Conference: Kontakte und Kulturtransfer im historischen Raum Ostpreussen 5 (1700-2000), Zentrum für Antisemitismusforschung an der Technische Universität Berlin, Nida, Lithuania, 22.09.2013.
  • Presenter: Borderland Children in Europe. An Explorative Study. Conference: Children and War: Past and Present, University of Salzburg, Salzburg, 11.07.2013.
  • 2012

  • Conference Organiser: War Children in the Post-war. A West-East Perspective on Child Policies, Child Experiences and Warchildhood Remembrance Cultures in Europe since 1945, Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for European History and Public Spheres and German Historical Institute Warsaw, Vienna, 13-15.12.2012.
  • Panel Organiser: East-West Comparisons. Conference: 8. Österreichischer Zeitgeschichtetag, Johannes Kepler University, Linz, 03.10.2012.
  • Presenter: War Memories, Border Regions, Children and Migrants in Europe. Conference: 8. Österreichischer Zeitgeschichtetag, Johannes Kepler University, Linz, 03.10.2012.
  • Presenter: Nationalisation Campaigns and Teachers’ Life Paths in Belgian-German and Polish-German Border Regions. Conference: Region – Europa – Nation? Kollektive Identitäten an Grenzen: Deutschland, die Niederlände und Belgien im 20. Jahrhundert, University of Aachen, 21.09.2012.
  • Presenter: In their Own Words. War Experiences of Polish Child Forced Labourers. Conference: Children, Women and Families – Migration in Historical Perspective, University of Salzburg, Salzburg, 06.09.2012.
  • Presenter: Józef Chałasiński and the Young Countryside Generation of the Polish People’s Republic. Conference: Dissenters and Collaborators: Revisiting Cold War Binaries, Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for European History and Public Spheres, Vienna, 12.06.2012.
  • Panel Organiser: Border Studies meet Migration Studies? Similarities and Differences. Conference: European Social Science History Conference, Glasgow, 11-14.04.2012.
  • Presenter: Teachers and Nationalisation in Belgian-German and Polish-German Borderlands. Conference: European Social Science History Conference, Glasgow, 11-14.04.2012.
  • Panel Organiser: Border Studies meet Migration Studies: Similarities and Differences. Conference: Belgische Dag voor Nieuwste Geschiedenis, 24.03.2012.
  • Presenter: Educating a New Generation of Border People: a Comparison between the Polish Western and Belgian German-speaking Borderlands, 1945-1960. Conference: Belgische Dag voor Nieuwste Geschiedenis, 24.03.2012.
  • Presenter (together with Piotr Filipkowski): Making meaning of war experiences: Polish ex-combatants settled in Belgium and in Poland. Conference: Beyond Camps and Forced Labour. Current International Research on Survivors of Nazi Persecution. Fourth International Multidisciplinary Conference, Imperial War Museum, London, 05.01.2012.
  • 2011

  • Presenter: Giving Meaning to War Experiences. Ex-combatants from Poland and Belgium. Conference: Genealogies of Memory in Central and Eastern Europe. Theory and Methods, Warsaw University, 24.11.2011.
  • Discussant: From the Iron Curtain to the Schengen Area. Event: Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for European History and Public Spheres, Vienna, 28-30.09.2011.
  • Presenter: Educating Children about War in the Historical East Prussia Region. Conference: The Biennale of the Society for History of Childhood and Youth, Columbia University, New York, 24.06.2011.
  • Presenter: Early Postwar Memories of Children from the Historical East Prussia Region. Event: The German Historical Institute, Warsaw, 15.06.2011.
  • 2010

