Opportunities: Approaching Deadlines

We send out a weekly e-mail digest that includes notices of local events related to Russia and Eastern Europe as well as a list of fellowship and funding opportunities for research and study in the Russian and Eastern European area. To subscribe to this e-mail listserv, send a message to reei@indiana.edu with "Subscribe to Calendar Listserv" in the subject line, or simply click on the link, Subscribe to Calendar Listserv.

If you would like to submit notice of a fellowship or other funding opportunity, please email reei@indiana.edu with detailed information about the deadline and requirements. The calendar is sent out every Thursday and we strongly recommend that you submit your item by 5:00 PM Tuesday to guarantee its inclusion on that week's list.

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CONFERENCES | FUNDING | SUBMISSIONS | STUDY | INTERNSHIPS

Conferences

March, 2012

• Call for Papers: 11th Annual Hawaii International Conference on Social Sciences
  Due: March 1
  May 30th - June 2nd, Waikiki Beach Marriott Resort & Spa, Honolulu, Hawaii

  Topic Areas (All Areas of Social Sciences are Invited):
  • Anthropology
  • Area Studies (African, American, Asian, European, Hispanic, Islamic, Jewish, Middle Eastern, Russian, Women's and all other cultural and ethnic studies)
  • Communication
  • Economics
  • Education
  • Energy Alternatives
  • Ethnic Studies/International Studies
  • Geography
  • History
  • Intergenerational Studies
  • International Relations
  • Journalism
  • New Urbanism
  • Political Science
  • Preservation and Green Urbanism
  • Psychology
  • Public Administration
  • Social Work
  • Sociology
  • Sustainable Development
  • Sustainable Urban Neighborhoods
  • Urban and Regional Planning
  • Women’s studies
  • Other Areas of Social Science
  • Cross-disciplinary areas of the above related to each other or other areas.

  Submitting a Proposal/Paper

• Sixth Annual CLAC Conference: Exploring Approaches to Cultures & Languages Across the Curriculum
  Registration Deadline: March 7
  March 9-10, 2012, The University Hotel Minneapolis
  Minneapolis, MN


• Call for Papers: Adaptation of Language Resources and Tools for Processing Cultural Heritage Objects
  Due: March 3
  26 May 2012, Istanbul Turkey

  Workshop associated with LREC 2012 (21-27 May, 2012) http://www.c-phil.uni-hamburg.de/view/Main/LrecWorkshop2012

  Recently, the collaboration between the NLP community and the specialists in various areas of the Humanities has become more efficient and fruitful due to the common aim of exploring and preserving cultural heritage data. It is worth mentioning the efforts made during the digitization campaigns in the last years and within a series of initiatives in the Digital Humanities, especially in making Old Manuscripts available through Digital Libraries. Most parts of these libraries are made available not only to researchers in a certain Humanities domain (such as, classical philologists, historians, historical linguists), but also to common users. This fact has posited new requirements to the functionalities offered by the Digital Libraries, and thus imposed the usage of methods from Language Technology for content analysis and content presentation in a form understandable to the end user.

  There are several challenges related to the above mentioned issues:
  • Lack of adequate training material for real-size applications: although the Digital Libraries usually cover a large number of documents, it is difficult to collect a statistically significant corpus for a period of time in which the language remained unchanged.
  • In most cases the language historical variants lack firmly established syntactic or morphological structures and that makes the definition of a robust set of rules extremely difficult. Historical texts often constitute a mixture of several languages including Latin, Ancient Greek, Slavonic, etc.
  • Historical texts contain a great number of abbreviations, which follow different models.
  • The conception of the world is somewhat different from ours (that is, different thinking about the Earth, different views in medicine, astronomy, etc.), which makes it more difficult to build the necessary knowledge bases.
  

  Having in mind the number of contemporary languages and their historical variants, it is practically impossible to develop brand new language resources and tools for processing older texts. Whenever possible a solution, but at the same time a real challenge, is to investigate how to adapt existing language resources and tools, as well as to provide (where necessary) training material in the form of corpora or lexicons for a certain period of time in history.

  We are looking for submission of original, unpublished work, related to the following topics:
  • Language tools and resources for analysis of old textual material or language variants
  • Adaptation of LT-tools, developed for modern languages, to the historical variants of the same languages
  • Transcription and transliteration problems and solutions
  • Named Entity recognition for historical texts
  • Development of dedicated historical corpora and lexica
  • (Semi-) automatic extraction of content related metadata
  • Semantic linkage of heterogeneous data within digital libraries
  • Word sense disambiguation in old texts
  • Multilingual issues in historical documents
  • Evaluation of tools for processing of historical texts
  

  Submissions have to be made through the START system of the main LREC 2012 conference. Papers describing completed work should be no longer than eight pages. Papers describing work in progress should be between four and six pages. The demonstration of prototype systems is particularly encouraged. The authors of papers referring to an existing prototype will be offered the possibility to demonstrate the system in a special session. Papers should follow the LREC formatting guidelines. Papers will be reviewed by minimum 3 members of the Programme Committee. When submitting a paper from the START page, authors will be asked to provide essential information about resources (in a broad sense, i.e. also technologies, standards, evaluation kits, etc.) that have been used for the work described in the paper or are a new result of their research. For further information on this new initiative.

  Deadline for paper submission: March 3, 2012, Notification of acceptance / rejection: 14th March 2012, Submission of final papers: 28th March 2012, Workshop: 26 May 2012

• Call for Papers: 3rd Annual Slavic Studies Symposium
  Due: March 11
  15-16 April 2012, University of Toronto

  Please join us for the 2012 Annual Slavic Studies Symposium hosted by the Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures at the University of Toronto. This symposium seeks to bring together graduate students from different departments to showcase recent scholarship in the field of Slavic Studies at the University of Toronto and to provide opportunities for interdisciplinary exchange. We welcome young scholars from a broad spectrum of disciplines, including literature, linguistics, history, philosophy, political science, film and theatre studies, and other related fields.

  The 2012 symposium will be highlighted by two keynote speakers. The first keynote address will be presented by Eliot Borenstein, Professor of Russian and Slavic Studies at New York University. Professor Borenstein's recent work deals with contemporary Russian popular culture, postmodernism, and theories of cultural transmission and cultural change. Published in 2008, his latest book "Overkill: Sex and Violence in Contemporary Russian Popular Culture" won the AWSS award for the best book in Slavic gender studies. He is currently writing a second volume titled "Catastrophe of the Week: Apocalyptic Entertainment in Post-Soviet Russia."

  The second keynote address will be given by Dragana Obradovic, who is Assistant Professor in the Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures at the University of Toronto. Professor Obradovic's work focuses on representations of Yugoslavia's dissolution in literary discourses. She is interested in the intersections of historical, journalistic and legal discourses in literature of war, and has recently co-edited a book titled "Comparative Literary Understanding and the Vicissitudes of Form" (forthcoming).

  We invite graduate students to submit proposals for papers and/or panels dealing with any aspect of Slavic studies. Proposals should be approximately 250-300 words in length and should be sent to uoftslavic2012@gmail.com by March 11, 2012.

• Call for Papers: 9th KIMEP International Research Conference (KIRC)
  Due: March 15
  April 19-21, KIMEP University
  Almaty, Kazakhstan

  The 9th KIMEP International Research Conference (KIRC) will be held on the campus of KIMEP University from April 19-21, 2012 (Thursday - Saturday). This multi-disciplinary conference is dedicated to promoting knowledge on issues relevant to Central Asia through the exchange of ideas, values, research, and experience. The conference invites scholars, business leaders, policy- makers, and regulators to present research papers in the fields of Business and Taxation, Law, Social Science, Humanities, and Literature and Linguistics, as well as to organize special sessions and to act as session chairs and general participants. Students are also welcome to present papers in separate sessions. The working language of the conference is English, but some sessions will be held in Kazakh and Russian.

  Conference Theme: The theme of this year's conference is "Central Asia: Regionalization vs. Globalization." Many countries today see their future prosperity on an open world stage; others are favoring strategic regional alliances. In this debate between globalization and regionalization, Central Asian states find themselves at a crossroads. The paths taken in the next few years will have significant commercial, economic, political, cultural, social, and legal implications for future generations and for the region as a whole.

  Conference Structure: The conference will consist of concurrent presentation sessions of research papers as well as special sessions (panel discussions and workshops) on significant topical issues pertaining to the theme of the conference.

  Conference Scope: There will be numerous panels in a variety of areas including, but not limited to Accounting and Taxation, Finance, Marketing, Management, Information Systems, Operations Management, Tourism, Economics, Public Administration, Political Science, International Relations, Cultural and Regional Studies, Journalism, Public Relations, Law, Translation, Language Policy, Linguistics, Literature and Translation. The conference also welcomes papers on teaching pedagogy and related issues, such as TESOL.

  Submission Information: If you are interested in presenting a research paper, please submit an extended abstract or full-length paper with a clearly formulated problem statement, a brief description of methodology used, and expected or found results. Research papers must be original in nature. If you are interested in organizing a special session, please submit a proposal describing the topic briefly. With all submissions, please also send a brief biography. Submission Deadline: March 15, 2012.

  Review Process and Notification: All submitted extended abstracts and full-length papers will be double-blind reviewed. The acceptance decision will be made on the basis of relevance to the conference theme, originality and quality of papers and proposals. Acceptance decision and notification: on a rolling basis.

  Publication: All accepted extended abstracts and full-length papers will be published in the conference proceedings with the author's permission and after revision and modification, if necessary. Submitted papers may also be considered for publication in a forthcoming issue of the Central Asian Business Journal, a KIMEP University publication.

  Fees and Funding: There is no conference participation fee. Partial support for accommodation and air-travel may be available in the form of discounts from sponsors.
  Social Events:
  * Welcome Get-Together (Traditional Yurt Experience): Thursday, April 19, 2012
  * Cultural Event (Traditional Central Asian Music and Dance) and Dinner: Friday, April 20
  * Afternoon Sightseeing Excursion (Medeo & Shymbulak Mountain): Saturday, April 21
  * Day-long Sightseeing Excursion (Charyn Canyon / Turgen Falls): Sunday, April 22
  
  Contact Information: Conference e-mail: kirc2012@kimep.kz
  Further Details: Conference website: www.kimep.kz/kirc

• Call for Papers: 32nd Annual Slavic Forum
  Due: March 16
  May 11-12, University of Chicago

  The Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures at The University of Chicago is excited to announce our upcoming graduate student conference, the 32nd Annual Slavic Forum. This year’s conference will focus on comparative inquiries in Eastern European and Slavic cultures, in the spirit of comparative studies of history, literature, and linguistics.

  We invite abstracts for individual papers, 20 minutes in length, from Master’s or Ph.D. students in Slavic studies and related fields, including linguistics, literature, history, gender studies, art history, music, theater arts, film, as well as any other disciplines related to the topic of the conference. The Slavic Forum committee will organize panels following the acceptance of papers to the conference. Papers accepted to the 32nd Annual Slavic Forum will be published in an electronic collection of working papers from the conference. A style sheet will be distributed following the acceptance of papers to the conference and authors will be given a chance to revise their papers and include comments from the conference prior to publication.

  Please send a brief abstract (300 words or less) and a short bio to slavicforum@gmail.com. Examples and references are not included in the word count. Please include your name and affiliation at the top of the abstract but not in the body, so that we may make them anonymous for refereeing and easily identify them afterwards. All abstracts will be refereed and participants will be notified by the end of March.

  Please also note any equipment that might be needed for the presentation. The Slavic Forum committee will strive to meet all equipment needs, but cannot make any guarantees due to budget limits. For more information refer to Slavic Forum's website

• Call for Proposals: The 2012 Western U.S. Graduate Research Workshop on the European Union
  Due: March 26
  May 4-5, 2012
  University of California, Berkeley

  The European Union Center of Excellence at the University of California, Berkeley; the Colorado European Union Center of Excellence at the University of Colorado Boulder; and the European Union Center of Excellence of Seattle at the University of Washington are pleased to announce and solicit applications for the fourth Western United States Graduate Research Workshop on the European Union, to be held at the University of California, Berkeley on May 4-5, 2012.

  The workshop advances two direct aims: to provide a forum for US-based graduate students at the dissertation level to present research focused on the EU to an audience of knowledgeable, supportive, yet critical faculty and peers; and to provide methodological instruction to students in a way that is relevant to European Union-related work. Instruction will be organized around and informed by the research problems and opportunities presented by the EU and European integration. Professors Christine Neuhold (University of Maastricht), Branislav Radeljic (University of East London) and Beverly Crawford (University of California, Berkeley) will be responsible for organizing and conducting the workshops. A more general goal is to improve EU research in the United States by building a strong cadre of students with some sense of a shared project and a commitment to carry out sound research with an eye toward completion of the degree and publication of research results. Doctoral students with approved dissertation topics focusing on the EU in any academic field and enrolled at institutions in the US may apply to attend the workshop. Applicants should submit a 5-page research proposal and curriculum vitae, to be sent by email to eucenter@berkeley.edu. Applicants should note the current stage of their research and the name of their dissertation/thesis adviser. These can be emailed directly to Noga Wizansky at eucenter@berkeley.edu. The deadline for receipt of application materials is March 26th, 2012 with selection decisions to be announced shortly thereafter.

  Graduate students selected to participate in the 2012 workshop will be expected to give a formal presentation of their research proposal and participate in all planned workshop activities. The sponsors will cover the costs of a round trip economy airfare from participants’ home cities to Berkeley, along with two nights’ hotel stay and most meals. This workshop is made possible by the generous funding of the European Union Delegation to the United States through the EU Centers of Excellence program, establishing the Network of European Union Centers of Excellence.

  Please address inquiries to the EU Center of Excellence at the University of California, Berkeley (eucenter@berkeley.edu, tel. 510-643-4558).

• Call for Papers: Redefining the Nation. Ethnicity and Nationhood in Communist and Post-Communist Societies
  Due: March 30
  May 18-19, 2012, Department of Political Science, University of Bucharest

  The process of continuous definition and institutionalisation of the concept of nation is an important dimension of political and social realities throughout the world. The phenomenon of nation-building permeates multiple areas of politics and everyday life, acquiring diverse forms. Laboratories for numerous nation-building projects across time, post-communist societies can be said to offer a privileged position for observing this protean nature of nationalism.

  Far from losing its significance, nationalism in Central and Eastern Europe, the Balkans, the Caucasus and Central Asia adjusted itself to changing circumstances, political regimes and social orders. Arguably incommensurable, the nation-building strategies and manifestations of nationalism specific to the communist and post-communist periods respectively are strongly connected through a burgeoning “nation-talk”, i.e. the permanent usage of nation and ethnicity as key categories of social and political practices.

  The student conference organized by the Department of Political Science, University of Bucharest, in collaboration with Université Paris 1 - Panthéon Sorbonne, Université Libre de Bruxelles (CEVIPOL), and the Institute for the Investigation of Communist Crimes and the Memory of the Romanian Exile (Bucharest), is an invitation to reflect upon the changing nature of nationalism in communist and post-communist societies. The last decades have brought forth a wide range of mutations from and denials of the traditional nation-state-centred nationalism, which in the view of Ernest Gellner sought the congruence of cultural and political boundaries. The different transborder and substate models of nationalism or the long-distance nationalism (Benedict Anderson) facilitated by new communication technologies can be seen as indications of these developments.

  We welcome theoretical or empirical papers addressing the following or related topics:
  • communism and nation-building;
  • nationalism and transition to democracy;
  • memories of past conflict and the politics of reconciliation;
  • nationhood and ethnicity in everyday life;
  • ethnicised aggression and aggressive ethnicity;
  • ethnopolitical settlements, relationship between majorities and minorities;
  • transborder nation-building;
  • long-distance nationalism, migration and diasporas;
  • regional identities and substate nation-building;
  • border identities;
  • racism, xenophobia;
  • human rights and minority rights, group rights, pluralism.

  The conference is open to both undergraduate (final years) and postgraduate students from different fields of social sciences and humanities: Political Science, Anthropology, History, Sociology, Economics, etc. The conference will take place at the Political Science Department, University of Bucharest: 8, Spiru Haret Street, 010175, Bucharest (District 1), Romania.

  Applications, in English or French, consisting of a paper abstract of 250 words and a short CV (one paragraph) must be submitted by 30 March 2012, to: conference@fspub.unibuc.ro. Please mention if partial funding for travel or accommodation costs is needed (currently available funding is very limited). The selected papers should be submitted by May 7th (cca. 20, 000 – 25, 000 characters) . The languages of the conference will be English and French. However, the final paper can be written in Romanian, English, or French.

  The conference is part of the activities undertaken by the consortium Université Libre de Bruxelles – University of Bucarest – University of Wroclaw – Babes-Bolyai University, within the framework of the common MA program « Central and Eastern European Politics and Societies ».

