Культурные идентичности: практики, символы, техники

Национальный Исследовательский Университет – Высшая Школа Экономики
Факультет философии
Отделение культурологии

Отделение культурологии НИУ-ВШЭ приглашает вас принять участие в конференции студентов и аспирантов “Культурные идентичности: практики, символы, техники”, которая состоится в период с 21 по 31 марта 2011 года. О точных датах проведения конференции будет сообщено дополнительно.


Культурные идентичности – сравнительно новый объект в поле социальных и гуманитарных наук, чье влияние на структуру и проблематику конкретных дисциплин переоценить невозможно. Культурная идентичность определяет поступки и суждения индивида, встроенного в систему многообразных коллективных связей. Его картина мира формируется на основе концепции «я», представлений о Своем, Другом и Чужом, из ценностей, идей, иерархий, норм и запретов, получающих отражение в различных символических системах (языках). Перечисленные категории равно обсуждаются в русле социологии, психологии, политологии, философии, лингвистики, искусствоведения, а также культурологии, интегрирующей традиционную номенклатуру гуманитарного знания. Впервые о культурной идентичности заговорили в русле практической психологии, стремясь обозначить совокупность представлений индивида о себе, однако вскоре после узкоприкладных работ Милтона Эриксона понятие «идентичности» получило распространение в самом широком критическом контексте. Причина этого распространения очевидна – XX век оказался наиболее сконцентрирован на проблеме личности; человек углубился в себя, полагая решенной проблему первичного освоения окружающего мира. Сейчас эпоха самообольщения и самоуглубления подходит к концу – человек стоит перед новыми вызовами, обогащенный, тем не менее, детальным знанием себя. Понятие идентичности переросло состояние термина и превратилось в метафору, которая объединяет различные практики (формы занятости и досуга, игру, художественную деятельность), образы (словесные, визуальные, звуковые формы репрезентации), техники (телесные, ментальные процедуры, основанные на правилах), многообразие которых и предполагается затронуть в ходе планируемой конференции.

Круг основных тем для обсуждения:

• Философские основания культурных идентичностей
  
• Классификация культурных идентичностей
  
• Рынок идентичностей, актуальные (востребованные) идентичности
  
• Механизмы и технологии формирования идентичностей
  
• Идентичность в литературе, искусстве, театре, кино, СМИ

Продолжительность доклада: 15 мин. Вопросы и дискуссия: 10 мин.

По итогам конференции планируется издание сборника материалов. Статьи для публикации до 20 тыс.знаков с пробелами (Word 2000-2007, Times New Roman 12, ссылки – в конце текста) должны быть присланы не позднее 1 мая 2011 года. Оргкомитет конференции оставляет за собой право отбора материалов для публикации.

Оргкомитет не имеет возможности предоставить гостиницу иногородним участникам, но готов рассмотреть возможности размещения в индивидуальном порядке.

Заявка на участие в Культурологической Конференции студентов и аспирантов НИУ-ВШЭ “Культурные идентичности: практики, символы, техники” (март 2011 г., г. Москва) должна содержать следующие данные: Ф.И.О., возраст, место учебы, курс, контактный телефон, электронная почта, тема сообщения, а также список необходимого для выступления оборудования (компьютерный проектор, ноутбук, аудиоколонки и т.п.).

Заявки на участие в конференции и тезисы (до 3000 знаков) принимаются до 31 января 2011 года по e-mail: conf.culture.hse@gmail.com, данные присылать с пометкой «Конференция студентов и аспирантов».

Дополнительную информацию можно получить по электронной почте: conf.culture.hse@gmail.com или по телефону:
8 (985) 975 29 80 (Александр Сувалко)

Studies of Transition States and Societies (STSS)

Studies of Transition States and Societies (STSS) a biannual peer-reviewed interdisciplinary journal issued since Fall 2009, available at www.tlu.ee/stss

Type of publication: print and online

Publication date: June, 2011

Submission deadline: E-mail the articles to stss@tlu.ee by 31st of March, 2011. Articles arriving later will be considered for the Fall issue.

Published/Edited by: Tallinn University Institute of Political Science and Governance and the Institute of International and Social Studies, Estonia STSS welcomes articles, research notes, book reviews and review articles in all subfields of sociology and political science, to promote dialogue and exchange between scholars in these fields. The journal's substantive focus is on the transitional states and societies, particularly on the societal and political changes in postcommunist countries.
The journal only publishes articles written in English. The expected length of the manuscripts is from 2 000 to10 000 words depending on the type of paper. All documents must be accompanied by a title page stating key facts about the author(s). Please see Guidelines for the Authors available at www.tlu.ee/stsss for more detailed information on submission.

