1st International Egodocumental Network Conference
Vilnius University, Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń, the University of Lodz, and the Egodocumental Research Group (https://egodocuments.umk.pl) organise an international conference focusing on research, development, and changing perceptions of egodocuments in the twenty-first century. The conference aims to bring together scholars from different disciplines to share their insights and to encourage interdisciplinary studies of egodocuments.
The conference will also be the first meeting of the International Egodocumental Network established in December 2023 by the Egodocumental Research Group (Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń and the University of Lodz) to unite scholars from different disciplines working on egodocuments. It provides a platform for discussion, collaboration, and exchange of information between the participants, as well as online research seminars organized twice a year. In this dimension, our conference continues two editions of the Scientific Symposium "Egodocuments, Life-Writing and Autobiographical Texts..." organized at NCU in Toruń in 2022 and 2024.
Keynote speakers
Dr. Nataliia Voloshkova
Kazimierz Wielki University and Oxford Brookes University
Prof. Leona Toker
Hebrew University and Shalem Academic College
Prof. François-Joseph Ruggiu
Sorbonne Université, CNRS and Oxford University
Juozapas Paškauskas
Institute of Lithuanian History in Vilnius
Undiscovered Voices: Everyday Lives of Late 19th-Century Workers and Activists beyond Ideological Frames
In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the economic and political mobilization of workers in the Russian Empire’s North-West Krai, alongside the rise of leftist activist movements, emerged as a significant social phenomenon. During the Soviet period, these movements were later absorbed into the ideological foundations of the regime. However, beyond the political sphere – and beyond Soviet ideological constructs – there existed individuals whose private lives remained overlooked, obscured both by the tsarist era and the Soviet regime.
My presentation will explore themes and personal narratives found within the surviving eco-documents of the late-19th-century working class. These include family tragedies, expressions of vulnerability, aspects of sexuality, and questions of identity – these are the topics which are often overshadowed by the dominant political narrative. By examining these themes, I aim to bring to light the human stories that can now be read anew, or, in some cases, explored for the first time.
