The History Department, Central European University presents the
International Workshop on the History of Science, Race and Empire in Central and Eastern Europe
21-22 February 2014
Gellner Room, Central European University, Budapest
The workshop explores different aspects of the history of race and racial sciences in the Austro-Hungarian and Russian Empires in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Rooted in the ethnically and confessionally most mixed regions of contemporary Europe, Austro-Hungarian and Russian sciences faced unique intellectual challenges in the process of constructing or exploiting racial theories and creating ethnic, national and imperial identities with the aim to contribute to nation/empire-building. The disciplinary trajectories of ‘sciences of race’ in these regions might therefore diverge from the models offered by the historiography in the British, French or German contexts. To understand how concepts of race, ethnicity, the nation, and the multi-ethnic empire were co-produced in these regions, the talks will reflect on a variety of scientific disciplines, including ethnography, sociology, physical anthropology, geography, oriental studies, criminal and social statistics, biology, public health, eugenics, psychiatry, and crowd psychology.
Friday, 21 February, 2014
2:00-2:15 Registration
2:15-2:30 Introduction
2:30-4:45 Otherness, Normativity and the Paradoxes of Russian Science
Nathaniel Knight (Seton Hall University, New Jersey), “Was there a Russian Science? Academic Particularism and the International Circulation of Ideas”
Marina Mogilner (University of Illinois at Chicago), “Racial Psychiatry in the Russian Empire: The Imperial Dialectics of Norm(s) and Deviation(s)”
Karl Hall (Central European University, Budapest), "From the ‘zoological element of culture’ to psychic heritability: Antinomies of race in late-imperial Russia"
5:30-7:00 Keynote lecture
Andrew Zimmerman (George Washington University, Washington, DC.), “Race against Revolution in Central and Eastern Europe: From Hegel to Weber, from Rural Insurgency to ‘Polonization’”
Saturday, 22 February, 2014
9:30-11:00 Concepts of Race and Disciplinary Boundaries in Hungarian Natural and Social Sciences
Katalin Stráner (Central European University, Budapest), “Concepts of ‘race’ in early Hungarian Darwinism”
Emese Lafferton (Central European University, Budapest), “Ecological and Geographical Approaches to ‘Race’ in Hungarian Eugenics and Turanism after 1900”
11:00-11:30 Coffee break
11:30-13:00 Measurements and Hierarchies. Physical Anthropology and Ethnography in the Austrian Context
Margit Berner (Naturhistorisches Museum, Vienna), “Physical Anthropological Investigations in the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy”
Andre Gingrich (Institute for Social Anthropology, Austrian Academy of Sciences), "Science, Race and Empire: Academic Ethnography in Vienna before 1918"
13:00-14:00 Lunch for participants
14:00-16:15 Purity, Degeneration, Eugenics, and Modernity in Central and Eastern Europe
Björn M. Felder (Ludwig-Maximilians-University, Munich), "Race as Modernisation: Anthropology, Eugenics and the Biologised Nation in the Baltic Provinces, 1880-1914“
Thomas Mayer (University of Vienna), “Early Eugenics in Vienna before 1918”
Keely Stauter-Halsted (University of Illinois at Chicago), “Race Science in Partitioned Poland: How Physicians Defined the Contours of the Modern Nation”
16:15-16:30 Break
16:30-17:10 Closing Discussion. Moderator: Mitchell Ash (University of Vienna)
For further information, please contact the organizer, Emese Lafferton (
laffertone@ceu.hu). This project has received funding from the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme for research, technological development and demonstration under grant agreement no PIEF-GA-2009-255614.
The History Department, Central European University presents the
International Workshop on the History of Science, Race and Empire in Central and Eastern Europe
21-22 February 2014
Gellner Room, Central European University, Budapest
The workshop explores different aspects of the history of race and racial sciences in the Austro-Hungarian and Russian Empires in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Rooted in the ethnically and confessionally most mixed regions of contemporary Europe, Austro-Hungarian and Russian sciences faced unique intellectual challenges in the process of constructing or exploiting racial theories and creating ethnic, national and imperial identities with the aim to contribute to nation/empire-building. The disciplinary trajectories of ‘sciences of race’ in these regions might therefore diverge from the models offered by the historiography in the British, French or German contexts. To understand how concepts of race, ethnicity, the nation, and the multi-ethnic empire were co-produced in these regions, the talks will reflect on a variety of scientific disciplines, including ethnography, sociology, physical anthropology, geography, oriental studies, criminal and social statistics, biology, public health, eugenics, psychiatry, and crowd psychology.
Friday, 21 February, 2014
2:00-2:15 Registration
2:15-2:30 Introduction
2:30-4:45 Otherness, Normativity and the Paradoxes of Russian Science
Nathaniel Knight (Seton Hall University, New Jersey), “Was there a Russian Science? Academic Particularism and the International Circulation of Ideas”
Marina Mogilner (University of Illinois at Chicago), “Racial Psychiatry in the Russian Empire: The Imperial Dialectics of Norm(s) and Deviation(s)”
Karl Hall (Central European University, Budapest), "From the ‘zoological element of culture’ to psychic heritability: Antinomies of race in late-imperial Russia"
5:30-7:00 Keynote lecture
Andrew Zimmerman (George Washington University, Washington, DC.), “Race against Revolution in Central and Eastern Europe: From Hegel to Weber, from Rural Insurgency to ‘Polonization’”
Saturday, 22 February, 2014
9:30-11:00 Concepts of Race and Disciplinary Boundaries in Hungarian Natural and Social Sciences
Katalin Stráner (Central European University, Budapest), “Concepts of ‘race’ in early Hungarian Darwinism”
Emese Lafferton (Central European University, Budapest), “Ecological and Geographical Approaches to ‘Race’ in Hungarian Eugenics and Turanism after 1900”
11:00-11:30 Coffee break
11:30-13:00 Measurements and Hierarchies. Physical Anthropology and Ethnography in the Austrian Context
Margit Berner (Naturhistorisches Museum, Vienna), “Physical Anthropological Investigations in the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy”
Andre Gingrich (Institute for Social Anthropology, Austrian Academy of Sciences), "Science, Race and Empire: Academic Ethnography in Vienna before 1918"
13:00-14:00 Lunch for participants
14:00-16:15 Purity, Degeneration, Eugenics, and Modernity in Central and Eastern Europe
Björn M. Felder (Ludwig-Maximilians-University, Munich), "Race as Modernisation: Anthropology, Eugenics and the Biologised Nation in the Baltic Provinces, 1880-1914“
Thomas Mayer (University of Vienna), “Early Eugenics in Vienna before 1918”
Keely Stauter-Halsted (University of Illinois at Chicago), “Race Science in Partitioned Poland: How Physicians Defined the Contours of the Modern Nation”
16:15-16:30 Break
16:30-17:10 Closing Discussion. Moderator: Mitchell Ash (University of Vienna)
For further information, please contact the organizer, Emese Lafferton (laffertone@ceu.hu).
This project has received funding from the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme for research, technological development and demonstration under grant agreement no PIEF-GA-2009-255614.