Second Day of the International Conference "Transborder Heritage: A Multidisciplinary Approach" within the Cultural Heritage Week promoted by Transform4Europe: "History and Memories in Border Areas"

The panels are open to all members of the academic community.

PROGRAM

10:00 AM - Classroom 1 A - Conference Hall, 1st floor, Building D, Main Campus
History and Memories in Border Areas
Panel Session

Transborder Memories and Shared Narratives in Contested Borderlands of the 20th Century
The border areas of Trieste and Gorizia-Nova Gorica offer a multifaceted perspective on European history, shaped by the First and Second World Wars, shifting borders, contested sovereignty, and interconnected cultural identities. These regions provide fertile ground for analyzing how historical events have shaped different narratives and collective memories, revealing the complexity of transnational identities in European borderlands. The panel explores the central role of historical methodologies in analyzing the multiple layers inherited from these borderlands, where issues of displacement, conflict, and reconciliation attempts continue to shape contemporary identities. Approaches and experiences in Public History – including museums, memorial projects, and cross-border collaborations – will be examined as tools to address contested narratives, foster dialogue, and create a shared understanding of cultural heritage. Key questions include: how can History critically examine the multidimensional stories of European borderlands, emphasizing their transborder and transnational legacies? How can such efforts bridge regional specificities with a broader European heritage framework? Through interdisciplinary case studies, the panel aims to reframe borderlands as spaces of negotiation and memory exchange, a multidisciplinary "Border Lab" where diverse perspectives contribute to a pluralistic and integrated vision of European heritage.

Mapping Memory: Digital Tools for Understanding Our Shared Heritage
This presentation will explore how digital technologies are revolutionizing the study, preservation, and sharing of archaeological and historical heritage and how they can be applied in cross-border contexts, revealing hidden details, promoting more effective collaboration across disciplines and national borders, and increasing public engagement with cultural sites. Key examples of digital innovations will be presented, enabling the documentation of cultural resources, the reconstruction of ancient landscapes, and enriching our collective understanding of the past. The essential role of these new tools in facilitating cross-border collaboration, democratizing access to heritage information, and fostering a deeper connection to our shared cultural heritage will be highlighted.

Speaker: Prof. Daniel Tejerina

“Our Hybrid Being”: Conflicting Perspectives on Cultural Diversity and Hybridity in the Upper Adriatic Region
In the fields of social sciences and public discourse, the Alpine-Adriatic region is often perceived ambivalently: on one hand, a priori, as a space of division, marked by geopolitical, cultural, and linguistic fragmentation; on the other, as a space of coexistence and intersection between different "cultures" and "nations." Both perspectives objectify the "border," reducing it to a "thin red line" that cuts across a territory characterized by internal diversity. As a result, local populations are often viewed as relegated to rigid ethnic-national categories—a historical consequence of repeated processes of categorization and ethnicization from the 19th century onward. From this point of view, "coexistence" can only be imagined, while a clear separation persists between national groups. At the same time, these borders have proven to be highly unstable, mutable, and contested throughout the 19th and 20th centuries. Reconsidering the concept of "border," this paper offers both a theoretical and empirical contribution to one of the central dynamics that shaped the historical development of the Upper Adriatic: the dialectic between purity and hybridity. Adopting a postcolonial perspective, the border is conceptualized as a three-dimensional, intermediate space revealing fluid and unsystematized forms of cultural self-identification, coexistence, and interconnectedness. From the Austro-Hungarian period to the present day, this study critically examines the concepts of "border," "diversity," and "hybridity," often misinterpreted or oversimplified in both academic and public discourse. In particular, "hybridity" is examined through historical, anthropological, and social lenses, shedding light on its multivalence, complexity, and internal ambiguity.