• Call for Workshop Papers: The German Diaspora in Eastern and Central Europe and the former Soviet Union
  Due: March 31
  Durham University, 22-23 June 2012

  The German diaspora can be found in most Eastern and Central European states as well as in some of the successor states of the former Soviet Union. Ethnic German minorities have lived, and albeit in much reduced numbers still live, in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Romania, Moldova, Ukraine, Serbia, Croatia,Hungary, Belarus, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and, of course, Russia. During the Cold War, when the iron curtain ensured that only a relatively small number of these ethnic Germans were allowed to leave, West Germany's relationship with these communities focused on facilitating the migration of as many as possible to their alleged 'homeland'. Until the changes to Germany's citizenship laws in the 1980s and 1990s, three million ethnic Germans migrated from Eastern and Central Europe and the (former) Soviet Union. This mass exodus casts severe doubt over the continued existence and long-term survival of these communities.

  The main aim of this workshop is to bring together contributions which focus on the state of the German diaspora in Eastern and Central Europe and the former Soviet Union in the wake of the mass migration of the late 1980s and early 1990s. In particular, we invite contributions which, by way of individual or comparative case studies:
  
  - assess the state of the German diaspora as a transnational community in the aftermath of mass migration;
  - identify and examine notions of Germanness in these communities as they have emerged in the post-Cold War context;
  - examine state-diaspora relations that have emerged in the post-Cold War world between Germany and these ethnic communities in the postcommunist world;
  - identify and assess the significance of any new developments such as the phenomenon of 'reverse return';
  - identify any generational differences in perceptions and expressions of Germanness and examine to what extent the narrative of suffering is being replaced by other notions of belonging and/or cultural practices;
  - explore the importance of history and memory to these communities;
  - investigate the relationship between the migrating communities and the rump communities in the former homeland, as well as between Germany and these states in ECE and the FSU;
  - examine the relationship between German communities abroad and their 'host' states
  - analyse the nature of the relationship between German communities abroad and other ethnic groups

  If you would like to contribute, please send a 250 word abstract and a short CV (including a list of relevant publications) to ruth.wittlinger@durham.ac.uk. Accommodation and meals for invited speakers will be covered by a grant from Durham University.

• Call for Papers: Transmission,Transgression, and Polish Studies
  Due: March 31
  October 15-18, 2012, Chicago

  The Hejna Family Chair in the History of Poland and the Hejna Family Chair in Polish Language and Literature at the University of Illinois at Chicago welcome proposals for papers and other forms of presentations at the 4th International Conference in Polish Studies, to be held October 15-18, 2012 in Chicago.

  The working title for this conference, Transmission,Transgression, and Polish Studies, suggests the possibility of confronting two dominant perspectives in our field: traditional accounts focused on transmission of the Polish heritage to the younger generations, a broader public, and/or non-Polish audiences, and more disruptive or subversive activity, tending to think and act outside the box. But it also means that no transmitting in the field of humanities is innocent or obvious. It has been frequently noted that methodologies and approaches even recently regarded as innovative, have already become dominant and militant, taking their philosophical implications for granted. The main aim of this conference would be then to rethink the very foundations of our disciplines (if there are still any) and to ask questions about methodological imperatives and dangers we face in our everyday practice. As this self-criticism must ceaselessly accompany the routine research and teaching, we would be happy to host scholars who want to share their hesitations or hopes about their research and do not fear put the main premises of the field into question. What especially is worth reexamining is the universal validity and efficacy of the concept of „interdisciplinarity“, after so many critiques directed against it. If we want to remain truly interdisciplinary, or, as we tend to say, transdisciplinary, we should be perfectly aware what that actually means and what the merits and drawbacks of this methodological enterprise are.

  For this „transgressing“ reason we would especially like to encourage advanced graduate students and junior scholars to attend the conference, but please note that priority will be given to critically biased presentations. Our aim is to put our field in motion again which can be done only by a thorough reflection on its limits. We will be working in two sections: History and Social Sciences and Literature and Arts.

  The Conference will begin on Monday, October 15, with an Annual Hejna Lecture by Professor Madeline G. Levine, titled "Polish Literature Comes to America: A Translator's Perspective." Afterwards we invite all participants to a welcoming party. All events will take place at Chopin Theater in Chicago.

  Please submit abstracts of 250-500 words (Word.doc or docx) by e-mail either to stauterh@uic.edu or markowsk@uic.edu, with a copy to akopacka@uic.edu. Abstracts will be accepted until March 31, 2012. Upon acceptance, attendants will be asked to pay a non-refundable registration fee of $75 ($25 for graduate students). UIC Polish Studies will provide accommodations for speakers for 4 days, along with lunches, and an opening party. The Program does not cover airfares.

April, 2012

• Call for Papers: 10th International Biographic Readings “The Right to a Name: Biography in the 20th Century” in Memory of Veniamin Iofe
  Due: April 1

  The Readings in the Memory of Veniamin Viktorovich Iofe (1938-2002), who was a historian, philosopher, political prisoner in the 1960s, Samizdat author, activist in and historian of the resistance movement in the USSR and, crucially, the founder of the Research and Information Centre «Memorial», have been held annually since 2003; they take place in the second half of April at the RIC «Memorial» and the European University in St Petersburg.

  The Readings provide a forum for discussing the methodology and practice of compiling and using biography and the application of biographical methods in various scholarly disciplines. Topics for discussion and analysis are: biographical models (short bio, autobiography, life writing); the combination of fact and event (the public and the private in biography; the act); access to information; the language of biography and the format of biographical records; biographical databases an; sources of biography (sources and myths, distortion and falsification, forms of omission); post-biography (death in biography, posthumous biography, perpetuation of memory).

  Of particular interest is the impact of politics and the state on the life journey described in biography (resistance, oppression, editing of life events). This affects the sources from which biography is compiled, but also the question to which level the biography itself can be regarded as a source of sociological or historical knowledge. We will consider the trustworthiness of various biographical sources and their objectivity/subjectivity, authenticity, mission/mythologisation and other issues that arise during research.

  Conference papers are published in a separate volume, which is traditionally presented at the opening of the subsequent readings (the papers of Readings No 1-8 have been published; the 9th volume is scheduled to come out for April 2012). Papers and abstracts are also published on the website of the RIC “Memorial”. The official language of the Readings is Russian. Papers must not exceed 20 minutes. Each paper is followed by 20 minutes of discussion The Readings will take place on 21 -23 April 2012 at the European University in St Petersburg.

  Paper proposals in Russian should be submitted before 1 April 2012 to iofe.readings@gmail.com.They should consist of a short abstract of no more than 2000 signs and a short CV (main data of the speaker, institution, status, degree, contact details) of no more than 200 signs. The organizers do not fund travel, accommodation or food. There is no conference fee.

• Call for Papers: 4th Annual Yuri Lotman Days At Tallinn University
  April 11, 2012
  Tallinn, 8–10 June 2012

  Title: Do Texts Tell Lies? Or: How to deal with unreliable sources

  The Estonian Semiotics Repository Foundation at Tallinn University is announcing a call for papers for the annual conference, the 4th Yuri Lotman Days to be held at Tallinn University, 8–10 June 2012. The topics of our conferences are always linked to the rich scholarly legacy of Yuri Lotman. This year’s conference is inspired by Lotman’s seminal paper, “On the problem of dealing with unreliable sources”. We are going to discuss both the problem which is posed in this paper (must the researcher desist from attempts to interpret patently unreliable sources?), and a wider range of questions, which are connected with the fundamental issue in the humanities that “between” the fact and the researcher there is always a text. Thus, we intend to discuss the following issues:
  — the problems of selection and evaluation of sources in the humanities and social sciences;
  — the possibilities and methods of studying apocryphal and counterfeit sources;
  — the situations of “textual ambiguity” in establishing the definitive text (in literature, cinema, music, and other arts);
  — the problems of textological, philological, historical and culturological interpretation of discrepancies between the sources.

  The conference will include Russian-language and English-language panels. Each speaker is allotted thirty minutes (20 minutes for delivery and 10 minutes discussion). Those wishing to attend the conference and present papers are requested to apply, providing the following information:
  — the title of their paper and an abstract (the abstract should not exceed 2000 characters, spaces included);
  — a brief CV (name, surname, affiliation, degree, scholarly interests, up to 1000 characters, spaces included).

  The applications in Russian should be sent to Mikhail Trunin: mikhailtrunin@gmail.com The applications in English should be sent to Piret Peiker: piretpeiker@hotmail.com

  The participant abstracts will be selected by the organising committee based on their merit and suitability for the conference. The applicants will be informed about the results by 25 April 2012. All conference events are free of charge, and there is no conference fee. The participants are expected to travel on their own expense and responsibility.

• Call For Participation: The Third International Conference On Islam (ICI'12)
  April 13-14, University of Wisconsin-Madison

  The objective of the conference is to create an environment for the discussion of different aspects of Islam in an academic setting and in a non-speculative way. The conference will serve the purpose of bringing together academics, scholars and researchers interested in different aspects of Islam, and will provide an opportunity to share new findings, approaches and research on Islam. Selected papers from the conference will be published as a book.

  Keynote Speakers:
  Seyyed Hossein Nasr, The George Washington University, Washington, D.C.
  John O Voll, Georgetown University, Washington, D.C.
  
  Theme: The theme of this year’s conference will be “Islam and Democracy”.
  Scope: Topics of interest include but are not limited to the following:
  • Islamic Theological Perspectives on Democracy
  • Islam, Liberalism, and Pluralism
  • Islam, Secularism, and the State
  • Islam and Nationalism
  • Muslim Women and Democracy
  • Islam and Democracy in the Middle East
  • Islam and Democracy in Central Asia
  • Islam and Democracy in Europe
  • Islam and Democracy: Turkey Model
  • Arab Spring

  ICI'12 presents 8 panels including presentations by top national and international experts, offering a unique educational opportunity. We are certain that the scholarly discussion of questions regarding various aspects of Islam and Democracy will provide the public with a healthier understanding of contemporary global issues, as well as promoting intellectual debate and sharing among the researchers and scholars of Islam. The conference will also be a perfect setting for meeting researchers of common interest and establishing contacts for further intellectual cooperation.

• Call for Papers: The Micropolitics of Small Town Life in Eastern Europe
  Due: April 20
  March 5-6, 2013, University of Illinois

  On behalf of the Program in Jewish Culture and Society and the Russian, East European, and Eurasian Center of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and the Research Group Pathways of Law in Ethno-Religiously Mixed Societies, funded by the German Research Foundation at Leipzig University, we invite proposals for an international symposium, The Micropolitics of Small Town Life in Eastern Europe. The symposium will be held at the University of Illinois on March 5-6, 2013.

  Description: Research in urban history of Eastern Europe – as anywhere else in the world – focuses on cities, namely the metropolis. Yet until the beginning of the twentieth century, small urban communities were the principal habitat of the vast majority of people in Eastern Europe. Surprisingly little is known about the political and social universe of small towns. Without privileging a single national history or question, the symposium examines, on a microscopic scale, power dynamics, values, belief systems, and everyday interactions from the early modern period until the beginning of the twentieth century. From this perspective, we hope to challenge established grand narratives of historical development and organization. We especially welcome proposals that zero in on the mentalities, communal structures and organization, and the functions and dysfunctions of small town life in a comparative framework.

  Timothy Snyder of Yale University will give the keynote lecture. Themes include:
  • Theory of communication – media of communication
  • Demography – settlement politics – spatial orders
  • Legal settings: rights and responsibilities
  • Corporations and religious communities
  • Political consciousness and urban ideology
  • Neighborly relations
  • Female agency
  • Public associations

  Proposals are welcome from any discipline of the humanities and social sciences. Please send a short abstract (300 words) and CV to smalltownlife2012@gmail.com by April 20, 2012. The symposium organizers will cover room and board and assist with travel expenses (up to $500 for domestic participants and $1500 for international guests). Symposium Organizers: Eugene Avrutin – Department of History, University of Illinois (eavrutin@illinois.edu); Yvonne Kleinmann – Institute for Slavic Studies, Leipzig University (kleinm@rz.uni-leipzig.de)

• Call for Papers: Socialist Realist Art: Production, Consumption, Aesthetics
  Due: April 20
  Stockholm, 19-20 October 2012

  Socialist Realist Art: Production, Consumption, Aesthetics is an International Conference, sponsored by the Center for Baltic and East European Studies, Södertörn University, Stockholm, in collaboration with the Museum of Modern Art, Stockholm.

  Since the early 1990s, there has been a striking growth of interest in the legacy of Soviet Socialist Realist art, which has reshaped our understanding of it in fundamental ways. A substantial body of research has demonstrated that the method of Socialist Realism was a highly creative and diversified cultural arena that was both heterogeneous in its pictorial strategies and often conflicted and ambivalent in its representations of the social and political messages of the day. Yet the label 'totalitarian' continues to influence the ways in which Soviet art is interpreted and contextualised, limiting our understanding of Socialist Realism and obstructing its integration into a broader narrative of twentieth-century art.

  In the proposed conference we seek to examine the interests and influences which contributed to the development of Socialist Realism as a diverse and contested field of art from the 1930s to the 1980s. Participants will be invited to focus on aspects of Socialist Realist fine art production, evaluation and consumption in order to consider the ways in which artistic conventions of pictorial representation were established, adapted and transformed to reflect the changing nature of the Soviet project. This approach will facilitate a shift away from the tendency to draw conclusions about Socialist Realism based on a limited number of canonical works of art and acclaimed artists, and will encourage a reappraisal of the diversity and originality of creative output in its formal, stylistic and geographical variations.

  Proposed topics may include (but should not be restricted to) the following:
  • How did Socialist Realist art develop over time and according to changing sociopolitical contexts? On what basis should specific periods can be identified, for example “Stalinist” or “post-Stalinist” art?
  • What were the variations in Socialist Realist art beyond Moscow and Leningrad: across the different parts of the RSRSR and the other SSRs? How did the centre-periphery relationship function in the Soviet art world?
  • Who were the audiences for Socialist Realist art and how was fine art consumed in the Soviet Union?
  • What was the role of the art critic in the definition of artistic merit? How was value and significance ascribed to works of art in the absence of an art market?
  • What was the role of the state in the definition of Socialist Realist art and how was the interface between artists and art world authorities managed?
  • What was the status of minor genres within the canon of Socialist Realist art (e.g. landscape, still life, personal portraiture) and what new and hybrid genres emerged?
  • How did artists seek to manipulate the development of Socialist Realism according to their own aesthetic preferences and agendas?
  • How did Socialist Realist art in the USSR relate to broader international narratives of Realism in the visual arts of the twentieth century?
  • How did Soviet Socialist Realism relate to the art sponsored by other authoritarian regimes, in the inter-war period and after? Is “totalitarian art” a viable concept?
  • How did the ideas and methods of Socialist Realist art relate to developments in other fields of cultural production in the USSR and vice versa? Was Socialist Realism a uniform canon, or did it vary across the fields of art, literature, music, film, architecture and so on?

  Proposals for Papers: We invite proposals dealing with these or related themes. Proposals should include your name, institutional affiliation, email address, proposed paper title, 150-word abstract and short curriculum vitae. Post-graduate students are encouraged to apply. Successful applicants will be asked to submit a conference paper of around 3000 words for pre-circulation before the conference. Participants will be asked to cover their own travel expenses. We are currently exploring possibilities for support for accommodation expenses. The submission deadline for proposals is 20 April 2012. Applicants will be informed about acceptance by around 1 May 2012.

  Contacts: For general questions and further information, please contact Mark Bassin (mark.bassin@sh.se). Please submit proposals via email to Oliver Johnson (o.johnson@sheffield.ac.uk)

• Call for Papers: 12th Aleksanteri Conference: Competition and Good Society - the Eastern Model
  Due: April 30
  24th-26th October 2012, Aleksanteri Institute, University of Helsinki, Finland

  The link between competition and good society has seldom been extensively discussed on any international academic forum. Since the 1980s there has been vivid political discussion of and rivalry among the varieties of capitalist models. The ongoing Western economic crisis with political decision-makers’ discord, a growing sense of social insecurity and global demonstrations all point out how cutting-edge this topic is. Hence, we aim to discuss competition and competitiveness not primarily in the economic context but, more importantly, in reflection to societal life. We are interested in what kind of preconditions competition creates for welfare, social justice, equality and culture, in addition to how competition affects changes on the level of mentality and ideas – subjects that have been greatly neglected.

  The purpose of the 12th Aleksanteri Conference is to generate academic research and discourse on this subject. The focus of the conference is on the Eastern angle. Its aim is to discuss how people in Eastern and Central Europe, Russia, and even further in the East in Central Asia and China understand the preconditions of a good society and what role competition plays in it as well as how competition is reflected in the semantic systems and the cultural structures of these countries. Especially the area that faced the enormous task of building a new social system after the collapse of socialism had to redefine its relation to market forces, competitiveness and social well-being. What are the experiences of this societal development after twenty years? Are the Eastern models divergent or convergent with the varieties of Western capitalism? What are the norms, limitations and practices of competition in the diverse Eastern models? How has the understanding of competition changed after the Second World War? Can we find continuities of ideas, practices or mentalities rooted in the communist past and Cold War period that still affect these issues? We call for contributions from a wide range of disciplines in social sciences and humanities since the aim is a fruitful interdisciplinary discourse.

  Conference Schedule And Deadlines:
  Proposals for panels (500 words): April 30th, 2012
  Abstracts for individual papers (300 words): April 30th, 2012
  Notification of acceptance: May 31st, 2012
  Publication of the conference programme: June 30th, 2012
  Conference: October 24-26th, 2012

  Please submit your abstract and contact information through the abstract submission form or panel proposal submission form. For further assistance or more details, please see the conference website, or contact the Conference Coordinators.