  • Presenter: 2009-2010: Poland, Germany and Russia remember World War II. Conference: The Biennale of Belgian Slavists, Brussels, 13.11.2010.
  • Presenter: Migrantenorganisaties: brug naar of hindernis tot integratie? Een historisch perspectief. Event: Lezingenreeks Actuele Geschiedenis, University of Antwerp, 10.11.2010.
  • Presenter: War Memories. Border Regions, Children and Migrants in Europe 1945-1970. Conference: Border Communities: Microstudies on Everyday Life, Politics and Memory in European Societies from 1945 to the Present, Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for European History and Public Spheres, Vienna, 14.10.2010.
  • Presenter: Making meaning of war experiences. Polish ex-combatants settled in Belgium and in Poland. Conference: Oral History Association Conference, Prague, 07.07.2010.
  • Presenter: Because we Liberated your Country. Polish Immigrants in Belgium, War Memory and Etnification. Conference: European Social Science History Conference, University of Ghent, 15.04.2010.
  • 2009

  • Presenter: Participant Observation or Interviews? Gathering Collective or Personal Memories? A Case Study from Belgium. Conference: In Search of Voice: Oral History as Theory, Method and Source, Kharkiv State University, 13.12.2009.
  • Presenter: Singing a Meaning to War Experiences. Conference: 1948 and All That: Soviet Music, Ideology & Power, Cambridge University, Cambridge, 27.11.2009.
  • Presenter: From Communist Invisibles to Traumatized Visibles. Ostarbeiterinnen in Belgium, 1945-2009. Conference: 7th Central and East European International Studies Association Convention, Saint Petersburg State University, Saint Petersburg, 03.09.2009.
  • Presenter: Families, Foreignness, Migration. Now and Then. Research Seminar: Ośrodek Badań nad Migracjami, Warsaw University, Warsaw, 15.06.2009.
  • Presenter: Straddling the Iron Curtain? Migrants’ War Memories. Research Seminar (of Prof. Kula, Borodziej and Kochanowski): Historical Institute, Warsaw University, Warsaw, 16.04.2009.
  • 2008

  • Presenter: Ostarbeiterinnen and War Memory. Conference: Foreign Labour in Wartime Germany: The Gender Perspective, Center for Historical Research and Documentation on War and Contemporary Society, Brussels, 16.12.2008.
  • Presenter: War Memory and Integration. Conference: ‘Integratie in België en Nederland vanuit historisch perspectief’, University of Antwerp, Antwerp, 29.10.2008.
  • Presenter: Families and Silence: Ostarbeiterinnen in Belgium. Conference: Migration und Erinnerung. Konzepte und Methoden der Forschung, University of Luxembourg, Luxembourg, 05.06.2008.
  • Presenter: Embodied Memory. Conference: Families, Constructions of Foreignness and Migration in 20th Century Western Europe, Catholic University of Leuven, Leuven, 16.05.2008.
  • Presenter: Betekenis geven aan oorlogservaring. Herinneringen en identificaties van migranten over het Ijzeren Gordijn heen. Conference: 5th Dutch-Flemish Days of Slavic specialists, University of Ghent, Ghent, 18.04.2008.
  • Organiser: The Cold War and the Integration of Migrants. Conference: European Social Science History Conference, University of Lisbon, Lisbon, 27.2.2008.
  • Presenter: Singing Memory. Conference: European Social Science History Conference, University of Lisbon, Lisbon, 27.2.2008.
  • Presenter: Polish ex-combatants in confrontation with Polish Domestic Workers: Identification Reorientations. Conference: Labour Migration and Europeanization, Catholic University of Leuven, Leuven, 23.2.2008.
  • 2006