Speaker: Prof. Francesco Toncich
Francesco Toncich holds a degree in Modern and Contemporary History from the University of Trieste and a master's degree in Eastern European History from the University of Vienna, where he contributed to the Austrian Biographical Dictionary of the Academy of Sciences. He completed a PhD in Historical and Cultural Anthropology at the University of Tübingen (2015–2019), focusing on the scientific discourse related to cultural diversity and hybridity in Austro-Hungarian Istria. His thesis was published by Mohr Siebeck in 2021. He then held a postdoctoral position at the Research Centre for Comparative European History (University of Paris Est-Créteil, 2020–2021). From 2022 to 2024, he was a Marie Skłodowska-Curie fellow at the University of Ljubljana, studying the fragmentation of the Austro-Hungarian Empire through the history of public health, medicine, and psychiatry.

Mapping the Invisible: The Legacy of the Czech-German Borderland (Case Study: Pressnitz)
Although the border between the Czech Republic and Germany is one of the most stable in Europe, this border region experienced immense cultural and political dynamics between 1938 and 1989, including demographic fluctuation (numerous forced migrations) and contested memory (conflicting narratives). While the Czechoslovak collective memory, under the communist regime, aimed to erase all traces of the German presence, the collective memory of the expelled Sudeten Germans who moved to Germany in 1945/46 involved, among other things, the migration of memory from the border region. Indeed, the traditions, skills, and know-how built in that area over centuries were also expelled. Among these, a unique tradition of itinerant women's orchestras (Damenkapellen aus Pressnitz), a typical phenomenon in the Ore Mountains between the 1830s and 1930s, was largely lost or dismantled. Recently, this landscape of absence has raised not only intriguing questions (intangible, cultural heritage) but also the demand to rediscover local heritage. However, the Czech-German border has undergone irreversible changes since the 1950s (including demolitions, open-pit mines, or the construction of dams), and therefore the search for "heritage" must take place elsewhere (abroad, including Trieste). After 1989, or 2004, cross-border cooperation and dialogical memory became possible, leading to a reconciliation between Czechs and Germans and allowing the redefinition of the place's identity, as well as the reconstruction of individual identity and attitudes toward the place and its multiple layers of heritage.

Speaker: Veronika Kupková
Veronika Kupková is an educator and coordinator of international projects (with particular focus on Czech-German cooperation). She is currently a PhD student at the Department of Geography, Faculty of Science (Ústí nad Labem, Czech Republic), in the "Geographies of Transformations" program. Her research focuses on landscape transformation (post-displacement area, border landscape), Czech-German history (from the 20th century onwards), intangible cultural heritage, place heritage, heritage interpretation, and place-based learning. She co-authored the documentary film "Generation 'N': Deutschböhme" (Czech-German Journalism Award, 2017) and "Pressnitz lebt - Přísečnice žije" (which includes a bilingual book and exhibition). Since 2020, she has been actively involved in the civic initiative "Pressnitz lebt," aimed at interpreting the local heritage of Pressnitz and its former inhabitants.

BORDERS OF IDENTITY: A Multidisciplinary and Cross-Cultural Discourse
Borders seem to divide states, cultures, and identities. On the other hand, they can also oppose this simplistic view of limitations, acting as vital zones for collaboration, communication, and coexistence. They can foster a unique fusion of cultures in which languages, traditions, and good practices combine to create complex and articulated identities. Promoting linguistic diversity, intercultural understanding, and economic partnership, this exchange can strengthen mutual cohesion. If we consider cross-border areas as dynamic and evolving spaces rather than rigid and static ones, we can recognize their potential to act as bridges rather than barriers. As a bilingual individual from the complex Balkan region with a multidisciplinary background, the presentation will provide examples drawn from linguistics, typography, culture, arts, history, politics, and the sciences.

Speaker: Nikolay Petroussenko
Nikolay Petroussenko is involved in art direction, typography, graphic design, visual arts, design research, and art history. He is a PhD student at Sofia St. Kliment Ohridski University and a lecturer at the National Art Academy of Sofia.