Conference: Moving Beyond The Center-Periphery Dynamics: Central and Eastern Europe From The Mid-19th Century to The Present

April 5-6, 2024 | University of Ottawa, Canada 

May 30-31, 2024 | University of Lille, France

Since the 18th century, the discourse on modernization—understood as a process aiming to align social organization with the expectations and needs of societies and carrying a promise of emancipation—identifies the Western form of modernity, in its political (democracy) and economic (capitalism) dimensions, as a model to follow. In the multicultural empires of Central and Eastern Europe, divergences in the paths and rhythms of political, economic, and social modernization engraved in collective imaginaries the idea of a structural delay of these societies compared to the rest of Europe, relegating them to the periphery—or semi-periphery—of the Western world (Ivan T. Berend). Since the works of Larry Wolf and Maria Todorova, this sort of intra-European orientalism has been deconstructed. Nevertheless, the discourse of structural delay in this part of Europe compared to the core of the western world has been influential in the Austrian, Russian, and Ottoman empires and in the countries that succeeded them, from the end of the First World War to today. This discourse justified structural reforms and enabled the rise of social groups interested in and useful for these reforms. It also fueled dissenting discourses and contributed to the production of alternative models, in a relationship of interdependence and exchange with countries situated in the core of the Western world (Claudia Kraft). This conference aims to examine the experience of Central and Eastern European countries with the modernization process from the late 18th century to the present, beyond the center-periphery dynamics.

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Call for Applications: 2024 Research Training Workshop

Deadline: March 1, 2024

At the Summer Research Laboratory on Russia, Eastern Europe, and Eurasia
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

June 14-15, 2024

Moderators:
Professor Anna Whittington (Department of History, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign)
Dr. Nataliia Laas (Yale Jackson School of Global Affairs)

Soviet Citizenship in Flux: New Perspectives on Late Socialism and After

The Russian war on Ukraine has raised the question of why the relations between the citizens and the state diverge greatly in different post-Soviet states. This research training workshop starts from the supposition that many of these differences stem from differentiated and unequal practices of citizenship in the late Soviet era. We seek to bring together scholars working across a wide geographic and temporal spectrum, illuminating both differences in the discourses and practices of citizenship and their evolution over time and space. Key themes include the relationship between center and “peripheries”; the tensions between citizenship as conceived by political and cultural elites and citizens; the formation of new rituals and practices to promote belonging; the transformation of citizenship practices at times of upheaval and uncertainty; and the varied and contested legacies of Soviet citizenship across the former Soviet Union. We are especially interested in papers that offer political, social, economic, and ecological perspectives on late socialism and early independence.

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CFP: The 6th Workshop on Business History in Central and Eastern Europe (University of Vienna)

Deadline: April 15, 2024

supported by European Business History Association (EBHA)

Business History and Transformations in Central & Eastern Europe

Place: University of Vienna 

Date: October 24-25, 2024

Call for papers 

Abstract template

This year’s workshop is entitled “Business History and Transformations in Central & Eastern Europe”. Its focus will be on the variety of challenges that enterprises and entrepreneurs had to cope with during times of significant political, economic, social, and cultural changes and upheavals in the region of CEE from the 19th century to the early 21st century. We recognize the events of the revolutionary uprisings across CEE in 1848/49, the Austro-Hungarian compromise of 1867, the (re)emergence of new states in CEE after the end of the First World War 1918, the rise of state-socialist dictatorships in CEE after 1945, or the systemic transformations of 1989-91 as profound turning points in the history of CEE. However, we also agree that these events cannot be reduced to isolated “numeric keywords” as they were rather peaks of longer-lasting processes of change(s). We thus refer to concepts of transformation that emphasize transformation as a process of “accelerated” political, economic, and societal change with an often “unspecified” time frame of its beginning and its end (see for example Ther 2014; Kührer-Wielach, Lemmen 2016). Although there is a scholarly consensus that entrepreneurship is an important driver of transformational processes, the question of “how entrepreneurs initiate, contribute to, prevent, or foster transformation in markets and societies” remains largely unexplored (Lubinski et al. 2023, p.5). This question also applies to the role of companies and its various stakeholders in transformation processes. 

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Interdisciplinary Workshop: “Ukrainian Refugees in Germany and the United States after the War: Implications for Global Refugee Policy” (University of Passau, Germany)

Deadline to attend: April 1, 2024


June 28-29, 2024
American Studies, University of Passau
Organizers: Grit Grigoleit-Richter (University of Passau, Germany) and Claudia Sadowski-Smith (Arizona State University, USA)


Keynotes: Miriam Finkelstein (University of Vienna, Austria), Halyna Lemekh (St. Francis College, USA), and Jannis Panagiotidis (University of Vienna, Austria)

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CFP: Chicago Language Symposium (University of Illinois-Chicago_

