In my Postdoc project, I explore naturism as a transnational, non-conformist practice for which international nudist organizations had evolved before and after WWII. In this presentation, I will focus on the Yugoslav-Italian entanglements in the history of naturism. The history of naturism (and Freikörperkultur (FKK)) in the twentieth century is rooted in alternative social reform movements (“Lebensreform Bewegungen”) that had already emerged by the nineteenth century German areas. Their diverse protagonists propagated changing society through body awareness and alternative body practices. After sketching these roots, I will present the interwoven developments of naturism in Italy and the former Yugoslavias from the beginning of the 1920s until the 1980s. Yugoslav and Italian naturists’ participation in the International Naturist Federation (INF-FNI) will be of special importance.
Dr. Jacqueline Nießer is Postdoc in Cultural Studies and History at the Graduate School for East and Southeast European Studies at the University of Regensburg researching transnational entanglements in the history of naturism in the former Yugoslavias. Before that she held fellowships at the Leibniz-Campus “Eastern Europe Global Area” at the University of Leipzig and at the “Center for Transdisciplinary Research of Violence, Trauma and Justice” (VITRI) at the Charles University in Prague. Jacqueline also has coordinated the EU Horizon 2020 international research project “COURAGE – Cultural Opposition in Socialism” at the Leibniz-Institute for East and Southeast European Studies in Regensburg for three years. Jacqueline wrote her PhD about transnational memory activism in post Yugoslavia at the Graduate School for East and Southeast European Studies in Regensburg.