X Seminarium Migracyjne, 4 września 2018

Zapraszamy na X Seminarium Migracyjne!

W pierwszy wtorek września, 4.09.2018 o godz. 17.00, zapraszamy do IEiAK UW na otwierające ten rok akademicki X Seminarium Pracowni Antropologii Migracji z udziałem dr Sarah Scholl-Schneider (Johannes Gutenberg-University Mainz).

Seminarium odbędzie się w języku angielskim.

Visual bridges? Methodological approaches to German expellees’ return visits

The phenomenon of journeys back to the “old homeland” gained importance not only since 1989 for German expellees from Central Europe. Their stories highlight a dual reactivation of their lost homes on a narrative level: On the one hand the places activate the traveller’s memories. On the other hand the touristic action of the travellers activate the places themselves – as ethnographic research might demonstrate on-site and can be shown in the various photographs taken during these return visits. “I also prepared some photographs” is a common address of welcome in oral history settings. In a word-based survey the incorporation of visual material such as private pictures may add validity and reliability. Through the visual triggering of memory we can recall other parts of the past than those usually narrated. Apart from the fact that photographs can act as a neutral third party in the interviewer/interviewee relationship, they can open access to different layers of memory, for example through the discussion of coeval inscriptions. However, photographs used for photo-elicitations must not inevitably stem from interviewees private collections. They can be taken by the researcher, too, or be sourced from institutional archives. My talk will offer an exploration of the methodological dimensions and potential of photo-elicitation, particularly as a research tool for oral historians. The empirical material my talk draws on is taken from two different projects, which used photos (of private, the other one of institutional origin) as a sensual stimulus for the narration of life histories by German expellees from former Czechoslovakia.

Sarah Scholl-Schneider is Assistant Professor for European Ethnology, Department for Film-, Theatre- and Cultural Studies at Johannes Gutenberg-University Mainz. She holds a PhD in Comparative Cultural Sciences and an MA in Political Sciences from University of Regensburg, Germany. Her first book (‘Mittler zwischen Kulturen. Biographische Erfahrungen tschechischer Remigranten nach 1989’ [Mediators between cultures. Biographical experiences of Czech remigrants after 1989], Münster: Waxmann 2011) deals with cultural transfers of remigrants to the Czech Republic. She is currently working on her second book about return visits in and beyond Central Europe.