Overview

Overview

My main areas of research are Eastern European cultures of memory, the social and cultural history of Communism, and the relationship between Eastern Europe and global histories of imperialism, anti-imperialism, and race.  Where does the region’s experience of decolonisation, nation building, re-occupation, violence and liberation fit within a global history of Empire - across the nineteenth, twentieth and twenty first centuries?

I have addressed questions of Communist and post-Communist memory in politics, museums, law,  archaeology, activism and through oral history. My best-known work on this topic is The Unfinished Revolution. Making Sense of the Communist Past in Central-Eastern Europe (Yale, 2010).  I have also recently co-edited a collection The global crisis in memory: populism, decolonisation and how we remember in the twenty-first century (LUP, 2020), which addresses contemporary populist and decolonial challenges to liberal cosmopolitan memory across the world. For a presentation on populist and decolonial approaches to Eastern European memory.

On Communism, I have published extensively, on  themes such as activism,  anti-imperialism, the Red Army and sexual violence, secret agents, the idea of generation, representations of the West, middle class experience, Europeanisation, rights, racism/ anti-racism, and the system's demise. I contributed to a major project on pan-European activism in the 1960s and 1970s which resulted in the co-authored work Europe's 1968: Voices of Revolt (OUP, 2013) and more recently co-authored a work that considered the end of European Communism in global perspective: 1989: a Global History of Eastern Europe (CUP, 2019).

On Eastern Europe and global histories of Empire, I have co-authored Socialism Goes Global: The Soviet Union and Eastern Europe in the Age of Decolonisation (OUP, 2022), and co-edited Alternative Globalizations: Eastern Europe and the Postcolonial World (IUP, 2020).  A co-edited collection entitled Off White: Central and Eastern Europe and the global history of race for Manchester University Press, and a co-written monograph rethinking the history of modern Hungary through the lenses of global imperialism, anti-imperialism, race and whiteness for Cambridge University Press, are approaching completion.

Recent Publications

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A collectively researched and written monograph, Socialism Goes Global. The Soviet Union and Eastern Europe in the Age of Decolonisation, was published by Oxford University Press in 2022. Excerpt here. A dicussion of the themes together with Steffi Marung and Péter Apor; another book discussion on Eastern Europe, Empire, migration and race with Paul Betts.

A monograph, 1989. A Global History of Eastern Europe, written with my colleagues Bogdan Iacob, Tobias Rupprecht and Ljubica Spaskovska to co-incide with the thirtieth anniversary of the 1989 revolutions, was published by Cambridge University Press in September 2019. There are reviews here here here here  here  here and  here .

We discuss some arguments from the book in the journal Eurozine in The Struggle Over 1989. For interviews about the book in English, English, English, English, English, Lithuanian, Lithuanian, Czech and Czech. It is discussed on this radio show.

Artemy Kalinovsky, Steffi Marung and I have co-edited a collection for Indiana University Press on the way in which socialism connected the world:  Alternative Globalizations. Eastern Europe and the Postcolonial World (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2020)

There are reviews here, here, here, and here.

I have recently been a Principal Investigator on three research projects. The first is a Leverhulme Research Leadership Award (2014 – 2019): '1989 after 1989: Rethinking the Fall of State Socialism in Global Perspective'. This has brought a team of four research fellows, and two PhD students, to Exeter. Together we have undertaken a range of projects which aim to place the end of state socialism in both longer-term and global contexts, connecting this major historical transformation to broader political, economic and cultural processes of the late 20th and early 21st centuries.

The second is an Arts and Humanities Research Council (UK) funded project, in collaboration with six other institutions and ten colleagues:  'Socialism Goes Global: Cold War Connections Between the 'Second' and 'Third Worlds'' (2015-20). This explores the political, economic and cultural encounter between eastern Europe and the decolonising world from 1945. See our 'Tito in Africa' exhibition: https://www.muzej-jugoslavije.org/en/exhibition/tito-u-africi-slike-solidarnosti/ . For an interview in Romanian on the project.

The third is an AHRC-Labex funded Franco-British project, Criminalization of Dictatorial Pasts in Europe and Latin America in Global Perspective (2016-2020). This project analyses the criminalisation of dictatorial pasts in Europe and Latin America since 1945. It considers how justice and historical narratives are produced across multiple professions, networks and spaces; and way they ideas and practices of dealing with the past have traveled across and between regions, and on a global scale. In 2020, we published an open-access collection on the global crisis in liberal memory, and how it has been challenged by populist and decolonial approaches to remembering the past.

I am currently an elected Senator representing the College of Humanities (2018-2022).

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Research

I have been working on a number of books:

1. (with Péter Apor) on  a history of Hungary between the colonial and anti-colonial worlds for CUP.

