The History Rijeka Seminars – Riječki SeminaRi are jointly organized by the Department of History (Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences) and the Center for Advanced Studies – South East Europe (CAS SEE) at the University of Rijeka, Croatia.
The first seminar was held on Thursday, June 30, 2016 at the Department of Art History (4th Floor, Room 470) at the Faculty for Humanities and Social Sciences.
First Session / 09.15 am
“Raša, remnant infrastructure, and the mental re-mapping of a Fascist New Town” by Matt Worsnick (Parsons School of Design / SVA MA in Design Research Writing and Criticism, New York) in dialogue with Luka Skansi (Department of Art History, Rijeka) and Vanni D’Alessio (Department of History, Rijeka).
The seminar was divided in three different sessions: Architect and Historian Matt Worsnick (New York) presented a segment of his research on architecture in contested territories in the Adriatic during Fascist Italian and Socialist Yugoslavian sovereignty, and in particular disussed the case the Istrian mining town of Raša/Arsia, established during the Italian fascist regime and functioning during Socialist Yugoslavia.
Luka Skansi (Rijeka, Venice, Ljubljana) and Vanni D’Alessio (Rijeka, Naples) commented his research.
Second Session / 10.45 am
“Western Soft Powers in Socialist Yugoslavia: Diplomatic Influences and Cultural Encounters”
Participants
Carla Konta (University of Trieste and Rijeka): “Playing the Political Neutrality. The American Notes between Sound Diplomacy and Yugoslav Boundaries of Freedom”
Nela Erdeljac (University of Zagreb): “American Jazz and the Sound Diplomacy in Cold War Yugoslavia” in dialogue with Francesca Rolandi (Dept. of History, Rijeka; Author of Con ventiquattromila baci. L’influenza della cultura di massa italiana in Jugoslavia, Bologna 2015)
The second session was based on the researches on cultural and public diplomacy, music and other American influences in former Yugoslavia by Carla Konta (Trieste and Rijeka) and Nela Erdeljac (Zagreb), who presented a portion of their PhD projects, in dialogue with Francesca Rolandi, author of Con ventiquattromila baci. L’influenza della cultura di massa italiana in Jugoslavia, Bologna 2015), a book on the influences of Italian popular culture in 1950’s-1960’s Yugoslavia.
Third Session / 02.00 pm
Roundtable: “Exploring Socialist and Yugoslav Rijeka and Beyond”
Participants
Vanni D’Alessio, Andrea Roknić Bežanić and Marco Abram (Department of History, Rijeka), Brigitte Le Normand (U. British Columbia, Kelowna).
The last session was dedicated to new researches on Socialist and Yugoslav Rijeka. Vanni D’Alessio and Andrea Roknić Bežanić, both assisting professors at the Department of History and former CAS SEE Fellow Marco Abram, a research scholar of the same department, along with Brigitte Le Normand (U. British Columbia, Kelowna). During this session Brigitte Le Normand, Vanni D’Alessio, and Dorjan Lečki (U. British Columbia, Kelowna) presented and discussed with the audience the Interactive map project Rijeka/Fiume, a Historical Map.
Rijeka/Fiume, a Historical Map
