Heroes and Celebrities in Central and Eastern Europe

The Department of Ethnology and Cultural Anthropology, University of Szeged and the 'Bálint Sándor' Institute for the Study of Religions, Szeged invite you to the conference

Heroes and Celebrities in Central and Eastern Europe

from 13th to 16th October, 2011, Szeged, Hungary

People need role models who help guiding them through their actions, life, basic behavioural patterns, roles and values. From the Middle Ages mostly saints, kings, politicians or bandits provided these role models while in the late modern times celebrities seem to fulfil this function. The cult of celebrities has been broadly examined by western scholars, however the topic has been hardly researched in Central and Eastern Europe. Celebrity cult in this region is not the reproduction of its western counterpart but a more diversified phenomenon. We find the most western trends mingled with the remnants of the communist era and some religious/pseudo-religious content.

Our aim is to organize a comparative research on celebrity cult in Post-Soviet Europe. We are interested in case studies on the following topics: A complex analysis of a given national celebrity's cult (either politician, religious leader, singer, writer etc.); the national characteristics of the cult; the sacred places connected to the given celebrity; memorial rituals; religious connotations of the cult; the material dimension of the cult.

We invite proposals for 20-minute presentations, which address the broadly-interpreted topic to be given at the conference.

For more information on conference the conference and submitting a proposal, please contact the organizers: povedak@yahoo.com

Please submit your abstract of no more than 250 words to Dr. István Povedák povedak@yahoo.com by 25 February 2011. They must include:

1. name(s) and affiliation(s) of the author(s);
   
2. contact details of presenting author (postal address, telephone, fax and email address);
   
3. title of proposed presentation.

The selection of papers will be communicated by 31 March 2011.
The conference fee is 50 EUR.