Ekaterina Kalemeneva and Elena Kochetkova, Research associates of the Center for Historical Research took part in the 11th International Conference “Transport and Borders”

On September 25 – 28, 2013 Ekaterina Kalemeneva and Elena Kochetkova, Research associates of the Center for Historical Research, Faculty of History, National Research University Higher School of Economics in St.Petersburg took part in the 11th International Conference “Transport and Borders” held in Kouvola (Finland) and Saint-Petersburg (Russia). The event was organized by the International Association for the History of Transport, Traffic and Mobility (T2M).

The Association was founded in 2003 as a ground for international interdisciplinary research of mobility and transport. Previous annual conferences were focused on such issues as tourism, sustainable mobility, energy and innovation, safety and some other exiting topics.

The theme of the conference of this year was on transport and borders in all parts of the world. During four days of the conference participants presented  60 very interesting papers at 18 panels. A hallmark of the event was dividing of four conference days between two cities located in the neighboring countries. A symbolic moment of the conference was moving from Kouvola to Saint-Petersburg and experiencing the border-crossing in high-speed train Allegro. 

 

Alexandra Bekasova, who is the member of T2M Association, inspired younger colleagues to take part at the conference. She gave a paper “Linking 

Imperial Russia to Europe: the Development of Transport Network,and the Movement of Passengers,Mail,  Goods across the Borders, 1820-1850s”.  It was Elena Kochetkova who organized the panel “Relocating the Borders of the Soviet Union: Infrastructure, Trade and Technology Transfer”. 

Sari Autio-Sarasmo from Aleksanteri Institute chaired the panel. The papers presented dealt with notions of borders, mobility and technology transfer from various perspectives. The papers focused on technology transfer from Finland to Soviet Union during the Cold War, on the role of transport infrastructure in the integration of Finnish territories into the Soviet Karelia,  on broadening the borders of human-built environment in the Soviet North and  city planning, and on transborder trade and the flow of goods between Poland and the Soviet Union. The presentations were followed by inspiring comments made by Sari Autio-Sarasmo and interesting discussion.

Besides giving papers participants have to prepare posters.  Ekaterina Kalemeneva was awarded  a special prize for the best poster. 

 In 19-21September  2013 Elena Kochetkova and Ekaterina Kalemeneva also presented their papers at a conference "Democracy and Technology. Europe in Tension from the 19^th to the 21^st Century", which was organized by Tensions of Europe, a large network for technological studies. This event was held in Paris (Sorbonne).