• Conference: Symbolism, Its Origins and Its Consequences with the theme Light and Darkness, April 25-28

  The conference, Symbolism, Its Origins and Its Consequences with the theme Light and Darkness, will take place between April 25-28, 2012 at Allerton Park, University of Illinois Conference and Retreat Center. For more information, please visit here or here. If you wish to attend the conference, you are welcome to register.

• Call for Papers: “Representing the Past in Architecture”
  Due: April 30
  October 8-11, 2012, Vilnius

  The conference is organised by the Herder-Institut (Marburg), the Lithuanian Institute of History (Vilnius) and the Nordost-Institut (IKGN e.V., Lüneburg).

  In 2001 Lithuanian government decided to begin rebuilding the Palace of the Grand Dukes of Lithuania in Vilnius, which was completely destroyed at the end of the 18th century. Among many things this (re-)construction indicated a search for the new/old history, for the country’s self- assertion, for the state’s representation, as well as manifested one of the ways in promoting new post-Soviet Lithuanian national identity. This example, however, was not unique: one can recall the rebuilding of the Royal Castle in Warsaw in the 1970s, or recent discussions about the restoration of the Stadtschloss in Berlin.

  However, some scholars tend to argue that such resurrection of historical structures in contemporary time is more than a mere act of representation. As French philosopher Jean Baudrillard has pointed out, such objects become simulacra which not just represent, but rather simulate or imitate certain aspects of the past, and at the same time are imbued with particular contemporary meanings and connotations. Therefore, among the questions that we would like to discuss during the event are: What impact do the rebuilt structures have on the historical perception and formation of identities? How do they represent or simulate the past? What old and new connotations can be identified in the object(s)? Why were these particular structures chosen to be rebuilt? Therefore one of the main aims of the conference is to discuss such examples of (re-)constructed histories, which are expressed not only in different architectural forms, but also monuments, city planning, parks, squares, etc.

  Under such general guidelines the organisers of the upcoming interdisciplinary conference cordially invite young scholars (up to the age of 35) to present and discuss their cases. Framework for the discussions will also be guided by presentations given by several keynote speakers. Even though our primary focus is on Central, Eastern and Northern Europe, yet other relevant proposals pertaining to the topic will be considered too.

  Travel (only within Europe) and accommodation costs will be covered by the organisers. The language of the proceedings is English. A short description of the proposed conference paper (1-2 pages, preferably in Word) together with your CV should be sent to: Dr. Heidi Hein-Kircher, Herder-Institut Marburg, forum@herder- institut.de. The closing deadline for applications is April 30, 2012.

• Call for Papers: International Symposium “Media and Value Priorities of Society”
  Due: April 31
  10-14 September 2012, Sunny Beach Resort, Bulgaria

  The Symposium is organized by Science and Education Foundation (Bulgaria), Faculty of Journalism, Lomonosov, Moscow State University (Russia) and Faculty of Journalism, Saint Petersburg State University (Russia). All materials and articles of the Symposium will be published in journal “International Scientific Publications: Media and value priorities of society” (www.science-journals.eu).

  Click here for additional information regarding organization and schedule of the symposium.

May, 2012

• Call for Papers: Engaging the Law in Eurasia and Eastern Europe
  Due: May 7

  The Kennan Institute, in partnership with the Russian, East European and Eurasian Center at the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, the Harriman Institute at Columbia University, and the University of Wisconsin Law School, is pleased to announce a new workshop series on “Engaging the Law in Eurasia and Eastern Europe.” Law provides the foundation for both market economies and democracies. In the years following the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of the Soviet Union, there has been a wholesale rewriting of statutes and regulations as part of a reshaping of the institutional environment of these formerly Communist countries. The extent to which these reforms have taken root has varied. Each country has its own distinct legal culture, which is in part a product of the societal experience of law during the Communist period. The social demand for law also has colored the effectiveness of the reformed legal institutions in these countries, such as the bar, the courts, and various administrative agencies. On some issues, non-governmental organizations and/or individual activists have played a critical role in pressing the state to live up to its legal obligations.

  Given the passage of two decades since the disintegration of the Soviet bloc, the time is ripe for an assessment of the role of law in the region. The workshop series is designed to encourage cross-disciplinary exchanges and will facilitate the creation of a cohesive cohort of young scholars focusing on legal reform in Eurasia and Eastern Europe. Participants in the series further will explore the ways in which policymakers and practitioners can find mutually beneficial dialogue with academics.

  Selection for the workshop series will be based on an open national competition. Participation in the series is limited to U.S. citizens only. Applicants should be at the post-doctoral level (pre-tenure) or Ph.D. candidates who have completed field research for their dissertations. For non-academics, an equivalent degree of professional achievement is expected (J.D., MBA, etc.) Applications will be accepted from any area of social science, humanities, business, or law dealing with the region’s legal evolution, past and present. This workshop will be led by senior scholars Professor Kathryn Hendley (University of Wisconsin-Madison), Professor Peter Maggs (University of Illinois- Urbana Champaign), and William Pomeranz (Kennan Institute) and will bring together young researchers for a series of online and in-person exchanges, culminating in a final meeting in Washington, D.C. If accepted, each participant will present a research paper that, during the course of two meetings, will be examined by senior scholars, fellow workshop participants, and outside experts to produce a final article of publishable quality. All per diem costs and travel support for workshop participants will be covered by the conference organizers.

  Interested applicants should submit an abstract (up to 1000 words) of their current research, a one-page bibliography, a current CV, and two letters of recommendation of the scholar to: Engaging the Law in Eurasia and Eastern Europe, 104 International Studies Building, MC-487, 910 S Fifth Street, Champaign IL, 61820-6216. Abstracts and resumes may be sent by email to Alisha Kirchoff (kirchoff@illinois.edu). Recommendation letters must be sent by mail to the above address, or as a pdf copy of a recommendation letter to Alisha Kirchoff. All application materials must be in English and be received by May 7, 2012.

  When writing your proposal, please keep in mind that the objective of these workshops is to shed new light on the region’s legal transformation and how the law is actually working in individual countries. Such research theoretically encompasses legal history, the development of judicial institutions, human rights, transnational crime, corruption, commercial law, criminal law, access to courts, the influence of international law on a country or region, and other law-related topics.

• Call for Papers: International Conference: World War II, Nazi Crimes, and the Holocaust in the USSR
  Due: May 15
  December 7-9, 2012 Moscow, Russia

  The National Research University Higher School of Economics; the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum's Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies; the Blavatnik Family Foundation; the Centre for European, Russian and Eurasian Studies at the Munk School of Global Affairs and the Centre for Jewish Studies at the University of Toronto; the German Historical Institute Moscow; the Centre franco-russe de recherche en sciences humaines et sociales de Moscou; Kritika: Explorations in Russian and Eurasian History; and Georgetown University's Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies and Department of History, with the support of the Centre d'études des mondes russe, caucasien, et centre-européen at the École des hautes études en sciences sociales, invite applications for a conference on World War II and the Holocaust in the Soviet Union.

  In the past decade, three related fields, each interdisciplinary in its own right, have developed exponentially but sometimes in isolation: the study of wartime Stalinism, the study of the Nazi occupation of Soviet territories, and the study of the Holocaust in the East. This conference will bring together the latest research conducted in all humanities and social science disciplines in order to foster new analytical perspectives and cross-fertilization in these and other key areas. The conference seeks to highlight new research in such areas as evacuation, refugees, and displaced persons; atrocities, mass killing, and mass graves; forced and slave labor; the dynamics of complicity, collaboration, and various forms of resistance; everyday life on the front and under occupation; understudied victims; occupier perspectives on the War and the Holocaust, including such acts as the starvation of Soviet POWs, and their contributions to the history of National Socialism; new perspectives on the Soviet wartime experience and the impact of war on the Soviet system; the study of the Soviet home front; Soviet-German interactions and entanglements, both in specific locales and in systemic terms; the cultural politics of representation and commemoration in the aftermath; gender; and communities and identities forged around the unprecedented experiences of war on the Eastern Front in World War II.

  The conference is intended to be interdisciplinary. Proposals for new,original, and previously unpublished papers are welcome from scholars in all relevant academic disciplines, including from doctoral students who have advanced to candidacy. Applicants interested in presenting a paper should be currently researching or completing projects exploring the topics and issues listed above, broadly understood. Successful applicants will be required to submit a copy of their presentation in advance of the conference for circulation among commentators, other panelists, and conference participants. The conference will be conducted in English and Russian. Simultaneous translation will be provided.

  The deadline for receipt of proposals is May 15, 2012. Participants will be selected and notified no later than June 1, 2012. To propose a paper for this conference, please send: (1) a cover letter addressing your specific interests in the study of World War II and the Holocaust in the Soviet Union; (2) your curriculum vitae; and (3) an abstract of no more than 500 words of your proposed paper to Krista Hegburg, Program Officer, Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies, U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, at khegburg@ushmm.org, and to Dr. Galina Zelenina, Senior ReseaHistory and Sociology of World War II, the Higher School of Economics, Moscow, at gzelenina@hse.ru.

  Submissions must include the speaker's name, institutional affiliation, current position, contact address and email. Proposals may be in either Russian or English, but Russian-language proposals should include an English abstract or summary. Applicants may apply individually or suggest a panel. Applicants who are accepted may submit their full-length papers in either English or Russian. For applicants whose papers are accepted and indicate that they need financial support, the conference organizers will provide lodging for the duration of the conference and a stipend to help defray transportation costs.

  A limited number of junior scholar travel stipends will be available to partially defray costs for graduate students and junior scholars from post-Soviet states to attend the conference. Applicants must be advanced graduate students or recent Ph.D. recipients no more than three years beyond conferral of their degree, and must reside in one of the countries that formerly comprised the Soviet Union. Scholars enrolled in graduate programs or teaching at universities outside of these countries are not eligible for junior scholar travel stipends. To apply for a post-Soviet junior scholar travel stipend, please submit: (1) a curriculum vitae that indicates your current academic affiliation; (2) a statement of interest of not more than 750 words addressing your specific interest in attending the conference, background in the area of study, and how attendance will benefit the candidate's research, teaching, or future publications; and (3) a supporting letter from an academic advisor, department chair, or dean that addresses the candidate's qualifications and research as well as his/her potential as a scholar to Krista Hegburg, Program Officer, Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies, at khegburg@ushmm.org. Statements of interest and CVs must be submitted in English; theupporting letter may be submitted in either English or Russian. The deadline for receipt of application for the junior scholar travel stipends is June 1, 2012. Participants will be selected and notified no later than July 1, 2012.

• Call for Papers: Enlightened Russian: The Russian Language Society in the Age of Catherine the Great
  Due: May 15
  31 August - 1 September, 2012, The Princess Dashkova Russian Centre, the University of Edinburgh

  The conference is organised in partnership with the 2012 Catherine the Great Exhibition at the National Museum of Scotland from the collection of the State Hermitage Museum.

  It is widely acknowledged that Russia in the second half of the eighteenth century was a bilingual society in which Russian speaking peasants and the largely French speaking aristocracy were divided by impenetrable social and cultural barriers. However the ideas and practices introduced during Catherine the Great’s reign were linked to changes in language ideology leading to substantial sociolinguistic and linguocultural shifts. Not only did the Russian language grow in its international exposure, following vast territorial expansions of Catherine’s Empire, its value changed as well. Catherine’s age with its cult of Enlightenment ideas appears to be a crucial turning point in the transformation of Russian to a literary, diplomatic, and educational medium. The regimes of language were adapted to service emerging Russian nationalism, affecting the common sense knowledge about Russian. The establishment of the Russian Academy headed by Princess Ekaterina Dashkova and the publication of the Russian Academy Dictionary were the highlights of Russian language management and codification, and, together with the language debates in literature and journalism, were among numerous factors and contexts of the shifting linguistic landscape towards a new Russian-oriented socium. The conference aims to bring together scholars who will collectively investigate the complex issues of the embeddedness of Russian in the social and cultural systems of Catherine’s Enlightenment.

  Keeping a socio-cultural language studies focus, the conference invites a broad range of approaches and methodologies to the exploration of its key themes. Publication of the best conference papers is envisaged.The themes for the conference include but are not limited to:
  • Sociolinguistic landscapes in the Eighteenth century Russia;
  • Russian in the social practices of bilingualism;
  • Language, class and gender during Catherine’s reign;
  • Language politics and linguistic practices of Russian Enlightenment and despotism;
  • The rhetoric of the state, the Russian language of empire and power;
  • The Russian Academy at the forefront of linguistic Enlightenment;
  • Development of linguistic ideas in the second half of the eighteenth century;
  • Language and the discovery of the Russian past: linguistic construction of memory and identity;
  • Literature and culture in the Russian language propaganda;
  • Catherine Dashkova’s contribution to the theory and practice of Russian language management;
  • Catherine the Great’s relationship with the Russian language;
  • Linguistic performance of an enlightened identity;
  • Russian language codification in dictionaries and grammars of the 18th century;
  • Codifiers of the Russian Language;
  • Linguistic tabooisation, detabooisation and ‘taboo discourses’ in the period of Enlightenment in Russia;
  • Linguistics attitudes: language mythologies, patterns of prestige and stigmatisation;
  • The languages of science in the eighteenth century;
  • The role of journalism in the formation of linguistic habitus during Catherine’s reign;
  • Writing egodocuments: private letters, memoirs and diaries;
  • Translation into Russian as a gesture of Enlightenment;
  • Enlightened Russian within other semiotic systems.

  We invite abstracts of no more than 300 words accompanied by a short bio to be submitted by no later than 15 May 2012 to Dashkova.Centre@ed.ac.uk. Authors of accepted papers will be notified by 5 June and will be expected to register for the conference by the pre-registration deadline of 1 July. All participants are expected to submit a full version of their paper by August 1st 2012; the papers will be posted on the conference's website.Inquiries regarding the conference’s topic, organization, or submission process should be directed to Dr Alexander Kozin at akozin@staffmail.ed.ac.uk.

  We expect to offer a very small number of limited travelling assistance for scholars coming from overseas. Application forms will be available from the conference web page. Additional information about the conference, including accommodation booking can be found at the centre's website.

• Call for Papers: Decadence or Renaissance? Russian Literature since 1991
  Due: May 18
  24-26 September 2012, St Antony’s College, Oxford University

  Keynote speakers: Mark Lipovetsky (University of Colorado, Boulder), Irina Prokhorova, head of New Literary Observer, Mikhail Shishkin, novelist.

  What have been the main achievements in Russian prose and poetry of the past twenty years, both inside and outside the ‘motherland’? And what have been the most interesting and innovative tendencies in literature of this period? Beyond a handful of familiar names, new Russian writers remain little-known and little-read, both within Slavic studies and among the general public. ‘Decadence or Renaissance?’ is intended to advance knowledge and understanding of Russian literature of the post-Soviet period among scholars, publishers and translators. We especially welcome proposals for papers that map neglected aspects of Russian fiction and poetry of the last twenty years, whether individual works or writers, themes or techniques. Equally welcome are considerations of the evolution of the ‘literary process’ in the past two decades: topics may include, for example, the role of critics and publishers; the shifting status of ‘elite’ and ‘mass’ literature; and the role of the literary journals, the Internet and commercial venues in the development of new writing. We also invite papers that consider how and to what extent Russian literature since 1991 has been represented in English translation.

  We look forward to receiving your proposals. Abstracts of 300-400 words should be submitted to oliver.ready@sant.ox.ac.uk and nina.kruglikova@gmail.com by Friday, 18 May. Please send any enquiries about the conference to the same addresses. The language of the conference will be English, and papers should last no longer than 20 minutes. Pending the outcome of funding applications, we hope to be able to cover the cost of speakers’ accommodation and meals, and to offer a few travel bursaries to selected postgraduate speakers. It is hoped that the best papers to emerge from the conference will be collected in a volume of articles edited by Oliver Ready.

• Call for Papers: The British-Czech-Slovak Historians’ Forum Annual Doctoral Conference
  Due: May 25
  28th – 29th June 2012, Prague, Czech Republic

  The Czech section of the British-Czech-Slovak Historians’ Forum is pleased to announce its 2012 international doctoral conference with the central theme: “Czechs, Slovaks and the English-speaking World in the 19th and 20th century”.

  Send abstracts of 300 words and a brief academic curriculum vitae to doctoral.conference@email.cz by 25 May 2012 at the latest. Successful applicants will be notified by 28 May 2012.

  About the conference: The conference is an excellent opportunity for graduate students and early career researchers to share their research or ideas, to present papers and to receive constructive feedback from respected experts in the field. In addition, the best paper will be published in a peer-reviewed academic journal. The Forum encourages submissions by Ph.D. candidates or junior researchers working on any aspect of the question “Czechs, Slovaks and the English-speaking World in the 19th and 20th century,” broadly defined. For example:
  *The experiences of Czechs and Slovaks in the English-speaking world
  * Relations between the Czech Republic, Slovak Republic or Czechoslovakia with the countries of the English-speaking world
  *The influences of the English-speaking world on the Czech Republic, Slovak Republic or Czechoslovakia and vice versa
  *Czechs and Slovaks through the lenses of English-speaking politicians, journalists, writers, musicians, etc.

