List of sections of the Fourth International Congress of Belarusian Studies (October 3-5, 2014, Kaunas)

Based on the results of the call for applications for the Fourth International Congress of Belarusian Studies (October 3-5, 2014, Kaunas), a list of 15 sections was compiled.

We present the names of the sections and some of the panels.
1.

Problems of transformation and modernization of the Belarusian economy: a) Problems of the innovative development of Belarusian industry; b) Problems of transformation and modernization of the Belarusian economy; c) The economy of Belarusian regions
2.

Political institutions and national identity in Central and Eastern Europe: a) Local institutions and politics in Central and Eastern Europe: outcomes of (non-)democratic transformations; b) Political opposition in the countries of the former Soviet Union; c) National identity in the politics of the countries of the former Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth
3.

International relations and foreign policy: a) “New superpowers” and Central and Eastern Europe: unrealized opportunities or overestimated prospects? b) Armed conflicts in the post-Soviet space in 1990-2014 (Crimea, Abkhazia, Nagorno-Karabakh, etc.); c) Central Europe in the politics of great powers; d) Belarusian foreign policy
4.

Public administration, science and education, civil society: a) The state, opportunities, and prospects of science, education, and the academic community in Belarus; b) Public administration and public policy in Belarus; c) Belarusian civil society: state and prospects
5.

The Grand Duchy of Lithuania: sources-society-narrative: a) Traditions of noble self-government in the history of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania (for the 450th anniversary of the adoption of the Bielsko privilege on July 1, 1564); b) The GDL: from source to narrative (problems of interpreting written heritage); c) The Supraśl printing house and the trade in church books in Belarus
6. a) Belarus within the Russian Empire. b) Jews in the context of Belarusian history.
7.

Belarus in the twentieth century: violence and modernization: a) Violence in the twentieth century: experience, consequences, memory, and heritage; b) The history of Belarus in the twentieth century
8.

The Belarusian diaspora and borderlands in history and the present: a) Borderlands and borders: from cartography to literature; b) The Belarusian diaspora: understanding intellectual heritage; c) Belarusians in Poland: past, present, future
9.

Philological projects: a) Philological projects as a means of consolidating Belarusian society; b) The Belarusian Bible: problems and prospects of scholarly translation.
10.

Belarusian literature: national tradition and world context: a) Belarusian literature: national tradition and world context; b) Literature after “Bum-Bam-Lit”: creative currents of the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries
11.

Saints in Belarusian history and the present: individuals, places, texts, community
12.

The Belarusian cultural landscape: memory and transformation: a) Museum work and problems of interpreting cultural heritage; b) Protection and restoration of architectural heritage; c) Belarusian necropolistics; d) Contemporary architecture of Belarus: problems of study and prospects for development
13.

Belarusian culture: new concepts, current strategies: a) Contemporary Belarusian culture: the search for a new matrix or life after the nation? b) The problem of creating a catalogue of representative works of Belarus in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries; c) Management in contemporary cultural projects
14.

Traditional spiritual culture of Belarus and the countries of Central and Eastern Europe: a) Tradition and post-tradition in the cultural landscape of Belarus; b) Bagpipes in Northeastern Europe: history and mutual influences
15.

Gender “rules”: discourses, policies, and practices