Conferences/Seminars – CREEES Professional Resources Forum

January 26, 2023January 26, 2023

CFP: Character Assassination, Illiberalism, and the Erosion of Civic Rights

Deadline: February 15, 2023

On June 21-23, the University of Amsterdam and VU University in collaboration with CARP (the Research Lab for Character Assassination and Reputation Politics) and the Illiberalism Studies Program will host the interdisciplinary conference “Character Assassination, Illiberalism, and the Erosion of Civic Rights”. We invite all scholars of Slavic, East European Studies and Eurasian Studies to submit an abstract.

Liberal democracies face multiple external challenges from autocracies across the world, as well as internal challenges from populist politicians, nativism, and the normalization of incivility in media and political discourses. Character assassination (CA) often accompanies these political and social conflicts, especially when unresolved ideological and moral issues are involved. Social conflicts become aggravated when moral issues intermix with political and economic factors. Factions then resort to persuasive attacks on character to delegitimize and disempower their opponents. This increased polarization and aggressiveness of elite rhetoric likely foster voters’ cynicism and discontent with politics as usual. The increasing gap between liberal elites and the disgruntled electorate, in turn, likely provides even more fertile ground for intra-elite conflict, and paves the way for illiberal conceptions of the democratic order.

January 19, 2023January 19, 2023

CFP: Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies, “The American Century & Its Challenges: U.S., Russia, P.R. China.”CFP:

Deadline: March 15, 2023

It is by now legendary that the 20th century was “the American Century.” But, did the West celebrate prematurely the implosion of the Soviet empire? Apart from the “Havana Syndrome,” Putin’s Russia, and its war in Ukraine, remains a major geopolitical rival, with its hackers holding U.S. companies hostage for ransom. Among communist one-party states–People’s Republic of China, N. Korea, Vietnam, Laos, and Cuba–“China” poses the greatest challenge. China’s hackers steal U.S. civilian and military tech secrets, while its trade and investment policies, 5G broadband, quantum communications, and Artificial Intelligence aim to create dependent “vassal” states, undermining democracies abroad, and suppressing dissent at home (laogai-the Chinese Gulag). Thus, U.S. companies are constrained by lack of parts that are manufactured abroad, including strategic high tech and medicines. A 2020 student petition demanded the closure of Confucius institutes in U.S., most of which reopened under different names reflecting China’s Playbook of disinformation, censorship, and control, enticing foreign entities with gifts (Trojan Horses), with strings attached. The question arises: Can the U.S. heal its unprecedented internal social divisions of identity politics, and find the courage to withstand China’s “smoke-and-mirrors” gambit for world domination? According to David P. Goldman’s You Will Be Assimilated: China’s Plan to Sino-Form the World, “China” has seized the Fourth Industrial Revolution and thrown down the gauntlet globally, seeking the ultimate triumph of its “Made in China” strategy. Can democracies compete with dictatorships in the 21st century without becoming like their adversaries? And, can the U.S. declare its economic independence, rebuild its manufacturing, and strengthen democratic institutions, while reclaiming its technological leadership?

This proposed thematic volume has a double-focus:
(A) Russia-Ukraine Conflict;
(B) P.R. China’s Quest for World Dominance.

January 19, 2023January 19, 2023

Conference: Provincializing Russian (Justus Liebig University, Germany)

Event Date: January 20-21, 2023

We are pleased to announce the international conference “Provincializing Russian” that will be held at Justus Liebig University Giessen (Germany) on January 20-21, 2023.

Organizers: Tamara Hundorova (Kyiv/Giessen), Dirk Uffelmann (Giessen)

In his seminal monograph “Provincializing Europe: Postcolonial Thought and Historical Difference” (2000), Dipesh Chakrabarty invited to decolonize the historical narrative produced by the West because, as he stated, all national histories were traditionally considered variations of the main narrative of the history of Europe.

The Kenyan scholar Simon Gikandi reformulated Chakrabarty’s decolonial thesis of the provincialization of Europe, bringing up the task of “provincializing English” (2014). He questions his belonging to such a postcolonial intellectual community, calls himself a “child of empire,” and speaks of the necessity of “constantly rethink[ing]” his ambivalent relation with the English language, “a language that is both mine and someone else’s, one that I am simultaneously inside and outside.” Is “creative writing, seen as the most immediate form of self-assertion, possible in the language of the colonizers?”–he asks.

January 19, 2023January 19, 2023

CFP: Migration Narratives and Border Studies (University of Gdansk)

Deadline: March 1, 2023

The Border Studies Group (BSG) and the International Border Studies Center (IBSC) at the University of Gdansk welcome proposals for the Border Seminar 2023 on the theme of “Migration Narratives”, as well as the wider field of Border Studies, especially as it relates to accounts of migration experience and the emerging interdisciplinary field of border aesthetics.

The Border Seminar is an interdisciplinary conference organized at the University of Gdańsk by the BSG, an international team of literary/cultural scholars, linguists, historians, sociologists, artists, and educators interested in research and pedagogy centered on the notion of the border.

Johan Schimanski and Jopi Nyman (2021) argue that migration is the “master narrative” underlying the conceptual metaphors and concrete images of “the path, the bridge, the door (and implicitly the threshold) and the window,” which Georg Simmel, in his pioneering work on “border aesthetics,” proposed as “the central figurations of the divisions and joinings between different spaces”. Schimanski and Nyman apply Simmel’s concepts to explain that “migrants follow routes (paths), they pass through crossing points (bridges), they are excluded and have to wait outside selective barriers in order to enter (doors), and they can see a better life on the other side of the border (windows)” (Schimanski and Nyman). In other words, border aesthetics can be thought of as imaginings of migration or movement articulated as border-crossings and bordering processes.

