aaus-list @ ukrainianstudies.org -- [aaus-list] Annual SOYUZ SYMPOSIUM: Walls and Bridges: Refiguring~SSocialist~Tand ~SPostsocialist~T Spaces in a Deterritorializing World (200 (fwd)

[M T Znayenko <znayenko@andromeda.rutgers.edu>]

Date: Sun, 20 Nov 2005 23:23:31 -0500 From: Serguei Alex. Oushakine 
<sao15@columbia.edu> Reply-To: Serguei Alex. Oushakine 
<oushakine@columbia.edu> To: sao15@columbia.edu Subject: [WINDOWS-1252] 
CFP: Walls and Bridges: Refiguring ~SSocialist~T andSPostsocialist~T Spaces in a Deterritorializing World (2006 Annual 
SOYUZ Symposium)

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

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.