  It is possible to submit an abstract of your research at any stage of the process. The main objective of the conference is to exchange research ideas on the international level and to bring together graduate students, early career researchers and prominent experts in the field together at a professional forum.

June, 2012

• Call for Papers: Collection of Essays concerning Fairy Tales
  Due: June 1

  The new millennium has born witness to a multitude of reinventions. Various mythological creatures have been reinvented, vampires, werewolves, and zombies to name but a few. Fairy tales also have been recreated in an ever increasing number in recent years. Graphic novels like Grimm Fairy Tales, movies such as Red Riding Hood, the upcoming Snow White and the Huntsman, and Beastly, as well as TV shows like Once Upon a Time and Grimm have emerged into popular culture. But why are these creations manifesting themselves now? What makes people crave fairy tales and their "happy" endings in such an increased number today? This will be the first book that will focus on this particular manifestation and its significance in popular culture.

  The original literary fairy tales were written versions of old folk tales. The original folk tales were often used as a way to explain things in nature and as cautionary tales for younger people, not always children. The first literary fairy tales followed this tradition but were mainly for adults and later tailored for children. While the folk tales changed with time, literary fairy tales, as written works, maintained their course. However, the new adaptations have moved back to a mature audience. Why the shift back to an adult audience?

  Considering that fairy tales, whether written or oral, are a part of nearly every culture in the world, the vast majority of people have been exposed to them in one form or another. And while these tales have been the subject of many articles, books, and collections, the number of adaptations hitting the market today, though, is surprising and very worth exploring.

  Due to the popularity and familiarity of the tales, not only the layman, but also people inside many academic fields, who are concerned with such works, will find this book more than interesting. Given that this book will consist of a collection of handpicked essays concerning various aspects of these diverse adaptations of the literary fairy tales, an assortment of readers should find this book and its topic of great interest.

  While our interests are broad and inclusive, we are particularly interested in papers that discuss fairy tales in contemporary popular culture (TV shows, movies, graphic novels, advertising, toys, video games, popular literature, etc), revisions and adaptations of fairy tales, and pedagogical uses of and approaches to fairy tales. Still, we are interested in as wide an array of papers as possible, so please do not hesitate to send a submission on any fairy tale related subject may it be on cultural significance, on gender, aspects of masculinity and femininity, theory, etc.

  Interested writers should submit a two-page synopsis of their proposed chapter that clearly indicates:
  . The research question
  . The methodology or theoretical lens
  . The findings
  . A bibliography of at least 5 sources
  Please send your abstracts or questions to: Fairytale.Collection@gmx.de.

• Call for Papers: Post-Atheism: Religion, Society and Culture in Post-communist Eastern Europe and Eurasia
  Due: June 01
  February 7-9, 2013, Tempe Arizona

  The Melikian Center for Russian, East European and Eurasian Studies at Arizona State University is pleased to announce an international conference on "Post-Atheism": Religion, Society and Culture in Post-communist Eastern Europe and Eurasia, to be held on the ASU campus in Tempe, Arizona, February 7-9, 2013.

  The conference is designed to address one of the most fascinating and controversial issues of the post-communist world of Eastern Europe and Eurasia-namely, the new public role of religion in society and culture. Is there separation of church and state in today's Eastern Europe, Russia or Eurasia? Are Iranian-like theocracies a possibility in some regions? Is the forceful entry of religion into the public sphere just a fleeting fashion or a deeper phenomenon of lasting importance? How has religion been reintroduced into the Academy and public education? Is religion being used to replace the ideological and epistemological vacuum left by the collapse of the dominant communist ideology in matters of social policy and morality? What are the relationships between a dominant religious faith tradition and minority confessions (often stigmatized as "destructive sects") in a given country?

  The conference is intended to generate sustained debate and discussion on a variety of perspectives relating to all the major faith traditions (Christianity, Islam, Judaism, and Buddhism) of the region, from Central and Southeastern Europe to Russia, Ukraine, Transcaucasia, Central Asia, and Mongolia. We will also welcome panels/roundtables/individual presentations dealing with non-traditional religious movements and transnational religious currents. Conference lodging will be provided, and limited funding will be available to support international travel.

  While we are open to other topics, we specifically invite individual and panel proposals on the following themes:
  * Religion, National Identity and Conflict: The Role of Religious Actors in Framing Ideologies of Nationalism and Transnational Globalization; Ethno-religious Conflict and Peacemaking.
  * Religion and Policymaking: Clerics and Religious Institutions in the Public Arena.
  * Religion as a Business: Religious Institutions as Economic Agents.
  * Religion and Education: Theology vs. Religious Studies in the Academy; Religion in Public Education.
  * Religion, Sexuality, and Gender: Patriarchy, Gender Equality, and LGBT Issues in Modern Religious Culture.
  * Religion and Culture: Popular Culture, Literature, TV/Film, Folklore.

  Please send us a brief (250-word limit) abstract of your individual paper/panel proposal and a one-page bio or CV. Contact: Alexei Lalo, Research Administrator, ASU Melikian Center (alalo@asu.edu). Stephen Batalden, Director, ASU Melikian Center (stephen.batalden@asu.edu).

• Call for Papers: VIII International Academic Conference Tolstoy and World Literature
  Due: June 1
  August 11-15, 2012

  On August 11-15, 2012, the State Museum-Estate of Leo Tolstoy at Yasnaya Polyana will host the VIII International Academic Conference Tolstoy and World Literature. We invite applications for papers on Tolstoy's work and art in the context of Russian and world literature, history, philosophy, and religion. On August 14, there will be a round table discussion dedicated to the 200th anniversary of the 1812 war and Tolstoy's War and Peace. Traditionally the Conference is organized with reference to Tolstoy's personal library with books and periodicals in 39 foreign languages. The proceedings of the Conference will be published. Accommodation, meals, cultural program and transportation from Moscow to Yasnaya Polyana and back are covered by the organizers.

  The deadline for applications is June 1st, 2012. The application includes the information about the participant and the abstract of the paper to be presented. Those who need an invitation for a visa must send the following information BY FEBRUARY 15, 2012: a copy of the front passport page, home institution, address, telephone, and the place where the visa will be issued. Please forward your application to Galina Alekseeva: gala@tgk.tolstoy.ru or galalexeeva@tula.net. Telephones: (48751)76-1-41, (4872)38-67-10 Those with questions can contact Donna Orwin at donna.orwin@utoronto.ca.

July, 2012

• Call for Papers: AATSEEL 2013 Conference
  Due: July 1

  The AATSEEL National Meeting is a forum for scholarly exchange of ideas in all areas of Slavic and East/Central European languages, literatures, linguistics, cultures, and pedagogy. The Program Committee invites scholars in these and related areas to form panels around specific topics, organize roundtable discussions, propose forums on instructional materials, and/or submit proposals for individual presentations for the 2013 Conference, which will be held on January 3-6, 2013 in Boston, Massachusetts. The conference regularly includes panels in the following areas.

  Linguistics: Phonology, Morphology, Syntax, Historical Linguistics, Discourse Analysis, Pragmatics, Semantics, Dialectology, Sociolinguistics, Cognitive Linguistics, Applied Linguistics, and Linguistics and Pedagogy.

  Pedagogy and Second Language Acquisition: Second Language Acquisition, Empirical Studies in Language Learning, Study Abroad, Teaching of Individual Skills (pronunciation, reading, listening, writing, speaking), Content-based Instruction (in film, history, politics, culture, literature, etc.), Curriculum Design, Language Teaching for Special Purposes, Teaching of Languages other than Russian (Polish, Czech, BCS, Romanian, etc.), Use of Technology in Language Teaching.

  Literature and Culture: Individual Writers and Poets (Pushkin, Gogol, Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, Akhmatova, Bulgakov, Nabokov and others), Themes (history and literature, travelogues, gendered readings, etc.), Critical approaches (including various theoretical approaches), Genre (avtorskaia pesnia, ode, drama), Periods (medieval to contemporary), Culture, Film, Dance, Music, Philosophy, and Religion.

  How To Submit A Proposal: The Program Committee will accept proposals for the following eight formats:
  1. individual paper
  2. fully-formed panel
  3. roundtable
  4. forum
  5. poster presentation
  6. workshop
  7. master class
  8. poetry reading
  Each proposal will be reviewed by the Program Committee. Proposals for all formats should not exceed 300 words, but a successful, effective proposal for any format can certainly be shorter.

• Call for Papers: D.A. Prigov’s Art: Verbal – Visual – Performative
  Due: July 1
  November 4 - 7, 2012, The Hermitage (St. Petersburg)

  The Prigov Foundation, the Prigov Laboratory at the Russian State University for the Humanities (Moscow), and the Department of Contemporary Art of the State Hermitage Museum (St. Petersburg, Russia) invite scholars and graduate students in all fields of humanities and Russian Studies to participate in a three-day international conference.

  The conference is dedicated to the opening of the Dmitri A. Prigov’s permanent exhibition as part of the Contemporary Art Department of the State Hermitage Museum.

  Dmitrii Aleksandrovich Prigov (1940-2007), is one of the most important figures in the Russian underground culture of the 1970s-80s who effectively continued his artistic experiments into the post-Soviet period as well, coming to be seen by many as the leading practitioner and theoretician of Russian postmodernism. Having begun his artistic career in the early 1970s as one of representatives of the non-conformist Moscow Conceptualist circle of artists, writers and theoreticians, since the period of Perestroika, Prigov participated in many exhibits , sang in the opera, collaborated with musicians, published four books of prose and wrote thousands of poetic texts and numerous theoretic manifestoes. The opening of Prigov’s permanent exhibition at the Hermitage certainly implies a greater focus on his visual works, however, conference participants are encouraged to tackle a broader spectrum of subjects, including but not limited to the following:
  
  *Prigov’s multi-media project: its philosophical foundations and evolution
  *Prigov’s art in the context of the late soviet cultural underground
  *Prigov’s art in the context of post-soviet contemporary art
  *Prigov’s oeuvre in the context of action and performance art
  *Prigov’s art in the context of Western neo-avantgarde and postmodernism
  *The interaction of the verbal and visual in Prigov’s oeuvre
  *Performativity as the central category of Prigov’s aesthetics
  *Prigov and the transformations of Moscow Conceptualism
  *The mystical and parodic in Prigov’s oeuvre
  *“New sincerity” as an artistic problem and challenge
  *Gesamtkunstwork in contemporary culture: Prigov’s version

  The conference will also include a presentation of a 5-volume edition of Prigov’s collected works published by the NLO Press. The conference’s working languages are Russian and English. Please send your paper topic, abstract (no more than 500 words), and a brief (max. 4 pp.) CV by July 1, 2012 to leiderma@colorado.edu. The Prigov Foundation will cover the participants’ roundtrip travel fare and lodging expenses.

August, 2012

• Call for Papers: 53rd Issue of Slovo: Journal of Slavic Linguistics and Literatures
  Due: August 1


• Call for Papers: 3rd International Conference on Language Documentation and Conservation
  Due: August 31

  The 3rd International Conference on Language Documentation and Conservation (ICLDC), “Sharing Worlds of Knowledge,” will be held February 28-March 3, 2013, at the Hawai‘i Imin International Conference Center on the University of Hawai‘i at Manoa campus. The conference program will feature an integrated series of Master Class workshops. An optional Hilo Field Study (on the Big Island of Hawai‘i) to visit Hawaiian language revitalization programs in action will immediately follow the conference (March 4-5). This year’s conference theme, “Sharing Worlds of Knowledge,” intends to highlight the interdisciplinary nature of language documentation and the need to share methods for documenting the many aspects of human knowledge that language encodes. We aim to build on the strong momentum created by the 1st and 2nd ICLDCs to discuss research and revitalization approaches yielding rich records that can benefit both the field of language documentation and speech communities.

  Topics: We especially welcome abstracts that address the conference theme of the interdisciplinary nature of language documentation. Language encodes knowledge from many facets of life: kinship, science, taxonomy, material culture, spirituality, music, and others. We encourage presentations on documenting these topics through the lens of endangered languages. We are also seeking abstracts on the science of documentation and revitalization. Documentation is usually portrayed as a means of collecting language data, and revitalization is generally seen primarily as a kind of applied work directly benefiting communities. However, each of those domains is a genuine area of research, and we welcome presentations that treat documentation and revitalization not merely as activities, but also as domains requiring theorization in their own right.

  In addition to the topics above, we warmly welcome abstracts on other subjects in language documentation and conservation, which may include but are not limited to:
  • Archiving matters
  • Community experiences of revitalization
  • Data management
  • Ethical issues
  • Language planning
  • Lexicography and reference grammar design
  • Methods of assessing ethnolinguistic vitality
  • Orthography design
  • Teaching/learning small languages
  • Technology in documentation – methods and pitfalls
  • Topics in areal language documentation
  • Training in documentation methods – beyond the university
  • Assessing success in documentation and revitalization strategies

  Abstract submission: Abstracts should be submitted in English, but presentations can be in any language. We particularly welcome presentations in languages of the region discussed. Authors may submit no more than one individual and one joint (co-authored) proposal. Abstracts are due by August 31, 2012, with notification of acceptance by October 1, 2012. We ask for abstracts of no more than 400 words for online publication so that conference participants will have a good idea of the content of your paper, and a 50-word summary for inclusion in the conference program. All abstracts will be submitted to blind peer review by international experts on the topic.

  We will only be accepting proposal submissions for papers or posters. Please note that the Advisory Committee may ask that some abstracts submitted as conference talks be presented as posters instead. Selected authors will be invited to submit their conference papers to the journal Language Documentation & Conservation for publication. Click here to submit an online proposal.

  Scholarships: Scholarships of up to US$1,500 will be awarded to the six best abstracts by students and/or community-based (non-academically-employed) language activists, to help defray travel expenses to come and present at the conference. If you are eligible and wish to be considered for a scholarship, please select the appropriate "Yes" button on the proposal submission form.

  Presentation formats: Papers will be allowed 20 minutes for presentation with 10 minutes of question time. Posters will be on display throughout the conference. Poster presentations will run during the lunch breaks. Feel free to contact us at icldc@hawaii.edu.

September, 2012

• Call For Papers: Music and Power: Historical Problems and Perspectives in Russia, Eastern Europe and Eurasia
  Due: September 1
  February 28-March 2, 2013, Miami University (Oxford, Ohio)

  Sponsored by the Havighurst Center for Russian and Post-Soviet Studies, and the Departments of Music, the School of Fine Arts, and the Jewish Arts and Culture Series (Posen Foundation). Organizers: Dr. Rebecca Mitchell, Dr. Ricardo Averbach and the Havighurst Center for Russian and Post-Soviet Studies.

  From the time of Plato if not before, the fraught relationship between music and power has attracted commentary, discussion and debate. Focusing primarily on the lands of Russia, Eastern Europe and Eurasia, this conference will unite scholars from across the disciplines to examine how power relations and musical expression have mutually informed and shaped each other over time. Those in positions of power have traditionally sought to control music’s communicative and transformative potential – either by directly limiting it (perhaps most noticeably when censors have declared a work or composer “unsuitable” for ideological reasons), or by harnessing it for their own ends. But music has also been employed as a means of resisting or undermining power relations of all kinds. Thus while music and power are clearly entwined within the public sphere, this relationship has also found expression in more subtle forms of human interaction and has shaped the expression of multiple politically relevant identities (national, ethnic, religious). This conference will address important questions regarding the multifaceted interrelationship between music and power, including but not limited to: Who decides what constitutes “suitable” music within a given social, political and historical context? What role has censorship played in shaping musical expression? How has music been implicated in abuses of power? How has music been used to advance imperialist ambitions? How did musical expressions of “national” unity support or undermine the political and social structures of multi-ethnic empires? What impact has musical nationalism had on the social and political contexts in which it emerged? How have identity politics shaped musical creativity? How has music been employed in resistance to social, cultural, national or hierarchical control?

  We invite submissions from scholars interested in developing cross-disciplinary approaches to the study of music in human history and culture. In addition to scholarly discussion and exchange among panelists, the conference will include two keynote speakers: Dr. Richard Taruskin (UC-Berkeley) and Dr. James Loeffler (University of Virginia). A symphonic performance, conducted by Dr. Ricardo Averbach, will be held the evening of March 1, 2013 in Oxford.

  We encourage proposals both from young researchers who have completed their dissertation research (ABD) and from established scholars in any field of the humanities or social sciences. As we plan to publish a conference volume based on papers presented, all participants will be required to submit their completed paper one month prior to the conference.

  All presenters will be provided with accommodations in Oxford, ground transportation to and from the airport, and partial travel funding (up to $400 for domestic travel, $800 for international travel). To be considered for the conference, submit an abstract of approximately 300 words and a short CV to mitcher3@muohio.edu by September 1, 2012. Please include “2013 Music and Power Conference” in the subject line. Selected papers will be announced by October 1, 2012.

