From: "GOSECA University of Pittsburgh" <gosecaconference@yahoo.com>
This is an updated call for papers for the 4th Annual Graduate Student
conference at the University of Pittsburgh. This may be an interesting
opportunity for your graduate students that are interested in Eastern
Europe, Russian and Central Asia. Could you please circulate this call
for papers among your graduate students?
Thank you,
GOSECA
Graduate Organization for the Study of Europe and Central Asia
(GOSECA) at the University of Pittsburgh
Eastern Europe, Russia , and Central Asia
Defining Ourselves and Being Defined: Globalization, Regionalism and
Multiculturalism
University of Pittsburgh, REES and GOSECA Graduate Student Conference
February 23-25, 2007
Key Note Address by Charles King
Charles King is Chair of the Faculty and Associate Professor in the
School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University , where he also holds
the university's Ion Ratiu Chair in Romanian Studies. He is the author
of The Black Sea: A History (2004); The Moldovans: Romania , Russia ,
and the Politics of Culture (2000); Nations Abroad: Diaspora Politics
and International Relations in the Former Soviet Union (as co-editor,
1998); and Ending Civil Wars (1997).
In Eastern Europe, Russia, and Central Asia, a region where politics
is often decided upon ethnic, linguistic or religious lines, access to
civil society is not always a given for everyone. Belonging to a
certain collectivity can bring with it privilege, pride, and power today,
but disadvantage, disrepute and dismemberment tomorrow. Inhabitants have
not always had agency in defining themselves or their region. Politicians,
corporations, journalists and scholars have all labeled this region and
its peoples in order to better understand, organize and control them.
Despite the efforts
of indigenous nation-builders and imperial partitioning, the nation-state
is often considered as a problematic construct here, torn between
irredentist regionalism, ethnic and religious minorities claiming
under-representation, and nationalists asserting the primacy of the
nation. Globalization brings old definitional units into question. The
sovereignty of the nation-state in dictating policy is increasingly
challenged and minorities now potentially have access to a global arena in
which to air their grievances. Centuries-old regionalism continues to
disrupt efforts at “integration,” and the size of the unit which one
identifies oneself with fluctuates dramatically. Multiculturalism and
migration issues further complicate the homogeneity upon which older
definitions were premised. How do states based on myths about ethnic and
religious unity evolve with transitions to pluralist democracy?
REES and GOSECA invite papers that explore the issues raised by these
tensions, rifts and schisms, and by the attempts to overcome them. We
are interested in how these tensions have changed over time, and in how
they have influenced the inhabitants of Eastern Europe , Russia and
Central Asia at all levels of society. The conference is deliberately
inter-disciplinary, and aims to deepen our understanding of the region as
a whole by using a broad range of approaches to examine an intimately
woven matrix of problems. Participation is open to graduate students in
the social sciences, the humanities and the professional schools. Please
submit abstracts by 1 December 2006. For submission requirements please
visit out website:
http://www.pitt.edu/AFShome/s/o/sorc/public/html/goseca/ or
www.pitt.edu/~sorc/goseca
The conference is sponsored by the Center for Russian and East
European Studies (REES) and the Graduate Organization for the Study of
Europe and Central Asia (GOSECA) at the University of Pittsburgh
GOSECA Conference Organizing Committee
Russian and East European Studies Graduate Student Conference
University of Pittsburgh
