Over the past few decades, the multicultural Istrian peninsula, located in the northern Adriatic Sea, attracted a multitude of researchers from various academic disciplines. Its history and present have inspired both the literary and scientific public, testifying again and again that Istria was like a laboratory for diverse cultural, social and political processes. The rich literary heritage of coexistence in Istria, which functions as a reality-shaping narrative, can be complemented by several scientific studies on everyday culture, multilingualism and intermingling. The Collaborative Research Center 923 "Threatened Orders" at the University of Tübingen has also studied Istria in several projects. Under the title "A 'genealogy of hybridity'. The multicultural Istrian peninsula, 1970–2013", analyses are carried out with an interdisciplinary approach and the concept of hybridity, which actually appeared for the first time in Istria as early as the 19th century.
The Istrian peninsula’s modern history is coined by dynamic changes in population and political systems. The Venetian era, the Habsburg monarchy, Italian fascism, German occupation, socialist Yugoslavia and, lastly, the Italian, Slovenian and Croatian republics left their traces in Istria. Furthermore, nearly every new regime was followed by various migration movements both towards and out of Istria, leaving a multicultural population as the censuses from 1991 to 2021 clearly show.
Unlike most regions of Yugoslavia, during its dissolution process Istria was not gripped by a fever of nationalism, practices of ethnic exclusion and chauvinism. On the contrary, a regionalist movement emerged, led by the political party IDS-DDI, rejecting the stark nationalist ideals of the Croatia-wide ruling party HDZ. The core of the regionalist movement was the so called Istrijanstvo (ital. istrianitá, engl. Istrianity, deut. Istrianität), a regional identity emphasizing principles of liberalism, multiculturalism, bilingualism and political regionalism.
On one hand, the Istrijanstvo appears to be a very inclusive concept, inviting every citizen of Istria to participate by acknowledging their belonging to Istria, no matter their national background. On the other hand, some interpretations of the Istrijanstvo place a bigger importance on the person’s Istrian autochthony and belonging to one of the three ‘autochtonous’ Istrian people, the Italians, Slovenes and Croats, hence, becoming a rather exclusive concept. This dichotomy between inclusion and exclusion is at the core of the research in Tübingen, as well as this workshop.
This workshop invites researchers of all social sciences and humanities to present their research on Istria, starting from the 1960s until today, covering various aspects of inclusion and exclusion. The range of potential presentation topics is vast: migration movements towards Istria, regionalist political developments, national minorities in Istria, memory culture, everyday practices, relations between different groups within Istria, observations in the cultural sphere, economic aspects of the region, and, of course, any questions on ideology, identity and nationality in regard to Istria offer the possibility to study discourses and practices of inclusion and exclusion.
The workshop takes place in Pazin, Croatia, at the Ethnographic Museum of Istria on Wednesday, April 12th and Thursday, April 13th 2023. Costs will be covered by the organizers.
Application:
In order to apply for this workshop, please send a short abstract (approx. 200 words) of your planned presentation to either lorena.popovic@uni-tuebingen.de or luka.babic@uni-tuebingen.de until February 15th, 2023.