Research into the field of international cultural transfer has revealed the reciprocal impact of intercultural encounters and the degree to which these contribute to the transformation of individual nations and societies. Examining interculturality in Eastern Europe means expanding one’s focus to processes of transnational entanglement.

Drawing on research into the art, urban, economic and social history of a long period stretching from the 16th century to the present, this subject area covers a broad spectrum of topics. These include questions about the sociocultural particularities of an Early Modern urban community or the infrastructure of post-socialist artistic production; questions about the cultures of economic activity in the region under »the global condition« since the late 19th century; questions about the cultural significance of work in the state-socialist industrial society as compared to the capitalist welfare state; or economic factors impacting the constructions of images of the self and the other around 1900. The research topics are characterised by their methodological diversity and critical interrogation of long-established conceptions of centre and periphery, model and reception, progress and backwardness, while they also challenge essentialist constructions of identity.