The Challenges of Biographical Writing: Graduate Conference Convenes At CEU

More than 35 scholars and researchers from Europe and the United States gathered last weekend at CEU for the 4th Graduate Conference in European History (GRACEH) to discuss challenges of biographical writing and scholarship. The conference, “Biography and Identity: Identity: Dilemmas and Opportunities,” featured a series of seminars and speakers, including OSA director and CEU professor Istvan Rév and CEU Medieval Studies professor Niels Gaul.

Professsor Rev presented a paper on the relationship of biography and politics in accounts of Laszlo Rajk, top party official executed by Hungary's communist dictator Mátyás Rákosi in the late 1940’s. Professor Gaul’s lecture, “Of Hands and Souls: Mimesis and the Writing of ‘Byzantine’ Identity,”addressed medieval attitudes toward biographical writing. Professor Biljana Kasic of the University of Zadar and the Centre of Women’s Studies in Zagreb presented a feminist and post-colonial approach to the biographer's ethical role in writing accounts of oppressed people. Willem Frijhoff, Professor Emeritus at the University of Amsterdam, discussed the challenges of writing historical biographies.

The conference was organized by CEU's history and medieval studies departments and the European University Institute in Florence.