We also welcome expressions of interest to become a reviewer for the journal. Please send your CV with publications to stss@tlu.ee.

Sots-Speak: Regimes of Language under Socialism

May 13-15, 2011
Princeton University, Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures

The attempt to build communism in Eastern Europe was accompanied by the development of a distinctive language paradigm, first in the Soviet Union, then-by a process of cultural translation and local adaptation-in the satellite states of the Socialist Bloc. The official discourse possessed its own "speech genres" (tied to specific communicative contexts, social roles, and political tasks), easily recognizable rhetorical patterns and lexical peculiarities. It is intuitively obvious that this discourse, which we provisionally label sots-speak, was instrumental in legitimizing and perpetuating the political system, in shaping individual psychologies and cultural expressions. However, our knowledge of its exact nature and practical existence remains sketchy, as the topic still awaits systematic research. The aim of this conference is to bring together scholars whose work helps shed light on the politico-ideological idiom(s) of state socialism, so that we can begin to develop a sophisticated, multi-layered picture of this special universe of discourse. A deeper understanding of its constitutive linguistic features and the tendencies that define its evolution represents a major desideratum on its own; yet we see this understanding as prerequisite for engaging in questions of broader cultural significance and soliciting a range of (inter)disciplinary inquiries (sociolinguistics, social psychology, anthropology, philosophy, cultural and literary studies, political science, etc.). The following questions merely suggest a few general ways in which to frame our investigation; each of the areas can be illuminated through analysis of specific topics:

• What is the relation between the linguistic theories and utopias of the cultural avant-garde and the linguistic regimes of state socialism?
  
• Can we isolate and analyze expressive features uniquely native to these regimes? What are the stable rhetorical patterns and lexical inventories of sots-speak? What communicative functions do they serve?
  
• What was the social reception of the ideological "tongues" of socialism in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe? How can we study the dynamic between inherited mentalities and the novel linguistic paradigms?
  
• What is the relationship between language and political power? What powers are invested or (assumed to reside) in language? How effective was official language in fulfilling the functions with which it was charged? How do we know? What determines this efficacy?
  
• What is the relationship between signified and signifier in sots-speak, between ideological meaning and its material carrier? How does it change over time (the fading of meaning, the public's de-sensitization toward the appeal of ideologically charged language, etc.)?
  
• How are social roles and identities concretely played and claimed in the use of official idiom (the performance Stephen Kotkin has called "speaking Bolshevik")?
  
• Does sots-speak presuppose a distinctive kind of relay between speaker/author and recipient/audience? What is the dynamic of stated and implied meaning in this discourse? How are unstated meanings coded and deciphered in specific discursive genres and situations?
  
• What values (representational, stylistic, semantic) does sots-speak assume when it is taken up into artistic discourse?
  
• What constitutes linguistic dissidence under state socialism? What are the subversive appropriations of the official idiom in everyday life, unofficial folklore, and artistic texts?
  
• What has been the "posthumous" fate of sots-speak? With what new value(s) has it been invested after the end of state socialism in Russia and Eastern Europe?

We invite abstracts of no more than 300 words, accompanied by a short CV, to be submitted by February 10, 2011 to fried@ujc.cas.cz
Inquiries regarding the conference's topic, organization, or submission process should be directed to ppetrov@princeton.edu
Those selected to give presentations will be contacted at the beginning of March, 2011.
All participants must submit a full version of their paper by April 15, 2011; the papers will be posted on the conference's website and remain available for the duration of the event.

From the Iron Curtain to the Schengen Area: Bordering Communist and Postcommunist Europe

From the Iron Curtain to the Schengen Area: Bordering Communist and Postcommunist Europe

Conference organizers:
Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for European History and Public Spheres (LBI-EHP), http://ehp.lbg.ac.at
Institute for Human Sciences (IWM), www.iwm.at and Historical Commission, Austrian Academy of Sciences (ÖAW), www.oeaw.ac.at/histkomm

Location: Vienna, Austria
Date: 28-30 September 2011

Almost 50 years ago, on August 13 1961, the Berlin Wall was erected in order to prevent the East German communist dictatorship from collapsing.
It was and still is by far the best-known segment of the long fortified border separating the two opponents of the Cold War era, Soviet communism in the East and liberal democracy in the West. Departing from this symbol of the division of Europe, the conference intends to reflect on the significance of the border regimes for the ideology and practice of post-war communist regimes and their demise in general. The conference will focus on the latter half of the 20th century: from the aftermath of World War II that saw the spread of communist rule westwards, into the Soviet-dominated "people's republics", to the aftermath of the dissolution of the Eastern Bloc accompanied by the creation of new borders within its former territory and by its participation in European efforts toward unification. The conference sets out to reflect on the historical relevance and implications of the communist border regimes for societies of the former Eastern Bloc, including the lasting imprints of those regimes in the memories and commemorations of their lived experience.

