Programme Committee

  • Vojtěch Ripka, Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes, Czech Republic
  • Germuska Pál, Institute for the History of the 1956 Hungarian Revolution, Maďarsko
  • Vasil Kadrinov, Hannah Arendt Center in Sofia, Bulharsko
  • Marius Oprea, Institute for the Investigation of the Crimes of Communism, Rumunsko
  • Slavomír Michálek, Historical Institute of the Slovak Academy of Science, Slovensko
  • Andreja Valič, Director of the Study Centre for National Reconciliation, Slovinsko
  • Aviezer Tucker, Gvirtzman Memorial Foundation Fellow, Prague; formerly Columbia Univeristy, New York University, Australian National University

Dr. Marius Oprea

President of the Institute for the Investigation of Communist Crimes in Romania (IICCR).

Marius Oprea was the Prime Minister's counsellor on national security issues (2005-2008). Between 1995 and 1997, Marius Oprea was Senator Constantin Ticu Dumitrescu's personal counsellor in drawing up the law regarding the disclosure of the Securitate. In the interval between 1998 and 2000 he was a counsellor within the Romanian Presidency and also the Head of the Communication Department. In 2004 and 2005 he wrote the leading articles for the Ziua daily paper. Marius Oprea is also the author of more than one hundred articles referring to the history of the Securitate, which were published in the written press, broadcasted on Free Europe Radio Station or comprised within various collections of studies and academic publications.

Selection of books:

  • The Commonness of Evil. A History of the Securitate based on Documents. 1949-1989, Polirom, Iaşi, 2002 (winner of the prize for the best history book of the year, according to The Publishers’ Association of Romania)
  • The Day We Won't Forget. 15 November 1987, Braşov, (co-author Stejărel Olaru), Polirom, Iaşi, 2002
  • The Party's Securitate Officers. The Cadres Department of the Romanian Communist Party as Political Police. Case of Study: The Archive of the Municipal Party Committee Braşov (co-ordinator), Polirom, Iaşi, 2002
  • The Successors of the Securitate, Humanitas, Bucharest, 2004
  • L'héritage de la Securitate: Terreur en Roumanie, in Le jour se lčve. L'héritage du totalitarisme en Europe (1953-2005)- a volume coordinated by Stéphane Courtois, Les Éditions du Rocher, Paris, 2006
  • Zorba and the Cathedral, Humanitas, Bucharest, 2006
  • Six Ways of Dying, Humanitas, Bucharest, 2009

Vasil Kadrinov

Sociologist, director of Hannah Arendt Center, Sofia, Bulgaria

Born in 1959 in Plovdiv, Bulgaria. Beginning of the 80-ties – student in sociology at the University of Sofia. 1985 – imprisoned by the communist regime, one year in prison. 1989: founding member of the club for democracy and of the Union of Democratic Forces in Plovdiv. 1991 – 2004: consultant of civil society groups, member of the public council of the civil society commission at the Bulgarian parliament. 2004-2009: parliamentary assistant at the group of The Greens / EFA in the European Parliament. 2006: initiator of international conference in Sofia for opening the archives of the former communist secret service Durzhavna Sigurnost and of campaign in the European Parliament for opening the archives. 2007: founder of the civic group Citizens against Durzhavna Sigurnost. 2007 and 2009: initiator of Clean European Parliament campaigns in Bulgaria. Since 2008: member of the executive committee of Zelenite / The Greens /, new Bulgarian green party established by young green movement activists.


Pál Germuska

Secretary of the Institute for the History of the 1956 Revolution, in Budapest. He teaches history of technology for doctoral candidates at the Social History Doctoral Program of the Eötvös Loránd University in Budapest. He is a historian of economy and technology with interests in the history of urban development, military industry, industrial and economic policy of the Socialist period.

His main publications:

  • Békés, Csaba – Rainer M., János – Germuska, Pál: Mad’arská revoluce, 1956. Soudobé dejiny, 1996/4. no. 455–473. p.
  • 1956 Handbook. Volumes I-III, edited by András B. Hegedüs (in Hungarian, editorial assistant with Tibor Beck). Budapest, 1996, Institute of 1956. 436 + 312 + 392 pp.
  • Revolution in the Arts Faculty (in Hungarian, with Tibor Beck). Budapest, 1997, Institute of 1956. 248 pp.
  • Under the Spell of Industria. Development Policy and the Socialist Cities. (in Hungarian). Budapest, 2004, Institute of 1956. 240 pp.
  • Germuska, Pál: Between Theory and Practice: Planning Socialist Cities in Hungary. In: Tom Misa, Mikael Hård (eds.): Urban Machinery: Inside Modern European Cities, 1850–2000. 2008, MIT Press. 233–255. p.
  • Germuska, Pál: Military-economic Planning in Socialist Hungary. The History of the General Organisational Department of the National Planning Office, 1948–1971. Europe-Asia Studies, Vol. 60 No. 5, July 2008, pp. 813–834.
  • Germuska, Pál: Eastern Intelligence with Western Components. Development of Radio Reconnaissance Instruments in Socialist Hungary. Zeitschrift für Unternehmensgeschichte, Vol. 53. No. 2. 2008. pp. 177–191.
  • Germuska, Pál: Conflicts of Eastern and Western Technology Transfer. Licenses, Espionage, and R&D in the Hungarian defense Industry during the 1970s and 1980s. Comparative Technology Transfer and Society, Vol. 7, No. (April 2009): 43–65.

