Bringing Eastern Europe into European and Global Labor History

CALL FOR PAPERS: Bringing Eastern Europe into European and Global Labor History

Panels for the European Social Science and History Conference (ESSHC), Vienna 2014

Together with the Labour Network of the ESSHC, the organizers of the Research Initiative on “Labor History for the 21^st Century in a Global Perspective,” located at Central European University Budapest, and the Russian and East European desk of the International Institute of Social History are seeking paper proposals for the Tenth European Social Science History conference in Vienna, 23-26 April 2014 (http://esshc.socialhistory.org/guidelines) on Central, Southeastern and Eastern European labor history. At present we envision at least two panels, one on rural labor and another on labor and state socialism, but we are open to other perspectives and individual studies.  A Roundtable discussion how research from this region can help in “Promoting Integration in Global Labor History: Concepts and Trajectories” is also planned.

These panels are first occasions for exploring future conferences and publications. The aim is threefold: to stimulate research and offer expertise in a field which has been greatly neglected in recent decades; to integrate the study of the history of labor on these regions into the transnational history of labor worldwide; and to contribute to and interact with the ongoing scholarly debate on the conceptual framings of trans-European and global labor history. Some of the contributions at ESSHC 2014 will be selected for the first volume of a new book series "Transdisciplinary Labor Studies for the 21st Century." We also encourage the expression of interest in the research and publication agenda, even if attending EHSSC is not feasible at this time.

More information on the CEU History Department Research Initiative on “Labor History for the 21^st Century in a Global Perspective” is located at http://history.ceu.hu/history-department-research, and on the Russian and East European desk of the International Institute of Social History at http://socialhistory.org/en/staff/gijs-kessler.

Please send any questions and/ or an abstract of your proposed paper to one of the organizers, Gijs Kessler (gke@iisg.nl), Marsha Siefert (siefertm@ceu.hu) or Susan Zimmermann (zimmerma@ceu.hu) by 1 May so that we may submit completed panels to ESSHC by the deadline of 15 May.