2. (with Artemy Kalinovsky and Steffi Marung, (eds.)  Alternative Globalistions. Eastern Europe and the Postcolonial World (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2019)

3. (with Ljubica Spaskovska, Tobias Rupprecht and Bogdan Iacob) 1989. A Global History of Eastern Europe (CUP, 2019)

4. (with Paul Betts, eds.) on Socialism Goes Global: the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe in the Age of Decolonisation

Over the past decade, I have published on the way in which history gets recast at moments of major political change, addressing the ways in which political elites, cultural institutions, institutes of memory, and ordinary people have contributed to the re-imagining of the past after the fall of Communism in eastern Europe after 1989. This resulted in:  The Unfinished Revolution: Making Sense of the Communist Past in central-eastern Europe. It was shortlisted for the 2011 Longman History Today Book Prize, and chosen as one of the 'best books of 2011' by Foreign Affairs. It was discussed on BBC Radio 4, http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/console/b011jv8c

I have also co-authored a monograph titled 'Europe's 1968: Voices of Revolt': it is a work that incorporates the socialist east and Mediterranean dictatorships into a comparative and transnational account of the activisms of the1960s and 1970s

I have recently co-edited a volume on new approaches to addressing the memory and history of collaboration in Communist Eastern Europe

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Supervision

I am keen to supervise on, and can offer expertise in, a number of areas:

1. global histories of socialism

2. global histories of race, especially whiteness

3. eastern European history in decolonial and global contexts

4. the social, cultural and political history of modern Central/ Eastern Europe.

5. Communism and post-Communism in Central/ Eastern Europe

6. memory studies in general, and in particular under Communism/ post-Communism

7. the global rise of populism, particularly as it relates to culture and memory

8. oral history

Research students

Recent and current PhD students: 

Shreya Rakshit, global history of All India Radio

Iona Ramsay, a transnational history of Romanian nationalism and religious cultures of memory

Isabel Sawkins, the rise of Russian Holocaust memory

Anna Calori, Yugoslav and post-Yugoslav workers and privatisation

Bálint Tolmár, oil and energy in late socialist Hungary

Ljubica Spaskovska, studying supranationalism in late socialist Yugoslav and post-Yugoslav cultures

Agata Drelova,  studying national memory and religion in late socialist and post-socialist Slovakia.

James Koranyi,  studying postwar identities of the Romanian Germans

Anna Sheftel, studying the politics of memory and reconciliation in post-conflict Bosnia
 

Karoly Konecsny,  studying the German occuaption of Hungary in 1944.
 

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Publications

_{Copyright Notice: Any articles made available for download are for personal use only. Any other use requires prior permission of the author and the copyright holder.}

| 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 | 2016 | 2015 | 2014 | 2013 | 2011 | 2010 | 2008 | 2006 | 2005 |

2023

• Mark J, Burton E, Ginelli Z, Radonjić N. (2023) The Travelogue: Imagining Spaces of Encounter—Travel Writing Between the Colonial and the Anti-Colonial in Socialist Eastern Europe, 1949–1989, Socialist Internationalism and the Gritty Politics of the Particular Second-Third World Spaces in the Cold War, Bloomsbury Publishing.

2022

• Mark J, Mark J, Apor P. (2022) Home Front, Socialism Goes Global: The Soviet Union and Eastern Europe in the Age of Decolonisation, Oxford University Press, 318-357.
• Mark J. (2022) Race, Socialism Goes Global: The Soviet Union and Eastern Europe in the Age of Decolonisation, Oxford University Press, 211-254.
• Mark J, Marung S. (2022) Origins, Socialism Goes Global, Oxford University Press (OUP), 25-74, DOI:10.1093/oso/9780192848857.003.0002.
• Burton E, Mark J, Marung S. (2022) Development, Socialism Goes Global, Oxford University Press (OUP), 75-114, DOI:10.1093/oso/9780192848857.003.0003.

2021

• Spaskovska L, Mark J, Bieber F. (2021) Introduction: Internationalism in Times of Nationalism: Yugoslavia, Nonalignment, and the Cold War, Nationalities Papers, volume 49, pages 409-412, DOI:10.1017/nps.2021.19.

2020

• Forsdick C, Mark J, Spišiaková E. (2020) Introduction. From Populism to Decolonisation: how we remember in the twenty-first century, The global crisis in memory: populism, decolonisation and how we remember in the twenty-first century, Liverpool University Press. [PDF]
• Mark J, Forsdick C, Spišiaková E. (2020) The global crisis in memory: populism, decolonisation and how we remember in the twenty-first century, Liverpool University Press. [PDF]
• Mark J, Iacob BC, Rupprecht T. (2020) The Struggle over 1989, Legacy of Division: East and West After 1989, Central European Press, 123-133.
• Mark J, Kalinovsky A, Marung S. (2020) Introduction - Alternative Globalizations: Eastern Europe and the Postcolonial World, Alternative Encounters. Eastern Europe and the Postcolonial World, Indiana University Press.
• Mark JA, Kalinovsky A, Marung S. (2020) Alternative Globalizations. Eastern Europe and the Postcolonial World, Indiana University Press. [PDF]
• Mark JA, Feygin I. (2020) The Soviet Union, Eastern Europe and Alternative Visions of a Global Economy 1950s-1980s, Alternative Encounters. Eastern Europe and the Postcolonial World, Indiana University Press.

