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Conflicting Versions

Health as a Happy Ending? Potentials of a Narratological Interpretation of the Concept of Disease Using the Example of the Conceptions of Disease and Health before and after the Accession of the GDR to the Federal Republic of Germany

The project contributes to the philosophical research on the concepts of health and disease systematically as well as historically. The application of the narratological concept of peripety to the interpretation of ‘disease’ aims at extending and clarifying the complex medico-philosophical debate. Viewing definitions of disease as instances of peripeties enables me to craft a heuristic that is adequate to analyse these definitions with regard to their underlying narrativity. That way recently developed narratological approaches that are gaining popularity within the field of medical humanities are put in relation with the broader philosophical debate.

- Olga Syrova, 21.11.2025

The Flow of Time. The Alta-Controversy as a Historical Turning Point

In 1970 the Norwegian government publicly announced plans for a monumental dam and hydropower-station located in the far north of the country. The Sámi minority played an important role in the numerous oppositional movements formed against these plans. The Alta-saken was a definite turning point in the history of the indigenous Sámi-population in northern Europe. Drawing on Jurij Lotman’s work, I analyse the narrative construction of this crucial event to explain the cultural negations surrounding the Alta-river.

- Olga Syrova, 21.11.2025

Negotiating a New Take on History. Narrations of the Soviet Past in Lithuanian Museums

In light of Russia’s war against Ukraine, Soviet memory culture in Lithuania appears to be in motion. This momentum of re-consideration and change is manifested for instance by interventions in public space, such as the renewed wave of dismantling of statues, removing of plaques or changing names of public institutions.

- Olga Syrova, 21.11.2025

The Baroque Architectural Heritage of the Former Grand Duchy of Lithuania: Persistence, Transformation, and Demolition, 1772–1918

The PhD project explores the fate of Baroque heritage in the former Grand Duchy of Lithuania in the long 19th century, when these lands were part of the Russian Empire. During this period, the Baroque style fell out of fashion across Europe, displaced by Classicism and subsequent styles, and was considered in bad taste for decades until it was revisited and even experienced some revival in the late 19th century.

- Olga Syrova, 21.11.2025

Forging Identities for City and Nation: Analyzing Selected Museal Depictions of the Kresy Expulsions in Present-day Wrocław

The project examines the museal representations of the 1944-1955 expulsions of Poles from the former eastern Polish borderlands in the city of Wrocław (formerly Breslau). The objective of the thesis is not to discuss the forced removal and resettlement itself, but rather to investigate how collective memories of the event are being expressed in the present, cultivating ideas of identity representative operating at both regional and national levels.

- Olga Syrova, 18.11.2025

Versions of home. Narrative analysis of Platformised Belarusian migration life writing

Emigration from Belarus, which has intensified since 2020-21, has its history dating back to the 19th and 20th centuries. Interested in multimediality of today’s writing, and reading it against the backdrop of the re-sovietization of official Minsk and the state’s use of internet technologies to suppress civil society, I’m taking a closer look at Belarusian authors living and working in exile and the ways they narrate their experiences of home and (non-)belonging online.

- Olga Syrova, 14.11.2025