• Call for Papers: Perspectives on the “Great” War (Rückblick auf den Ersten Weltkrieg)
  Due: September 1, 2012
  August 1-4, 2014, Queen Mary, University of London

  The key-note speakers will be:
  - Professor Elza Adamowicz (London)
  - Professor Christopher Clark (Cambridge)
  - Professor Jonathan Steinberg (Pennsylvania)
  - Professor Sam Williamson (Sewanee History Project)

  Broad Topics:
  Political and military history; colonial history; social and cultural history; religious history; medical science and technology; historiography; discourse analysis; legacy, memory and 21st-century cultural reflexes. Within these areas, the following perspectives have presented themselves for debate:
  - the perspectives of Germany and Austria, Great Britain, the U.S.A, Ireland, the Middle East and India, Australia and New Zealand, the African colonies of both Germany and Britain; the Balkan, Polish and Russian perspectives and the Spanish, Italian and Portuguese perspectives
  - the Jewish perspective
  - confessional perspectives
  - the perspectives of occupied territories
  - gendered perspectives
  - the perspectives of artists, including Otto Dix, A.Y. Jackson
  - the perspectives of various authors, including Bertha von Suttner, Alfred Döblin, Ernst Jünger, Robert Musil
  - the Nazi perspective
  Within the above broad topics and perspectives, papers on the following specific themes have been offered: British cinema, tourism, advertising, art, literature, memory, occupation, resistance, espionage and collaboration.

  Abstracts: Abstracts should be no longer than 500 words, including references. It will be of great assistance to the organisers if proposals are as concise as possible (i.e. fitting onto one sheet of A4 paper). A conference web-site will be set up very shortly and we will send a link to all those colleagues on our mailing list. We also hope to organize an H-Net (or similar) presence very soon. Our university will be able to provide some funding, but cannot promise to fund the entire event or pay speakers' expenses. We may therefore have to charge a fee to cover our internal expenses, but we will keep this as small as possible. We will charge a reduced fee for students.

  Once we have drawn up a provisional programme we will be able to apply for additional funding from the usual suspects. In the past we have received funding from the German Embassy, the Austrian Cultural Forum and Queen Mary's School of Languages, Linguistics and Film. Any further ideas as to whom we may approach (or, indeed, generous offers of support!) will be welcomed. At our last conference we were awarded a grant just one week before the conference took place and we were therefore able to pay for all meals, so there is always hope that we will find generous sponsors if we keep trying.

  We cannot promise to publish all conference papers, but we intend at the very least to produce one collection of refereed articles. We will compare this with those from other publishers over the following months. Further desiderata, Someone to speak on digital resources; for more German and French colleagues to hear about the event; offers of collaboration from interested institutions. Please continue to address all inquiries to Prof. Felicity Rash f.j.rash@qmul.ac.uk or Dr Falco Pfalzgraf f.pfalzgraf@qmul.ac.uk.

November, 2012

• 2012 ASEEES Convention
  

  Registration for the 2012 ASEEES Annual Convention at the New Orleans Marriott, Nov. 15-18, is now open.

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Funding

March, 2012

• The Wilson Center East European Studies Summer Research Scholarships
  Due: March 1


• Fellowship in Ethnographic Writing at UTSC
  Due: March 1

  The Centre for Ethnography (CE) at the University of Toronto at Scarborough (UTSC) is accepting applications for their annual Fellowship in Ethnographic Writing. Writing is a key component of the work of an anthropologist, but it takes time and benefits from some distance from the fieldwork itself, and from other obligations. In recognition of this fact the CE introduced a Fellowship in Ethnographic Writing in 2010. We are now seeking applications for the Fall Term of 2012.

  The recipient of this award is expected to devote their time fully to writing and may not teach or hold any other form of employment during the tenure of the award. They are expected to attend all talks and colloquia at the CE, to work several days a week on campus at UTSC, and to contribute a presentation of their work in progress to the Anthropology colloquium. In addition, the Fellow will be available to coach students completing an undergraduate writing assignment, working in tandem with a professor teaching a core introductory course. This work will be limited to 5 hours in total.

  Applicants should supply a letter of interest, a CV, and statement of no more than 5 double-spaced pages describing their writing project, indicating the stage that it is at, and precisely what they wish to accomplish during the duration of the Fellowship. Explicit attention to questions of genre, narrative, and audience are welcome but not essential. Successful applicants will either be at the post-doctoral stage (engaged in transforming a thesis into a book or articles) or in the final stages of completing the doctoral thesis. All applicants must have completed their doctoral fieldwork and have already submitted drafts of significant portions of their dissertation to their committee. The current stipend is set at $10,000 for a period of no less than ten weeks. Fellows may continue to use the facilities for the entire term.

  Please send all application materials, as well as the names of two referees, electronically to the Centre for Ethnography centreforethnography@utsc.utoronto.ca.

• 2012 Estophilus Scholarship Applications
  Due: March 1

  The Estonian Institute offers scholarships to holders of a doctoral degree or Master’s or Doctoral students who are citizens of a foreign state and are studying at a university abroad, to write a research paper on an Estonia-related topic or to gather material for it. (Knowledge of Estonian not required).

  The scholarship is designated to cover subsistence expenses, tuition fees and costs directly connected with the research; it may be granted for a period ranging from five to ten months. The scholarship for a five-month period is 2500 EUR.

  Knowledge of Estonian is an advantage but not a requirement. The scholarship is granted by the Council of Academic Studies of Estonian Language and Culture Abroad, involving experts when necessary. The scholarship is financed by the Estonian Ministry of Education and Research and administered by the Estonian Institute.

  The following documents should be presented for applying:
  * The completed application form (available online)
  * CV
  * Certificate proving the applicant’s status as a postgraduate student or a copy of a document proving his or her PhD degree
  * Plan of research
  * Written confirmation from an Estonian research or development institution to receive the applicant
  * For postgraduate students a recommendation from their research supervisor

  The applications and accompanying documents, marked ‘Estophilus, should be submitted both by electronic and regular mail to the secretariat of the Council at the Estonian Institute, Suur-Karja 14, 10140 Tallinn, Estonia. Further information can be obtained via e-mail: astra@einst.ee or phone 372 6 314 355 or website.

• REEI/Mellon Dissertation Write-Up Fellowship (One Semester)
  Due: March 1
  
  
• REEI/Mellon Summer Faculty Research Fellowships
  Due: March 1
  
  
• Call for doctoral studentships at The Baltic and East European Graduate School (BEEGS)
  Due: March 1

  Applications for a total of 14 doctoral studentships are invited in cooperation with the following research areas and subjects: Critical Cultural Theory: Aesthetics, Gender Studies, Media and Communication Studies and Philosophy •Environmental Studies •Rhetoric (in cooperation with Uppsala University).

  To apply please see the following links: (for an English version) or (for a Swedish version). The deadline for applications is 1 March 2012. The first date of employment is 1 September 2012.

  The Baltic and East European Graduate School (BEEGS) is located at Södertörns högskola (Södertörn University) in south Stockholm, Sweden. BEEGS is part of the Centre for Baltic and East European Studies, CBEES. The focus of the research activities at BEEGS is on the Baltic and East European area.

  Applications for admission to BEEGS are invited once per year. We welcome applicants from all over the world. Research at CBEES/BEEGS focuses on Baltic and Eastern Europe, and successful applicants for the studentships must focus their research on this region. We require fluency in English, since this is the working language at BEEGS. All doctoral students receive a salary, office space and other benefits for a period of four years.

  Click for more details about BEEGS and CBEES.
  Contact at BEEGS:
  Ann-Cathrine Jungar
  Director of Studies BEEGS
  phone: +468 608 48 31 or send an email to: beegs@sh.se

• 2012-2013 Sara and Albert Reuben Scholarships To Support the Study of the Holocaust
  Undergraduate Due: March 1
  Graduate Due: March 8

  During the academic year 2012-2013, the Sara and Albert Reuben scholarships (One up to $3,000 & one up to $10,000) may support funding to attend Holocaust-related conferences, to do research in archives and libraries, to subsidize a Holocaust-related internship, to engage in research and to support honors theses, master’s theses, or a dissertation, and other academic initiatives related to the Holocaust. The monies can only be awarded in the fall and/or spring when the recipient is a full-time student.

  REQUIREMENTS: The scholarships are open to all Indiana University Bloomington undergraduate and graduate students from any department or college on campus. Undergraduate students must have a minimum GPA of 3.4. Students must be enrolled at Indiana University Bloomington during the Spring 2012 semester (the semester of application) and continue as enrolled students during the semester or year when the scholarship funding is awarded.

  APPLICATION PROCEDURE: Please submit a proposal, budget, (undergraduates – a resume), and letter of reference to Professor Shaul Magid, Associate Director via e-mail: smagid@indiana.edu or to
  
  Professor Magid
  Borns Jewish Studies Program
  Indiana University
  Goodbody Hall 326
  1011 E. 3rd Street
  Bloomington, IN 47405-7005
  Phone (812) 855-0453
  Fax (812) 855-4314

  Note: Jewish Studies major, certificate, and Hebrew minor students should apply using the application forms for continuing Jewish Studies student scholarships and internships (see below).

  ANNOUNCEMENT OF SCHOLARSHIPS: Recipients will be notified in early April, 2012 and will be recognized at the annual Jewish Studies Program Student-Faculty Dinner on Sunday, April 15, 2012. These scholarships are a gift from Candice and Larry Reuben in memory of parents and Indianapolis residents Sara and Albert Reuben who were committed to the advancement of learning and research about this crucial dimension of modern history.

• US Embassy Policy Specialist Program (Eps) Fellowship Opportunity
  Due: March 14

  IREX is pleased to announce the competition for the 2012-13 U.S. Embassy Policy Specialist Program (EPS). The U.S. Embassy Policy Specialist Program provides funding for U.S. scholars and professionals to travel to Eurasia and serve U.S. Embassies or USAID Missions as policy specialists on a research topic proposed by the Embassy/Mission. Researchers are able to directly contribute to the formation of U.S. public policy by conducting research on topics vital to the policy-making community, as well as increase their understanding of current regional issues and develop and sustain international networks. The fellowship provisions include: logistical support, international airfare, visa support, in-country housing and workspace, a living expenses stipend and emergency evacuation insurance.

  For 2012-13, applicants may apply for placements in the following countries and fields. Detailed information on each of the topic areas can be found in the application instructions on the IREX website.

• 4th Annual Rossica Young Translators Award
  Due: March 15

  The future of Russian literature outside of Russia depends on dedicated and talented translators. This award is designed to inspire and encourage young translators from Russian around the world and expose them to the best of contemporary Russian literature.

  RYTA is open to anyone who will be 24 or younger on the deadline for submissions, which is 15 March 2012. Entrants are required to translate 1 of 3 extracts from recent Russian novels.

  Entrants should go visit our website and download the brochure containing the extracts and terms and conditions.

• Post-Secondary Curriculum Development Grants
  Due: March 15

  The University of Michigan Center for Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies (CREES) invites applications from faculty at two- and four-year colleges and universities in the Midwest and at historically and predominantly black colleges and universities for grants to support curriculum development related to countries of the former Soviet Union and/or Eastern Europe, including projects on EU enlargement. These grants are supported by funding provided by the U.S. Department of Education.

  Grant recipients may do library research, examine instructional materials, screen films, and consult with University of Michigan faculty. Program participants must identify a specific curriculum development project to be pursued during their visit in Ann Arbor. A final report on this project is due on November 1, 2012. These reports become part of CREES resource materials for the benefit of other instructors and should be in a form that is useful for teaching purposes (e.g., a detailed course syllabus, guide to problems and resources on a particular topic, or annotated bibliography).

  Grants will cover travel to the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor; meals and lodging near campus for three to five nights; and a $150 allowance for books and photocopying. Awards must be used between May 21 and August 14, 2012.

  Faculty members from two- and four-year colleges or universities in the Midwest and at historically and predominantly black colleges and universities are eligible to apply.

  Application requirements:
  • A completed application form
  • A curriculum project development proposal, not to exceed 500 words, which includes: a description of the teaching materials to be developed, including expected content, goals, and objectives; a description of the form of the final report (e.g., course syllabus, annotated bibliography, etc.); The estimated number of students to be impacted by the new teaching materials
  • Curriculum Vitae

  Awards will be announced by letter no later than May 1, 2012. For further information, please contact crees.outreach@umich.edu or 734.764.0351. Click here to view samples of past projects and for more information.

• Postdoctoral and Doctoral Fellowships in Russian and East European Studies in Israeli Universities
  Due: March 15

  The Israeli Inter-University Academic Partnership in Russian and East European Studies is offering for the academic year 2012-2013 postdoctoral and doctoral fellowships for researchers in the field of Russian and East European Studies. These highly competitive fellowships are offered to researchers across many disciplines (including, but not limited to, the Humanities and Social Sciences), and will be awarded on the basis of academic excellence.

  Postdoctoral fellows must have received their Ph.D. degree no earlier than 2005. They will receive the sum of $25,000. Doctoral fellows will receive $12,500. The fellows will be selected by an international academic committee and then placed by the committee in one of the participating universities in the Partnership (Bar-Ilan University, Ben Gurion University of the Negev, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Tel Aviv University, University of Haifa). Postdoctoral fellows will be required to teach one full-year course in their area of expertise and will also be required to present one public lecture at their host institution during the fellowship year. Accepted fellows may apply for one additional year of funding.

  Applicants are requested to submit a curriculum vitae (no longer than four pages), a detailed statement of current research interests (up to 2000 words), one writing sample (no longer than 25 pages) and two letters of recommendation (to be submitted directly by the recommenders). In addition, Postdoctoral fellows must state if they are applying for other sources of funding for the fellowship period.

  Please send application materials to:
  Postdoctoral and Doctoral Fellowships in Russian and East European Studies
  The Cummings Center for Russian and East European Studies
  Tel Aviv University
  Gilman Building, 470
  Tel Aviv 69978
  Israel

• Balassi Institute Graduate Fellowship in Hungarian Studies
  Due: March 15

  Indiana University Department of Central Eurasian Studies invites applications for the new Balassi Institute Graduate Fellowship in Hungarian Studies. The Fellowship will be given to a student who has been admitted to the University Graduate School at Indiana University-Bloomington and is primarily engaged in research falling within the field of Hungarian language and area studies, including but not limited to Hungarian culture and history. Indiana University is a research university with world-class programs in both area studies and the disciplines; its libraries hold the richest university-based Hungarian collections in the US. Strong preference is given to citizens of the US and Canada.

  Annual fellowship benefits include tuition remission, health insurance, and a fellowship stipend (expected minimum $12000). Recipients can apply annually for renewal. Applicants should submit a letter of interest to Balassi Institute Graduate Fellowship Selection Committee, IU CEUS, 1011 E. Third Street, Goodbody Hall 157, Bloomington, IN 47405-7005. Include your full name, UID#, IU degree program and department, description of your research and two letters of recommendation.

  If you do not have an Indiana University UID#, tell us the expected date of your admission to IU or intention to apply. Applications received by March 15 will receive priority for consideration, but applications can be accepted through April 1, 2012.

• Australian National University’s Asia Pacific Week 2012
  Due: March 22


• Paul Celan Fellowship 2012/2013 for Translators
  Due: March 25

  The program supports translations from Eastern to Western, Western to Eastern, or between two Eastern European langugages of canonical texts as well as contemporary key works in the Humanities, Social Sciences and Cultural Studies. Special emphasis is put on translations of relevant works written by East European authors and/or by female scholars.

  All information and details are available on the IWM's website.

• Austrian Marshall Plan Foundation Fellowships in Central European Studies
  Due: March 30

  The Austrian Marshall Plan Foundation Fellowships in Central European Studies enable each year two outstanding scholars to conduct research on important issues related to Central Europe at the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) in Washington, D.C. The third pair of Austrian Marshall Plan Foundation Fellows will be appointed for a nine (9) month period from October 2012-June 2013. For 2012-13, the Center is particularly interested in receiving applications that deal with any of the following:
  •The impact of sovereign debt crisis and the economic crisis on the countries of central and eastern Europe
  • The future of the western Balkans
  • Energy security issues
  • 'Frozen' or 'festering' conflicts in central and eastern Europe
  • The role of central and eastern European countries in transatlantic approaches to common challenges.

  For details, please see the call for applications.

April, 2012

• SSRC Eurasia Program Title VIII Summer Workshops in Quantitative Methods
  Due: April 10


• Robert C. Tucker/Stephen F. Cohen Dissertation Prize
  Due: April 15


• Davis Graduate Student Travel Grant
  Due: April 15


• The Wilson Center East European Studies Junior Scholars’ Training Seminar
  Due: April 15


• 2012 Summer Research Laboratory
  Due: April 15

  The Summer Research Laboratory (SRL) on Russia, Eastern Europe, and Eurasia is open to all REEE scholars for eight weeks, from 11 June to 3 August. The SRL provides scholars access to the resources of the University of Illinois Slavic and East European Library, an opportunity to seek advice from the librarians of the Slavic Reference Service (SRS), and specialized workshops for graduate students and junior scholars.

  During the first four weeks of the Lab, the Russian, East European, and Eurasian Center also organizes conferences, evening films, noontime speakers, and social events for Lab associates.

  For graduate students, it provides an opportunity to conduct research prior to going abroad for dissertation research or as they are working on their dissertation.

