Europe in the Period of Revolutions

The auditor is acquainted with the genesis of contemporary European relations and circumstances. Particular attention is paid to the influence of the great cultural-historical epochs on the formation of mentality on the old continent.

Enrolment in the current year of study.

It links to the following courses: cultural history of Slovenian space, political history of the Habsburg Monarchy in the 19th and 20th centuries, economic history, World Wars of the 20th century, legal history, the history of historiography.

The course aims to familiarize the auditors with the basic structure of the mentalities and relationships that constitute contemporary political and cultural civilizational European space; the key elements in in understanding the mediaeval society and the later formation of the Reformation and Enlightenment mentality, the French Revolution, liberalism, conservatism, the ideas of national state and nation, two World Wars, the Russian Revolution, the Communist doctrine, Fascism, Nazism, and world ordered in blocs. From the 16th to the 18th century.
Western Europe becomes stabilised as a unified cultural civilizational space; in the 19th century, the eastern part of the old continent also gradually joins its intellectual political currents. In the 19th century, the planet-wide expansion of the old continent begins to transform Europe itself; in the 20th century, these tendencies are further intensified. The process of decolonisation diminishes the political significance of individual European forces, and to a much smaller extent also their culturally civilizational influence. The course is designed as a critical presentation of the period, during which European political paradigms are established as the world-wide behavioural standard, and as analysis of the decline of the significance of the old continent in the world (World Wars I and II greatly bolster such tendencies).
The course also addresses the question of European heritage in relation to world history and important historical events around the globe.

Knowledge and understanding:
The course qualifies the auditors for independent study of European political history and its links with economic and cultural history, as well as history of mentalities. They will also be familiarized with the main features of individual periods and their most significant driving forces, both those, which accelerate change, and those which impede it. The objective is to qualify the auditors in independently analysing the issues of contemporary Europe with a historical perspective.

• In the course of Individual lectures, relevant literature is noted as each individual significant issue is raised. In seminars the work is focused on confronting various strategies in interpreting individual key events and developments.
• Eric Hobsbawm: ČAS REVOLUCIJE, Založba Sophia; 2010.Catalogue
• E. Hobsbawn: ČAS KAPITALA; Založba Sophia; 2011. Catalogue
• E. Hobsbawn: ČAS IMPERIJA, Založba Sophia; 2012.Catalogue
• E. Hobsbawn: ČAS SKRANJOSTI, Založba Sophia; 2017. Catalogue
• H. Arendt: O REVOLUCIJI, Založba Krtina, 2018. Catalogue
• F. Furet: MISLITI FRANCOSKO REVOLUCIJO, Studia Humanitatis, 1989 Catalogue
• K. Marx: DRŽAVLJANSKA VOJNA V FRANCIJI, Studia Humanitatis, 2020 Catalogue
• Selected articles according to the topics of current events.

Seminar paper. 30 %
Oral exam. 70 %
The seminar paper is conditional to be admitted to the exam.

Kaja Širok (1975) je diplomirana zgodovinarka in italijanistka. Podiplomski študij je nadaljevala na kombiniranem programu ZRC SAZU in UNG ter leta 2009 doktorirala iz področja kulturne zgodovine. Študijsko se je izobraževala v Bologni in Rimu. Za doktorsko delo je prejela nagrado Urada Vlade RS za Slovence v zamejstvu in po svetu.

Leta 2011 je prevzela vodenje Muzeja novejše zgodovine Slovenije (MNZS), kjer je delovala do leta 2021. V tem času se je muzej razvil v moderen in atraktiven prostor kulturnih in družbenih izmenjav, spoznavanja in učenja o kompleksnosti dogodkov XX. stoletja na nacionalni ter mednarodni ravni. V času njenega vodenja so ponudbo muzeja obogatili tudi številni evropski projekti, ki so ustvarili aktivno mrežo strokovnega povezovanja evropskih muzejev in sorodnih znanstvenih ustanov. Leta 2016 je prejela stanovsko nagrado ICOM Slovenija za mednarodni projekt Eurovision: Museums exhibiting Europe. Leta 2018 je vodila mednarodni projekt »Izza zidov/ Observing walls«, kjer je MNZS skupaj s partnerji Zgodovinski muzej BIH, Fundacija Berlinskih zid, Quarantasetteseroquattro, Beletrina in RTV SLO preučeval materialne in simbolne razdelitve mest Gorica/ Nova Gorica, Berlin in Sarajevo.

Kot docentka za področje novejše in sodobne zgodovine je dr. Širok istočasno delovala tudi v znanstveno-raziskovalni skupini na oddelku za sociologijo, Filozofska fakulteta (UL). Od leta 2021 predava na Univerzi v Novi Gorici, smer Kulturna zgodovina.
Raziskovalno je aktivna na področju zgodovine, muzeologije in dediščine, ustne zgodovine, študij o mejah in nacionalnosti, študij kolektivnega spomina. Objavlja v slovenskih in mednarodnih znanstvenih revijah. Njena besedila se osredotočajo na teme vizualizacije preteklosti v nacionalnih spominskih praksah, oblikovanja nacionalnih naracij, nastanka in razumevanja nacionalnih mej, muzealizaciji preteklosti.
Njene najpomembnejše objave so Kalejdoskop goriške preteklosti: zgodbe o spominu in pozabi (ZRC SAZU, 2012), poglavje v knjigi Parlament. Tri zgodbe (MNZS; 2012) in Izza zidov (Beletrina, 2019), več člankov v mednarodnih znanstvenih publikacijah in monografijah (Remembering and forgetting in museum narratives; Imaging the boders of a nation: narratives of rembrance in the Northren Adriatic area; Reinterpeting and transforming red museums in Yugoslavia);

2020 – Docentka za področje novejše in sodobne zgodovine, Filozofska fakulteta, UL

ŠIROK, Kaja. Imagining the Borders of the Nation. Remembrance narratives in Northeres Adriatic areas, 2021, Brill Publications, 2021

ŠIROK, Kaja. Remembering and Forgetting in Museum Narratives; “Mediatisation of Memory” (ur. Luhar in Pušnik); 2020, Brill Publications

ŠIROK, Kaja. The refugee experience on the Isonzo Front during the First World Wa. V: Being a Refugee: A European Narrative (ur. Heidemarie Uhl, Anisa Hasanhodžić, Rifet Rustemović); OAW IKT;

ŠIROK, Kaja. Reinterpreting and transforming red museums in Yugoslavia. Museum international, ISSN 1350-0775, 2018, vol. 70, no. 279/280, str. 26-37, ilustr. [COBISS.SI-ID 718188]

ŠIROK, Kaja. Identitete, zgodovina in dediščina prostora - prakse spominjanja in komemoracije na Goriškem v XX. stoletju. Acta Histriae, ISSN 1318-0185. [Tiskana izd.], 2012, letn. 20, št. 4, str. 631-646 [COBISS.SI-ID 2331603],

ŠIROK, Kaja. Kalejdoskop goriške preteklosti : zgodbe o spominu in pozabi, (Zbirka Kulturni spomin, knj. 2). Ljubljana: Založba ZRC, 2012. 203 str., [16] str. pril., ilustr. ISBN 978-961-254-403-4. [COBISS.SI-ID 264309760]