Conferences & Calls for Papers
We would appreciate it if you could inform us of any conferences you organize yourself, which you hear about, or that could be of interest to our group. Also, editors of special issues or edited volumes who are searching for contributors are welcome to 'advertise' through e-Extreme. Lastly, when you cross upon useful websites with information on conferences and calls for papers, please contact the editor responsible for this section: William M. Downs.
It is widely assumed that it is simply self-evident that democracy is the best system of government: imperfect, but better than anything else. Why? What does democracy have to recommend it? What are the assumptions that lie behind democracy? What sort of democracy? Is representative democracy the ideal form? Is it the best guarantor of freedom? How does democracy understand freedom? Are there any plausible alternatives either to democracy itself or to representative democracy? What might thinking about alternatives suggest about how we might organize ourselves? Does the state remain the zenith of political organization? What might the implications be for the organization of political life of the growth of corporate power and of corporate forms of organization? These and related issues will be of interest to people working in, among other areas, philosophy, political theory, politics, sociology, international relations, cultural studies, history, government and law. Abstracts of 300 words to be submitted by email by 1 February 2008.
While the contemporary literature devoted to social capital is extensive, cross-disciplinary and interdisciplinary analyses of the distinct character of urban social capital have yet to be published in a single edited volume. To that end the co-editors of "Urban Social Capital: Civil Society and City Life" call for papers that clarify, define and explain various facets of social capital formation in the urban milieu. Drawing together contemporary theory and empirical research in social capital, political economy, urban planning, citizenship and democracy, "Urban Social Capital" aims to examine the composition and functions of social capital—and civil society more generally—in diverse metropolitan settings. We seek contributions from a range of disciplines in the social sciences and humanities that explore how generalized trust, social norms, networks, connections and ties are created and deployed under conditions of social complexity, cultural pluralism, administrative bureaucratization, globalization, economic inequality, and ethnoracial diversity and division. Submissions (complete papers only) should be 25-50 pages in length. Authors should also include a short bio with their submission.
CRONEM's 2008 conference will address issues bound up with nationalism, ethnicity and citizenship from a multi-disciplinary perspective. Multicultural societies raise crucial challenges for traditional conceptions of nations and citizenship. Ethnic diversity can mean that significant numbers of people are excluded from national projects, while the 'melting pot' metaphor belies the complexities of societies in which minority communities seek to protect their heritages and resist incorporation into the nation or state. At the same time, conceptions of citizenship appear to be undergoing transformation. Civic engagement and participation is frequently viewed as being more effective in achieving social change than traditional forms of political representation. Levels of both civic and political participation vary significantly across ethnic communities, while political institutions are required to adjust to accommodate marginalized communities more effectively into democratic processes. At the international level, the sovereignty of the nation state has been increasingly challenged in the name of protecting or asserting universal human rights. Regimes, deemed oppressive by powerful external actors, have been subjected to sanctions or military intervention. The question of national citizenship, with its attendant rights and obligations, is being reframed in the light of new expectations. The implications of this process for the future of states and their citizens remain unclear, but they appear to encourage the erosion of national sovereignty in favor of participation at both sub-national and international levels. As in previous CRONEM conferences, there will be ample opportunities for papers to be presented in parallel panel sessions and for poster presentations. Panel proposals (including a general introduction panel of about 300 words, plus 300-word abstracts of each of the papers) and proposals for individual papers and posters (300-word abstracts) are invited on any aspect of nationalism, ethnicity or citizenship. In addition, there will be a roundtable discussion in which experts from different disciplines will address a common problem from the perspectives of their own disciplinary backgrounds.
Please send your submissions to Mirela Dumic (m.dumic@surrey.ac.uk). Deadline for submissions: 1st February 2008.
Call for Contributions:
Russian Nationalism Links List
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/russian_nationalism/links
Scholars, experts, journalists, students and other specialists are invited to make contributions to the new web-resource “Links on Russian Nationalism” at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/russian_nationalism/links. There are several folders with over 150 links to relevant papers, bibliographies, books, primary sources and other material that is freely available on the WWW. Altogether, the various resources to which these links lead list hundreds of various texts related, in one way or another, to Russian nationalism. You can add a text already published and freely accessible on the web by simply following the below instructions. Or, you can add a yet unpublished text or a text not yet freely available on the web to this list. For doing the latter, you would first have to publish this text somewhere else on the WWW, for instance, within an established web newspaper, specialized web site, or scholarly web journal that allows free access to its articles. Once your text has appeared there, you can set a link to your new web-based publication in the appropriate folder of the “Links“ section. For making the addition to the “Links“ list, you would have to create a Yahoo-Account of your own (unless you have already one). Please, visit http://groups.yahoo.com/group/russian_nationalism/, and click “Join this Group.“ Once you have become a group member, go to “Links”, open the relevant folder and click „Add Link“. For questions, please contact: russian_nationalism-owner@yahoogroups.com.