For the extended call for papers see: http://ehp.lbg.ac.at/en/conference-2011/call-papers

We encourage contributions employing approaches from history (political, economic, military, social, and everyday life history), sociology, anthropology, political science, legal studies, geography, and cultural and gender studies. Case studies and more general investigations should be based on original archival, empirical or field research. Discussions of comparative and transnational perspectives are particularly welcome.

Keynote addresses will be delivered by Sabine Dullin, Alf Lüdtke, and Alfred Rieber.

We invite conference paper proposals addressing issues, such as, but not limited to:

• Sovietization of the Eastern Bloc border space, including the
  ideological and legal basis of border regimes and bordering.
  
• The State as the perpetrator of repression and violence at the border:
  killings, kidnappings, forcible removals, deterrence, technology of fortification.
  
• The making of the border populations: purges, resettlements, homogenisation.
  
• "Making the borders more permeable in the interest of the
  people" (Willy Brandt): The détente, Helsinki Accords, and the dissolution of the Bloc.
  
• Collective self-surveillance: border residents "assisting" the state
  border regime practices.
  
• National agendas and discourses: nationalisms, intra-Eastern Bloc
  border issues, emergence of new borders after 1989.
  
• Heroes and villains: the border in propaganda and mass media on both
  sides of the Iron Curtain.
  
• Economic and consumerist aspects of borders: trading, smuggling,
  commuting for work.
  
• Borders in creative representations: literature, film, graffiti.
  
• Intellectual cross-border cooperation and penetration: technology and
  cultural transfers across borders, intellectual networks.
  
• Borders in memory cultures and everyday life: narratives, memoires, museums.

Please send abstracts of no more than 300 words and a short c.v. by 1 February 2011 to:

Libora Oates-Indruchová
Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for European History and Public Spheres Vienna, Austria Libora.Oates-Indruchova@ehp.lbg.ac.at

The authors of the selected abstracts will be invited to submit their written papers by 15 August 2011.

The full versions of the papers for the edited conference volume will be due by 31 December 2011.

The organisers are currently applying for funding to cover travel and accommodation costs of the participants.

Memory at War

The Memory at War project is holding a postgraduate conference on Memory Studies in Eastern Europe on 11-12 March 2011 at the University of Cambridge.

The conference will be the first of a series of three to be held annually between the University of Cambridge, the University of Oxford, and the UCL School of Slavonic and East European Studies, London.

In Western Europe and North America, Memory Studies have proliferated in the last decade, causing a 'memory boom' in the humanities and social sciences. Yet these methodologies have been slow to address the cultural dynamics of memory in Eastern Europe. This series of conferences seeks to address this gap.

The conference series is designed to provide a forum for the rapidly expanding number of postgraduate students pursuing research on East European memory. The conferences offer postgraduate students the opportunity to share their research in progress and to discover what research is being conducted beyond the confines of their home university. This is also a unique opportunity to receive additional feedback from more senior scholars, including international experts in the field, who will be acting as discussants on the panels. All in all, we see the conference series as an important step in the process of building up a vibrant and friendly East European Memory Studies research community.

The March 2011 conference is open to postgraduate students with an interest in any aspect of Memory Studies that relates to Eastern Europe. We encourage students of history, cultural studies, literature, media studies, cinema and the social sciences to apply. Undergraduates with an interest in going on to postgraduate research in the field are also more than welcome to attend.

Some funding will be available to cover travel for presenters within the UK and overnight accommodation in Cambridge.

DEADLINE: Please send an abstract of your paper, of no more than 300 words, to info@memoryatwar.org by 31 January 2011.

ORGANISING COMMITTEE
Alexander Etkind, Uilleam Blacker & Julie Fedor (Cambridge), Polly Jones (SSEES, UCL) Muireann Maguire & Josie von Zitzewitz (Oxford)