• George Washington University Visiting Fellowship on Russia’s Global Engagement
  Due: April 15

  The Institute for European, Russian, and Eurasian Studies at George Washington University’s Elliott School of International Affairs offers a competition for one Post-Doctoral Scientist position for the academic year 2012-13.

  The Post-Doctoral Scientist will spend approximately 50 percent of time on his/her own research and the other 50 percent serving as Russian-language editor for the website of the Program on New Approaches to Research and Security in Eurasia (PONARS Eurasia). The Russian-language website will include translations of PONARS Eurasia material, so as to make this material more widely accessible to the Russian-speaking community, and a Russian-language blog. Responsibilities will include supervising and ensuring the quality of translations of PONARS Eurasia material on the website (separate translators will do the actual translation) and soliciting regular entries (at least 2 posts a week) for the blog from PONARS Eurasia members and other qualified experts on important global issues concerning Russia and Eurasia, as well as reaching out to other Russian-language media outlets. The Post-Doctoral Scientist is expected to be in residence at IERES for the entire period of the fellowship and contribute actively to IERES’s lively intellectual community through participation in the institute’s seminars, talks, and other events.

  Candidates must have native-level fluency in Russian speaking and writing; enjoy fluency in English and have a record of English-language publications; possess a Ph.D. or Kandidat Nauk (Russian candidate of sciences) degree; and have a scholarly professional background. Candidates should have a superb grasp of global issues and debates concerning Russia and Eurasia. Non- U.S. citizens are welcome to apply. The Post-Doctoral Scientist will receive a taxable stipend of $4,000/month (plus benefits) for 10 months (beginning in August or September 2012). IERES will also cover the cost of one round-trip air ticket and visa fee.

  To apply, candidates should apply to Posting Number Staff - 000865 at www.gwu.jobs/postings/search. The cover letter should include a description of the research the applicant plans to conduct and their vision for the Russian-language PONARS Eurasia website (including ideas for the blog). The deadline for receipt of all application materials is April 15, 2012. This position is funded by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.

• The Rachel Tanur Prize for Visual Sociology
  Due: April 20


• Debrecen Summer School Scholarships
  Due: April 30

  We are happy to announce that the Student Union of the University of Debrecen has re-launched its popular scholarship program to support some participants in Debrecen Summer School’s courses that will take place in summer 2012.

  Supported Courses And Eligible Citizens: 10 scholarships to the two-week “intensive classic” summer courses on the Hungarian language and culture or the English-language thematic courses; for 6 candidates from the Americas and 4 from the Far-East. Please check the catalogue of thematic courses at DSS’s website (www.nyariegyetem.hu). Applications from PhD students are also welcome.

  What The Grant Covers: Tuition fees, Accommodation, Meals (Please note that successful candidates will be asked to pay a 60-euro registration fee, which is non-refundable in the case of a withdrawal.)

  How To Apply: Please complete Debrecen Summer School’s relevant application form which can be downloaded from the website, and send it to debrecen@nyariegyetem.hu together with your CV and a motivation letter.

May, 2012

• Serbian Language and Cultural Workshop Scholarship
  Due: May 1

  Scholarships for Students of Serbian and other Slavic languages. Summer School of Serbian Language and Culture - July 14th - August 4th and August 4th - 25th, 2012, Valjevo, Serbia.

  More Info


• 2012 Competition for the Heldt Prizes
  Due: May 15

  The Association for Women in Slavic Studies invites nominations for the 2012 Competition for the Heldt Prizes, awarded for works of scholarship. To be eligible for nomination, all books and articles must be published between 15 April 2011 and 15 April 2012. Nominations for the 2012 prizes will be accepted for the following categories: Best book in Slavic/Eastern European/Eurasian women's studies; Best article in Slavic/Eastern European/Eurasian women's studies; Best book by a woman in any area of Slavic/East European/Eurasian studies.

  One may nominate individual books for more than one category, and more than one item for each category. Articles included in collections as well as journals are eligible for the "best article" prize, but they must be nominated individually. The prizes will be awarded at the AWSS meeting at the ASEEES National Convention in New Orleans in November 2012. The translation prize, which is offered every other year, will be awarded next in 2013 for works published between 15 April 2011 and 15 April 2013.

  To nominate any work, please send or request that the publisher send one copy to each of the four members of the Prize committee by 15 May 2012:
  
  Karen Petrone, Heldt Prize Committee Chairperson
  Professor and Chair
  Department of History
  University of Kentucky
  Lexington, KY 40506-0027
  
  Martha Lampland
  Interim Director, Science Studies
  Associate Professor, Sociology
  University of California, San Diego
  9500 Gilman Drive
  La Jolla, CA 92093-0533
  
  Cristina Vatulescu
  Assistant Professor of Comparative Literature,
  Russian & Slavic Studies
  Department of Comparative Literature
  New York University
  19 University Place, 3rd Fl.
  New York, NY 10003
  
  William G. Wagner (Brown Professor of History,
  Williams College)
  33 Haley Street
  Williamstown, MA 01267

• Grants for World History Curriculum Reform In Europe, MENA, N. America
  Due: May 31



June, 2012

• ASEEES Graduate Student Essay Prize
  Due: June 1


• Postdoctoral Position in DFG Research Training Group (“Graduiertenkolleg”) 1681 “Privacy. Forms, Functions,Transformations”
  Due: June 15

  The DFG Research Training Group 1681 “Privacy. Forms, Functions, Transformations” is embedded in the Faculty of Humanities and the Faculty of Law at the University of Passau. The Research Training Group is currently offering a Postdoctoral Position (m/f) beginning in August 2012 and limited to a period of two years. The remuneration will be based on the tariff contract for civil service employees (E 13 TV-L).

  For further information please contact: Prof. Dr. Dirk Uffelmann (uffelmann@uni-passau.de)Katharina Kühn (katharina.kuehn@uni-passau.de In its research activities, the Research Training Group focuses on the concept of ‘privacy’ because of its current societal and scientific relevance. It aims at reconstructing the concept of privacy with the overall aim of a comprehensive theory of privacy, describing its parameters and interaction with other concepts.

  Duties and responsibilities: The Postdoc will fill the position of a specialist intermediary: She or he will therefore serve as a mediating agent between the doctoral candidates and the university lecturers involved in the Research Training Group in order to effectively bring together their various perspectives and interests. The Postdoc will also provide practical assistance to the postgraduates regarding their organisational skills with respect to methodical questions and effective time management of PhD projects. Moreover, the prospective Postdoc will help organize workshops and give specialist seminars within the framework of the Research Training Group’s academic programme.

  For further information please refer to our website.

• Second Annual Marc Raeff Book Prize
  Due: June 30

  The Eighteenth-Century Russian Studies Association, an affiliate organization of the Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies (ASEEES), is now accepting submissions for the second annual Marc Raeff Book Prize; and we encourage your press to submit relevant entries to the members of the prize committee (listed below).

  The Raeff Book Prize is awarded annually for a publication that is of exceptional merit and lasting significance for understanding Imperial Russia, particularly during the long eighteenth-century. The recipient of the award will be recognized with a cash prize, which will be presented in November 2012, during the ASEEES annual convention. The award is sponsored by the ECRSA and named in honor of Marc Raeff (1923-2008), historian, teacher, and dix-huitièmiste par excellence.

  Eligibility:
  *The publication must be a monograph, translation, or reference work about any aspect of the long eighteenth century, on any of the territories of the former imperial Russian state. Textbooks, festschrifts, and edited collections of essays are not eligible unless they constitute significant and innovative contributions to the field.
  * The submitted work must bear a copyright date of either one or two years preceding the award year (e.g. for the 2012 competition the published copyright date should be 2011 or 2012).
  * It can be published in any language read by members of the ECRSA Prize Selection Committee (including Russian) and in any format (analog or digital).
  * The geographic area of study is broadly defined as the territories of the former imperial Russian state and the Soviet Union.
  * The publication must deal in whole or in part with the long eighteenth century, here defined as the period from the last quarter of the seventeenth-century to the first quarter of the nineteenth-century.
  * Books that have received other prizes are eligible.
  * Scholarly merit, originality, and felicity of style will be the main criteria for selection. Submissions from scholars who are less than five (5) years from receiving their doctoral degree are particularly encouraged.

  Nominating Instructions:
  * Authors or publishers should send one copy of eligible publication to each ECRSA Prize Selection Committee member (see addresses below) AND to the ASEEES main office.
  * Submissions should be clearly marked “Marc Raeff Book Prize.”
  * Nominations must be received no later than 30 June 2012.
  * Award winners will be personally notified of the award prior to 1 October 2012.

  Composition of ECRSA Prize Selection Committee:
  
  * George E. Munro
  Virginia Commonwealth University
  Department of History
  813 S. Cathedral Place
  Room 301
  PO Box 842001
  Richmond, VA 23284-2001
  gemunro@vcu.edu
  
  *Steven A. Usitalo
  Northern State University
  Department of History and Geography
  Tech Center 369
  1200 South Jay Street
  Aberdeen, SD 57401
  steven.usitalo@northern.edu
  
  * Maria Di Salvo
  Viale XI Febbraio 2
  27100 PAVIA
  Italy
  Disalvomaria@libero.it
  
  * Ernest Zitser, President, ECRSA [ex-officio]
  Duke University
  International & Area Studies Department
  230 Bostock Library
  Box 90195
  Durham NC 27708-0195
  ernest.zitser@duke.edu

July, 2012

• Society For Romanian Studies 2012 Graduate Student Essay Prize
  Due: July 1

  The Society for Romanian Studies is pleased to announce the Fourth Annual Graduate Student Essay Prize competition for an outstanding unpublished essay or thesis chapter written in English by a graduate student in any social science or humanities discipline on a Romanian subject. The 2012 prize, consisting of $300, will be presented at the ASEEES National Convention in New Orleans. The competition is open to current M.A. and doctoral students or to those who defended dissertations in the academic year 2011-2012. If the essay is a seminar paper, it must have been written in 2011-2012. If the essay is a dissertation chapter, it should be accompanied by the dissertation abstract and table of contents. Essays/chapters should be between 25 and 50 pages double spaced, including reference matter. Expanded versions of conference papers are also acceptable if accompanied by a description of the panel and the candidate's conference paper proposal. Candidates should clearly indicate the format of the essay submitted. If you have questions, contact Margaret Beissinger at mhbeissi@Princeton.edu.

  Please send a copy of the essay and an updated CV to each of the three members of the Prize Committee below. Submissions must be sent no later than July 1, 2012. Prof. Margaret Beissinger (mhbeissi@Princeton.edu) Dr. James Koranyi (jtk21@st-andrews.ac.uk) Prof. Paul Sum (paul.sum@und.edu).

September, 2012

• Association for Women in Slavic Studies (AWSS) Graduate Essay Prize
  Due: September 1

  The AWSS Graduate Essay Prize is awarded to a chapter or article-length essay on any topic in any field or area of Slavic/East European/Central Asian Studies written by a woman, or on a topic in Slavic/East European/Central Asian Women's/Gender Studies written by a woman or a man. This competition is open only to current doctoral students or to those who defended a doctoral dissertation in 2011-2012. If the essay is a seminar paper, it must have been written during the academic year 2011-2012. If the essay is a dissertation chapter, it should be accompanied by the dissertation abstract and table of contents. Previous submissions and published materials are ineligible. Essays should be no longer than 50 pages, including reference matter, and in English (quoted text in any other language should be translated). Completed submissions must be received by September, 1 2012. For a partial list of past recipients click here.

  The award carries a cash prize of $250; the winner will be announced at the ASEEES national convention in November. Please send a copy of the essay and an updated CV to each of the three members of the Prize Committee:

  Prof. Maria Bucur
  Russian and East European Institute
  Indiana University
  565 Ballantine Hall
  1020 Kirkwood Avenue
  Bloomington, IN 47405-6615
  
  Prof. Janet Johnson
  425 Dean St., Apt 2
  Brooklyn, NY 11217
  
  Prof. Sharon Kowalsky
  9653 Vinewood Dr.
  Dallas, TX 75228

• The Malevich Society 2012 Grant
  Due: September 30

  The Malevich Society is a not-for-profit organization based in New York dedicated to advancing knowledge about the Russian artist Kazimir Malevich and his work. In the belief that Malevich was a pioneer of modern art, and should be recognized for his key contributions to the history of Modernism, the Society awards grants to encourage research, writing, and other activities relating to his history and memory.

  The Society welcomes applications from scholars of any nationality, and at various stages of their career. Graduate students are welcome to apply to the Society’s grants after completing at least one year of dissertation research. Proposed projects should increase the understanding of Malevich and his work, or augment historical, biographical, or artistic information about Malevich and/or his artistic legacy. The Society also supports translations and the publication of relevant texts.

  Application forms and instructions may be requested by telephone at 1-718-980-1805, by e-mail at info@malevichsociety.org, or may be downloaded from the web-site: www.malevichsociety.org.

Rolling Consideration

• Collegium Civitas International Professional Internships in Warsaw, Poland


• SBE Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement Grants


• DAAD (German Academic Exchange Service) Scholarships


• Kennan Institute Grant Opportunities


• Grants - 100 Annual Doctoral Scholarships at Kent University, UK

  The University of Kent, in preparation for its 50th anniversary in 2015, has established 100 doctoral scholarships for UK, EU and international students. The recipients of the new scholarships will be known as Kent's 50th Anniversary Scholars. Note that applicants from Central Asia are encouraged to apply for these scholarships.

  The scholarships, which will be awarded annually from 2012, will complement the already significant investment the University makes in its postgraduate community. Kent's scholarship fund now exceeds £5.5m and is supplemented by funding from the leading UK research councils and external bodies bringing the total funds it has to support postgraduate research to over £8m.

  Kent has an excellent reputation for its dynamic and challenging academic environment, as well as its collaborative research with universities around the world. Many of its programmes have a strong international focus and it is the only UK university to lead two prestigious Erasmus Mundus Joint Doctoral programmes: Text and Event in Early Modern Studies (TEEME) and the Doctorate in Cultural and Global Criminology (DCGC). It also operates thriving specialist postgraduate centres in Paris (humanities), Brussels (international studies) and Athens (heritage management). Its specialist Graduate School works to enhance the quality of the postgraduate student experience and ensures a supportive and vibrant postgraduate community across all its campuses.

  Professor Diane Houston, Dean of the Graduate School, said: 'The Graduate School is leading the growth of doctoral training and research at the University of Kent. In the last five years the number of doctorates awarded has increased by 25 percent. These new fully funded scholarships are a key investment that Kent is making in its own future and that of research in the UK. Further information on the 50th Anniversary Research Scholarships, including details of how to apply, is available online.

  The School of Social Policy, Sociology and Social Research (SSPSSR) at University of Kent is one of the most supportive and intellectually stimulating places in Europe to study for PhD degree. In addition to the wide variety of degrees and optional modules we offer, students will be taught by international experts in their area (experts who have kept the School in the top 4 of the research league tables since records began), and will be located in the only place in the UK to be awarded both Economic and Social Research Council Doctoral Training Centre status and a European Union Erasmus Mundus programme Doctorate in Cultural and Global Criminology. Please see our website.

• American Councils: Balkan Language Initiative and the Energy in Central Asia Program (ECAP)

  New for the 2011-2012 academic year, American Councils has launched the Balkan Language Initiative and the Energy in Central Asia Program (ECAP). Much like its language programs in Russia and Eurasia, the Balkan Language Initiative provides graduate students, undergraduates, scholars, and working professionals the opportunity to study Albanian, Bosnian, Macedonian, or Serbian in an overseas immersion setting for a summer, semester, or academic year. To introduce students to the energy sector and business culture of Central Asia, American Councils and the Kazakhstan Institute of Management, Economics, and Strategic Research (KIMEP) have partnered to create a business and cultural immersion program employing classroom and experiential learning combined with regional travel.

  More information on either program can be obtained by emailing the American Councils Outbound Office at outbound@americancouncils.org.

• Doctoral Funding, Strassler Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies
  Deadline: See website

  The Strassler Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies at Clark University, Worcester, Massachusetts, U.S.A. seeks applications to its doctoral program in Holocaust History and Genocide Studies. The Center is a forum for education and scholarship about the Holocaust, the Armenian Genocide, and other genocides around the world. Dedicated to teaching, research, and public service, the Center trains the Holocaust historians and genocide studies scholars of the future--the next cadre of professors, teachers, Holocaust museum directors and curators, and non-governmental organization and government agency experts-about genocide and genocidal situations. Our interdisciplinary faculty strength now includes the expertise of seventeen professors in eight departments. Applications from any country are welcome. We also seek applications to the interdisciplinary Ph.D. stream in Psychology of Genocide offered by the Strassler Center and Clark's Psychology Department. Ideally, candidates for the Psychology of Genocide stream will have master's level (or equivalent) university education with basic background in psychology and demonstrated interest in the social and cultural studies of genocide, fluency in two languages in addition to English, and sufficient background in mathematics and sciences to deal with statistical methods. Please learn more about our program through our website.

