Call for Papers - A Quarter Century of Post-Communism: Interdisciplinary Perspectives International Conference

Conference venue: Christchurch, New Zealand
Period: February 2-3, 2015
Deadline for submitting abstracts: September 30, 2014

When the people and their political leaders overthrew communist party rule in the countries of Eastern Europe, they were led by a strong desire to eliminate the ideological, political, economic and socio-cultural divisions that separated the West and East in Europe and the world. The following quarter century of post-communist reforms and the eventual integration of eleven post-communist countries into the enlarged European Union (EU) have successfully eliminated many European Cold-War divisions. Yet, the political, socio-economic, and cultural transformations of post-communist states are still ongoing. The differences between the ‘old’ western and ‘new’ eastern members of the EU are still remarkable, and new differences have emerged between the EU and non-EU post-communist states. Recent developments in Ukraine pose probing questions about the past and no less probing questions about the future of the region.

The conference organisers welcome papers which examine developments in the countries of post-communist Europe and post-Soviet region from a broad range of disciplines, including but not limited to: sociology, political science, EU studies, economics, history, literature, languages and cultural studies. Scholars who provide new theoretical and/or empirical insights into the events and developments from the communist and pre-communist past of these countries are also strongly encouraged to submit abstracts and present their papers at the conference.

Please submit abstracts of no more than 300 words to the conference coordinator or organisers listed below by 30 September 2014. The organisers expect to inform participants of the acceptance of their papers by 10 October 2014. Conference organisers expect selected contributions to be published in a guest-edited issue of an international peer-reviewed journal.

Dr Evgeny Pavlov
Associate Professor
Department of Global, Cultural and Language Studies | Department of History
University of Canterbury
e-mail: evgeny.pavlov@canterbury.ac.nz