international conference in Moscow

Wed Feb 5 12:15:27 UTC 2014

The Ideal of Education among the European Nobility

(17th - Early 19th Century)

International Conference

Moscow, Friday 26 - Saturday 27 September 2014

Deutsches Historisches Institut Moskau

Nakhimovsky prospekt, 51/21, Moscow

*Coorganized by: *Deutsches Historisches Institut Moskau, the Centre
franco-russe en sciences humaines et sociales de Moscou, the Centre
d'études des mondes russes, caucasien et centre-européen (EHESS, Paris) and
International Research Group no. 375 'Russia and Western Europe: Transfers
and Cultural Flows', the National Research University 'Higher School of
Economics' (Moscow), with the support of the Federal University of the
Urals (Ekaterinburg).

*Organizing committee: *Wladimir Berelowitch (EHESS), Vladislav Rjéoutski
(DHI Moskau).

*Scientific committee*: Jean Boutier (EHESS, Marseille), Igor Fedyukin
(Higher School of Economics, Moscow), Dominique Julia (CNRS/EHESS, Paris),
Alexandr Kamensky (Higher School of Economics, Moscow), Victor Karady
(Central European University, Budapest), Olga Kosheleva (Institute of
General History, Moscow), Jan Kusber (Johannes Gutenberg-Universität,
Mainz), Alexandre Tchoudinov (Institute of General History, Moscow).

>From the 17th to the early 19th century, the education of young noblemen in
Europe underwent important transformations under the influence of social
evolution, the development of ideas and the action of political and
religious authorities. These transformations, most of which went beyond the
scope of the nobility and concerned all the elites, resulted in the
invention of new institutional forms (for example, the proliferation of
Catholic and Protestant colleges and military schools and later schools of
engineering, the foundation of schools for girls and new universities and
the evolution of university systems and so forth) and the systematization
of new practices (the spread and subsequent criticism of boarding schools,
the rise of individual and home education, the educational *Grand Tour, *the
decline of Latin and traditional disciplines and their replacement with new
ones, including French). These material forms were accompanied by the
evolution of ideas which may also have caused them. This period was indeed
very rich in educational projects which increased steadily in number, at
the level of states and at that of the elites as well. At the same time
(and this is probably not simply a coincidence), the elites, and especially
the nobility, to varying degrees, went through a difficult process of
self-definition and were challenged. Finally, this period, starting from
the middle of the 18th century in particular, was characterized by the
intensive spread of educational models throughout Europe. These models were
often claimed to be universal, but were in fact frequently associated with
one nation, either by their supporters or by their opponents. This was the
case, for example, with German university models, British education or what
was later called, in the discourses of its detractors, the 'French model'.
The educational requirements formulated by European elites were influenced
by the evolution of these institutions, practices and state projects and it
is necessary to take them into account if we want to understand correctly
the numerous and various discourses on education produced at the time.

The purpose of this conference is to study ideas on the education of
nobilities in order to better understand the educational, political,
cultural and social ideals which served as their basis or which emerged
from them.

The period chosen for this study is delimited by the great religious crises
of the 16th century, at one end, and the political crises and wars of the
late 18th and early 19th centuries, at the other.

For the reasons explained above, in particular the spread of educational
models, it is important to include in our study the whole of Europe, with
special attention to Eastern Europe and Russia (the Russian court and
nobility, and also German-speaking nobilities from the Baltic provinces and
from German states, the Ukrainian and Polish nobilities). The
historiography on this question in these areas is less well developed than
for Western Europe and is less well known in Western countries, and yet the
study of these countries, in which transfers took place much later than in
Western Europe, allows fruitful comparisons and gives valuable insights
into the evolution of education across the continent as a whole, not just
in these countries.

Sources for this analysis are mainly to be found in documents produced by
the social milieu which was primarily concerned with this phenomenon,
namely the aristocracy and the low nobility, and the educators as well. Various
sources can be used in this research, such as philosophical and moral
texts, treatises on the nobility, legislative and statutory texts,
educational projects, correspondence, memoirs and diaries, literary works,
etc.

The list of the questions open to discussion comprises but is not limited
to:

·        What were the purposes of the education of a nobleman and the
educational models used in various European countries, and to what extent
did these models circulate in Europe?

·         What types of education were valued by nobilities and how did
these preferences evolve over the period in question in various European
countries?

·        What were the interactions (stimulation, transformation,
conflicts, total inadequacy) between these objectives and the existing
means (institutional, financial, human, practical) used in noble education?

·         The spread and the reception of key notions of the education of
the nobility such as "honnête homme", "homme de cour", "politesse",
"civilité", "citoyen".

·       The adaptation of models of noble education to modernity, social
evolution, the politics of monarchies and republics.

·         Opposition to models of noble education and dissident tendencies
within the nobility itself.

The working languages of the conference are English and Russian, with
simultaneous translation.

Proposals for papers (of 20 minutes duration) should be sent to the
following addresses by 15 May 2014: Vladislav.Rjeoutski at dhi-moskau.org /
wladimir.berelowitch at ehess.fr. They should include the title, the name of
the author, her/his organizational affiliation and an abstract of 250-300
words. Notification of acceptance will be sent by the organizing committee
by 15 June 2014. Financial support for participation in the conference can
be offered to a limited number of participants.

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