[Bilimsel Haber] CONF./CFP- Annual SOYUZ Symposium, March 2006, Bryant University, Rhode Island

[Sule Tarakcioglu]

From: William Graves <wgraves@bryant.edu>

CONF./CFP- Annual SOYUZ Symposium, March 2006, Bryant University, Rhode 
Island

2006 Annual SOYUZ Symposium
March 3-5, 2006
Bryant University in Smithfield, Rhode Island

Call for Papers

Walls and Bridges: Refiguring "Socialist" and "Postsocialist" Spaces in a
Deterritorializing World

Submission deadline: December 1, 2005

SOYUZ, the Post-Communist Cultural Studies Interest Group, invites paper
proposals and, for the first time, poster proposals, for its 2006 
meeting,  to
be held March 3-5, 2006, at Bryant University in Smithfield, Rhode Island.
Bryant University is conveniently located near both Providence, RI, and 
Boston.
The Soyuz symposium is an intimate forum where scholars (including graduate
students, junior faculty, and senior faculty) from across the world can 
exchange
ideas and engage in dialogue.

The 2006 Soyuz Symposium will focus on the deterritorialization of 
postsocialism
and invites papers and posters that propose new ethnographic, 
theoretical, and
methodological models for configuring the spaces and places of postsocialist
life. Although categories such as "socialism," "late socialism," and
"postsocialism" continue to be central to studies of state socialist 
societies,
particularly in the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, critics have 
argued
that over-reliance on these categories has produced a sense of geographic,
ethnographic, and methodological isolationism. As a result, boundaries 
created
by uncritical application of the concepts of socialism and postsocialism may
have prevented analysts from hearing the perspectives of scholars and 
informants
who are positioned differently within these conceptual geographies.

Taking cues from recent globalization studies of deterritorialization and
reterritorialization, this Symposium challenges participants to map out new
conceptual frameworks that contest, query, or reject the traditional binary
categories of socialism and postsocialism. In particular, we are 
interested in
ethnographic work that attends carefully to local discourses of locality,
translocality, and globality as alternatives to, or critical engagements 
with,
traditional notions of socialism and postsocialism. Possible questions to
consider include: To what extent is it still legitimate to propose a 
geography
of socialism/postsocialism? How do the critical lessons from globalization
studies help socialist/postsocialist scholars rethink the categories and
boundaries that define and constitute our field sites and our scholarly
conversations? Where are the borders, centers, and peripheries of
socialism/postsocialism in a global, deterritorialized world, and who 
are our
interlocutors? How do global technologies create, transform, or eliminate
socialist/postsocialist communities? What do methodologies from 
globalization
research (multi-sited fieldwork, global commodity chains, virtual 
ethnography,
etc.) contribute to studies of socialism/postsocialism and to new research
alliances?

Proposed papers and posters should be based on ethnographic research in a
socialist or postsocialist society (please specify if you are proposing 
a paper,
a poster, or you have no preference). Presentations and posters may come 
from
any discipline (anthropology, sociology, folklore, political science, 
history,
literary studies, etc.), but must combine solid ethnographic evidence with
theoretical analysis. Suggested length for proposals is 200-400 words.

Please send proposals and a brief c.v. to Professor William Graves
(wgraves(AT)bryant.edu) and Professor Melissa Caldwell 
(lissa(AT)ucsc.edu) by
December 1, 2005. Decisions will be made and notification sent out in early
January 2006.


Distrib. by: Central-Eurasia-L - Announcement List for Central Eurasian 
Studies