Symposium – Tuteishasts’ revisited: Belarusian identities between belonging and displacement

In an influential article from 2008, Alex Pershai proposed tuteishasts’ (“from-here-ness”) as a useful concept for understanding the processes of constructing Belarusian identity, both historically, and in in contemporary Belarus as well. This concept challenged core precepts of the commonly-held organising principles of identity construction, such as nationalism, by emphasizing space sharing, power relations, and positionality. Instead of focusing on supposed core, unifying traits that define and homogenise identities, it is more about relational identity, cultural agency, and subversion of systems to create alternative ways of being.

Since the article first appeared, Belarusian society has undergone major changes: significant groups have been displaced externally into exile, particularly as a result of the events of August 2020 and their aftermath, while other groups remaining within Belarus experience alienation, marginalisation, and systematic state neglect as a form of non-geographic displacement, of societal limbo or internal exile. As such, one may ask whether “from-here-ness” is still a useable frame for analysing Belarusian identity, when the very nature and role of this “here” for many Belarusians is in flux.

This one-day symposium is devoted to revisiting tuteishasts’ as a concept for discussing Belarusian identity construction across academic disciplines today. Following a keynote address by Pershai, scholars from various fields will discuss whether and how tuteishasts’ remains a useful theoretical tool, and whether its definition has evolved through use since Pershai’s original formulation.

More information and programme TBA.