Conference Programme

We are delighted to publish the final version of the conference programme.

1^stInternational Egodocumental Network Conference Egodocuments from Medieval Codex to Modern Media: Narratives, Presentations, Identities

Vilnius, 24-26 April 2025

Faculty of Communication, Vilnius University

Faculty of History, Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń,

Filip Friedman Centre for Jewish Studies, University of Lodz

International Egodocumental Research Group

In Partnership with

De Gruyter Brill
Vilnius University Library
National Museum Palace of the Grand Dukes of Lithuania
Vilnius County Adomas Mickevič Public Library
The Wroblewski Library of the Lithuanian Academy of Science
The Institut of the Lithuanian Literature and Folklore

Introduction

The first international conference of the International Egodocumental Network, “Egodocuments from the Medieval Codex to Modern Media: Narratives, Presentations, Identities”, is dedicated to the development of research on egodocuments and the changing perception of the egodocumentary heritage in the twenty-first century. This event continues the tradition of the scientific symposia “Egodocuments, Life Writing and Autobiographical Texts” organised at the Nicolaus Copernicus University of Toruń in 2022 and 2024, and “Egodocuments and Privacy” organised at the University of Lodz in 2023. The above-mentioned international network on egodocuments was initiated in December 2023 by Michaël Green and Hadrian Ciechanowski within the Egodocuments Research Group of the Nicolaus Copernicus University of Toruń and the University of Lodz, whose work is covered at https://egodokumenty.umk.pl. The network has been systematically aiming to bring together researchers working on egodocuments from different disciplines so that to provide a platform for discussion, collaboration, and exchange of information.

Therefore, the organisers of this conference, “Egodocuments from the Medieval Codex to Modern Media”, aimed to bring together scholars from a variety of academic disciplines in order to share insights and encourage interdisciplinary research on egodocuments. The call for papers focused on: 1. the concept, typology, and genres of egodocuments in different historical periods; the development of manuscript, print, and digital media, the publication and dissemination of egodocuments in society, and egodocumentary heritage; 2. the application of egodocumentary approaches to the current issues of cultural identity, otherness and strangeness, social and geographical mobility, privacy, and religious experiences, among others.

The call for papers, which was launched in autumn 2024, exceeded the most optimistic expectations. More than eighty proposals were received, of which the organisers selected seventy. As expected, the submissions concerned different historical periods, geographical regions and the diversity of human identity and reality expressed in egodocuments from different eras – travel writing, epistolary works, diaries and memoirs, autobiographies, vade mecum, egodocumentary marginalia, and other self-testimonies (Selbstzeugnisse, self-witnessing, écrits du for privé). Among the topics proposed, one can see the desire to discuss the reflections of the war years and other traumatic experiences in egodocuments (e.g., Holocaust or anti-Soviet resistance testimony), its expression in art and cinema, and to expand the analysis of the structure, content and context of the media (requests-complaints, calendars, culinary memories, vintage postcards, drawings by children, personal songbooks, photography, hand-written notes, epigraphy and the selfie, etc.).

The speakers featuring in the programme represent a wide range of scientific institutions from sixteen countries: Austria, Belgium, Czechia (three presentations), United Kingdom, Finland, France, Germany (six presentations), Hungary, Iceland, Israel (two presentations), Latvia, Lithuania (twenty-one presentations), Norway, Poland (twenty-four presentations), Switzerland (three presentations), and USA (two presentations). The speakers will be exploring egodocuments of the nobility, urban residents, workers, clergy, emigrants, exiles, prisoners, professional communities, women, men, and children from the perspectives of multilingualism, social mobility, everyday life, sexuality, and other aspects. They will reveal the methodological problems of the research from the standpoint of microhistory, history of the book, and other interdisciplinary perspectives.

It is no coincidence that this conference is being held in Vilnius, where memory institutions have preserved very significant resources of egodocumentary heritage (for example, the more than fifty volumes of the diary of Michał Römer, a lawyer, the Rector of Vytautas Magnus University in Kaunas in 1933–1939). Founded in 1579, Vilnius University manifests a strong interdisciplinary character in its current social and humanities research. They cover not only Lithuanian studies but also the transformation of Lithuanian society in the context of globalisation, socio-cultural processes in Central Europe and specifically in the Baltic countries, and the development of information technology and digitisation.

As early as in 2008, the researchers of the Faculty of Communication, in cooperation with their partners at Nicolaus Copernicus University of Toruń (Prof. Stanisław Roszak), joined the European network of egodocuments researchers ‘woven’ by Professor François-Joseph Ruggiu (Sorbonne University). As a result, the projects Lithuanian Egodocumentary Heritage (2010–2013, with partners in Nicolaus Copernicus University of Toruń) and Homo Viator: Travel Space and Experiences of Travellers in Early Modern Lithuania (2021–2023) have been implemented. The research has resulted in significant multilingual publications: Egodocuments and Private Space in Lithuania in the 16^th–20^th Century (Vilnius, 2013), based on the conference “Lithuania’s Egodocumentary Heritage in Europe: Research, Interpretation, Dissemination“ (Vilnius, October 29–30, 2011) presentations; The Travel Diary of Michał Butler to Italy and Germany 1779–1780 (Vilnius, 2013, together with Waldemar Chorążyczewski and Agnieszka Rosa); The Travel Diary of Józef Jerzy Hylzen 1752–1754 (Vilnius, 2013, together with Joanna Orzeł and Stanisław Roszak), etc.

The organisers would like to thank the numerous partners who helped to organise this important scientific forum and our sponsor, the Polish Institute in Vilnius. They would also like to remind you that two collective publications are planned based on the topical relevance of the selected papers presented at the conference. One is the journal Knygotyra (https://www.journals.vu.lt/knygotyra), referenced in SCOPUS and Web of Science, and the other is the Brill series Egodocuments and History (https://brill.com/display/serial/EGDO).

We wish you a productive conference!

The Organising Committee