Eco-nostalgia(s) : Environment and Visions of the Past in the (former) Eastern Bloc in Europe from 1945 to the present day
Arguments for the scientific event
This international conference aims to explore the concept of eco-nostalgia to describe the nostalgic attachment to landscapes and environments in Eastern Europe (the Baltic region and the western part of the former USSR, including Ukraine and Russia) as reflected in both social movements and public policy. The conference will focus on the transformations of European landscapes caused by extractivism/productivism and armed conflicts since World War II, as well as those resulting from the socio-spatial changes linked to the collapse of the USSR and the subsequent integration of former Soviet countries into the European Union.
The presentations will highlight the interdisciplinary nature of geography and history in addressing these issues, while contributing to a collective epistemological reflection on the circulation of methods and concepts across disciplines and cultural areas.
- Conference language : English
Programme for the scientific event
Thursday June 4th 2026
INALCO - Maison de la Recherche
Auditorium Dumézil
2, rue de Lille - Paris 7e
- 2.30pm-2.45pm : Registration / Coffee break
- 2.45pm-3pm : Introduction - Laurent Coumel (CREE, Inalco) et Camille Robert-Boeuf (Migrinter, CNRS)
- 3pm-3.40pm : Panel 1 - Environmental mobilizations looking to the past 1
- Michel Dupuy (IHMC, ENS Ulm Paris) : “European spruce bark beetle (ips typographus) between past and future in Central Europe”
- Anita Zariņa (University of Latvia, Riga) : “Beaver-Modified Waterscapes and the Unfolding of Eco-Nostalgia in Latvia”
- 3.40pm-4pm : Discussion
- 4pm-4.20pm : Coffee Break
- 4.20pm-5pm : Panel 2 - Environmental mobilizations looking to the past 2
- Saara Mildeberg (Tallinn University) : “One Hundred Years of Solitude: Challenging eco-nostalgia during the Green and Just Transition in Northeast Estonia”
- Juraj Lieskovský (Institute of Landscape Ecology, Slovak Academy of Sciences) : “Traditional agricultural landscapes: research and hypothesis driven by eco-nostalgia”
- 5pm-5.20pm : Discussion
- 5.20-6pm : Keynote
- Darya Tsymbalyuk (University of Chicago) : “To over-exist, to over-be: Russia's war on Ukraine and destruction of living worlds”
- 6pm-6.20pm : Discussion
Friday June 5th 2026
INALCO - PLC
Salle 3.05 (3e floor)
65, rue des Grands Moulins - Paris 13e
- 9.45am-10.25am : Panel 3 - Eco-nostalgia, wars, exiles and genocides 1
- Malgorzata Praczyk (Poznan University) : “Beyond Trauma? Ruination, Ecological Succession, and the Dissonant Heritage of the Nazi Fuel Factory Politz in Poland”
- Rugilė Rožėnė (PAScapes, Faculty of History, Vilnius University), “Bushes as Witnesses: The Natural Environment and Nostalgia in Post-Holocaust Memory”
- 10.25am-10.45am : Discussion
- 10.45am-11am : Coffee Break
- 11am-11.40am : Panel 4 - Eco-nostalgia, wars, exiles and genocides 2
- Tomas Vaiseta (PAScapes, Faculty of History, Vilnius University) : “There Is a Place for Nostalgia: New City, Eco-Memory and the Changing Meaning of Post-Violence Landscapes”
- Tatiana Kasperski (Södertörn University, Stockholm) : “Landscapes of loss and remembering: memory (re)construction in times of war and ecocide in Ukraine”
- 11.40am-12.10pm : Discussion
- 12.30pm-2pm : Lunch Break
- 2pm-2.40pm : Panel 5 - Building (identity) territories through eco-nostalgia 1
- Anna Olenenko (University of Alberta & Khortytsia National Academy) : “Landscape of Nostalgia: Mobilizing Memory to Influence the Future of the Dnipro Wetlands”
- Perrine Poupin (AAU-CRESSON, CNRS) : “Ukrainian Refugees’ Relationships with the Territories They Left Behind in the Context of the Russian War in Ukraine (France, Poland)”
- 2.40pm-3pm : Discussion
- 3pm-3.15pm : Pause-Café
- 3.15pm-4.15pm : Panel 6 - Building (identity) territories through eco-nostalgia 2
- Coralie Schirru (GEO, Université de Strasbourg) : “From Conflicted Past to Shared Future: Eco-Nostalgia as a Memory Tool”
- Guénola Inizan (EVS, Université Lyon 2) : “The emergence of an Eco-Nostalgia for Soviet mass housing estates in the context of the Moscow Renovation program (2017–2021)”
- Camille Robert-Boeuf (Migrinter, CNRS) & Jurgita Mačiulytė (PAScapes, Institute of Geosciences, Vilnius University) : “Eco-nostalgia in today's rural Lithuania? Recounting the past through landscapes and maintaining connections to the land”
- 4.15pm-4.45pm : Discussion
- 4.45pm-5.30pm : Conclusions & Discussion finale
Organisation
- Laurent Coumel (CREE, Inalco)
- Camille Robert-Boeuf (MIGRINTER, CNRS)