• Postdoctoral Funding, Rutgers University
  Deadline: See website

  The Women’s and Gender Studies Department, in collaboration with the Institute for Research on Women (IRW) at Rutgers University, is pleased to announce a two-year postdoctoral fellowship supported by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. The selected fellow will receive a stipend of $51,500 each year as well as an annual research allocation of $2,000 and Rutgers University health benefits. The fellow will pursue research and teach three courses in the Women’s and Gender Studies Department during the two-year term of her/his appointment and will participate in seminars, and other IRW activities. More information on the programs available for the Mellon fellows at the IRW.

• Regional Seminar for Excellence in Teaching (ReSET)
  Deadline: As Soon As Possible

  The Open Society International Higher Education Support Program (HESP) invites junior university teachers in the humanities and social sciences in the countries of Southeastern Europe and Eurasia to participate in the projects of the Regional Seminar for Excellence in Teaching (ReSET).

  ReSET aims to develop and support teaching excellence in the humanities and social sciences at the undergraduate university level. The program promotes a systematic rethinking of the meaning of the undergraduate learning experience in support of building free and open societies, the defense and enlargement of freedom of inquiry and advancement of programs of undergraduate learning offering an educational experience that develops independent and original thinkers.

  Rooted in the concept of continuous development and self-renewal of university academics, ReSET creates opportunities for qualified and dedicated regional and international faculty to make a substantial contribution to the revision and advancement of teaching and learning and fosters their leadership in the process of educational change in the region.

  Practically, ReSET projects bring together regional groups of young university faculty interested in updating, challenging and generating innovative approaches to teaching and learning in a particular subject or thematic area and engage them in critical scholarly debate, reflection on their teaching philosophies and practices and creative revision of curricula, academic courses, teaching methods, materials and tools for their on-going engagement in the undergraduate classroom.

  The program focuses on the exploration and introduction of new fields of studies and revision of subject areas that are central to the undergraduate curriculum and have a bearing on the approaches to teaching and learning in the entire disciplines.

  Projects
  The following projects will commence during the summer of 2011 and are now open to applications from the junior faculty teaching at the undergraduate university programs in the relevant academic subjects in the countries of Southeastern Europe and Eurasia:

  • Bureaucracy and the Post-Soviet Political Regimes
  • Gender, Sexuality & Power
  • Global Health Economics
  • Governance of Global Environmental Change: Towards a Multidisciplinary Discussion in Tertiary Environmental Education
  • Industrial Development in Post-Transition Countries
  • Islam: Religious and Social Practices. Universality and Locality
  • Social Mobility and Modernization in Eastern Europe in the 20th Century
  • Wealth, Poverty and Life Satisfaction in Transition Societies
  • Towards a New Cultural History of Eastern and Central Europe. Critical Issues and Reappraisals (ReSET Challenges Seminar)

  HESP funding to the projects, as a rule, provides coverage of all major costs of participation of the individuals, who are the nationals and university faculty of the program’s target region, which encompasses the following countries: Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kosovo, Kyrgyzstan, Macedonia, Moldova, Mongolia, Montenegro, Russian Federation, Serbia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine and Uzbekistan. University academics from outside this target region are encouraged to participate in the activities of the seminar on a self- or co-funding basis.

  Please note that each project operates independently and the recruiting, funding and organizational procedures vary between projects. All inquiries and applications should be directed to the organizers of the projects. Individuals who are interested in participation in the projects are encouraged to contact the project organizers immediately, to meet the upcoming application deadlines.

  For more information, download the guidelines on the RESeT website: http://www.soros.org/initiatives/hesp/focus/reset/grants/reset_seminar.

• Visiting Research Fellowship, Social Research Center, American University of Central Asia, Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan

  Position: Visiting Research Fellow
  Host institution: Social Research Center at American University of Central Asia (www.src.auca.kg)
  Period: From 1 months to 1 year
  

  The Social Research Center (SRC) at American University of Central Asia (AUCA) is pleased to offer interested scholars (PhD students and post-doctoral fellows only) the opportunity to conduct research within the framework of its Visiting Research Fellowship Program at our Bishkek-based research center in Kyrgyzstan. The SRC is an integral part of AUCA, with the mission to promote long-term development of the principles and practice of democracy, rule of law, and social equality in Kyrgyzstan and Central Asia through carrying out research and policy analysis.

  Advantages and opportunities of the Foreign Research Fellowship Program at the SRC:

  • Ideal surroundings: work and conduct research at one of the leading universities in Central Asia, internationally recognized as a university based on the American liberal arts tradition of free and critical inquiry.
  • Beneficial support: benefit from interaction with the AUCA faculty members, local/foreign scholars and students.
  • Valuable networking: use our networking capacities to establish contacts with local research institutions, universities, local scholars, non-governmental organizations and governmental agencies in Kyrgyzstan.
  • Perfect working conditions: SRC will provide access to Internet, computers, printing, copying, faxing, and the university library resources.
  
  Research Areas
  The SRC is broadly interested in the political and social development of Kyrgyzstan, with a particular focus on the following areas:
  • Migration: The impacts of external and internal migration on economic and social development (Kyrgyzstan and other Central Asian countries)
  • Corruption (Kyrgyzstan)
  • Islam: political and social aspects (Kyrgyzstan and other Central Asian countries)
  • Development of civil society in Kyrgyzstan
  Interested scholars should
  • Be PhD students or post-doctoral fellows
  • Offer a research project related to the research interests of SRC
  • Be willing to submit a research paper every 1-2 months of fellowship at SRC
  
  Number of Fellowships: SRC can host up to five Research Fellows at a time.
  
  How to apply
  • Fill out the application form posted on the "Research Fellowship" section at www.src.auca.kg
  • Send the filled out application form, your CV, and any other information related to your application to:

    Ms. Ainura Asamidinova
    Research Projects Officer
    Social Research Center
    American University of Central Asia
    205 Abdumomunov Street
    Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, 720040
    

    or apply by e-mail: asamidinova_a@mail.auca.kg
    
  Please note that your application will be considered by the SRC within 2-3 weeks
  
  For further information
  • If you are interested in finding out more information about current and previous activities of the SRC, please refer to our website: www.src.auca.kg
  • If you would like to find out more about American University of Central Asia, please refer to: www.auca.kg
  • For further inquires or information on your application status, please contact Ms. Ainura Asamidinova
  
  The SRC provides the following logistical support:
  • in arranging visas
  • in finding accommodation in Bishkek.
  • in arranging airport pick-up.
  
  Unfortunately, the SRC does not have the capacity to cover travel, accommodation, health insurance or any other related expenses.



• The Post-Doctoral Research Fellowship in Language-Based Central European Studies at the Univeristy of Oslo

  POST-DOCTORAL RESEARCH FELLOWSHIP (SKO/post code 1352) IN LANGUAGE BASED CENTRAL EUROPEAN STUDIES is available at the Department of Literature, Area Studies and European Languages (ILOS), University of Oslo.

  More about the Department: http://www.hf.uio.no/ilos/english/

  Job Description
  The successful applicant is expected to study discourse related to the construction of identity and/or collective memory, or to study discourse used for other aesthetic and/or political aims. The discourse studied must be based on one or several of the Slavic languages used in Central Europe and taught at ILOS: Croatian, Czech, and Polish. In the project proposal, the applicant must contextualize the planned investigation in relation to research currently being conducted by researchers at the section for Central European Studies at ILOS. Applicants with a background in studies of language or literature are preferred.

  The post-doctoral research fellowship is for a period of 3 years, with a 10% duty component devoted to teaching. Applicants must submit a project proposal of a maximum of 5 pages, including a schedule of activities. It is expected that the project will be completed within the 3-year period.

  The main purpose of post-doctoral research fellowships is to qualify researchers for work in higher academic positions within their disciplines.

  We are looking for strongly motivated and competent candidates, with high academic qualifications in the relevant area of research.

  The successful applicant will be expected to become involved with existing research groups at the Faculty of Humanities and to contribute to the further development of the scholarly community.

  Qualifications and Personal Skills
  In assessing the applications, special emphasis will be placed on the quality of the project description and on the assumed academic and personal ability on the part of the candidates to complete the project within the given time frame.

  Requirements

  • Applicants must hold a degree equivalent to a Norwegian doctoral degree in the relevant area of research. Doctoral dissertation must be submitted for evaluation by the closing date.
  • The applicant must in his/her project proposal situate the planned investigation in relation to research currently being conducted by one of the research groups and/or academic milieus at the Faculty of Humanities.

  Personal suitability and co-operation skills will receive special attention in the selection process We offer:

  • a challenging and friendly working environment
  • government wage scale: 57-64 (from NOK 448 400 to NOK 510 200)
  • attractive welfare arrangements Submissions

  Applicants must submit the following attachments with the electronic application:

  • letter of application
  • Curriculum Vitae including grades
  • a list of published and unpublished works, if applicable
  • project description, including a detailed progress plan for the project (maximum 5 pages, see Guidelines for project descriptions)

  Educational certificates, doctoral dissertations, references and the like are not to be submitted with the application, but applicants may be asked to submit such information or works later.

  See also Guidelines for appointments to research fellowships at the Faculty of Humanities.

• European Union Studies Association (EUSA) Prizes

  EUSA's 1997-1999 Executive Committee established three prizes to be awarded at each EUSA Biennial International Conference. The prizes both recognize and encourage excellence in scholarship in the field of European Union studies. Each prize carries a small cash award (funded by EUSA's Grants and Scholarships Fund) and will be presented to the recipients at the EUSA Conference banquet. The prize selection committees are comprised of EUSA Executive Committee members and established EU scholars.

  Click here to view past Prize Winners

  The prizes and their stipulations are:
  
  

  Haas Fund Fellowship
  The EUSA Haas Fund Fellowship Competition is an annual fellowship for graduate student EU-related dissertation research. Thanks entirely to contributions to our Ernst Haas Memorial Fund for EU Studies, launched in June 2003 to honor the memory of Ernst B. Haas (1924-2003) we will offer at least one unrestricted fellowship of $2000 to support the dissertation research of any graduate student pursuing an EU-related dissertation topic.

  EUSA Prize for Best Conference Paper
  The EUSA Prize for Best Conference Paper is awarded at each conference for the best nominated paper from the previous conference. All those who presented an original paper at the Conference are eligible, excepting persons who are current members of the EUSA Executive Committee and persons who have already won the EUSA Best Conference Paper Prize. The prize carries a cash award of $100. Information on how to apply for the prize is announced in the Fall preceding each conference.

  EUSA Prize for Best Dissertation
  The EUSA Prize for Best Dissertation in EU studies is awarded to a dissertation written in English on any aspect of European integration submitted in completion of the Ph.D. at any university in the two academic years preceding an upcoming EUSA Conference. The student must have defended and deposited the final dissertation and graduated (been awarded the PhD degree) during this period as well, and the dissertation submitted for the competition must include a fully signed, dated dissertation committee approval page. Dissertations submitted without the fully signed, dated, committee approval page will be disqualified, as will dissertations submitted for students who did not receive the PhD degree and graduate during the specified time period. Only one dissertation per department at an institution may be nominated for this prize. The prize carries a cash award of $250. Department chairs (not the dissertation committee chair) should send one paper copy of the dissertation with a short cover letter (letter of transmittal) from the chair to the EUSA Administrative Office.  Dissertations that are not submitted by the department chair will be disqualified. Dissertations shall be submitted in an electronic format. Information on how to apply for the prize will be announced on this website and the EUSA list serve the Fall before an upcoming conference.

  EUSA Book Prize
  The 2003-05 Executive Committee of the European Union Studies Association announced the launch of the EUSA Book Prize, to be awarded at each biennial EUSA conference to a book in English on any aspect of EU studies and published in the two years prior to the EUSA Conference. This prize carries a cash award of $300 USD to the author(s). Authors or publishers will submit one (hard) copy of the nominated book with a letter of transmittal to each of the three members of the EUSA Book Prize committee. (Nominated books may not be submitted by e-mail, as galleys or proofs, or in any form other than hard-copy published book.) Information on how to apply for the prize will be announced on this website and the EUSA list serve the Fall before an upcoming conference.

  For questions about the prizes or the process, please contact us via e-mail at EUSA.

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Submissions

March, 2012

• Call for Submissions: Alchemy, a Journal of Translation
  Due: March 31

  Alchemy, a Journal of Translation published by UCSD students, is accepting submissions on a rolling basis. We are looking for student work that engages translation in both traditional and innovative ways. Students may submit works of poetry, short fiction/non-fiction as well as reviews of books in translation. We are also accepting cover art submissions.

  To submit, you must currently be a student, so please include the name of the school or institution of higher learning you attend as well as your program of study (if applicable). Also, please provide the contact information of one teacher or faculty advisor who has agreed to assist you in preparing your translation for publication, as well as copies of the original texts with your translations for our reference. Please limit submission to five pages of poetry or ten pages of prose.

  We will assume that, by submitting to Alchemy, you have acquired permission from the original author or right’s holder to publish the translation. Send all submissions to: alchemythejournal@gmail.comwith the heading being Poetry Submission, Fiction Submission, Non-Fiction Submission or Cover Art Submission. Submissions are accepted on a rolling basis.

April, 2012

• Call for Course Proposals: Central East European Summer University 2013
  Due: April 5


• Call for Articles: History of Communism in Europe
  Due: April 15

  The forthcoming issue of History of Communism in Europe will focus on the topic of Communism, Nationalism and State Building in Post-War Europe.

  The emergence of communism as praxis after the Second World War overlapped with the need of certain nations to reinforce their claim for statehood. This gave rise to a series of historical phenomena that reshaped post-war Europe. In this context, any research on these transformations must address a series of questions: What is the role of national ideology in postwar state formation? How do various ideologies (e.g. communism and nationalism) interact in the complex processes presupposed by state building? Is there a pattern of state formation in communist Europe in comparison with Western Europe or elsewhere? If so, which were the short and long term consequences of it within a post-conflict landscape? Which narratives of identity were employed as post-1945 Europe took shape? Which were the incumbent tensions as a Soviet bloc of socialist nations came about? Nevertheless, the main issue to be addressed remains that of the differences that appeared from 1945 onwards between the institutionalization of communist polities on the basis of national communities and the consolidation of a supposedly unitary camp of Marxist-Leninist regimes. Moreover, at the end of the day, the legacies of the second half of the twentieth century could be better explained if analyzed from the point of view of the tribulations of nationalizing nation-states (to use Rogers Brubaker’s coinage) across the East and West divide.

  The next issue of History of Communism in Europe welcomes original contributions that discuss and engage such general issues apparent from the interplay of communism and nationalism in the context of state-building. Ideally, the authors should address the topics in question from a comparative viewpoint. The editors encourage young scholars, in particular, to make use of historical, cultural, and political information recently available with the gradual opening of the archives in Romania, Hungary, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Bulgaria, Poland, former GDR or various states of the former Yugoslavia and the USSR.

  Senior scholars, junior researchers and PhD students are invited to submit their proposals on one of the following topics:
  *Internationalism vs. Nationalism
  *Sovietization and Empire Building in Eastern Europe
  *Socialist Nations and Contemporary Theories of Nationalism
  *Socialist Patriotism and Soviet Hegemony
  *Nation Building in Post-war Europe
  *Cultural Transfers
  *Politics of Homogenization
  *Narratives of Identity in Literature, Science, and the Arts
  *Ethnic Minorities, Self-determination, and Socialist States
  *Myths of Origins: Continuities Beyond 1945
  *Communist Constitutions
  *Modernity, nationalism and communism

  You may submit your proposals at: office@iiccr.ro or marius.stan@iiccr.ro. Selected authors will be notified by April 15th. The deadline for the final draft of the paper is June 1st, 2012.

• Call for Articles: The Semiotics Of August In The 20th Century
  Due: April 15

  The New Literary Observer, is currently featuring the working title “The semiotics of August in the 20th century”.

  This special edition is a continuation of a large-scale NLO project that aims to apply an anthropological perspective in rethinking the processes of transformation of modern societies, to formulate new interdisciplinary approaches to studying human history, and to work up a new scientific paradigm capable of stimulating the development of up-and-coming practices in the humanities.

  The edition will investigate the extent to which the life of the private individual has fundamentally changed as a result of the global cataclysms of the 20th century: the world wars, intellectual, social and scientific-technological revolutions and the geopolitical reshaping of the world.

  The “short” 20th century, according to Eric Hobsbawm, opened in August 1914 and ended in August 1991. Upon closer inspection, we see that in the last century August constituted a deeply symbolic time (especially for Russia) – many events of profound importance, which determined abrupt turning-points in history, took place in that very month. With reference to well-known dates, we can present a basic periodicisation of the 20th century as follows:

  1. August 1914 (beginning of the First World War) – August 1939 (beginning of the Second World War) 2. August 1939 – August 1945 (end of the Second World War) 3. August 1945 – August 1968 (invasion of Soviet tanks into Czechoslovakia, student unrest in Europe) 4. August 1968 – August 1991 (disintegration of unified Communist space)

  While acknowledging the conditional character of such a periodicisation, we nevertheless believe it to be a useful tool to use in realising the basic aim of the investigation. Our task lies in testing the validity of the generally accepted opinion, that the beginning of the First World War marked the end of the belle epoque and a radical break with the existing value system, way of life and goal-setting of modern European society of the previous period.

