Newsletter 2/2025
Newsletter 2/2025
International Egodocumental Network (Egodocumental Research Group)
We are happy to present you with the second newsletter in 2025, in which we will share the latest developments in research and academic life in the field of egodocuments.
Network News
1st International Egodocumental Network Conference Egodocuments from Medieval Codex to Modern Media: Narratives, Presentations, Identities Vilnius, 24-26 April 2025
It is with great pleasure that we would like to share with you some impressions of our Network's first conference. At the outset, however, we would like to thank our hosts from Vilnius University, who ensured exemplary organization and comfortable conditions for the scientific dispute, which we conducted in three locations - Vilnius University, the National Museum-Palace of the Grand Dukes of Lithuania, and the Vilnius Adomas Mickevičius Public Library. We also sincerely thank the authorities of these institutions for their cooperation.
During the conference, we had the opportunity to listen to circa 70 papers on topics related to egodocuments and/or based on their analysis. The authors of the speeches were representatives of research institutions from Europe, the USA, and Israel. In addition, we had the opportunity and great pleasure to listen to lectures by three keynote speakers, François-Joseph Ruggiu (Sorbonne University), Leona Toker (The Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the Shalem Academic College) and Nataliia Voloshkova (Kazimierz Wielki University in Bydgoszcz and Oxford Brookes University). These keynote lectures highlighted various aspects of academic discussion on egodocuments.
Due to the large number of papers, the proceedings were held in parallel sessions, which were organised by combining representatives of different scientific fields and institutions. Such a solution turned out to be a bull's eye, as it allowed us to break down barriers resulting from natural interests and prompted the participants to have an in-depth discussion.
Importantly, the papers brought important reflections on the field of egodocumental studies, and among those, we would like to point to the following few:
- There is a significant interest in the study of egodocuments among the representatives of various academic fields, and there is a clear need to further animate the discussion of this matter, which was visible both in the number of papers and the enthusiastic debates during the conference.
- There is a need to start a discussion on the possibility of renewing the definition of egodocuments. Many voices in the papers and in the subsequent discussion were debating whether it was necessary to expand the understanding of egodocuments, including material sources such as libraries or collections of objects, or possibly introduce new categories to describe them, such as egocollection, egoobject, or introduce categories of egodocumentality of specific objects.
- The apparent multilingualism of egodocuments and the existence of a culture of self-expression in written texts in many parts of Europe (or areas influenced by European culture, such as the colonies) make it a key resource to study local societies.
Based on the papers presented at the conference, we plan to publish several edited volumes in the Brill series Egodocuments and History, Studies in the History of Privacy, and the Knygotyra journal (book studies). We will send detailed information to the conference participants in a separate mail, but we also welcome papers from scholars, who did not participate in the conference, in particular those who are interested in reflecting on the connection between egodocuments and privacy (in various historical periods).
2nd International Egodocumental Network Conference: Host sought!
Given the success of the first conference, we would like to start the preparations for the next meeting, which will take place in 2027 or 2028 (open for discussion). In this regard, we want to ask you to consider whether the institutions you represent would be interested in co-organizing the next conference and to contact us on this matter at our e-mail egodocuments@umk.pl
International Egodocumental Network Seminar 1/2025 (3)
The first online seminar of the International Egodocumental Network in 2025 was held on 5 May 2025. We want to thank Sylvie Moret Petrini (University of Lausanne) for a fascinating lecture about the Project Lost Female Diaries (17th-19th Centuries). The seminar was recorded and can be found on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nUivkFceYio
Other News
New Publications:
- Michaël Green (University of Lodz) and Lars Cyril Nørgaard (University of Copenhagen) have just published an edited volume entitled Notions of Privacy in Early Modern Correspondence, which was published by Brepols, also in Open Access, thanks to the sponsorship of the Danish National Foundation Centre for Privacy Studies. It contains 10 chapters on the topic of privacy in letters, based on Dutch, French, English, and German sources, pertaining to all layers of the educated part of the early modern society. The sources include Grand Tour correspondence, Republic of Letters, religious correspondence, family exchanges, royal court activities and more. More details about the book can be found here: https://www.brepols.net/products/IS-9782503612348-1
- Selim Karahasanoglu informs us that the new issue of Ceride: Journal of Ego-Document Studieshas been published. The journal is available online: https://dergipark.org.tr/tr/pub/ceride/issue/91050. The latest issue of the Journal of Ottoman Studies was also devoted to Egodocuments. The journal can be found and downloaded here: https://dergipark.org.tr/tr/pub/oa/issue/88447
- Waldemar Chorążyczewski, Hadrian Ciechanowski, Wojciech Piasek, Stanisław Roszak (Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń) in the end of the last year published edited volume entitled Egodokumenty – samoświadectwa – egodokumentalność. Teoria i praktyka (Egodocuments – Life-writing – Egodocumentality. Theory and practice). The volume contains 25 articles dealing with theoretical problems related to egodocuments and presenting case studies based on their analysis. However, the book was published in Polish; it is accessible in printed and ebook form, so it can also be interesting for nonpolish researchers. More details about monograph can be found here: https://wydawnictwo.umk.pl/produkt/egodokumenty-samoswiadectwa-egodokumentalnosc-teoria-i-praktyka.