2019

• Mark J. (2019) La criminalisation des régimes nazi et fasciste dans le bloc socialiste, Condamner le passé? Mémoires des passés autoritaires en Europe et en Amérique latine, Presses Universitaires de Nanterre.
• Mark J, Richardson-Little N, Dietz H. (2019) Thematic issue: Socialism and Human Rights in East Central Europe since 1945, East Central Europe 46/2-3.
• Mark JA, Richardson-Little N, Dietz H. (2019) New Perspectives on Socialism and Human Rights in East Central Europe since 1945, East Central Europe, volume 46/ 2-3.
• Mark JA, Gehrig S, Betts P, Goddeeris I, Christiaens K. (2019) The Eastern Bloc, Human Rights, and the Global Fight against Apartheid, East Central Europe, volume 46, pages 290-317, DOI:10.1163/18763308-04602007.
• Calori A, Mark J. (2019) Between East and South: Spaces of Interaction in the Globalizing Economy of the Cold War, de Gruyter. [PDF]
• Mark JA. (2019) The End of Alternative Spaces of Globalisation? Transformations from the 1980s to the 2010s, Between East and South: Spaces of Interaction in the Globalizing Economy of the Cold War, de Gruyter.
• Mark JA, Rupprecht T, Spaskovska L, Iacob B. (2019) 1989: A Global History of Eastern Europe, Cambridge University Press, DOI:10.1017/9781108576703. [PDF]
• Mark JA, Betts P, Goddeeris I, Christiaens K. (2019) Race, Socialism and Solidarity: Anti-Apartheid in Eastern Europe, A Global history of anti-apartheid: 'Forward to freedom' in South Africa, Palgrave, DOI:10.1007/978-3-030-03652-2_6. [PDF]
• Mark JA, Rupprecht T. (2019) The Socialist World In In Global History. From Absentee To Victim To Co-Producer, The Practice of Global History: European Perspectives, Bloomsbury. [PDF]

2018

• Mark JA. (2018) Blog series entitled Post/Colonial Hungary.
• Mark JA, Apor P. (2018) A „Nyugat” És Magyarország Reprezentációja A Politikai, Az Értelmiségi És Az Alternatív Kultúrában, 1963–2015, Kétezer.
• Mark JA, Slobodian Q. (2018) Eastern Europe in the Global History of Decolonization, The Oxford Handbook of the Ends of Empire, Oxford University Press. [PDF]
• Mark JA, Apor P. (2018) An Ambivalent Relationship: The “West” and Hungary in Official, Political, Intellectual and Dissenting Cultures, Nachbarschaften im Schatten der großen Politik. Von Grenzen und Grenzüberschreitungen im geteilten Europa 1968-1989, Fibre Verlag.

2017

• Mark JA. (2017) Organisation of an exhibition of Tito memorabilia.
• Mark JA. (2017) Tito exhibition.
• Mark JA. (2017) Tito in Africa touring exhibition.
• Mark JA, Rupprecht T. (2017) Europe#s "1989" in Global Context, The Cambridge History of Communism: Volume 3, Endgames? Late Communism in Global Perspective, 1968 to the Present, Cambridge University Press.
• Mark J, Christiaens K, Faraldo J. (2017) Entangled Transitions, Special Issue, Contemporary European History, 26/4, November 2017, CUP.
• Mark JA, Apor P, Horváth S. (2017) Introduction: Collaboration , Cooperation and Political Participation in Communist Regimes, Secret Agents and the Memory of Everyday Collaboration in Communist Eastern Europe, Anthem Press, 1-20.
• Apor P, Horváth S, Mark JA. (2017) Secret Agents and the Memory of Everyday Collaboration in Communist Eastern Europe, Anthem Press. [PDF]
• Mark JA, Rupprecht T. (2017) 1989 in Global Context, Cambridge History of Communism Vol. 3, Cambridge University Press.
• Mark JA. (2017) ‘The Spanish Analogy’: Imagining the Future in State Socialist Hungary 1948–1989, Contemporary European History, volume 26/4, November 2017, pages 600-620.
• Mark JA, Christiaens K, Faraldo J. (2017) Entangled Transitions: Eastern and Southern European Convergence or Alternative Europes? 1960s–2000s, Contemporary European History, volume 26/4, pages 1-27.

