In this episode, Boerries Kuzmany, assistant professor for Habsburg and East European History at the University of Vienna, talks to us about ethnic and religious diversity in the Habsburg province of Galicia, specifically the city of Brody located today near Ukraine’s border with Poland.
Boerries is also the principal investigator for the “Non-Territorial Autonomy as Minority Protection in Europe” project, funded by the European Research Council. He explains the concept of non-territorial autonomy and its potential for minority protection. Originally articulated by Austrian Social Democrats at the turn of the 20th century, the idea of non-territorial autonomy was incorporated into the political agenda of several newly established governments in Eastern Europe in the interwar period as a method for managing ethnic diversity. Despite its recognized limitations, Boerries argues that the concept endures as a suitable model for multi-ethnic states and continues to appeal to politicians and theorists worldwide.
Study Group for Minority History 