2015 Annual SOYUZ Symposium “Shifting Territories: Historical Legacies and Social Change”, Seattle, February 28 – March 1 2015

The Ellison Center for Russian, East European, and Central Asian Studies at

the University of Washington.

 

February 28 – March 1 2015

Call for Papers:

 

The 2015 Soyuz Symposium seeks to engage scholars in an interdisciplinary

debate about contemporary social, cultural, and political transformations

in socialist and post-socialist regions world wide. In the previous year, a

number of socialist and postsocialist regions have seen significant

turmoil, from the anti-government protests in Egypt, Ukraine, and Venezuela

to violent internal conflict in Syria and Sudan. We have also seen the

creation of new, sometimes fragile, alliances including the formation of

the Eurasian Economic Union, the emergence of unstable, separatist “states”

in Ukraine, and the creation of a new socialist party in South Africa.

These major world events challenge contemporary social and political

boundaries, re-frame historical narratives, and invoke new constructions of

statehood, personhood, and human rights.

 

 This year, in cooperation with the Ellison Center at the University of

Washington, Soyuz invites papers that address the intersection of

historical legacies and contemporary change in socialist and postsocialist

regions, such as:

 

   - · Separatist regions and de jure states

   - · Emergent nationalisms or nationalist discourses

   - · Language policy and linguistic differentiation

   - · New forms and narratives of sovereignty

   - · Appeals to and ruptures from historical socialist legacies

   - · Contemporary economic strategies and (in)equalities

   - · New social identities and citizenship claims

   - · The uses and limitations of the politics nostalgia

 

Abstracts of up to 300 words should be sent to Jennifer Carroll (jencarr2@uw.edu) by November 1, 2014.

 

Please include your full name, affiliation, and paper title. Write “SOYUZ

2015” in the subject line of your email. Papers will be selected and

notifications made by *December 1, 2014.

 

For any questions, please email Jennifer Carroll, the Soyuz Programming

Coordinator, at jencarr2@uw.edu.

 

The Soyuz Research Network for Postsocialist Cultural Studies is an

interdisciplinary forum for exchanging work based on field research in

postsocialist countries, ranging from Eastern Europe and the former Soviet

Union to Africa, Southeast Asia, and Latin America. Soyuz is an interest

group in the American Anthropological Association (AAA) and an official

unit of the Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies

(ASEEES). The Soyuz symposium has met annually since 1991 and offers an

opportunity for scholars to interact in a more personal setting.