Conference: "Cultural Patterns and Life Stories" in Tallinn University

In memoriam Aili Aarelaid-Tart (1947-2014)

Conference held in Tallinn Universtity, on August 27th, A-242 (Astra building, Narva mnt 29)

On 9 January 2014 Aili Aarelaid-Tart, renowned Estonian culturologist, head researcher of Tallinn University, creator and leader of the Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies from 1995, passed away. On 27 August 2014 the Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies of Estonian Institute of Humanities, Tallinn University, will organize a conference where prominent international scholars will pay respect to her lifework and discuss topical issues of biographical studies.

Aili Aarelaid-Tart contributed a lot to the studying of Estonian life stories, also belonging to the board of the Biographical Network of the European Sociological Association for many years. For her, studying life stories became a way of documenting and explaining abrupt temporal changes in people's course of life ‒ survival strategies. Telling our life stories we create and fix our identity as well as our era, generational consciousness and, consequently, social relations. "It is the task of cultural historians", she writes in her book "Memory patterns of the people" (1990), "to restore the ‘memory’ of a specific social era taking into account as diverse means of documentation as possible."

On 27 August 2014 the colleagues and friends of Aili Aarelaid-Tart will speak at the international conference. The working language of the conference is English.

Programm/Programme:

(The organisers reserve the right to make minor changes to the program if necessary. The registered participants will be notified about the changes accordingly)

Astra-242

9.30-10.00 Registration

10.00-10.30 Marek Tamm „Life and Afterlife in Culture“
10.30-10.55 Zenonas Norkus “Was there Increasing Civic Culture South-North Gradient in the Baltic States, 1918-1940?“
10.55-11.20 Vieda Skultans “How Baltic Cultures Shape Life Histories and how they Shape these Cultures“
11.20-11.45 Anu Mai Kõll “The One who has Arrived has a Long Way to Go“
11.45-12.10 Baiba Bela “Biography and Transnationalism”

12.10-14.30 Lunch

14.30-14.55 Maija Runcis “Cultural Patterns among Latvian and Estonian Diaspora in Sweden“
14.55-15.20 Li Bennich-Björkman “Mending Life: Narrating Life Trajectories among Estonians and Bosnians in Exile“
15.20-15.45 Elena Zdravomyslova ““Sandwich Generation Syndrome” as a Pattern of Family Care“
15.45-16.10 Laura Assmuth “Mobility Patterns between Estonia and Finland: what about Children?”

16.10-16.30 Coffee break

16.30-16.55 Elżbieta Hałas “The Myth of Cultural Integration in International Relations”
16.55-17.20 Ene Kõresaar “Life Stories and Cultural Memory: Re-considering the Relationship“
17.20-17.45 Aigi Rahi-Tamm “Our Untold Stories“
17.45-18.10 Anna Temkina „Post soviet sexual biographies“
18.10-18.35 JP Roos „ Recovered memories in practice: the case of Thomas Quick“

18.45 Reception at Atrium in the Tallinn University Astra building.

Please register your participation before 18 August by e-mailing tuulip@ehi.ee. Participation will be confirmed by 21 August.