Deadline: February 21, 2024

CALL FOR PROPOSALS
for
THE CHICAGO LANGUAGE SYMPOSIUM 2024
Action-Oriented Pedagogies in Language Teaching
April 27, 2024
University of Illinois-Chicago
At the turn of the 21st Century, innovative approaches to language teaching
have placed the “learning by doing” principle into focus based on
the premise that students learn a language by using the language. ACTFL’s
Performance Indicators, influenced by the Can-Do Statements of
the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR), have set the
basis for instruction to be action-oriented where the goal
is for students to accomplish relevant and engaging real-world tasks and
projects that need to be completed through the use of the target
language. In such pedagogies, a communicative goal is identified and the
planning follows a backward design that sets the path towards
supporting and assessing students’ accomplishment of the goal. In short, these
innovative pedagogies put the student at the center stage and,
in addition to effectively promoting language learning, they also foster
creativity, critical thinking, problem-solving skills, and intentional
examination of the world through investigation. Our goal for the CLS 2024 is
to explore how pedagogies focused on experiential learning are
designed and implemented in the classroom.

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CFP: Central Asia Forum

Deadline: January 31, 2024

February 28–29, 2024 (on zoom)

Hosted by the Slavic Reference Service

The Central Asia Research Forum aims to bring together scholars in all disciplines and stages of the research process to discuss the many interpretations of the forum theme Civil Society in Central Asia. Since 1991, civil society in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan has undergone significant transformations and revitalization that warrants continued scholarly attention. We invite all those interested to submit proposals for paper presentations, panels, and roundtables on this year’s theme. We also invite proposals that shed light on the current condition of contemporary civil society since the start of the Russia–Ukraine War and how those societies view and interact with each other on their own terms.

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CFP: Titanism: Figures of Social and Political Subjectivity between Superman and Nation-Builder

Deadline: March 15, 2024

International Conference

23-25 May 2024, University of Fribourg

Organised by SNF-Project “Communities of Dialogue: Russian and Ukrainian Émigrés in Modernist Prague”
Official Website: https://comdial.sdvigpress.org/event-100737

The relatively obscure term of “titanism” is at the heart of a complex debate involving prominent Russian and Czech intellectuals of the first third of the twentieth century. Used initially by Nikolaj Berdjaev in his Origins of Russian communism (1937, written in 1933) and by Tomáš Masaryk in his philosophical interpretations of Goethe’s Faust (Masaryk 2000 [1934]), it was taken up by literary scholar František Xaver Šalda and his student Václav Černý (1934), and again by the philosopher Jan Patočka in his critical engagement with the work of these masters (Patočka 1936). Where Masaryk saw in Goethe’s character the definitive symbolic representation of the modern “Superman” and his “egoism”, Černý objected to this identification of Faust with the Titanic Superman and insisted on the latter’s creative potential. Moreover, titanism is not limited to this specific filiation from Masaryk to Šalda, Černý, and Patočka. Rather, “The use of the word titanism in Czech is rooted in a specific Central-European aesthetic and philosophical tradition, largely based on the appropriation of German romanticism and its philosophical, social and political implications.” (James 2021, 4-5).

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CFP: Graduate Student Conference on the Cold War (George Washington University)

Deadline: Friday, February 9, 2024

Graduate Student Conference on the Cold War
May 2-4, 2024
Venue: The George Washington University, Washington, D.C.
The Cold War Group (GWCW) at The George Washington University (GWU), the
Center for Cold War Studies and International History (CCWS) of the University of
California at Santa Barbara (UCSB), and the Department of International History at the
London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) are pleased to announce the
2024 Graduate Student Conference on the Cold War. The conference will take place at
GWU in Washington, D.C. from Thurs. evening May 2 through Sat. evening May 4, 2024.

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Yale European and Eurasian Studies Graduate Student Conference

Deadline: February 15, 2024

The European Studies Council (ESC) of the MacMillan Center for International and Area Studies at Yale University invites applications to the 5th annual Yale European and Eurasian Studies Graduate Student Conference.

On May 8-9, 2024, in celebration of Europe Day, a hybrid-format conference is scheduled to take place at Yale University. This Conference will bring together graduate students, early-career scholars, and established academics from across disciplines to discuss the most pressing challenges facing Europe, Russia, and Eurasia today. The deadline for applications is February 15, 2024. To propose an individual paper or a complete panel, please submit the online application form, HERE

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CFP: 30th Annual REECAS Northwest Conference (University of Washington)

Deadline: February 5, 2024

REECAS Northwest, the annual ASEEES northwest regional conference for Russian, East European, and Central Asian Studies (REECAS) will take place April 11-13, 2024 at the University of Washington in Seattle, WA.


The REECAS Northwest Conference welcomes students, faculty, independent scholars, and language educators from the United States and abroad. Proposals on all subjects connected to the Slavic, East European, and Eurasian regions are encouraged. The conference hosts panels on a variety of topics and disciplines including political science, history, literature, linguistics, anthropology, culture, migration studies, gender studies, LGBTQ studies, film studies and more.

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