Ethnogenetic Ideas and Their Political Significance

On 8 December, at 18:00, the next meeting of the research seminar of the Institute for Political Studies “Political Sphere” will take place at the CSI courtyard. The topic of the presentation is “Ethnogenetic Ideas and Their Political Significance”.

The presentation will address the ways in which ideas about the origin of peoples and ethnic communities become part of political thinking and public debate. Ethnogenetic narratives are often used not only in scholarship, but also in ideological projects, national myths and political mobilisation.

The seminar will consider how such ideas have functioned in Belarus and the neighbouring region, what arguments and images they rely on, and how they influence the interpretation of history and identity.

Special attention will be paid to the political uses of historical and ethnographic concepts: the construction of collective origins, the search for “ancestors”, the symbolic geography of the nation, and the role of scholarship in legitimising or questioning such narratives.

The event is intended as an open academic discussion. Researchers, students and all those interested in history, identity and political ideas are invited to participate.