Confronting Cold War
Conformity - Peace and Protest Cultures in Europe, 1945-1989
Summer School at the Charles
University
Prague, August 18-25, 2008 with the Support of the European Commission
www.protest-research.eu
The year of 2008 will mark the 40th anniversary of the Prague Spring, the French May events, as well as numerous other protest movements which attempted to bring about domestic change and transform the geopolitical confines of the Cold War. Due to this occasion, the Marie-Curie-Conference and Training Courses on “European Protest Movements since 1945” invite applications for an international summer school in Prague on European peace and protest cultures from 1945-1989. We will take the anniversary and the historical location as an opportunity to discuss the contributions of protest movements to processes of political participation and transformations of culture and value systems in European societies from an interdisciplinary perspective. Our goal is to examine the variety of political, social, cultural and aesthetical forms of protest and social dissent by including all sides of the political spectrum. Particular emphasis will be laid on the impact of peace and protest cultures for the development of a European transnational civil society and for the international diffusion of alternative lifestyles and cultural practices. Though mainly focusing on the years of the Cold War, our aim is also to analyze the influence of longer historical trajectories reaching into the first half of the century, as well as to make the connection to more recent forms of social dissent and protest phenomena in the era of the internet. By bringing together innovative approaches to phenomena of social change, protest movements and cultures of dissent in Europe during the Cold War from a variety of disciplines, the summer school wants to offer a more comprehensive view of historical and cultural transformations in the 20th century.
The organizational format of the summer school will feature various workshops with leading scholars of different disciplines, panel discussions on overarching themes and innovative approaches, as well as oral presentation by the participants. The aim is to foster an academic dialogue across disciplinary boundaries while at the same time providing ample space for discussion and mutual exchange. Applications from postgraduate students, early stage researchers (PhD-students), postdocs and young scholars from all disciplinary and national backgrounds are strongly encouraged and form the main, although not exclusive, target group for this event. Successful applicants will be provided with a travel grant and a living allowance that should cover all necessary expenses.
Workshop 'Nationalism and Communism'
Eastern European History
and Eastern European Studies,
University of Amsterdam, 25 April 2008
After the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 nationalism suddenly resurfaced in Eastern Europe, or so the common wisdom goes. This implies communism and nationalism have little to do with each other. In reality, the communist regimes of Europe all flew the national flag in order to gain popular legitimacy. After 1948, the People’s Republics of Central and Eastern Europe constructed the state ideology of ‘Socialist Patriotism’, a conscious blend of national and socialist imagery. Parties presented themselves as heirs to national traditions, and as guardians of national interests. They appropriated national symbols and heroes, and pursued ‘national’ policies whenever possible. This was not just the case in Europe. From Cuba to Korea, communist parties and states presented themselves as patriots. A national communist self-image was not the exception, but the rule. It is surprising that the communist “invention of tradition” and the socialist “imagined community” have been studied relatively little. Though there is an extensive body of literature on the relationship between communism and nationalism, the national element in communist ideology has on the whole remained from view. This has changed in recent years. Independent of one another, several excellent studies have been published on attempts by communists in individual countries to gain national legitimacy. This informal workshop aims to be a first step towards a more comprehensive view. Students of nationalism, historians of communism, specialists on Cold War history, as well as country or regional experts, are invited to give their opinion.
Presenters of papers are welcome to concentrate on an individual state, party, national symbol or policy, but are asked to place these in a broader context. To what extent does ‘Socialist Patriotism’ fit into existing theories of nationalism? Could communists actually be called ‘nationalistic’ or even ‘nationalists’? Was the communist use of national propaganda instrumental and exploitative, or was it founded on progressive traditions of nationalism? How were national credentials of local parties squared with proletarian internationalism and the alliance with other communist countries? To what extent did communist parties construct ethnic “ enemies of the people”? In what way did anti-Semitism influence the national credentials of communist parties? Was communist national propaganda ultimately successful? These and other questions will be central to the discussions at the meeting. A practical goal is take first steps towards the organization of a larger workshop on this topic in 2009. This is to culminate in an edited volume on nationalism and communism.
Please send proposals for papers (max 400 words) to dr. Martin Mevius before 15 February 2008 (m.mevius@uva.nl , Eastern European History and Eastern European Studies, Postbus 134, 1012 VB Amsterdam, tel +31205252269, Fax: +31 20 5252086).