  • Presenter: Het Kostwinnersmodel en Slavische migranten in België na WO II. Conference: Gender en Migratie, University of Leiden, Leiden, 15.12.2006.
  • Presenter: Polish Migration to Western Europe in the 1980s. Conference: Western European Trade Unions and Solidarity, 1980-89, Université libre de Bruxelles, Brussels, 8.12.2006.
  • Presenter: Het digitale leerplatform eRMIONE. Informatiekunde aan de hand van primaire Poolse bronnen: Colloquium Het Cultureel aspect in het onderwijs van Slavische Talen’, Catholic University of Leuven, Leuven, 17.11.2006.
  • Presenter: Konstrukcja i recepcja pamięci zbiorowej wśród polskich dywizjonistów w Belgii. Zimna wojna w praktyce. Conference: V Międzynarodową Konferencję Polonijną w Szczecinie, Polska-Polonia. Wzajemne oczekiwania. Polska tożsamość na emigracji, Uniwersytet Szczeciński, Szczecin, 20.10.2006.
  • Presenter: Letters Connect People and Nations. Correspondence between the Communist 'Polonia' Society and Polish Immigrants in Belgium 1955-90. Conference: European Social Science History Conference, University of Amsterdam, 23.3.2006.
  • Presenter: For Your Freedom and Ours. Individual and Collective Identities of Polish Ex-combatants in Belgium, 1950-2006. Conference: Dag van de Nieuwste Geschiedenis, University of Liège, 18.3.2006.

www.machteldvenken.com

In Luxembourg

  • Since 2023

    Transnational History and Digital Methods

    PhD Colloquium, University of Luxembourg

  • Since 2022

    MA Thesis Supervision

    University of Luxembourg

  • 2022 2023

    MA thesis supervision Benjamin Juchem: 'Nodegoat – migrants' arrival in Dudelange in 1924'

    University of Luxembourg

  • 2023

    MA thesis supervision Endrita Avdimedaj: ‘L’enseignement au temps des conflits politiques: Le cas du Kosovo avec les communautés citoyennes, fédératrices d’un enseignement parallèle désinstitutionnalisé’

    University of Luxembourg

  • 2022

    MA thesis supervision Alma Sabotic: ‘Das Transnationale Familienleben. Gastarbeiterfamilien aus dem ehemaligen Jugoslawien erzählen’

    University of Luxembourg

  • 2020 2022

    East Meets West. Encounters and Convergences in (Post-) Cold War Europe

    MA course: University of Luxembourg

    YouTube Channel

  • 2020 2023

    Contemporary Migration History

    MA course: University of Luxembourg

  • Since 2020

    History of Cross-Border Cooperation

    MA course: University of Luxembourg

In Austria

  • 03.2018 07.2018

    Introduction to Scientific Methods

    BA course: University of Vienna, Department of Education, 30 hours (in German).

    Student evaluations

  • 10.2017 02.2018

    Russian Historiography

    BA Course: University of Vienna, Department of History. 30 hours (in German).

    Student evaluations

  • 10.2017 02.2018

    Education – Otherness – Culture. An Oral History of Female Scientists.

    MA Course: University of Vienna, Department of Education. 30 hours (in German).

    Student evaluations

  • 03.2017 06.2017

    In Front Of, Above and Beyond the Cold War Division Fence

    BA Guided Reading: University of Vienna, Department of History. 30 hours.

    Student evaluations

  • 10.2016 02.2017

    History of the Visegrad Countries (together with Christoph Augustynowicz)

    MA Tadeusz Mazowiecki Cycle of Lectures: University of Vienna, Department of History. 30 hours.

    Course Programme

    Student evaluations

  • 03.2016 06.2016

    Nationalism and Language in the Long 19th Century

    BA Guided Reading: University of Vienna, Department of History. 30 hours.

    Student evaluations

  • 09.2015

    Russian Historiography

    BA Course: University of Vienna, Department of History. 30 hours (in German).

    Student evaluations

  • 03.2015 06.2015

    Global History of Borderlands

    BA Proseminar: University of Vienna, Department of History. 30 hours (in German).

    Student Evaluations

  • 10.2014 02.2015

    History of Families and Children in 19th and 20th Century Europe

    BA Guided Reading: University of Vienna, Department of History. 30 hours (in German).

    Student Evaluations

  • 03.2014 07.2014

    History of Central and Eastern Europe (20th Century)

    BA Guided Reading: University of Vienna, Department of History. 30 hours (in German).

