Ljubljana Conference Report

Ladenburg Research Network

“The Aggressor: Self-Perception and External Perception of an Actor Between Nations”

1­­–3 October 2025

Institute of Contemporary History, Ljubljana

Privoz 11, 1000 Ljubljana

© Sergej Škofljanec

Programe

Wednesday, 1 October 2025

14:45–15:00 Opening

  • Andrej Pančur (Director, Institute of Contemporary History, Ljubljana): Welcome
  • Thomas Maissen (Heidelberg University): Introduction

15:00–16:30 Project Session 1

Chair: Balazs Trencsenyi (Central European University Democracy Institute, Budapest)

  • Elisabeth Osing (Heidelberg University): Project Presentation – Attila: An archetypical Aggressor?
  • Patryk Krupiński (Tadeusz Manteuffel Institute of History, Polish Academy of Sciences): Project Presentation – Traitor to the Nation or External Aggressor: Józef Piłsudski in the Discourses of Lithuania and Belarus after 1991
  • Kai Steinhage (Ruhr University Bochum): Project Presentation – The Impact of Aggressor Narratives on the Images of Germany among British Occupying Forces, 1918–1920

16:30–16:45 Coffee Break

16:45–18:15 Project Session 2

Chair: Ilaria Porciani (University of Bologna)

  • Olha Marmilova (Central European University Democracy Institute, Budapest): Project Presentation – Enemy Images in Ukrainian Official and Journalistic Discourse during the Full-Scale Invasion
  • Lisa Fahrni (Heidelberg University): Project Presentation – About Aggression and Responsibility: Comparisons between Napoleon and Hitler in Post-War debates
  • Justus Raimann (Ruhr University Bochum): Project Presentation – The Aggressor Online: Far-Right Perceptions of History in Social Media

18:15–18:45 Break

18:45­–19:45 Roundtable. Comparing Romantic and Postromantic Discourses of the Aggressor: From the Baltic to the Adriatic

Chair: Thomas Maissen (Heidelberg University)

  • Diana Mishkova (Centre for Advanced Study, Sofia)
  • Marek Tamm (Tallinn University)
  • Balazs Trencsenyi (Central European University Democracy Institute, Budapest)

20:00 Dinner

Thursday, 2 October 2025

09:00–10:15 Panel 1. Pre-Modern Aggressors

Chair: Ivan Sablin (Heidelberg University / Institute of Contemporary History, Ljubljana)

  • Stamatia Fotiadou (Institute of Balkan Studies and Center for Thracology, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences): Shaping the Protector and Aggressor in the Greek and Bulgarian National Narratives: The Case of the Byzantine Emperor Basil II. Discussant: Márton Zászkaliczky.
  • Márton Zászkaliczky (Centre for Advanced Study, Sofia): The Image of Suleiman as Aggressor in Hungarian Literary and Historical Tradition in European Context. Discussant: Anti Selart.
  • Anti Selart (University of Tartu): Ivan Groznyi, the Holy Aggressor. Discussant: Stamatia Fotiadou.

10:15–10:30 Coffee Break

10:30–11:45 Panel 2. Aggressors and Public History

Chair: Thomas Maissen (Heidelberg University)

  • Benedek Marton Vasy (Complutense University of Madrid): Cromwell and William III: A Comparison of Secondary School History Textbook Narratives across England, Ireland and Northern Ireland. Discussant: Daniel Weinmann.
  • Daniel Weinmann (Heidelberg University): Rematch on YouTube: Ivan Mazepa and Peter I as Aggressor Figures? Discussant: Benedek Marton Vasy.
  • Sebastian Dörr (Heidelberg University) and Ivan Sablin (Heidelberg University / Institute of Contemporary History, Ljubljana): Project Presentation – Aggressors in Digital Strategy Games: Examples from the Volume “Playing the Aggressor”

11:45–12:15 Coffee Break

12:15–13:30 Panel 3. Nineteenth-Century Aggressors between Empire and Nationalism

Chair: Isidora Grubački (Institute of Contemporary History, Ljubljana)

  • Vilma Vaskelaitė (Heidelberg University): Russian and Polish Perspectives on Napoleon’s Aggression. Discussant: Ilaria Porciani.
  • Ilaria Porciani (University of Bologna): A Transnational Aggressor in European Mid-Nineteenth Century: Julius von Haynau. Discussant: Luigi Cajani.
  • Luigi Cajani (Sapienza University of Rome): Radetzky between Austria and Italy. Discussant: Vilma Vaskelaitė.

