Rural History 2017 is the third biennial conference held by the European Rural History Organisation.

The EURHO conferences aim at promoting the exchange of recent research results and fostering co-operation between scholars engaged in the history of rural Europe and of its interaction with other parts of the world, from ancient times up to the present.

This panel wants to discuss practicing (rural) history in border regions, especially in the area connecting the Federal Republic of Germany, the Czech Republic and the Republic of Poland. These border regions are often understood as (sealed off) territories or perceived as spaces of ‘marginal’ events or contacts. But besides that, they may open up spaces, for instance, with regard to alternative concepts of life.

These specific borderlands were shaped by many conflicts in the past, re-bordering alternated with de-bordering, and for many decades, almost no one could cross the borders to pass the rural regions divided by them. Today, there are still economic, linguistic or prejudice-based barriers, although the end of the Cold War and the political developments in the EU reduced the visibility and strength of the borders until recently.

The following questions are of relevance in that context: How is history remembered in regions which lost much of their population due to migration from the land, and which are related to borders? Which ideas (and presuppositions) of ‘borders’ and ‘rural areas’ are influencing the research of cultural anthropologists? Can one speak of a double periphery, the one of the rural and of the border area? Or can one speak of a social desert or a neglected space of possibilities?

Those questions shall be discussed within a (historical) cultural-anthropologist framework, and closely linked to the Czech-Polish-German borderland.

We kindly invite interested researchers who deal with the mentioned or related questions concerning rural history in the Czech-Polish-German borderland to submit a short proposal (about 300-400 words) for a presentation.

The presentation should be no longer than 30 minutes (discussion included).

Please send your proposal and a short CV to kleinmann@isgv.de

Deadline for submission: January 15, 2017

Further steps:
If you get a confirmation you will have to upload a short abstract of your paper (max. 200 words) by 31th January, 2017

For any additional information, please send an e-mail to kleinmann@isgv.de

Conference website:
https://kuleuvencongres.be/ruralhistory2017