The European Spa as a Transnational Public Space and Social Metaphor

The European Spa as a Transnational Public Space and Social Metaphor

Veranstalter
HERA project The European Spa as a Transnational Public Space and Social Metaphor
Veranstaltungsort
Brijuni Islands
Gefördert durch
HERA
PLZ
00000
Ort
Brijuni
Land
Croatia
Vom - Bis
02.06.2022 - 03.06.2022
Von
Wiebke Kolbe, Historiska institutionen, Lunds universitet

Final project meeting / conference, 2-3 June 2022
Brijuni Islands, Croatia

The European Spa as a Transnational Public Space and Social Metaphor

Funded by the Humanities in the European Research Area (HERA) initiative, the project The European Spa as a Transnational Public Space and Social Metaphor investigates how the European Spa, with its characteristic institutions such as the Kurpark, grand hotel or sanatorium, developed into a genuinely transnational public space.

We follow the development of the European spas from the 19th century to the present day, tracing the changes of institutions and of spa life and culture in the longue durée. Together with partners from some European resorts, we explore the chances and perspectives of a pan-European reconceptualization and revalorization of spa culture today, given the context of a thriving cultural nostalgia on the one hand and the actual decay of many resorts on the other.

Having worked on the topic since May 2019, we now hold the project's final academic conference. The conference aims to put a special focus on aspects of spa life that are not usually in the spotlight of research and public discourse. This includes topics as varied as the workforce in the spas (often employed on a seasonal basis), the development of spa-promoting infrastructures beyond the railways, or the role of individual spas in times of political crises.

Programm

Thursday 2 June

9.45 Conference opening

10.00 Welcome Note
Mario Crecente (EHTTA)

10.15 Opening Keynote
Oliver Sukrow (Vienna):
From Saratoga Springs to Nauheim and back

11.15 Coffee break

11.30 Panel one: Spas as Social, Cultural or Political laboratory

Christian Noack (Amsterdam, Chair)

Dean Vuletić (Vienna):
The Cold War Politics of Popular Music Contests in Eastern European Spa Towns

Cosmin-Ştefan Dogaru (Bucharest):
Spa-Tourism, Leisure and Sociability in Interwar-Romania:
Encounters between Old and New Elites

Milan Balaban, Irena Balaban-Cakirpaloglu (Zlin):
Yugoslav Tourists in Czechoslovak Spas during the Interwar Period

13.30 Lunch break

15.00 Panel two: The Ugly Spa

Wiebke Kolbe (Lund, Chair)

Jonathan Voges (Hannover):
Bad Pyrmont's Ugly History. Writing the History of a Spa Town under Nation-Socialism

Kelly Hignett (Leeds):
Jáchymov: A Small Bohemian Spa Town with a Big History.

Katrin Sippel (Vienna):
“Unwanted Holidays”. Portuguese Spas as Places of Abode for Refugees during WW II

17.00 Guided tour through poster exhibition

19.00 Dinner 

Friday 3 June

10.00 Panel three (pt 1): The Transnational Literary Spa Text

Bill Bell (Cardiff, Chair)

Olga Kulishkina & Larisa Poluboyarinova (St Petersburg): online
Literary Spa Narratives of the long 19th Century as Map and Network

Yana Lyapova (Insbruck):
Primal Scenes of the “Sanatorial text”: Decoding the Spa Workers Gaze in the Swimming Pool Scenes of Bohumil Hrabal and Milan Kundera

11.15 Coffee break

11.30 Panel three (pt 2)

Barbara Schaff (Göttingen):
“Bad” behaviour: Emancipation and Female Regulation in Spa Literature around 1900.

Karolina Watroba (Oxford):
Gore Verbinski’s “A cure for Wellness”: A modern Magic Mountain?

13.00 Lunch

14.00 Panel four: Current Concerns in and for Spas

Henrike Schmidt (Berlin, Chair)

Kristina Afrić Rakitovac (Pula):
Implementation of Sustainability Issues in European Spas

Nataša Urošević (Pula):
The Great Spas of Europe. Revitalization Models for Croatian Historic Spas

Séan Williams (Sheffield):
Wellness for Locals? The Case of Switzerland

Susan Ingram (Toronto):
Reviving the Magic Mountains: Wellness and Kultur in the Austrian Alps

16.30 Coffee break

17.00 Round table: The HERA European Spas project

18.00 Closing Keynote:
Sara Bédard-Goulet (Tartu) & Bruno Goosse (Bruxelles)
Sanatorium Atmosphere: An Artistic Approach to Tracing Changes in Spa Uses

20.00 Dinner

Kontakt

wiebke.kolbe@hist.lu.se

http://www.theeuropeanspa.eu
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