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Lehmann, Svea

Svea Lehmann, M. A.

PhD Student in East European History

Doctoral Project

Zwischen Zugehörigkeit und gesellschaftlichem Ausschluss. Jüdische Lebenswelten in der Sowjetunion 1961-1991

Between Belonging and Social Exclusion. Jewish Life-Worlds in the Soviet Union 1969-1991


This dissertation project investigates divergent conceptualisations of what it meant to be Jewish and the accompanying cultural self-placement in the late Soviet Union. Jewish life worlds in the Soviet Union are examined with a focus on the societal developments and embedded in their transnational context in the period between 1961 and 1991. The dissertation project is methodically based in cultural history and inquires into the historical origin, design, and function of different Jewish ideas of the self and others. Using discourse analysis, a period characterised by increasing heterogeneity and decreasing social mobility is examined for changing regimes of expressability and cultural attributions of place. By means of a multi-perspective analysis of foreign policy framework conditions, Soviet domestic politics, foreign attributions, and Jewish self-placement, the research project aims to contribute to the understanding of societal renegotiations and self-assertive practices in the late Soviet Union. By looking at divergent Jewish life-worlds, the permanent negotiation of social norms can be explored through the negotiation of minorities. Thus, underlying social changes can be reconstructed. In order to be able to work out the simultaneity of social inclusion and exclusion mechanisms, it is necessary to reflect on the loyalty rituals of integrated Jewish elites as well as to investigate the individual renunciation of membership to the Soviet Union.

Please also see an overview of her project in the Graduate School's Newsletter Nr. 11, Winter Semester 2018/19.

Curriculum Vitae

2010-2013 Bachelor studies in History at the University of Bremen. Masters studies in “History and Politics of the 20th Century” at the Friedrich-Schiller Univerity in Jena. Completion in Summer 2016 with a thesis on the topic of “Die Israelitische Gartenbauschule zu Ahlem - Erziehungskonzept, Schulpraxis und Lebenswirklichkeit 1893-1933” (“The Jewish Horticulture School at Ahlem - Educational Concept, School Practice, and Life Reality 1893-1933“). July 2011 to February 2013 Student assistant for the research project “Graben für Germanien - Archäologie unter dem Hakenkreuz” at the Focke-Museum of Bremen. In the spring of 2013, she participated in the exhibition “Auf den Strömen der Erinnerung”, about camp experiences in the Soviet Union, in the Lower Saxony State Parliament in Hanover. Scholarship holder of the Go-East Program of the DAAD 2014 and 2015. Visiting scholar at the Leo Baeck Institute Jerusalem for the Study of German and Central European Jewry, funded by the PROMOS-Program at the University of Jena. From June to August 2016, worked at the human rights organisation Memorial Perm, Perm, Russian Federation for six months. Trainee at Human Search, Saint Petersburg, Russian Federation for six months, as part of the program “Russland in der Praxis,” from the DAAD. From May to October 2017, research assistant at the Historical Institute - Department of East European History at the University of Cologne. Since November 2017, PhD student at the Graduate School for East and Southeast European Studies in Munich.

Positions, Assignments and Memberships

Publications

Journal Articles and Book Chapters

Zus. mit Benedikt Funke: Auf den Spuren der Vergangenheit. Eine Reise ins gegenwärtige Russland. In: Avalist. Zeitung am Historischem Seminar, Vol. 45, 2014, S. 42-44.

Bericht über Angelina Bushueva (*1936). In: Hendrik Berthold / Friedrich Huneke (Hgg.): "Auf den Strömen der Erinnerung ..." – Kriegsgefangenschaft und Gulag im russischen und deutschem Gedächtnis, Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge e.V. Leibniz Universität Hannover 2013, S. 72-75.

Bericht über Zelma Germanovna Chebykina. In: Hendrik Berthold / Friedrich Huneke (Hgg.): "Auf den Strömen der Erinnerung ..." – Kriegsgefangenschaft und Gulag im russischen und deutschem Gedächtnis, Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge e.V. Leibniz Universität Hannover 2013, S. 78-81.

Presentations

2017

Sommerschule "Rekonstruktion eines Chronotops. Das ehemalige Straflager Stvor als Raum des sowjetischen Strafvollzugs", Perm, 29. Juli bis 15. August 2017 (Konzeption und Organisation zus. mit Benedikt Funke, Julia Buschmakowa und Vladimir Mirkin).

2016

Nachwuchsworkshop "Nationen, Minoritäten und Menschenrechte. Zur Geschichte des Politischen im 20. Jahrhunderts", Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena, Juni 2016 (Konzeption und Organisation zus. mit Benedikt Rothhagen und Robert Pursche).

"Zwischen Welten. Osteuropäische Juden in der Israelitischen Gartenbauschule zu Ahlem", Oberseminar für Osteuropäische Geschichte an der Universität zu Köln, Juni 2016.

2015

"Die Erdung des Menschen. Zum Erziehungskonzept der Israelitischen Gartenbauschule zu Ahlem", Workshop "Politisierte Landschaften: Zionistische Perspektiven" an der Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Mai 2015.

"The Ahlem Jewish Gardening School. Idea, Educational Concept and Lifeworld", Workshop "German and European Studies as Area Studies – An Academic Discipline" der Hebrew University of Jerusalem und der University of Haifa, Dezember 2015.