Call for Papers - Cultural Hegemonies in Spaces of Diversity

Conference venue: Regensburg, Germany
Period: May 7 - 9, 2015
Deadline for submitting abstracts: December 15, 2014

More than eighty years ago, Antonio Gramsci developed the concept of cultural hegemony in his Prison Notebooks. For him, cultural hegemony was a way to understand the relationship between culture and power under capitalism and, in particular, to reveal and deconstruct the production of consent by the dominant "fundamental group". The concept of cultural hegemony has become hugely influential, aiding scholars to understand how legitimacy is not only produced but also undermined by anti-hegemonic practices.

Eastern and Southeastern Europe as a region is characterized by substantial ruptures in the 19th and 20th centuries. It is an area of large scale political, economic and cultural experimentation as well as a site of frequent regime change. It has a long history of both dictatorship and revolution. Nowhere else in Europe have so many new states emerged, and existing ones disappeared, in the 20th century. At the same time, the region is a space of great cultural, linguistic, confessional, socio-political, and regional diversity; this situation creates particular challenges for those who strive to achieve cultural hegemony.

Keynote speakers: Johanna Bockman (George Mason University), et al.

This conference is interested in the production and erosion of cultural hegemony. Conference contributions shall discuss the relationship between cultural hegemony, social organization, institutional order, and political practice. What strategies and practices can be identified that serve to establish or maintain cultural hegemony but also to subvert and ultimately replace it? One of the major goals of the conference is to elucidate the relationship between cultural hegemony and political change in Eastern and Southeastern Europe. This includes the discussion of transnational transfers of dominant ideologies and of their local implementation and appropriation. Cultural hegemony also has important implications for language use: it attributes specific rights and prestige to particular languages (or dialects), while marginalizing others. Comparative dimensions shall be addressed as well. Submitted papers shall address different levels of analysis - from the macro to the micro; we are interested both in dominant and subaltern groups and movements.

The conference is conceived as an interdisciplinary one. We invite papers from all disciplines that can make a contribution to understanding the dynamics of cultural hegemony. This includes discussions of political ideologies and social values, cultural and language policies, literary and visual representations, architectural and monumental culture, educational and cultural institutions, the political economy of culture, legal aspects, and other pertinent topics. We encourage also theoretical and conceptual contributions.

Paper proposals should include an abstract (max. 300 words) and brief academic CV including your institutional affiliation and contact details.
Please send your paper proposals to heidrun.hamersky@ur.de as a MS-Word format document (.doc or .docx).
Deadline for paper applications: December 15, 2014. Applicants will be notified about the acceptance of their papers by mid-January 2015.
The conference language is English.
The Graduate School will cover travel and accommodation costs of presenters. For more information about the Graduate School website.

Heidrun Hamersky
e-mail: heidrun.hamersky@ur.de