  Our particular interest in Augusts as the high points of social bifurcation in the 20th century was dictated by our belief that it is precisely at such moments of the collapse of civilisation that the hidden carcass of culture reveals itself, that is, the whole multiform system of customary lifestyle and values-based practices hit hardest by the change. In his attempt to re-establish the disintegrated sense of continuity, the private individual tries to reconstruct the traditional order of things, while at the same time inevitably reformulating and transforming tradition itself.

  We propose to analyse how, in the midst of the elemental process of the normalisation of life at key moments in the world cataclysms of the 20th century, the private individual gave meaning to and recreated his existence in the totality of personal and social ties. For instance, we will examine modifications in:
  - relationships between friends, lovers, family members, professionals and partners;
  - everyday practices, lifestyle, habitat;
  - the selection of beliefs, ethical values and behavioural models;
  - the boundaries between the public and private sphere;
  - individual and collective memory;
  - forms of social stratification and mobility;
  - individual and collective identity:
  - intellectual and artistic reflection (scientific discoveries and the concept of the human being, the value of human life, the boundaries between nature and culture, etc.).

  From the point of view of the anthropological approach, each of the above-mentioned historical periods and overall:
  - in which spheres of the private individual's life did the most radical changes take place?
  - where did the customary framework for existence remain unchanged despite global catastrophes and revolutionary discoveries?
  - what is the correlation between “loss” and “gains”?
  - what are the differences in the new life experience of people living in “open” and “closed” societies?
  - how traditionally do the documents from this period being used by the researchers reflect the depth and essence of the changes?

  New Literary Observer
  Publishing House
  Tel./fax: (495) 229 91 03
  e-mail: info@nlo.magazine.ru

February, 2013

• Call for Papers: Hungarian Literature and Its Intercultural Contexts: Translation, Cultural Memory, Comparative Scholarship
  Due: February 15, 2013

  We are inviting paper proposals for an editied collection that addresses issues of memory, mediality, and translation in the cross-cultural interactions of Hungarian literature and literary scholarship. The prospective book aims to take a new look at Hungarian literary culture and its intercultural contexts by taking advantage of recent disciplinary innovations in the humanities. In a series of essays written by specialists in their fields, the collection will trace how Hungarian literature and Hungarian literary criticism interacted with, registered or reflected other cultures, languages and media, and how cultural memory, inter-medial exchange and translation helped to define the canons, traditions and institutions of Hungarian literary culture.

  Essays in the collection will make use of the methodological and theoretical insights offered by cultural memory studies, comparative cultural studies, or of studies in literature’s interaction with other media. We are inviting proposals for essays of 6000-7000 words to be written in English and focusing on one or more of the following broad subjects:
  a) international / intercultural contexts in the history of Hungarian literary scholarship (e.g., Hungarian scholars abroad, the participation of Hungarian scholarship in international projects and trends)
  b) intercultural and inter-medial transmission as forms of cultural memory
  c) the practice of translation as it intersects with comparative scholarship and criticism or with the formation of Hungarian canons of national and world literature.

  Abstracts of at least 500 words, accompanied by a short CV should be sent to the editors by June 1, 2012: András Kiséry (The City College of New York) ak508@caa.columbia.edu, Zsolt Komáromy (Eötvös University Budapest) zkomaromy@yahoo.com, Zsuzsanna Varga (University of Glasgow) Zsuzsanna.Varga@glasgow.ac.uk. The essays selected for the collection will be due by February 15, 2013.

Rolling Deadlines

• Ab Imperio Annual Theme: "SECOND WORLD - SECOND TIME: THE CONCEPT OF THE "SECOND WORLD" AT THE CROSSROADS OF SOCIAL SCIENCES AND IMPERIAL HISTORY"

  The concept of the Second World underlies a range of theories that explain the emergence and spread of Communism and objectify political divisions during the Cold War. This concept formed part of modernization theories as an attempt to understand the specifics of modernization processes triggered by socialist revolutions. In theories of convergence, the concept of the Second World helped distinguish the vector of development and the hierarchy of historical experience from the Third World to the First. However, the end of “really existing socialism” and decline in popularity of modernization theory in recent decades have drastically reduced use of the Second World concept.

  The editors of Ab Imperio suggest that the concept of the Second World, once freed from its geopolitical connotations, can be productive today to describe historical and social experience that does not fit the framework of classical colonial theory or normative theories of modernity. Maybe by using this category we can also use research instruments and models developed by new imperial history to study modern, mass and composite societies of the twentieth century. Potentially, the Second World can be used as a rhetorical device, a metaphor, or an analytical category. The editors of Ab Imperio invite scholars of imperial history to reflect upon the potential of the category of the Second World.

  Our turn to this concept in the context of new imperial history allows us to raise a number of interesting and important questions. Can the concept of the Second World be used in working with theoretical models and newly formed fields (such as Central European or Central Asian studies) instead of the culturally and geopolitically determined “Eurasia?” Could the Second World be useful in discussions of “peripheral” imperial formations, that is, in discussions of imperial experiences that do not entirely fit in with the experiences of bourgeois colonial empires? Scholars working in the fields of continental empires of Europe and Asia often face the problem of difference in processes that seem structurally similar in colonial overseas and continental empires. Historians of the Russian Empire have long debated the applicability of categories developed in studies of the British or French Empires. Yet, we also need to think about how the experience of the continental Russian Empire can complicate our understanding of the past of bourgeois colonial empires. Likewise, can the Second World change the mainstream ways of thinking about postcolonial phenomena such as hybridity, multiple identities and subjectivities, which emerge as constitutive elements of the history of the Second World itself? By opening this discussion about the Second World, Ab Imperio seeks to explore the prospects of this largely forgotten but potentially rich way of thinking about the post-Soviet historical regions and its place on the map of scholarly knowledge.

  Within the framework of this discussion we propose to revisit such traditional dichotomies as “center vs. periphery,” “modern overseas vs. premodern territorially contiguous empires,” “colonizers vs. colonized,” but with special attention to the specifics of the modern and most recent periods. In regard to the territorially contiguous empires one can recall the discussion on the “colonial” nature of Soviet expansion in Central Asia and Central Europe; the contradictory and ambitious attempt to apply the frame of decolonization to the post-Soviet period; the specifics of the postsocialist “transition”; theories of “failed state”; and so on. In historical articles for this year we seek to use the concept of the Second World to review the gaps between normative categories of analysis and the richness and diversity of the historical material in the experience of the post-Soviet space. We are especially interested in the applicability to the Soviet period of new imperial history with its characteristic attention to diversity and dynamics. On the other hand, we are interested in possibilities to enrich our understanding of the imperial period using analytical categories developed by scholars of the USSR and socialism.

  Besides the main theme of the Second World, Ab Imperio plans to continue its regular rubrics and fora: “Discussions with Authors” (series of interviews with scholars who have influenced the development of new imperial history); “Empire of Archives” (a series that views archives as centers of the production of knowledge and power in a culturally divided space); “The Art of History Writing in Empire and Nation” (translation and publication of classical works); and “Battles for History” (a series focusing on the current politics of history and memory).

  Tentative contents of the issues in 2011:

  No. 1/2011 “The Diversity of Otherness: Studies of the Second World and New Historical Paradigms”
  Historical experience in identifying “norm” and “otherness” beyond linear hierarchies • attempts to define the Second World in positive terms (its special contribution to the world intellectual legacy, the reengineering of society, uses of nature) • the Russian intellectual tradition of the second half of the nineteenth century: projects of the Second World and their critics • the history of critiques of normative theories of empire and colonialism • critiques of postcolonial theory • apology and nostalgia for historical empires: the British Empire as a forerunner of globalization, the Habsburg Empire as an ideal of liberal multinational polity • nostalgia for Yugoslavia, the USSR, and East Germany • the prefix “neo” in “post” situations: the problem of fluidity of traditional political contrapositions (e.g., liberalism and conservatism in the postmodern era and afterward) • analytical models of the Second World as an attempt to translate approaches of new imperial history for the study of composite societies of the twentieth century • Marxism in the Second World • formalism and structuralism in the Second World • contemporary nationalism and the Second World.

  No. 2/2011 “The Second World Beyond Geopolitics: Political Trajectories and Spatial Configurations”
  Critiques of geopolitical conceptions • what is the “Second World,” a location or an idea? • constructions of the “gradient of backwardness” and attempts to localize the “true West” • the dual meaning of “chronotop”: an instrument of historization of research as well as a mechanism for ascribing the structural characteristics of “epoch” to territory and its inhabitants • how stable are regional historical boundaries? • does a region have a “historical destiny?” • ascribing identity to a region (Islamic Republic, Cossack region, “historical center”) • problematizing the region: how is the production of “Russian culture” connected to territory/region • from social engineering to political technologies: the era of simulacra • compensatory reactions in the era of globalism: the concepts of “Russia island,” “Fifth Empire,” “sovereign democracy” • gender regimes of socialist societies and post-Soviet transformations.

  No. 3/2011 “Time of the Second World: Imperial Revolutions and Counterrevolutions”
  The breakup of the USSR: the process of transition from informal to formal sovereignty • post-Soviet history of the former republics • the breakup of the USSR revisited by historians: twenty years later • the anthropology of postsocialist transformations: lessons for understanding the disintegration of the USSR? • USSR: scenarios of power – scenarios of disintegration • comparative context of the Soviet breakup • perestroika: revolution as normalization? • decolonization as an interpretative resource for analyzing the Soviet breakup: problems and challenges • world order after the Cold War • imperial disintegrations and fascism • the disintegration of empires and the October revolution • global crisis of the leftist ideology as a result of Second World disintegration.

  No. 4/2011 “The Second World Between Comparative and Global Histories”
  Self-representations of “empires” of the Second World as a synthesis of the First and the Third Worlds: between colonies and metropoles • the place of the Second World in the schemes of world (global) history • the Second World as a trope of self-perception and self-description of “noncanonical” modernity • the Second World between “multiple modernities” and normative “Western modernity” • peripheral and “nonclassical” empires of the modern period • revisiting comparative approaches to totalitarianism and communism • rethinking the Second World in the twentieth century: a history of totalitarianism or a comparative history of colonialism? • whether the world is one: writing the history of globalization • history of the environment as a frame for universal history • relativization of the concept of the First World and normative modernity in new narratives of comparative and global history.

• “The NEP Era: Soviet Russia, 1921-1928”

  The annual journal "The NEP Era: Soviet Russia, 1921-1928" seeks submissions of manuscripts on Soviet history and culture during the 1920s. The journal publishes articles in English or Russian. All article submissions are subject to peer review.

  Please send three anonymous copies of an article along with an electronic version in MS Word, Word Perfect, or PDF (which may be submitted separately by e-mail) to: Dr. Alexis Pogorelskin, Department of History, University of Minnesota-Duluth, 1121 University Drive, Duluth, MN 55812-2496, and email to: apogorel@d.umn.edu.

  Manuscripts should be in a standard font with one inch margins. The text (including block quotes and endnotes) should be double-spaced. The maximum length for an article is thirty-five double-spaced pages (including endnotes), or nine thousand words. If, however, subject, sources, or treatment warrant greater length, the journal will negotiate an appropriate extension. Authors should adhere to The Chicago Manual of Style (15th edition) and the Library of Congress transliteration system.

  Please include your name, institutional affiliation, and current contact information. We will acknowledge all submissions and endeavor to make our decision concerning publication as soon as we are able, allowing for the reports of at least two reviewers.

  Submissions to The NEP Era should not have been previously published. First publication of submissions should occur in this journal.

  For more information about the journal, see its web site at http://www.d.umn.edu/cla/NEPera/main/index.php or its Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/The-NEP-Era-Soviet-Russia-1921-1928/300806644900

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Study

Rolling Admissions

• Summer Workshop in Slavic, East European and Central Asian Languages
  June 04 - July 27, 2012 Bloomington, IN

  *SWSEEL is still accepting applications for intensive language study in summer 2012! The priority deadline has passed, but we encourage applications for admissions and FLAS and Title VIII funding. Late submissions of FLAS and Title VIII applications will be considered after the first round of applications has been reviewed and pending availability of funds.

  The priority deadline for the SWSEEL application and all supporting documents is March 1, 2012. All applications submitted after March 1 will be reviewed on a rolling basis. Intensive language training has been offered at the Bloomington campus of Indiana University since 1950. The Summer Workshop provides up to 200 participants in Slavic, East European and Central Asian languages the opportunity to complete a full year of college language instruction during an eight-week summer session.

  Utilizing the resources of Indiana University's own specialists as well as native speakers from other universities and abroad, the Summer Workshop has developed and maintained a national program of the highest quality. Allowing all participants to pay in-state tuition fees, the program has as its goal the enhancement of speaking, reading, listening and writing skills through classroom instruction and a full range of extra-curricular activities. Fellowships and funding are available.

  More information can be found on their website: http://www.indiana.edu/~swseel/

• Russian Folklore Expedition

  Space is still available for volunteers on three Russian folklore expeditions this summer to Siberia, Belarus and the Rostovskaya oblast Cossacks. Expeditions are led by Dr. Yelena Minyonok (folklorist with the Gprky Institute of World Literature -- RAS) and sponsored by American Friends of Russian Folklore.

  Participants are fully immersed in Russian village life as they assist with recording, photographing and videotaping folk narratives, songs, dances and other traditional lore. No special training in ethnography or folklore is required. Working languages of the expeditions are English and Russian.

  This is a wonderful opportunity for students and scholars with a interest in Russian language, village dynamics, folklore and ethnomusicology.

  Volunteers cover the costs of their own participation. For more information see the website or inquire at info@russianfolklorefriends.org

• Online Elementary Macedonian Course at UNC Chapel Hill


• Online Elementary Croation Course from the University of Zagreb



February, 2012

• The Tahoe-Baikal Institute: 2012 Summer Environmental Exchange
  Due: February 7

  The 2012 Summer Environmental Exchange (SEE) Program is a 9-week long, experiential, place-based, watershed education and leadership development program hosted at the watersheds of Lake Tahoe in the USA and Lake Baikal in Russia, and at the Selenga River, Lake Baikal's upper watershed, in Mongolia. The program's primary themes are watershed protection, sustainable development, and cultural exchange. It will bring together young, environmental leaders from North America, Russia, Mongolia, and other parts of the world to study environmental science, policy, and management at these two superlative lakes.

  The SEE program has helped to produce hundreds of young environmental leaders around the world. Our alumni are now working in diverse fields including transportation planning in Lake Tahoe, sustainable farming programs in rural villages of Cameroon and maintaining the health of the Selenga River Watershed in Mongolia, to name a few. Whether you study the hard sciences, environmental studies, conservation, Russian, international studies, engineering or any other field, you will be an asset to the program and through that, to the management and preservation of Lake Tahoe and Lake Baikal.

  The application deadline is February 7th, but any applications received before December 5th will be evaluated before the holidays. Spaces are limited so students are encouraged to apply early.

March, 2012

• Study Abroad: Energy in Central Asia Program (ECAP)
  Due: March 1

  Study Abroad Program Highlights
  
  * STUDY the oil and gas industry at a top Kazakhstan university
  * VISIT global companies based in Kazakhstan
  * IMMERSE YOURSELF in Central Asian business culture
  * LIVE on KIMEP's campus in cosmopolitan Almaty
  * DISCOVER Astana—business center and vibrant new capital of Kazakhstan

April, 2012

• 2012 Summer Study Abroad Programs in Poland with The Kosciuszko Foundation

  April 12: Scholarship Applications Deadline
  May 15: Applications Deadline - (non-scholarship)

• Fourth International Social Science Summer School in Ukraine "Violence and its Aftermath in the Soviet and Post-Soviet Context"
  Due: April 15
  Zhytomyr (Ukraine), 4-10 July 2012



May, 2012

• Warsaw Summer School Gender Studies
  Due: May 13

  The Gender Studies Center of the Institute of Literary Research, Polish Academy of Sciences (IBL PAN) in collaboration with the American Studies Center, University of Warsaw and with the support of the U.S. Embassy in Warsaw is pleased to announce the first edition of the Warsaw Summer School Gender Studies IBL PAN, to be held 13th August - 24th August, 2012 in Warsaw, Poland. This year the school’s theme is: “The Logic of Backlash, the Logic of Feminism: Comparative Transatlantic Perspectives”

  Eligibility: The program is designed for students with Bachelor’s degrees, postgraduate students, MA and PhD students. Anyone who fulfills this condition may apply, although the course targets young scholars with an interest in women’s studies, gender studies or postcolonialism. The program is limited to 60 participants. The working language of the course is English.

  Program Costs for Participants: The total cost of the program is 1000 USD. For more information please contact us at: info@warsawsummerschool.com.

  How to apply: Applicants must submit a CV, a cover letter and a copy of their diploma. Please place all the current contact information at the top of your CV and send the application documents by e-mail to: info@warsawsummerschool.com. Use “Summer School Application 2012” as the subject.

Internships

• Internships Abroad: AIESEC Internships Abroad Information Sessions


• Indiana University Internship Program in Sustainability
  Due: February 17


• Study Abroad: Energy in Central Asia Program (ECAP)
  Due: March 1


• Department of State Fall 2012 Student Internship Program
  Due: March 2, 2012


• Internship: The International Center in Indianapolis, Spring, Summer and Fall Internships


• Collegium Civitas International Professional Internships in Warsaw, Poland



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