    Student Evaluations

In Poland

  • 02.2009 06.2009

    Migration History in 20th Century Europe

    MA course, Department of History. 30 hours (in English).

  • 03.2009

    Liberalism and European Identities

    BA course: Jagiellonian University Cracow, Department of European Studies. 16 hours (in English).

In Belgium

  • 10.2012

    History of Central and Eastern Europe

    MA Seminar (guest lectures): KU Leuven, Department of History. 4 hours (in English).

    Student Evaluations

  • 09.2009 01.2011

    Sociale en politieke identiteiten: bewegingen en structuren in de 19de en 20ste eeuw

    MA Seminar (guest lectures): KU Leuven, Department of History. 4 hours (in Dutch).

  • 09.2009 01.2011

    Supervision of four MA theses

    KU Leuven, European Studies Programme

  • 2006 2007

    Co-supervision of two MA theses

    KU Leuven, History

  • 02.2007 06.2007

    Migration and Oral History

    BA Seminar: KU Leuven, Department of History. 30 hours (in Dutch).

  • 11.2006 12.2006

    BA interactive workshop

    On ERMIONE, a digital learning platform. Students analysed original communist source materials: KU Leuven, Department of Slavic Studies, 12 hours (in Dutch, Polish and Russian).

  • 08.2005 09.2005

    Ombudswoman of the Third Exam Session

    KU Leuven, Department of History (in Dutch).

www.machteldvenken.com

Reading Monuments

Volume 9: Minesso, Michela (ed.).

Welfare Policies in Switzerland and Italy. Institutions, Motherhood, Family and Work in the 19th and 20th Centuries, 2021.

More
Reading Monuments

Volume 8: Małgorzata, Praczyk.

Reading Monuments. A Comparative Study of Monuments in Poznań and Strasbourg from the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, 2020.

More
Borderland Studies Meets Child Studies

Volume 7: Filipkowski, Piotr.

Oral History and the War. The Nazi Concentration Camp Experience in a Biographical-Narrative Perspective, 2019.

More
Borderland Studies Meets Child Studies

Volume 6: Venken, Machteld (ed.).

Borderland Studies Meets Child Studies. A European Encounter, 2017.

Available in Golden Open Access: More
Veterans, Victims, and Memory

Volume 5: Kochanowski, Jerzy.

Through the Back door. The Black Market in Poland 1944-1989, 2017.

More
Veterans, Victims, and Memory

Volume 4: Wawrzyniak, Joanna.

Veterans, Victims, and Memory, 2015.

More
Evoking Polish Memory

Volume 3: Witeska-Młynarczyk, Anna.

Evoking Polish Memory. State, Self and the Communist Past in Transition, 2014.

More
Arrested Mourning

Volume 2: Wóycicka, Zofia.

Arrested Mourning. Memory of the Nazi Camps in Poland, 1944-1950, 2013.

More
The Nation Should Come First

Volume 1: Górny, Maciej.

The Nation Should Come First: Marxism and Historiography in East Central Europe, 2013.

More

www.machteldvenken.com

  • image

    24.02.2022, 5am

    Testimonies from the War

    The situation in Ukraine is changing quickly and it is important to capture a snapshot of human experiences now so that it can be archived and preserved from posterity. As oral historians and scholars of cultural memory have shown, personal testimony changes significantly over time, crystalising in institutional forms and formalising in practiced verbal performance. Right now, there is an opportunity to preserve a historical record mass human displacement, resistance, and volunteering provoked by the Russian invasion of Ukraine while it is a state of lived experience. It is essential that these testimonies are archived for use for research and science communication, as well as educational and exhibition purposes.

    Article

  • image

    Talking Borders

    From Local Expertise to Global Exchange. A Citizen Science Experiment.

