[Bilimsel Haber] CONF./CFP- Twenty Years After: 1991 in Retrospect, Kolkata, Feb. 16-17

[Gonul Pultar]

CONF./CFP- Twenty Years After: 1991 in Retrospect, Kolkata, Feb. 16-17

Posted by: Suchandana Chatterjee <suchandanachatterjee at hotmail.com>




International Conference

Twenty Years After
1991 in retrospect

16-17 February 2011

Maulana
Abul Kalam Azad Institute of Asian Studies
Kolkata
India

The Maulana Abul Kalam Azad Institute of Asian Studies calls for
papers for an international seminar to be held in February 2011.

The seminar will focus on the two decades since 1991, which marked the
demise of the Soviet Union. The transformations that occurred since
then constitute the essence of 'a post-Soviet dispensation'. The basic
assumption is that changes were visible in politics and policies of
the post-Soviet republics that reconstituted the erstwhile Soviet
Union as the Commonwealth of Independent States and subsequently as
regional organizations with 'western' or 'eastern' affiliations. The
social and cultural manifestations of change--art forms like films,
iconography, aesthetics, music, tourism, architecture and media also
tend to reflect the changing psyche in the post Soviet space. The ways
in which the newly independent states perceive themselves--i.e. as
entities that are strictly 'sovereign' or as cosmopolitan spaces with
pan-Iranian/pan-Turkic/pan-Mongol linkages and sharing a Russian past
--also need to be re-evaluated. Similarly, there is need to examine
the rhetoric invoking 'national' sovereignty both in terms of its
continuities and discontinuities which are today being reassessed in
several ways. Here one needs to take note of the fact that the
socialist choice and the Soviet memory of socialism remains vivid
within the region However, the last two decades have been years of the
existence of the states as independent Republics. It is also necessary
to focus on how experiences of independence have been both similar and
dissimilar for the former Soviet republics themselves.

The seminar also seeks to address certain preconceived notions about
the direction that the states would assume. In this connection it is
important to take note of the way in which relationships and
identities have been reconfigured; structures have been
institutionalized and issues like ethnicity still remain important.

The seminar will focus on the following

  * 1991 - a watershed?
  * Not simply 'life beyond communism'
  * New histories
  * Economic policies and performance
  * Myths, symbols and architecture
  * Potential for conflict

The Institute requests all participants to make their own travel
arrangements in the international sector. The Institute will be happy
to sponsor local hospitality for the duration of the seminar and
reimburse economy class airfare via Air India within India. Please
respond within October 31, 2010 with a title, 500 word abstract and a
brief one page CV to

info at makaias.com
suchandanachatterjee at hotmail.com
anitasengupta at hotmail.com




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