PhDr. Slavomír Michálek, DrSc. (1961)

Historian, director of the Institut of History of the Slovak Academy of Sciences in Bratislava. He is concerned with American foreign policy and the Czechoslovak and American relations after WWII, historical figures out of Slovaks active in the Czechoslovak diplomacy service, and the second and third Slovak and Czechoslovak democratic exile in America. He has written several tens of papers on the specific topics, and he has actively participated in various international conferences abroad, e.g. in Acapulco, Washington DC, New York, Chicago, Toronto, Ottawa, London, Budapest, Prague, Ljubljana, Rome, Paris, Helsinki, Haag etc. He has taken part in foreign internships at universities and scientific institutes in Great Britain (Oxford University), USA (New York Public Library, Woodrow Wilson Center, Balch Institute for Ethnic Studies, History Research Immigration Center, National Czech and Slovak Museum & Library, George Washington University, Stanford University) and in Canada (University of Toronto). He is a co-author and editor of representative books: Ján Papánek, portrét (1998), Vlastimil Patrick Lichner, z Brezovej do Ameriky (2000), Andrew Valuchek - As They Knew Him (2002), Do pamäti národa, osobnosti slovenských dejín prvej polovice 20. storočia (2003) and Juraj Slávik Neresnický, od politiky cez diplomaciu po exil (2006), and an author of monographs Nádeje a vytriezvenia, československo-americké hospodárske vzťahy v rokoch 1945-1951 (1995), Ján Papánek, politik, diplomat, humanista (1996), Ján Papánek, za vojny Edvardovi Benešovi (1997), Diplomat Štefan Osuský (1999), Brezová pod Bradlom, osobnosti /ne/známe (1999), Prípad Oatis, československý komunistický režim verzus dopisovateľ Associated Press (2005), Rok 1968 a Československo, postoj USA, Západu a OSN (2008). He is a double holder of the prestige literary international Egon Ervín Kisch Award (1999 and 2003) and The American Eagle award (1996).


Andreja Valič

Historian and the director of the Study Centre for National Reconciliation in Ljubljana, Slovenia. She was born 21 Sept 1960 in Kranj, Slovenia. Education: matura graduation: Gimnazija Kranj, Slovenia, BA: Faculty of Arts (University in Ljubljana, Slovenia), MA: Faculty of Arts (University in Ljubljana, Slovenia), Doctoral thesis: Faculty of Social Sciences (University in Ljubljana, Slovenia).

She has been involved in many state and international projects on history and history education (history education curricula projects, expert projects, history textbook projects, museum projects). Andreja Valič is the author of monographies, articles, history textbooks
and handbooks. In 2004 - 2008 she held the position of the president of the Slovenian History Teachers' Association. She is the president of the School Section of the Historical Association of Slovenia.


Dr. Aviezer Tucker

Professional Positions:

  • 2008– Gvirtzman Memorial Foundation Fellow (Prague)
  • 2005–2008 Queens’ University.
  • 2003–2005 Research Associate, Social and Political Theory and Philosophy program, Research School of the Social Sciences, Australian National University.
  • Fall 2004 Short term fellow, Woodrow Wilson Center for Scholars, Washington DC.
  • 1999–2003: Research Associate, Editor & Adjunct Professor, New York University.
  • 2001–2002, visiting professor, Long Island University
  • 2000–2001, visiting professor, Trinity College (Hartford CT)
  • 1998–1999: Mellon Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Columbia University.
  • 1994–1998: Assistant Professor, Palacky University, Olomouc, Czech Republic.
  • 1992–1994, Research Fellow, The Prague Central European University.
  • 1988–1992: Lecturer and Teaching assistant, The University of Maryland, College Park.Education
  • Postdoctorate, Political Science, Columbia University 1999.
  • PhD. Philosophy, The University of Maryland, College Park, 1992.
  • BA, History, Tel Aviv University 1988.

