Egodocumental Research Group

We encourage all researchers interested in egodocuments and egodocumentality to join our newsletter. This initiative aims to spread information about our research across Europe and possibly worldwide. The newsletter will be e-mailed once a month (or as needed). Each network member can send us information about their activities, ideas, new publications, projects, and conferences that we will include in the letter.

We hope that the egodocumental network will improve communication between researchers and give new opportunities to start international cooperation.

If you are interested in receiving our newsletter or want to publish some information, please contact us via e-mail at egodocuments@umk.pl. Information to resend should be in English.

International Egodocumental Network
(Egodocumental Research Group)

Newsletter 1/2026

Dear colleagues, we are pleased to present the first newsletter of 2026, in which we will share with you the latest developments in research and academic life in the field of egodocuments.

Network News

International Egodocumental Network Seminar 1/2026 (5)

The first online seminar of the International Egodocumental Network in 2026 will take place in May. The lecture will be presented by Prof. Mia Korpiola from the University of Turku. We will send more details in the near future.

International Egodocumental Network Seminar 2/2025 (4)

The previous, 4th Egodocumental Seminar, conducted by Prof. Selim Karahasanoglu, historian and rector of Izmir Democratic University in Turkey, on Ottoman Egodocuments and current research activities in this domain in Turkey is available online.The full seminar can be watched here https://youtu.be/Wa8l20tVXrk

Other News

New Publications

Books

Michaël Green, Joanna Orzeł, and Anna Kowalcze-Pawlik (eds.), Privacy in Early Modern Egodocuments. Personal Lives in Historical Perspective, series: Studies in the History of Privacy, vol. 1, Brill, 2026. Details of the volume can be found here: https://brill.com/display/title/69877?srsltid=AfmBOopppCO4r--tXJvyQ8J3Ip8o94FwcIzusD3ShS1-hncKLel9giSm. This is the first volume in the series. 25% discount is available until 30 December 2026 via the editors.
Laura Hasselt, Marleen Rensen, Leonieke Vermeer, Ernestine Hoegen (eds.), Amsterdam Diaries, Life Writing and Identity. Urban Lives, Routledge, 2026. The book in open access can be found here: https://www.routledge.com/Amsterdam-Diaries-Life-Writing-and-Identity-Urban-Lives/Hasselt-Rensen-Vermeer-Hoegen/p/book/9789048569731.
Mateusz Wyżga, Polska sarmacka. Historia zwykłych ludzi, Znak Horyzont, 2025 (pol.). The book includes histories "from below" of peasants, seasonal workers, oppidans, and lesser nobility, based on state court books (księgi grodzkie i ziemskie), as well as rural court books, town court books, and other archival sources.

Chapters and Articles

Olga Simonova published an article “In Search of Self-identity as a Woman Participant in the Russian Civil War: Liusia Argutinskaia's Novel Ognennyi put' (The Fiery Path, 1932)”, Slavic & East European Journal, 69, 2 (2025). https://seej.org/issues/69.2.html.
Olga Simonova “‘A nazavtra ia uzhe stala bezhenkoi...’: o zhanrovykh osobennostiakh i motivakh vospominanii emigrantok iz bol'shevistskoi Rossii” [“‘And the Next Day I Became a Refugee...’: On the Genre Characteristics and Motives of the Memoirs of Women Emigrants from Bolshevik Russia”], in Tintti Klapuri, Gennadii V. Obatnin, and Tomi Huttunen (eds.), Begstvo v “krai zhelannogo” [Escape to the “Desired Land”], series: Slavica Helsingiensia, vol. 58, Helsinki: University of Helsinki, 2025, 256-272. (In Russ.). The full volume can be downloaded here: https://helda.helsinki.fi/server/api/core/bitstreams/08249986-9deb-4b0a-acbd-0c862011cd37/content
Agnieszka Szurek, “Narrating the Edges of Life. Birth and Death in Amateur Memoirs from Small Mazovian Towns”, Life Writing. The full text can be found here: https://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/ZZKSBACZZRNJQWVGSAC8/full?target=10.1080/14484528.2025.2575311#abstract

Gergely Toth (Independent Researcher, Japan-Hungary relations) wants to share sub-themes from his monograph Exploring the Early History of Japan-Hungary Relations (1869-1913) in a Global-Historical Mirror With Reﬂections To Current Times. Shared chapters can be found here https://tinyurl.com/yyn2n8f7.
Mateusz Wyżga, “Local Heritage: The Sources of Identity of the Peasantry and Petty Townsfolk in pre-Partition Poland-Lithuania”, Katarzyna Kuras, Krzysztof Fokt (eds.). Memory, Identity, and Governance in Early Modern Poland-Lithuania, Brepols, 2025. Download here: Brepols - Memory, Identity, and Governance in Early Modern Poland-Lithuania

New Center of Egodocumental Research

Michaël Green is happy to inform that through his initiative, the Centre for Self-Narratives (CFSN) has been established as interfaculty cengre at the University of Lodz. The CFSN is an academic research center devoted to the systematic study of diverse forms of self-narratives. Its research places particular emphasis on historical, cultural, literary, and legal perspectives, as well as on privacy questions arising from these sources. CFSN is open to research encompassing all regions of Europe. The Centre seeks to advance scholarly understanding of the complex and multifaceted character of European societies, past and present, while actively fostering collaboration with partners worldwide. More information about CFSN can be found here: https://www.uni.lodz.pl/en/cfsn

Egodocuments on YouTube

Michaël Green invites you to subscribe to his YouTube channel @HistoriansinConversation-tw1xf, dedicated to his podcast Historians in Conversation. The podcast focuses on historians and their academic careers and currently contains 31 episodes. It also contains the recordings of previous International Egodocumental Networks seminars and lectures. https://www.youtube.com/@HistoriansinConversation-tw1xf

Conferences

Conference “Writing The Transcendental: Expressions of Faith and Narratives of Religion in Egodocuments”, Kraków, 13-14 March 2026. Organised by Jakub Basista (Institute of History, Jagiellonian University) and Michaël Green (Centre for Self-Narratives, Filip Friedman Centre for Jewish Studies, University of Lodz) in cooperation with the IEN.
Conference “O tych, którzy stoją w cieniu – rodzina, przyjaciele, organizacje i ich znaczenie w biografiach naukowców” (Of Those Who Stand in the Shadows – Family, Friends, Organizations, and Their Significance in the Biographies of Scholars), Toruń, 23-23 April 2026. Organised by Hadrian Ciechanowski (Faculty of History, Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń) and Janusz Bonczkowski (Society of Polish Archivists) in cooperation with Egodocumental Research Group, IEN and Polish Historical Society.
Conference “Życie pisane. Biografie i egodokumenty w badaniach humanistycznych” (Written Life: Biographies and Egodocuments in Humanistic Research), Lodz, 11-13 May 2026. Organised by the International Research Group of Biographical Studies, Department of Nineteenth Century Literature of the University of Lodz.

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 https://egodocuments.umk.pl/ in order to facilitate communication and interconnection: please complete the attached form and return it to us. The 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 are looking 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.

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