13:30–15:00 Lunch

15:00–16:15 Panel 4. Aggressors around the World Wars

Chair: Jure Gašparič (Institute of Contemporary History, Ljubljana)

  • Stefan Berger (Ruhr University Bochum): From Individual to Collective “Aggressors”? Changes in Nationalist Discourses in Interwar Europe. Discussant: Katja Makhotina.
  • Katja Makhotina (University of Erlangen–Nuremberg): Stalin as Aggressor: Man of the Borderlands. Discussant: Xosé Manoel Núñez Seixas.
  • Xosé M. Núñez Seixas (University of Santiago de Compostela): Napoleon Is Back! External Aggressors and National Narratives on the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939). Discussant: Stefan Berger.

16:15–16:45 Coffee Break

16:45–17:15 Panel 5. Aggressors and the former Yugoslavia

Chair: Tjaša Konovšek (Institute of Contemporary History, Ljubljana)

  • Nada Boškovska Leimgruber (University of Zurich): Ante Pavelić, Dragoljub Mihailović, Josip Broz Tito: Narratives about Aggressors in Second World War Yugoslavia. Discussant: Sven Milekić.
  • Sven Milekić (Central European University Democracy Institute, Budapest): Nomen est omen: Wartime Media Representations of Slobodan Milošević and Franjo Tuđman. Discussant: Nada Boškovska Leimgruber.

17:15–17:30 Break

17:30–19:00 Keynote Lecture

Chair: Marko Zajc (Institute of Contemporary History, Ljubljana)

  • Jovana Mihajlović Trbovc (Institute of Culture and Memory Studies, ZRC SAZU): Rethinking the “Aggressor”: Concepts and Misconceptions from Yugoslav History and Beyond

20:00 Dinner

Friday, 3 October 2025

09:00–10:15 Panel 6. Discussing Aggressors after the Second World War

Chair: Nesa Vrečer (Institute of Contemporary History, Ljubljana)

  • Marja Jalava (Tampere University): Aggressor or Martyr? The Conflicting Interpretations of Finland’s Wartime President, Risto Ryti. Discussant: Alexandra Bounia.
  • Alexandra Bounia (University of the Aegean): The “Invisible” Aggressor: History Museums and Their Refusal to Name the Enemy. Discussant: Chris Lorenz.
  • Chris Lorenz (Free University of Amsterdam / Ruhr University Bochum): The World Turned Upside-Down: The Dutch Representation of Sukarno as an Aggressor in Public Culture and History (1945–2025). Discussant: Marja Jalava.

10:15–10:45 Coffee Break

10:45–12:00 Panel 7. Aggressors in the Cold War

Chair: Maja Lukanc (Institute of Contemporary History, Ljubljana)

  • Corine Defrance (Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne): When the Bear and the Dog Meet the Bourgeois and His Social-Traitor Lackey: The Aggressor and the Berlin Crises during the Cold War. Discussant: Adéla Gjuričová.
  • Adéla Gjuričová (Institute of Contemporary History, Czech Academy of Sciences) and Ivan Sablin (Heidelberg University / Institute of Contemporary History, Ljubljana): Brezhnev in the Context of the Warsaw Pact Invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968. Discussant: Frank Bösch
  • Frank Bösch (Leibniz Center for Contemporary History Potsdam): “Pet the Tiger, If One Can’t Tame It”: West German and Western Reactions to Gaddafi. Discussant: Corine Defrance.

12:00–13:30 Lunch

13:30–15:00 Discussion of the Preliminary Introduction and Conclusion of the Project Book

Chair: Stefan Berger (Ruhr University Bochum)

  • Thomas Maissen (Heidelberg University)

15:30–18:00 Visit to the Museum of Contemporary History

20:00 Dinner


OpenEdition suggests that you cite this post as follows:
aggressor (October 15, 2025). Ljubljana Conference Report. "The Aggressor" Blog. Retrieved May 13, 2026 from https://aggressor.hypotheses.org/1652


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