Prize

  • Foundations of Political Theory First Book Prize Honorable Mention (American Political Science Association). http://www.political-theory.org/awards01.html

Publications

Books
  • The Legacies of Totalitarianism: A Political Theory of Post-Totalitarianism (forthcoming).
  • Our Knowledge of the Past: A Philosophy of Historiography (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2004).
  • Chinese Translation: (Beijing: Normal University of Beijing Press, 2008).
  • The Philosophy and Politics of Czech Dissidence: From Patocka to Havel, (Pittsburgh: Pittsburgh University Press, 2000).
  • Czech Translation: Fenomenologie a Politika: Od J. Patocky k V. Havlovi, trans. Klara Cabalkova, (Olomouc: Votobia, 1997).
Edited Volume
  • • A Companion to the Philosophy of History and Historiography (Boston: Wiley-Blackwell, 2009).
Articles
  • Czech History Wars, History Today, March 2009, 43-45.
  • (Co-authored with John Dryzek Robert Goodin & Bernard Reber), Promethean Elites Meet Precautionary Publics: The Case of GM Foods, Science, Technology, & Human Values, 34, 3, (2009), 263-288.
  • “Introduction,” “Causation” and “Origins: The Inference of Common Cause,” in Aviezer Tucker ed., A Companion to the Philosophy of History and Historiography (Malden MA: Wiley-Blackwell, 2009), 1-6, 98-108, 220-230.
  • “Back from the Drift: Introduction to Special Issue on Philosophy of History,” Philosophia: The Philosophy Journal of Israel, 36, 4, (2008) 399-402.
  • (Co-authored with John Dryzek), Deliberative Innovation to Different Effect: Consensus Conferences in Denmark, France, and the United States, Public Administration Review, 68, 5, (2008), 864-876.
  • Pre-emptive Democracy: Oligarchic Tendencies in Deliberative Democracy, Political Studies, 56-1 (March 2008), 127-147.
  • Historiographic Revision and Revisionism: The Evidential Difference, in Michal Kopecek ed., Past in the Making: Recent History and Historical Revisionism, (Budapest: Central European University Press, 2008), 1-16.
  • The Political Theory of French Science Studies in Context, Perspectives on Science, Vol. 15, No. 2, (2007) 202-221.
  • The Inference of Common Cause Naturalized, in Jon Williamson & Federica Russo eds., Causality and Probability in the Sciences, (London: College Press, 2007), 439-466
  • Temporal Provincialism: Anachronism, Retrospection and Evidence, Scientia Poetica, Vol. 10 (2006), 299-317.
  • Contingency, Necessity, Teleology and progress, Historically Speaking, Vol. VII No. 5 (2006), 30-31.
  • Reprinted in: Donald A. Yerxa ed., Recent Themes in the History of Science and Religion: Historians in Conversation (Columbia SC: University of South Carolina Press, 2009).
  • Paranoids May be Persecuted: Post-totalitarian retroactive justice, & Rough Justice: Rectification in post-Authoritarian and post-Totalitarian Regimes, in Jon Elster ed., Retribution and Restitution in the Transition to Democracy, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006), 181-205, 276-.298.
  • Down but Not Under: Australian Higher Education, International Educator, 15-1 (2006), 18-21.
  • Miracles, Probabilities, and Evidence, History and Theory, 44 (2005), 273-290.
  • Restoration and Revolution: Understanding Post-Totalitarianism, Policy Magazine, 21-4 (2005), 22-28.
  • The New Politics of Property Rights, Critical Review, 16 (2004), 377-402.
  • Holistic Explanations of Events, Philosophy, Vol. 79 (2004), 573-589.
  • The Epistemic Significance of Consensus, Inquiry, Vol. 46 (2003), 501-521.
  • Resistance and Reform: East European Higher Education, International Educator, 12-1 (2003), 32-39.
  • Kripke and Fixing the Reference of `God', International Studies in Philosophy, 34, 4, (2002), 155-160. • The Essence of Dissidence, Graduate Faculty Philosophy Journal, 22 No. 2 (2001) 59-78. The article is co-authored with my students Marian Kišš, Šárka Mokrá, Ondrej Štefek, Martina Vyrková and Vera Zátopková.
  • The Future of the Philosophy of Historiography, History and Theory, 40 (2001), 37-56.
  • From Republican Virtue to Technocratic Politics: Three episodes of Czech non-political politics, Political Science Quarterly, 115 (Fall 2000), 421-445. The article is co-authored with my students Karel Jakes, Marian Kiss, Ivana Kupcova, Ivo Losman, David Ondracka, Jan Outly & Vera Styskalikova.