    On July 10-14, 2018, the Association for Borderlands Studies (ABS) held its Second World Conference in Vienna and Budapest. The world academic conference was turned into a site of scientific investigation, where citizen scientists met border scholars as equals for a cross-disciplinary (border/citizen science) experiment. The participants engaged in face-to-face conversations answering the question: 'What does a border mean to you?'. Here you will find one example of a conversation between a border scholar and a citizen scientist.

    Audio

  • image

    Susanne Heidelberger (pseudonym)

    is one of the 15 female scientists interviewed within the framework of the project ‘An Oral History of Female Scientists'.

    The interviews were conducted in German and/or English by Master students from the Department of Education at the University of Vienna in 2017. The collection is archived at the Oral-History-Archiv of the University of Graz, and in Phaidra (University of Vienna).

    Find out more:
    -> wirtschaftsgeschichte.uni-graz.at
    -> www.phaidra.univie.ac.at


  • image

    Jan Myrcik

    is one of the 27 Polish borderland inhabitants interviewed within the framework of the project 'Nationalising the Young in European Borderlands'. The interview was conducted in Polish by Grzegorz Kaczorowski in 2013. It is archived in the History Meeting House (Poland).

    Jan Myrcik was born on 15 November 1931 in Lubliniec (East Upper Silesia, Poland). He started primary school in 1938 in Poland, continued his primary education during the annexation in German, and in 1945-46 went back to a Polish primary school. Although he relearned Polish, his knowledge of the language was not sufficient to attend a secondary school in the humanities, due to which he went to a vocational school instead. In 1948, as a member of the organisation Duty for Poland / Służba Polsce, he helped to rebuild Warsaw. Jan Myrcik became a theater instructor in the well-known Polish folklore band Ślᶏsk (Silesia) and, later, the director of the culture house in his village Koszęcin.

    While being in a Polish primary school in Poland at the end of the 1930s, Myrcik signed his reading book 'Johann Myrcik'. Click to enlarge.

    Oral History
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    Johanna Gallo-Schmitz

    is one of the 11 Belgian borderland inhabitants interviewed within the framework of the project 'Nationalising the Young in European Borderlands'. The interview was conducted in German by Wendy Mueller in 2012. It is archived in the Belgian State Archives in Eupen.

    Johanna Gallo-Schmitz was born in 1937 in the village Steinebrück-Lommersweilen in the East Cantons, the Belgian region bordering Germany. The region was annexed to Germany in 1940. During Hitler's Last Offensive in the Winter of 1944, her house was bombed and Johanna lost her mother and four of her siblings. In order to make ends meet, she herded cattle and smuggled butter and coffee. Later, she was sent to serve a Belgian family in Verviers (Wallonia) and Brussels. When she married, she returned to her birth region and became a housewife.



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    Wacław Galios

    is one of the 32 ex-combatants interviewed within the framework of the project Ex-combatants in Poland. The interview was conducted in Polish by Karolina Żłobecka in 2010 and is archived in the Center for Historical Research and Documentation on War and Contemporary Society (Belgium) and the History Meeting House (Poland).

    Wacław Galios was born on 30 September 1921 in Kochłowice (Poland). He went to school and worked as a clerk and a stoker in interwar Poland. When his home grounds were annexed to the Third Reich, he was called up to serve in the German Army. Wacław Galios fought not only for the Germans. In fact, he deserted and joined the First Polish Armoured Division, a Polish division fighting with the Allies for the liberation of Europe. After the war, he returned to Poland in 1947 and became a miner. In the late 1970s, he joined the Communist Association for Ex-Combatants (ZBoWiD) and with time became a board member.


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    Olga from La Louvière (Belgium)

    is one of the 12 former Ostarbeiterinnen I interviewed in 2006 in French within the framework of my project on Slavic migrants in Belgium. Her testimony is archived in the Center for Historical Research and Documentation on War and Contemporary Society (Belgium).