"Holocaust and
Modernity" scholarly journal (Kiev, Ukraine)
Ukrainian Center for Holocaust Studies
www.holocaust.kiev.ua
The Ukrainian Center for Holocaust Studies (www.holocaust.kiev.ua) is pleased to announce “Голокост і сучасність. Студії в Україні і світі” [Holocaust and Modernity. Studies in Ukraine and the World] interdisciplinary scholarly journal and welcomes the submission of manuscripts for editorial consideration. The journal is conceived as an open academic forum that promotes scholarly discussion on the implications of the Holocaust, genocide, and other instances of mass violence. The journal will be published twice a year in Ukrainian and Russian with summaries in English.
The journal’s agenda is
aimed at accomplishing the following tasks:
• to stimulate in-depth analysis of various aspects of the Holocaust related to
the Ukrainian territory; to compare and contrast the Holocaust in Ukraine to
other regions of the former USSR, Eastern and Western Europe; to examine
specific features
of the Holocaust in various localities of Ukraine;
• to disseminate and advance research based on the previously unavailable or
little-known sources stored in Ukrainian and foreign archival depositories as
well as non-conventional sources such as testimonies, memoirs, and diaries;
• to promote multidisciplinary approach and encourage the participation of
experts in the fields of sociology, political studies, philosophy, psychology,
and humanities
to contribute to discussion and research;
• to foster comparative and conceptual analysis of various aspects of the
Holocaust and other genocides, particularly in the field of the theory and
history of nationalism, anti-Semitism, and
the role and place of the ‘Jewish question’ in European cultural and historical
processes that preceded the Holocaust and transpired after it.
Thematic priorities and publication policy are the subjects of consideration by the Ukrainian Center for Holocaust Studies in cooperation with the International editorial council and the Executive editorial board.
7th Global Conference: Violence and the Contexts of Hostility
Monday 5th May - Wednesday
7th May 2008
Budapest, Hungary
http://www.inter-disciplinary.net/ptb/hhv/vcce/vch7/cfp.html
This multi- and inter-disciplinary research and publications conference aims to identify and understand violence in contemporary life. The project will pay particular attention to the different contexts and places where violence develops, occurs and where its effects are felt; from the interpersonal to the international, from the empirical to the symbolic. Attention will also focus on uncovering the motives, dynamics and functions that violence has for individuals, groups, populations and societies, as well as for bonds and social relations in the private, institutional and public spheres of life. Exploring and understanding representations of violence in media, art and literature is a key part of the conference.
Violence has been part of societies and used as a political tool in multiple ways: to unite or divide, to produce fear and compliance, to incite or neutralize mobilization, to resist domination or to impose subordination. It has been touted as the only path for liberation or the inevitable road to annihilation and destruction, as a necessary means for transformation or as the ultimate form to avoid change and defend the status quo. And despite global, national and local efforts to minimize, reduce or eliminate it violence remains a horrifying feature of today's world and life.
Papers will also be considered on any related theme. 300 word abstracts should be submitted by Friday 18th January 2008. If an abstract is accepted for the conference, a full draft paper should be submitted by Friday 18th April 2008.
The Irish Question
Special Issue of The Radical
History Review
http://chnm.gmu.edu/rhr/rhr.htm
The Radical History Review seeks submissions for an issue that will explore the intellectual, historical and political implications of the "Irish Question" over the past eight centuries. We depart from the premise that the national question and its resolution (or not) in Ireland is not only a major topic in Irish and British Imperial history, but one with fundamental implications for the evolution of the modern world, and the histories of colonialism and postcolonialism. We envision contributions focused on Ireland, first as a colony and then partitioned into two states after 1922, and the attendant "Irish diaspora" in England, Canada, the United States, and beyond. However, the editors do not assume that the Irish Question is restricted to people of Irish descent or the countries they inhabit: we are equally interested in the relationship of Ireland's national struggle to Asia, Africa, and Latin America.
Though the RHR continues to publish monographic articles, we also invite Reflections, Interventions, roundtables, interviews, and reviews that go beyond books to look at popular historical representations, whether visual, cinematic, or textual. Potential contributors are encouraged to look at recent issues for examples of these non-traditional forms of scholarship. Submissions are due by March 15, 2008 and should be submitted electronically, as an attachment, to rhr@igc.org with "Issue 104 submission" in the subject line. For artwork, please send images as high resolution digital files (each image as a separate file). For preliminary e-mail inquiries, please include "Issue 104" in the subject line. Those articles selected for publication after the peer review process will be included in issue 104 of the Radical History Review, scheduled to appear in Spring 2009.