  • Introduction to Higher Education special issue & Reproducing Incompetence: The Constitution of Czech Higher Education,, East European Constitutional Review, Vol. 9 No. 3 (2000).
  • Beyond the Territorial Fallacy: The Best States, Utopian Studies, 10 (1999), 128-145.
  • Paranoids may be Persecuted: Post-totalitarian Retroactive Justice, Archives Européennes De Sociologie, 40 (1999), 56-100.
  • Czech Translation: I paranoici mohou byt pronasledovani (o spravedlnosti v posttotalitnich spolecnostech), Kriticka Prilohoa, 17 (2000), 144-156.
  • The Genealogy of Incommensurability in Psychoanalysis, in Eric J. Engstrom, Matthias M Weber, Paul Hoff eds., Power and Knowledge: Perspectives in the History of Psychiatry, Proceedings of the third Triennial Conference of the European Association for the History of Psychiatry, (Berlin: VWB -Verlag für Wissenschaft und Bildung, 1999), 197-207.
  • Sins of Our Fathers: A short History of Religious Child Sacrifice, Zeitschrift für Religions- und Geistesgeschichte, 51 (1999), 30-47.
  • Czech Translation: O detske obeti, trans. Martin Konvicka, (Olomouc: Votobia, 1996).
  • Scientific Historiography Revisited: An essay in the metaphysics and epistemology of history, Dialogue: Canadian Philosophical Review, 37 (1998), 235-270.
  • Unique events: The Underdetermination of Explanation, Erkenntnis, 48-1 (January 1998), 59-80.
  • Phenomenology, Explication and Prescription in the Philosophical meta-disciplines, Grazer Philosophische Studien, 54 (1998), 89-106.
  • The Collection and Dissemination of Social Science Information In the Czech Republic, (co-authored with Petr Mateju), in Rachel Walker & Marcia Freed Taylor eds., Information Dissemination and Access in Russia and Eastern Europe: Problems and Solutions East and West [NATO Science Series 4: Science and Technology Policy--Vol. 26], (Amsterdam & Tokyo: IOS Press & Omsha, 1998), 158-163.
  • Politics of Conviction: The Rise and Fall of Czech Intellectual Politicians, in Andras Bozoki ed., Intellectuals and Politics in Central Europe, (Budapest: Central European University Press, 1998), 185-206.
  • The Czech Transition: Politics before Economics, The Journal of Social, Political and Economic Studies, 22 (1997), 395-416. The article is co-authored with my students Jana Balharova, Ivo Losman, Jan Nemec, Jan Nemecek, David Ondracka, Zdenek Polak, Roman Skyva, Martina Vyrkova & Marketa Zidkova.
  • Le Sacrifice et l'authenticité. L'éthique de la dissidence tchèque, Revue de Théologie et de Philosophie, 129 (1997), 305-319.
  • Shipwrecked: Patocka's Philosophy of Czech History, History and Theory, Vol. 35 (1996), 196-216.
  • J.S. Mill's Philosophy of the history of science, Explorations in Knowledge, Vol XIII No. 2, (1996), 21-31.
  • Corruption and Greed: Western Academic Aid to Eastern Europe, Telos, 102 (1995), 149-158.
  • Privatization, Restitution, Property Rights, and Justice, Public Affairs Quarterly, Vol. 9 (1995),
    345-361.Czech Translation: Majetkové restituce a spravedlnost na mezinárodní úrovni,
    Střední Evropa, 14 (1998), 95-105.
  • In Search of Home Journal of Applied Philosophy Vol 11, no. 2, (1994), 177-183.
  • The new Jews, Telos, no. 98-99 (1994), 209-215.
  • Aquinas' Reinterpretation of Aristotle's Legitimization of Social Stratification, Archives For Philosophy of Law and Social Philosophy (ARSP), Vol. 80 No. 4 (1994), 534-544.
  • A Theory of Historiography as a Pre-Science, Studies in History and Philosophy of Science, Vol 24 (1993), 633-667.
  • Plato and Vico: A Platonic Reinterpretation of Vico, Idealistic Studies, Vol. 23 (1993), pp. 139-
    150.
  • Italian translation: Platone e Vico, Una reinterpretazione platonica di Vico, Bollettino del centro di studi vichiani, Vol. XXIV-XXV (1994-1995), 97-115.
  • Normativni filosofie dejin, Filosoficky Casopis, Vol 41 (1993), 608-624.
  • Patocka Vs. Heidegger: The Humanistic Difference, Telos no. 92 (summer 1992), 85-98.
  • Sacrifice: From Isaac to Patocka, Telos no. 91 (Spring 1992), 117-124.
  • Vaclav Havel's Heideggerianism, Telos, no. 85 (Fall 1990), 63-78.
  • Czech Translation: Heideggeriánství Václava Havla, trans.. Boca Abrhámová, Prostor no. 17 (Sep. 1991), 27-38.
  • Some Methodological Notes On The Explanations To The Invention Of Printing, History And Technology, Vol. 7 (1990), 73-89.