Fourth Minsk Conference of the Political Sphere Institute (applications until 1 March 2015)

Fourth Minsk Conference of the Political Sphere Institute

A call for applications is announced for participation in the Fourth International Academic Conference

of the Political Sphere Institute.

Topic for 2015:

Beyond the Soviet Canon:

political resistance, academic and artistic autonomy in the late Soviet period (1960s-1980s)

Dedicated to the 30th anniversary of the beginning of perestroika in the Soviet Union

 

Organisers and partners:

Political Sphere Institute (Belarus)

Belarusian Collegium (Minsk, Belarus)

Institute of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania (Lithuania)

Vytautas Magnus University (Kaunas, Lithuania)

Polish Institute in Minsk (Poland)

Embassy of the Republic of Lithuania in Belarus

Institute of Lithuanian History (Vilnius, Lithuania)

Flying University (Minsk, Belarus)

 

The working languages of the conference are Belarusian, Russian, English, and Polish.

Dates: 15-16 May 2015.

In 2015, thirty years will have passed since the beginning of perestroika in the Soviet Union. Even today, the countries that were part of the Soviet Union or the communist bloc are described as “post-Soviet” or “post-communist”. The communist legacy appears as an important factor determining the choice of development trajectories for the countries of the region; it is especially significant in explaining backwardness or dependency. Accordingly, many landmark discussions of the last two decades have been devoted to “parting with the past” or “working through communism”. But are we really so dependent on our past?

Moreover, should the communist system be understood as monolithic, fully ordered, and ideologically controlled? Reckoning with the past can be complete only if we understand the complexity and multidimensionality of the processes that took place within society beneath the external camouflage of confident socialist construction.

Within this conference, we want to highlight those aspects of social and intellectual life that existed outside the rigidly defined socialist canon of thought and action. This includes not only various dissident and nonconformist movements, but also demands for scholarly and artistic autonomy, attempts to move beyond and overcome regulations, and national themes outside the limits of permitted “ethnographic” expression. Through this lens, the collapse of the USSR can hardly be seen as a “geopolitical catastrophe”; rather, it appears as the surfacing of autonomist and decentralising tendencies and the realisation of their potential in the favourable environment of economic and political crisis.

A more complex picture of the Soviet past also prompts reflection on the genealogy of post-communist societies. To what extent do we come from economic and political regulations? To what extent do we preserve elite continuity? To what extent are we capable of remembering traditions of defending freedom of thought?

About 40 scholars from Belarus and the countries of Central and Eastern Europe are expected to take part in the conference.

Main topics for consideration:

1) The dissident movement and informal organisations of the 1960s-1980s.

2) Academic autonomy, free thought in science, and the nationalisation of history in the late Soviet/communist period.

3) Economic activity outside planned distribution in the countries of the socialist bloc.

4) Literature and criticism of the Soviet and communist system; historical romanticism as an overcoming of the canon of socialist realism.

5) Artistic avant-garde beyond the limits of regulation.

6) Youth subcultures, style as protest.

 

Technical details

To participate in the conference as a speaker, please register by 1 March 2015 using the online form:

https://palityka.wufoo.com/forms/conference-2015/

Those wishing to attend the conference as guests may register using the online form by 10 May 2015.

All questions related to the conference should be sent to info @ palityka.org.

The organisers provide assistance in obtaining a Belarusian visa. A thematic issue of the academic journal “Political Sphere” is planned to be published following the conference.

Download (conference 2015_CFP_bel)

In ENGLISH (conference 2015_CFP_eng)