January 19, 2023January 19, 2023

CFP: SlavX #Connexions Conference (UT Austin)

Deadline: February 24, 2023

SlavX invites you to the #Connexions Conference at The University of Texas at Austin, April 9-12, 2023. Creating an international space for discourse on global media in diplomacy and foreign policy, #Connexions will bring together multidisciplinary scholars, policy experts, and media practitioners to share current research, experience, and expertise on the highly complex and hostile media landscape in order to make informed policy recommendations for a more effectual U.S. communications strategy in regions of social and political upheaval.

Through panels, talks, and moderated discussions, established and emerging experts will take a multi-pronged approach to modern communications, highlighting the inestimable power of media as not only a tool for persuasion, education, nation-building, and mass mobilization, but also as a weapon. Panels will feature the work of current media organizations abroad; delve into the history of media diplomacy and propaganda efforts, particularly during the twentieth century; and lay bare the many information challenges today, particularly in countries like China, Russia, and Afghanistan, and in the Middle East region as well. Furthermore, with disinformation as an added aspect of modern warfare, UT Austin’s Global Disinformation Lab will be a featured research partner, presenting recent findings, policy recommendations, and solutions for the convoluted “post-truth” world.

This event will take place both in-person and virtually to enable global participation. Registration for in-person attendance opens January 17, 2023. Our CALL FOR PAPERS is open now!

January 12, 2023January 12, 2023

CFP: Content-Based Teaching of Russian

Deadline: January 28, 2023

Call for Proposals for Research and Pedagogical Case Studies

Content-Based Teaching of Russian

Do you teach content in Russian as a foreign, second, or heritage language? Please consider submitting a proposal for the edited volume Content-Based Teaching of Russian in the Routledge series on Russian language pedagogy and research

We would like to hear from various fields and backgrounds of Russian language instruction. Language of publication: English; 3,000 to 8,000 words + references and appendices.

We are equally interested in theory-heavy explorations, research, and submissions that focus on teaching practice. International participation is especially encouraged.

Submit proposals to the editors Svetlana Nuss, University of Alaska, and Maria Khotimsky, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, via https://forms.gle/y3UVTaiab8fphLHR6

Proposal requirements: up to a 300-word expression of interest, outlining main arguments and methodology, if applicable, along with a short professional background of the author/s.

January 12, 2023January 12, 2023

CFP: Wisconsin Slavic Conference

Deadline: February 19, 2023

Wisconsin Slavic Conference

March 24-25, 2023

University of Wisconsin-Madison

Abstracts for 20-minute papers on any aspect of Slavic literatures, cultures (including film, music, and the visual arts), linguistics, and history are invited for the annual Wisconsin Slavic Conference. Comparative topics and interdisciplinary approaches are welcome and encouraged. The conference will be held in-person at the University of Wisconsin-Madison on Friday and Saturday, March 24 and 25, 2023.

Recent conference programs are available on the Wisconsin Slavic Conference website at https://gns.wisc.edu/2022/04/19/wisconsin-slavic-conference-2022/

This year’s keynote lecture will be delivered by Professor Yuliya Ilchuk (Stanford University).

To present a paper at the Wisconsin Slavic Conference, please submit a proposal by February 19, 2023.

January 12, 2023January 12, 2023

2023 National Post-Secondary Russian Essay Contest (NPSREC)

Deadline: February 26, 2023

This contest, established in 1999 by ACTR, has become a signature Russian language contest for post-secondary students around the country. Students taking Russian in accredited colleges and universities are invited to participate in the annual National Post-Secondary Russian Essay Contest sponsored by the American Council of Teachers of Russian (ACTR).

Who can register?

Instructors at any post-secondary institution can register students enrolled in Russian language courses.
At least one instructor per participation institution must be a current ACTR member.

How much does it cost?

$5.00 per student.

What are the deadlines?

January 15: First day to register
February 6: Essay topic will be announced via email to institutions with registered students. If you register students after this date, you will receive the email within one business day of registering students.
February 7: First day to administer the essay contest
February 8: First day to upload essays
February 20: Last day to register students
February 24: Last day to administer essay contest
February 26: Last day to upload essays and pay fees
April 15-20: Results posted
April 30: Physical certificates will be mailed to those who request it.

January 6, 2023January 6, 2023

Call for Proposals for Research and Pedagogical Case Studies/ Content-Based Teaching of Russian

Deadline: January 28, 2023

Do you teach content in Russian as a foreign, second, or heritage language? Please consider submitting a proposal for the edited volume Content-Based Teaching of Russian in the Routledge series on Russian language pedagogy and research

We would like to hear from various fields and backgrounds of Russian language instruction. Language of publication: English; 3,000 to 8,000 words + references and appendices.

January 6, 2023January 6, 2023

CFP: Life in the Face of War (Gagarin Center, Bard College)

Deadline: January 16, 2023

The Gagarin Center of Bard College invites scholars, graduate students and practitioners of related fields to participate in Life in the Face of War: Political Challenges, Social Responses, Cultural Shifts an international conference, which will be held on April, 13 – 14, 2023, in New York City.