Newsletter 3/2025
International Egodocumental Network/
Egodocumental Research Group
Newsletter 3/2025
We are pleased to present the third newsletter of 2025, which will share the latest developments in research and academic life in the field of egodocuments.
Network News
2nd International Egodocumental Network Conference: Host sought!
Given the success of the first conference (Vilnius, 24-26 April 2025), we would like to begin preparations for the next meeting, which is tentatively scheduled for 2027 or 2028 (subject to further discussion). In this regard, we would like to ask you to consider whether the institutions you represent might be interested in co-organising the next conference and to contact us on this matter at our e-mail address: egodocuments@umk.pl.
International Egodocumental Network Seminar 2/2025 (4)
The second online seminar of the International Egodocumental Network in 2025 will take place on 20 November 2025. The lecture entitled Egodocuments: An Ottomanist Perspective will be presented by Prof. Dr Selim Karahasanoğlu from Istanbul Medeniyet University.
Information about the lecture from Prof. Karahasanoğlu:
In this talk, I will present a brief overview of the egodocument research we have been conducting in Turkey for some time. Egodocument studies have been ongoing globally for a while, and significant contributions have also been made in this field in Turkey in recent years.
We are currently carrying out a TÜBİTAK-funded project, which will be completed in March 2026. As part of this initiative, we have organised three major egodocument events—two in Istanbul and one in Skopje. The outcomes of these events have been shared with the public through a roundtable published in the International Journal of Middle East Studies and a dedicated issue of The Journal of Ottoman Studies focused exclusively on the topic of egodocuments.
We have also launched a new journal titled Ceride: Journal of Ego-Document Studies. Additionally, we have recently completed an Alexander von Humboldt Foundation project, conducted in partnership between Istanbul Medeniyet University and Freie Universität Berlin. To discuss the findings of this collaborative project, we organised a one-day symposium with our German colleagues in Istanbul on 13 December.
In this talk, I will provide details about these activities we have undertaken in the field of egodocuments and attempt to explain what an Ottoman egodocument is, using specific examples.
Other News
Conferences:
- Hadrian Ciechanowski (Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń) and Janusz Bonczkowski (Association of Polish Archivists) are organising a conference: “Of Those Who Stand in the Shadows – Family, Friends, Organisations, and Their Significance in the Biographies of Scholars”, which will be held on 23-24 April 2026 in Toruń (Poland). Deadline for submitting abstracts is 31 December 2025. Please see the attached CFP (available in both Polish and English) for details.
- Jakub Basista (Jagiellonian University) and Michaël Green (University of Lodz) are organising a conference: “Writing The Transcendental. Expressions of Faith and Narratives of Religion in Egodocuments”, which will be held on 12-14 March 2026 in Cracow (Poland). The deadline for submitting abstracts is 31 October 2025. See attached CFP for details.
- Edyta Gawron (Jagiellonian University) and Michaël Green (University of Lodz) are organising an online conference: “Jews Between Public and Private Through the Ages”, which will be held on 12-13 January 2026. The deadline for submitting abstracts is 14 November 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: the Brill series Egodocuments and History and 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 wish to publish their research profile on the Network’s website to facilitate communication and interconnection: please complete the attached form and return it to us. It will also be published on https://egodocuments.umk.pl/. The attached template includes the following information: last and first name, academic title and position, affiliation, period of interest, keywords, remarks, and e-mail address. 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 a signed scan of the template to the e-mail address: egodocuments@umk.pl.
As always, we look forward to your information about any publications, grants, conferences, workshops, searches for collaborators, or other information or requests 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.
Best wishes,
Dr hab. Hadrian Ciechanowski (Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń)
Dr hab. Michaël Green, prof. UŁ (University of Lodz)
Egodocumental Research Group
International Egodocumental Network
https://egodocuments.umk.pl/
Jews Between Public and Private Through The Ages.
Of Those Who Stand in the Shadows (Invitation)