Recognizing (Dis)Order
10th Annual Graduate
Student Conference
Department of German
University of Wisconsin-Madison
Madison, WI
March 28-29, 2008
http://german.lss.wisc.edu/gdgsa/
Recognizing (Dis)Order. "Aufgabe von Kunst heute ist es, Chaos in die Ordnung zu bringen" -Th. W. Adorno, "Minima Moralia." Ist alles in Ordnung? Muss Ordnung sein? Herrscht hier Ordnung? Erhält Ordnung die Welt? In the 10th Annual Graduate Student Conference of the German and Dutch Graduate Students’ Association at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, we will explore the concept of order and its inevitable subversion and disruption in German and Dutch literature, culture and language. How is structure conceived of, implemented, and regulated? How do individuals negotiate between conformity, resistance and rebellion in both the private and the public sphere? How does the concept of order regulate literary and artistic production? How do we approach and receive the apparent order in texts? How is language structured, regulated and changed?
Reflecting the diverse research interests of the Department of German, this conference will feature panels on literature, cultural studies, linguistics and Second Language Acquisition. We will consider abstracts dealing with the concept of order in all areas of Germanic linguistics, including phonetics, syntax, morphology, and socio- and historical linguistics. Possible topics might address:
Prescriptive and
descriptive grammars
Word order and syntax
Learner resistance and curriculum issues
Language contact and koinés
Abstracts on literary and cultural topics may include but are not limited to the following themes:
1) Individual measure,
moderation and excess(Dis)orderly bodies and minds
Ostracism, exclusion, crisis (Nachdenken über Christa T. by Christa Wolf)
The gendered body and mind
Repression, digression, psychosis
Family politics (Das Muschelessen by Birgit Vanderbeke)
The invention and performance of tradition
2) Revolution, war and
peace
Class conflict and social hierarchy (Kabale und Liebe by Friedrich Schiller)
Defining utopia vs. dystopia
Social upheaval and times of political instability
Representations of natural and/or man-made disasters(Der Schimmelreiter by T.
Storm)
Germany’s place in the world
3) Structuring narrative:
Textual order and narrative disruption
Ordering of time and space (Das Ornament der Masse by Sigfried Kracauer)
Narratological hierarchies and taxonomies
Rephrasing genre (fairy tales, detective literature, the Bildungsroman, etc.)
Abstracts of no more than 250 words must be received by January 4, 2008. Submissions should not bear the author’s name. Please include the following information as a separate attachment: name, title of paper, department and university affiliation if applicable, and reliable contact information. Papers should not exceed 20 minutes in length (8-10 pages) to allow for 10 minutes of discussion after your presentation. Pending availability, some travel funds may be available, but participants are strongly encouraged to seek support from their home institutions.
The Human Condition Series: Terror
2nd Annual International Multidisciplinary Conference
Laurentian University @ Georgian College
Barrie, Ontario
May 9th and 10th, 2008
This conference is part of a larger series of ongoing conferences, run under the general banner of The Human Condition Series. The series is an international, multidisciplinary conference that seeks to address the current state of the human condition. It aims to bring together people from a variety of disciplines to assess a singular topic from artistic, cinematic, literary, moral, social, political, philosophical, psychological and religious perspectives. We encourage you to share innovative ideas and new theorization. Submissions will be considered on any related theme and we especially welcome papers, reports, works-in-progress, workshops and sessions. This year’s theme is Terror. Participants are encouraged to examine and explore issues related both directly and indirectly to the broad concept of Terror as both product and process; calculated goal and unlivable consequence. In particular, the conference is interested in investigating what role Terror has in maintaining the contemporary condition of humanity and what hope there is of envisioning a condition in which Terror is natural and organic rather than strategic and imposed. All papers accepted for and presented at the conference will be considered for inclusion in the THCS e-journal. In addition, some papers will also be considered for publication in a themed volume on Terror.
The Organizing Committee
welcomes the submission of pre-formed panel proposals. 300 word abstracts should
be submitted by January 30th, 2008. Accepted presenters will be notified by
February 25th. If an abstract is accepted for the conference, full registration
and an 8-10 page draft paper are required by March 30th 2008.
Please submit abstracts to:
humanconditionseries@gmail.com Contact Person: Marianne Vardalos,
Director
Studies in Ethnicity and
Nationalism
The journal invites the submission of high-quality interdisciplinary
articles on issues pertaining to nationalism, ethnicity and related themes.
For this call, the editors are particularly interested in papers relating to the
following themes: Migration, Diaspora and Nationalism The editors welcome
submissions of work in progress as well as contributions from young
professionals, post-docs and lecturers in the early stages of their careers. SEN
especially encourages submissions from advanced PhD candidates and Post Doctoral
Fellows. For submissions to be considered for publication in 2008, please ensure
your paper reaches us by Friday 30th November 2007 via email (SEN@lse.ac.uk).
The word limit is 6000 words, including bibliography and references. The SEN
style guide can be found at
http://www.lse.ac.uk/collections/ASEN/SEN%20Guidelines.pdf