1st International Egodocumental Network Conference
Vilnius University, Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń, the University of Lodz, and the Egodocumental Research Group (https://egodocuments.umk.pl) organise an international conference focusing on research, development, and changing perceptions of egodocuments in the twenty-first century. The conference aims to bring together scholars from different disciplines to share their insights and to encourage interdisciplinary studies of egodocuments.
The conference will also be the first meeting of the International Egodocumental Network established in December 2023 by the Egodocumental Research Group (Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń and the University of Lodz) to unite scholars from different disciplines working on egodocuments. It provides a platform for discussion, collaboration, and exchange of information between the participants, as well as online research seminars organized twice a year. In this dimension, our conference continues two editions of the Scientific Symposium "Egodocuments, Life-Writing and Autobiographical Texts..." organized at NCU in Toruń in 2022 and 2024.
Keynote speakers
Dr. Nataliia Voloshkova
Kazimierz Wielki University and Oxford Brookes University
Prof. Leona Toker
Hebrew University and Shalem Academic College
Prof. François-Joseph Ruggiu
Sorbonne Université, CNRS and Oxford University
Joanna Orzeł
University of Lodz
‘Egodocument’ in the Research of Polish Scholars of the Early Modern Period – Fashion for Terminology or Modern Research?
It has been less than fifteen years since the term ‘egodocument’ was popularised in the Polish scholarly discussion. The terminology has been adopted in some circles of researchers of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth times – mainly historians concerned with the culture, customs, mentality of the nobility, less frequently with the bourgeoisie or peasants, but also among historians specialising in the literature of the 16th–18th centuries. It seems, however, that some of their published works refer to the term ‘egodocument’ without explaining their understanding of it. It is therefore legitimate to ask whether the term is merely a trend in the analyses of Polish scholars to appear in the title, key words or introduction of their works, or whether it involves a new approach in relation to research on diaries, memoirs, journals, correspondence, which has been conducted in the traditional way since the 19th century. A further question is the amount of egodocumental information in the sources from the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth era – we may wonder if it is large enough to make comparisons with Western European sources.
