Jessica Richter at Department of Memory Studies in Brno, Monday, May 12th, 13:30

The Institute of Ethnology CAS, Department of Memory Studies, invites you to a lecture by Jessica Richter (Universität Wien, Institut für Geschichte des ländlichen Raumes St. Pölten), titled “Researching Domestic and Rural Workers: The “Collection of Biographical Records” at the University of Vienna.“ For more than 40 years, the “Collection of Biographical Records” (https://wirtschaftsgeschichte.univie.ac.at/forschung/doku-lebensgeschichten/) at the Department of Economic and Social History of Vienna University, a close relative of the “Databáze dějin všedního dne“ (https://www.hiu.cas.cz/databaze-dejin-vsedniho-dne) in Prague, has been collecting auto/biographical accounts of people from all occupations. Today, the number of available documents has grown to more than 12,000 – including life stories from landless rural and domestic workers from the first half of the 20th century, which are otherwise only sparsely preserved in archives and collections. Jessica Richter gives an introduction to its sources and activities and presents her research on domestic and agricultural workers at the beginning of the 20th century in Austria. The life stories show the many uncertainties that the authors had to deal with: not only did they organise their livelihoods under precarious conditions in a barely regulated field of work, but their life courses were also characterised by mobility and constant change.

The lecture can be attended online via MS Teams – link (Meeting ID: 313 608 445 534; Passcode: 4Sy3rT9Q).