2016

• Gildea R, Mark J, Pas N. (2016) European Radicals and the ‘Third World’, Cultural and Social History, volume 8, no. 4, pages 449-471, DOI:10.2752/147800411x13105523597733.
• Gildea R, Mark J. (2016) Voices of Europe's '68, Cultural and Social History, volume 8, no. 4, pages 441-448, DOI:10.2752/147800411x13105523597698.

2015

• Mark JA. (2015) SGG twitter feed.
• Mark JA. (2015) SGG web site.
• Mark JA. (2015) 1989 After 1989: Remembering the End of Communism in East-Central Europe, Thinking through Transition. Liberal Democracy, Authoritarian Pasts, and Intellectual History in East Central Europe After 1989, CEU Press, 463-504.
• Mark JA, Apor P. (2015) Socialism Goes Global: Decolonization and the making of a new culture of internationalism in Socialist Hungary 1956-1989, Journal of Modern History, volume 87, pages 852-891, DOI:10.1086/683608.
• Mark JA, Saunders A, Blaive M, Hudek A, Tyszka S. (2015) 1989 After 1989: Remembering the End of State Socialism in East-Central Europe, Thinking Through Transition: Liberal Democracy, Authoritarian Pasts, and Intellectual History in East Central Europe After 1989, CEU Press.
• Mark JA, Apor P, Osęka P, Vučetić R. (2015) “We are with You, Vietnam”: Transnational Solidarities in Socialist Hungary, Poland and Yugoslavia, Journal of Contemporary History, volume 50, pages 439-464, DOI:10.1177/0022009414558728.
• Mark JA, Bracke M. (2015) Between Decolonization and the Cold War: Transnational Activism and its Limits in Europe, 1950s–90s, Journal of Contemporary History.
• Mark J, Bracke M. (2015) 'Between Decolonisation and the Cold War: Transnational Activism and Its Limits in Europe 1950s-1990s' (special issue of the Journal of Contemporary History).

2014

• Mark JA, Tolmár, B. (2014) Connecting the Peaceful Roads to Socialism? The Rise and Fall of a Culture of Chilean Solidarity in Socialist Hungary 1965-1989, European Solidarity with Chile. 1970s-1980s, Peter Lang.

2013

• Clifford R, Furst J, Gildea R, Mark J, Osęka P, Reynolds C. (2013) Spaces, Europe's 1968, Oxford University Press (OUP), 164-192, DOI:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199587513.003.0007.

2011

• Mark JA, Gildea R. (2011) Voices of Europe's '68 (Special Issue of Cultural and Social History).
• Mark JA. (2011) Voices of Europe's 1968 (Special Issue: Cultural and Social History), Berg.
• Mark JA, Gildea R. (2011) "Introduction. Voices of Europe's '68', Cultural and Social History, volume 4, no. 8, pages 441-448.
• Mark JA, Apor P. (2011) Mobilizing Generation: The Idea of 1968 in Hungary, Talkin' 'bout my generation. Conflicts of Generation Building and Europe's 1968, Wallstein, 99-118.

2010

• Mark JA. (2010) What Remains? Anti-Communism, Forensic Archaeology and the Retelling of the National Past in Lithuania and Romania, Past and Present, no. 206, pages 276-300. [PDF]

2008

• Mark JA. (2008) Containing Fascism: History in Post-Communist Baltic Occupation and Genocide Museums, Past for the Eyes: East European Representations of Communism in Cinema and Museums after 1989, Central European University Press, 335-369.
• Mark JA. (2008) Antifascism, the 1956 Revolution and the politics of communist autobiographies in Hungary 1944 - 2000, Challenging Communism in Eastern Europe: 1956 and its Legacy.

2006

• Mark JA. (2006) Antifascism, the 1956 Revolution and the politics of communist autobiographies in Hungary 1944 - 2000, Europe-Asia Studies, volume 58, no. 8, pages 1209-1240, DOI:10.1080/09668130600995764.

2005

• Mark JA. (2005) Discrimination, opportunity and middle-class success in early Communist Hungary, The Historical Journal, volume 48, no. 2, pages 499-521, DOI:10.1017/S0018246X05004486.
• Mark JA. (2005) Remembering Rape: Divided Social Memory and the Red Army in Hungary 1944-1945, Past & Present, volume 188, no. 1, pages 133-161, DOI:10.1093/pastj/gti020.
• Mark JA. (2005) Society, Resistance and Revolution: The Budapest Middle Class and the Hungarian Communist State 1948-56, The English Historical Review, volume 120, no. 488, pages 963-986, DOI:10.1093/ehr/cei242.

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Teaching

Modules taught

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Biography

I completed my BA in History, M.Phil. in Russian and East European Studies and a D.Phil. at the University of Oxford. I have worked in the History Department at Exeter since 2004.

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