- Leona Toker (Hebrew University in Jerusalem) invites you to submit papers pertaining to literary history and history of ideas to the journal: Partial Answers: Journal of Literature and the History of Ideas. The journal is put together and edited at the Hebrew University and published by the Johns Hopkins University Press, in print and with electronic distribution on MUSE. https://www.press.jhu.edu/journals/partial-answers-journal-literature-and-history-ideas https://partialanswers.huji.ac.il/
- Podcast “Historians in Conversation”, hosted by Michaël Green https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCx5v6pexlUoAfPKSkg1ZZMA, contains numerous interviews with prominent historians, including those working on the field of egodocuments, such as Rudolf Dekker, Sigurður Gylfi Magnusson, Arvydas Pacevičius. You can listen to the episodes on Youtube or on all online platforms through the website: https://www.wydzfilhist.uni.lodz.pl/epublikacje
Research projects:
- Michaël Green was granted a one-year funding for his project: “Interdisciplinary Approach to Egodocumental Research Methods and Practices”, funded by IDUB - the ministerial subvention for the University of Lodz.
The project focuses on creating and elaborating the interdisciplinary research methodology and outlining good research practices connected with the use of egodocumental sources in the Humanities. The necessity for the interdisciplinary approach stems from the fact that egodocuments are one of the most important sources allowing us insight into both ordinary lives and public matters; in recent years the realisation that private letters, diaries, memoirs, etc. contain a wealth of otherwise unattainable information has led to a major transformation in the way that research is done in all disciplines that rely onpersonal accounts. While researchers rely heavily on egodocuments in a variety of disciplines such as history, literary studies, or history of art, there have been hardly any attempts to date to provide them with a sustained methodological framework. The project's purpose is, therefore, to create a roadmap for interdisciplinary research on egodocuments, and to facilitate much needed methodological tools for the study of privacy, history of art, historical topography, literary history. The planned scientific outcome of the project is to fill in the gap in the egodocuments study by creating a detailed framework for answering the questions ofhow to conduct egodocumental research, what sources to use, where to find them and how to analyse them; how to approach such sources in specific disciplines.
Conferences:
- Michaël Green (University of Lodz) and Edyta Gawron (Jagiellonian University) organize online conference: “Jews Between Public and Private Through the Ages”, which will be held on 16-17 September 2025. Deadline for submitting abstracts is 10 July 2025. See attached CFP for details.
International Egodocumental Network (IEN) News
- We encourage you to share information about the Network with your colleagues who may be interested in our work
- We remind you of two publication avenues for egodocumental research in the Brill series Egodocuments and History and in Studies in the History of Privacy (which also allows smaller publications in the form of minigraphs of 30-60,000 words).
Information about network members
A gentle reminder to those who want to publish their research profile on the Network's website to facilitate communication and interconnection – please fill out the attached form and send it back to us. It will also be published on https://egodocuments.umk.pl/. The attached template includes last and first name, academic title and position, affiliation, period of interest, keywords, remarks, and e-mail. It also comprises the GDPR statement, which must be completed to publish the information online. If you are interested in publishing your profile on our website, please send us back a signed scan of the template to e-mail: egodocuments@umk.pl.
As always, we look forward to your information about any publication, grant, conference, workshop, search for collaborators, or any other information or request you would like to share with the network members. Please send us a description (in English) and materials to egodocuments@umk.pl. We will be pleased to share them with the Network.
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