CONFERENCE PROGRAMME
The First Eastern Bloc Censorship Research Group Conference
16鈥�18 October 2026
Faculty of Philology, Pomorska 171/173
Aula A1
(with symoultaneous interpretation to Polish and French)
9:30鈥�10:00 Registration
10:00鈥�10:30&苍产蝉辫;Opening Ceremony with the Reading of the Address by Rector Rafa艂 Matera to the Participants
10:30鈥�11:20 Robert Darnton (Harvard University): Keynote Lecture
*
11:20鈥�12:50 PANEL 1
Mykola Ryabchuk & Natalia Bilotserkivets
Flexible Rigidity of the Late Soviet Censorship: Insiders鈥� Perspective
Maxim Lukin
鈥淚f the Editors Submitted Good Material, the Censor Would Not Have to Intervene鈥�: Soviet Editors Between Writers and Censors in the Post-Stalin Period (1953鈥�1985)
Klara Buda
Fashioning Dissent: Extravagance, Internal Exile, and the Politics of Appearance in Communist Albania
Patrick Mougenet
Beyond Borders: Censorship, Transnational Counter-Circulation and Reappropriation of Paths of Glory (Stanley Kubrick, 1957), across Europe鈥檚 East鈥揥est Divide and the Americas
- Moderator: Mateusz 艢wietlicki
4 脳 15 min + 30 min Q&A
*
12:50鈥�14:00 Lunch Break
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14:00鈥�15:30 PANEL 2
John Bates
Could the GUKP Have Done a BBFC? The Transformation of Censorship Bodies in the Late 20th and Early 21st Centuries
Monika Bednarczuk
Institutional Censorship and Self-Censorship of Esoteric Subjects in Socialist Poland: Major Questions and Developments
Joanna Hobot-Marcinek
Censorship of the Student Counterculture of the 1960s and 1970s: Mechanisms of Confrontation
Ana Batini膰
In the Whirlwind of History after the Pivotal Year of 1945: Croatian Female Writers before the Court of Honor of the Croatian Writers鈥� Association
- Moderator: Joanna Wojdon
4 脳 15 min + 30 min Q&A
*
15:30鈥�15:50 Coffee Break
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15:50鈥�17:20 PANEL 3
Stefanie Lemke
Censorship in Times of Shrinking Civic Space in Europe: The Role of Judges
Mikhail Suslov
Regime Ideology Co-production in Russian Universities
Olga Gradinaru
Nested Silences: Penal Battalions, Jewish Soldiers, and the Afterlives of Soviet Censorship in Archive and Film
Lucia Dragomir
Foreign delegations, Romanian Interpreter-Guides during the Communist Era: between Surveillance, Censorship and Self-Censorship
- Moderator: Jakub D膮browski
4 脳 15 min + 30 min Q&A
*
17:20鈥�18:00 Material Culture Exhibition
Coffee Break & Networking
Attendees present their own research alongside relevant books, historical artifacts, and everyday objects from the Eastern Bloc.
