Deadline: October 31, 2022
Comparative Slavic
Historically, the philological traditions of Slavic Studies have proven somewhat resistant to comparativist inquiry. Yet Russia’s brutal invasion of Ukraine, as well as a long overdue reckoning with the question of race in research and professional practices, have brought into focus the urgent imperative to decolonize and diversify the scope of Slavic Studies. What tools from Comparative Literature might help to fuel this revision?
This seminar aims to bridge the banks of Comparative Literature and Slavic Studies. It invites papers from scholars writing for audiences in both fields and hopes to provide a space for productive conversations about their respective disciplinary expectations, conventions, and trends, while also forging paths for new directions. We welcome papers that explicitly address these questions of disciplinarity, as well as those drawn from exemplary research that straddles the Slavic/Comp Lit divide and that blend a commitment to philological precision with comparative theoretical inquiry. We also especially welcome contributions from graduate students who are expecting to go on the job market in both Comparative Literature and Slavic, as the stream will aim to provide a space to think through strategies for reaching these different audiences.
Possible contributions include, but are not limited to:
Papers that employ the tools of one field on the archives of the other; for example, applications of theoretical concepts seemingly the preserve of specialized Slavic study in a comparative context, or of those that originated in Comparative Literature contexts in a Slavic studies context.Papers that focus on comparison between so-called “minor” and “major” Slavic languages: how does that comparison function “within” Slavic studies? Consideration of topics in postcolonial theory or critical race theory applied to the territories of the former Eastern Bloc or YugoslaviaPapers that critically engage with the discursive histories of either Slavic Studies or Comparative Literature in Eastern Europe. Potential topics could include:
the comparative historical development of the discipline of Slavic Studies in both Slavic and non-Slavic countriesthe development of Comparative Literature studies within the countries of Eastern Europethe role that Title VI, Title VIII, and other federal funding has played in shaping U.S. Slavic Studieschallenges arising from the fact that the anglophone scholarly discourse colloquially named “Slavic Studies” has historically also housed the study of Eastern European and Eurasian literatures that don’t identify as Slavichow certain scholarly trends have shaped the representation of Eastern European literatures in anglophone scholarship (for instance, the disproportionate focus on South Slavic folklore as opposed to other literary forms; or the historically attenuated relationship of Slavic Studies to gender and queer theory)