2009 conference - now in English

Just a few words in English this time on the invitation from Kakanien Revisited to a conference on July 3-4 2009 at the Institute for East European History of the Vienna University, Spitalgasse 2. The topic of the conference is Vampirism and magia posthuma in the discourse of the Habsburg monarchy in the 18th and 19th centuries. Suggestions for themes and topics should be communicated by September 30th to usha.reber@kakanien.ac.at and christoph.augustynowicz@univie.ac.at.

Conference in Vienna

Shortly after posting my proposal to meet next year, I was contacted by the good people af Kakanien Revisited who were interested in arranging a meeting. They have now discussed the matter and sent this initial invitation to a conference on the theme of vampire belief and vampirology at the University of Vienna on July 3-4 2009:

Sehr geehrte Damen und Herren, liebe VampirologInnen,

anschließend an einen der Themenschwerpunkte bei kakanien.ac.at zum Themenkomplex „Vampirglaube und Vampirologie“ würden wir gerne eine Konferenz zum Thema

„Vampirismus und magia posthuma im Diskurs der Habsburgermonarchie im 18. und 19. Jahrhundert“

veranstalten und Sie/Dich dazu einladen.

Die thematische Ausgestaltung der Konferenz sollte zwischen solider Geisteswissenschaft und innovativer Kulturolgie, zwischen historischen und philologischen Ansätzen oszillieren. In diesem Sinne bitten wir bis 30. September um Themenvorschläge an usha.reber@kakanien.ac.at und christoph.augustynowicz@univie.ac.at.

Ort: Institut für Osteuropäische Geschichte der Universität Wien, Spitalg. 2, 1090 Wien

Zeit: 3./4. Juli 2009

Anreise und Aufenthalt werden bezahlt, eine Publikation der Konferenz-Beiträge ist geplant.

Beste Grüße

Usha Reber
Christoph Augustynowicz

Update on meeting in 2009

Just a quick note to say that I have received some very positive feedback from a few people. It's too early to say anything definite, but it looks like there really is an interest in attending a meeting, seminar or whatever it could be called on the subject of vampires and magia posthuma.

A proposal to meet in 2009

In my new year post, I wrote that

it is my sincere wish that we can build some kind of network of people interested in this strange and morbid, yet somehow very giving subject.

Although I do get some communication via this blog and by private e-mail, it's really much too early to call it a network. But I would like to propose that a meeting is arranged somewhere in Europe sometime next year, either in the spring or autumn of 2009. It could be in some city that is related to the history of vampirism and magia posthuma: Vienna, Belgrade, Leipzig, Olomouc or some other place, and it would be best to keep it simple and cheap. The important thing would be to meet, discuss whatever aspects of this topic we find relevant, and see a couple of sights that are related to the history of vampires and revenants. So I'm not proposing a big seminar here, but a very low key meeting where every participant takes care of his or her travelling, hotel, food etc.

So here is my plan: Now that I have proposed the basic idea, I'll put a box on the right hand side of the blog so the proposal should be noticed by new readers. If I get some positive feedback on the idea, I will settle on some appropriate time and place. Those who are interested can then say yes, no or maybe to the time and location, and if enough people say yes before, say, the end of the year, I will commence with the planning.

So, if this sounds like something for you, send me an e-mail, and I will get back to you. Of course, if you think this is a dumb idea or if you doubt that you will be able to attend a meeting, and if you have any other thoughts on my proposal, feel free to tell me what you think! :-)