    Olga was born on 24 March 1927 in Soviet Ukraine, but her birth year was changed in her Belgian passport in order to enable her to marry her Belgian fiancé in 1945 and to avoid deportation to the Soviet Union. Olga met her future husband during forced labour in Germany, where she worked as an Ostarbeiterin, and he as a Political Prisoner. Olga was sterilized and remained childless. After the death of her husband, however, she married another man and became a happy stepmother. She worked as a hairdresser in La Louvière and in the late 1980s joined the Greek-Catholic Church in Belgium.

    Transcription

    Oral History
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    Stefan Jezierski

    is one of the 12 Polish migrants I interviewed in 2006 in Dutch and Polish within the framework of my project on Slavic migrants in Belgium. His testimony is archived in the Center for Historical Research and Documentation on War and Contemporary Society (Belgium).

    Stefan Jezierski was born on 10 December 1924 in Kalisz (Poland). He did not tell me much about his war experiences, because he joined the army before he was 18 years old and is afraid that was illegal. Stefan Jezierski served in the First Polish Armoured Division, a Polish division fighting with the Allies for the liberation of Europe. During its liberation march, he met a young woman in the Dutch-Belgian border town Baarle-Hertog. The couple married soon after the end of the war. When the division was demobilised, Stefan had a hard time to find a loophole in restrict migration policies in order to be able to join his wife and settle in Massenhoven, a town near Antwerp. Stefan Jezierski searched for the company of other Polish migrants in the early 1980s, after the death of his wife.

    Transcription

    Oral History

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Blog Posts

  • Workshop: Digitising, Georeferencing and Modeling Administrative Historical Data, 18.01.2024 | Read more
  • Workshop: Children, Welfare, Borders, 09.01.2024 | Read more
  • Open Educational Resource: MA Course: East meets West - Contacts, Connections and Convergences in (Post-) Cold War Europe, 12.12.2022 | Read more
  • Conference Report: Witnessing the Now: Challenges for Emergency Archiving and Oral History following the Russian Invasion of Ukraine, 05.12.2022 | Read more
  • Report on C²DH Activities in Support of the Ukrainian Research Community, 17.11.2022 | Read more
  • Creating Public History Master Programs: International Guidelines, 15.05.2022 | Read more
  • Workshop: Where to find archives for the history of cross-border cooperation?, 26.04.2022 | Read more
  • 24.02.22, 5 am: Testimonies from the War, 24.02.2022 | Read more
  • New Books Network: Peripheries at the Centre. Borderland Schooling in Interwar Europe (Berghahn Books 2021), 27.10.2021 | Read more
  • Conference Report: Doing Historical Research on Migration in the Digital Age: Theories, Concepts and Methods, 25.08.2021 | Read more
  • Atouts et faiblesses de Nodegoat dans le traitement et l'analyse des trajectoires migratoires des étrangers au Luxembourg et en France, 13.07.2021 | Read more
  • Conference Report: Dr. Piero E. Galloro: Immigration et représentations sociales. Approches socio-historiques, 26.05.2021 Read more
  • New Book Series Launched! | Read more
  • The C²DH participates in an ERC project | Read more
  • Lecture and Workshop with Dr Randy Widdis on Border Studies | Read more
  • Study Day on Population Movements in Borderlands Throughout Europe in the Early Years after the Second World War | Read more
  • Open Science, Open Education and Open Scholarship | Read more

Multimedia

  • Prof. Machteld Venken explains why she became a mentor - University of Luxembourg:

  • Prof. Machteld Venken: Childhood in Times of Political Transformation in the 20th Century - RECET Vienna, Austria:

  • Conference: Association for Borderlands Studies. 3rd World Conference, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Israel, 13-18 February 2023:

  • Lecture: Multimodal Digital Oral History: The Forward-View. Multimodal Digital Oral History Ringvorlesung, Technische University of Darmstadt, Darmstadt, 15.07.2022:

  • Book Presentation: Peripheries at the Centre. Borderland Schooling in Interwar Europe. Conference: Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies 53rd Annual Convention, 03.12.2021:

  • Book Presentation: Peripherien im Zentrum. Schulbildung im Grenzland im Europa der Zwischenkriegszeit. Event: FLUXUS – Série de conférences au sujet des migrations et des frontières dans l’espace de la Grande Région, 24.11.2021

  • Interview: Intervista, European University Institute, 11.11.2021:

  • Book Presentation: Meeting the Editors: De Gruyter Book Series 'Migrations in History'. Conference: 18th International Migration Research Network Annual Conference, 09.07.2021:

  • Presentation: Analysing migration in Nodegoat: declaration sheets of migratns arriving to the iron basin of Luxembourg. Conference: 18th International Migration Research Network Annual Conference 07.07.2021:

  • Book Presentation: Migrations in History, American History Association, 12.01.2021:

  • Research Project
    ‘Social Politics in European Borderlands, 1870s-1990s (2022-2025): A comparative and transnational study’ (Sociobord):

  • Keynote Lecture, ABS World 2018: 'What is a Borderland Child?' (Budapest, 14.07.2018):

  • Message Regarding Academic Freedom: Link
  • Radio Interview about Academic Freedom on the Hungarian Station ‘Radio Forbidden’
  • Remembering 1918. Turning Point for Europe (Vaclav Havel Library, Prague, 11.04.2018) Link [EN] Photo
  • Europe: Reasons for Hope (Rector Heinz Engl, Machteld Venken, Herman Van Rompuy, Matthias Kaltenbrunner, Philipp Ther), 30.11.2017 Link [DE]
  • Borderland Studies Meets Child Studies A European Encounter Link [EN]
  • Machteld Venken (University of Vienna), Child Forced Labour. An Analysis of Ego Documents throughout Time (15:46). Link [EN]
  • Machteld Venken (University of Vienna), ‘The Best Propaganda is Adventure for Children.’ The Non-Presentation of the Holocaust in the Polish Television Series „Four Tank-Men and a Dog“. Link [EN]
  • Book Presentation: Polish soldiers fighting in Western Europe. Experiences and Memory. Link [PL]

Press

  • Newspaper Article 'Düdelinger Migrationsgeschichte wird anhand von kommunalen Quellen untersucht' in Tageblatt, 01.03.2023
  • Interview for Newspaper Article 'A precious passport' in Letzebuerger Journal, 16.02.2023
  • Project: 24.02.22, 5 am: Testimonies from the War, Interview with Kateryna Zakharchuk about her work at the C²DH on Ukrainian TV, TSN, 29.11.2022
  • Project: 24.02.22, 5 am: Testimonies from the War, Interview with Prof. Iryna Pogrebynska (translated by Inna Ganschow), Letzebuerger Land, 04.11.2022
  • Project: 24.02.22, 5 am: Testimonies from the War, Interview with Prof. Ben Sutcliffe about his volunteering activities for Ukrainians, 07.09.2022
  • Project: 24.02.22, 5 am: Testimonies from the War, Newspaper Article, Tageblatt, 26.03.2021/27.03.2022
  • Conference Report ‘Doing Historical Research on Migration in the Digital Age: Theories, Concepts and Methods’, 7-9.07.2021, Luxembourg
  • Podcast NewBookReview
  • Podcast Red Star Line Museum RSL – Podcast Gespreksavond Destination Sweetheart
  • Newspaper article in l’Essentiel
  • Newspaper article in Metro
  • Conference Report “Growing Up in Borderlands”
  • Interview in Der Standard
  • Leistungsbericht der Universität Wien
  • Conference Report “War Children in the Postwar”
  • Interview about the book “Soldiers of General Maczek”
  • Opinion Article in De Standaard
  • Conference Report “Families, Foreignness, Migration”
  • Interview in “De Gazet van Zurenborg”

Copyrights

  • Profile photo: (c) University of Luxembourg / Sophie Margue
  • Olga La Louvière: photo by Memorial, Moscow
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