(Aula A4 & 1.18)
9:15鈥�10:20 PANEL 4A
(1.18)
Tetiana Kachak & Tetyana Blyznyuk
War, Identity, and New Forms of Censorship: Ukrainian Children鈥檚 Literature Amid Contemporary Political and Cultural Challenges
Ekaterina Shatalova
With(out) a Censor: Children鈥檚 Books in Putin鈥檚 Russia
Snizhana Zhyhun
Children鈥檚 and Young Adult Literature (1922鈥�1940) in the Special Collection of the Ukrainian Book Chamber
- Moderator: Anna Wi艣niewska-Grabarczyk
3 脳 15 min + 20 min Q&A
9:15鈥�10:20 PANEL 4B
(Aula A4)
Eszter Balazs
World War Memory on Screen in Late Socialist Hungary: Documentary Film between Toleration and Censorship
Magdalena Budnik
Andrzej Wajda and His Works in the Documents of PRL Censorship: On Selected Examples
Alina Popescu
Dressing Socialism: Fashion, Censorship and the Politics of Appearance in Romanian Cinema
- Moderator: John Bates
3 脳 15 min + 20 min Q&A
*
10:20鈥�10:40 Coffee Break
*
10:40鈥�11:20 Nicole Moore (University of New South Wales, Canberra): Keynote Lecture
*
11.30-13.00 PANEL 5A
(Aula A4)
Mikl贸s 脕ron S眉k枚sd
From Soft Dictatorship to Illiberal Hegemony: Media Control and Censorship in Hungary in the K谩d谩r Era and under the Orb谩n Regime in Comparative Perspective
M贸nika M谩tay
The Orb谩n Affair
Luca Bagnolini
Between Censorship and Anticommunism: Soviet Films in Italy during the Early Cold War
- Moderator: Stefanie Lemke
3 脳 15 min + 20 min Q&A
11:30鈥�13:00 PANEL 5B
(1.18)
Timea Andrea Lelik
Two Grammars of Control: Fashion, Femininity, and Censorship in K谩d谩r鈥檚 Hungary and Ceau葯escu鈥檚 Romania
Andrea B艡ezinov谩
Brno Fashion Scene in the 1980s: Lib臎na Rochov谩 and Michal 艩varc
Johana Felixova
Guidance or Censorship? International Fashion Congresses as a Space for Negotiating the Acceptable and Unacceptable in Socialist Dress
- Moderator: Alina Popescu
3 脳 15 min + 20 min Q&A
*
13:00鈥�13:30 Coffee Break
*
13:30鈥�14:30 ROUND TABLE The Eastern Bloc Censorship 鈥� 25 Years Later
Joanna Wojdon, Anne Etienne, Nicole Moore, Robert Darnton, Mykola Riabchuk
- Moderators: Anna Wi艣niewska-Grabarczyk & Stefanie Lemke
*
14:30-14:45 Coffee Break
*
14:45鈥�16:45 PANEL 6
(Aula A4)
Jakub D膮browski
On the Productivity of Prohibition
Adriana Campara
Embodied Time: Rethinking Contemporary Visual Art through Temporality
Mila Dragojevi膰
A Brief Opening between the Party and Society in Former Yugoslavia
Joanna Rzepa
Censorship and Shoah: Holocaust Testimonies in the Polish People鈥檚 Republic
Natalia Kowalska-Elkader
Censorship, Institutional Control, and Radio Art Experimentation in PRL: Eugeniusz Rudnik and the Polish Radio Experimental Studio
- Moderator: Anne Etienne
5 脳 15 min + 45 min Q&A
*
16:45鈥�17:00 Coffee & sandwich 鈥渢o go鈥�
*
19:00 Conference Gala Dinner: the Loom Hotel
9:00鈥�10.00 PANEL 7
(Aula A4)
Prerecorded and online presentations
Liudmila Sharaeva
Hybrid Mechanisms of Cultural Censorship in Contemporary Russia (2000鈥�2022)
Manuella Pacillo
Censorship without Censorship? Accreditation, Information Control and Press Freedom at the Nuremberg Trial
- Moderator: Alina Popescu
4 脳 15 min + 30 min Q&A
*
10:00-10:30 In Their Own Words: EBCRG & Friends on Censorship
*
10:30-10:45 Coffee Break
*
10:45鈥�11:45 EBCRG Open Meeting
Mateusz 艢wietlicki, Anna Wi艣niewska-Grabarczyk & Karolina Ko艂odziej
Burn, Ban, Save: A Conversation on Censorship, Book Destruction, and Children鈥檚 Literature
11:45鈥�13:00 General Closing Session: Takeaways, Future Planning & Networking
13:00 Conference Closing
*
13:00鈥�15:00 EBCRG Closed Meeting (only for EBCRG members)
