Call for Papers: Cultural Resistance: From Imperial Russia to Post-Soviet States

The concept of cultural resistance has become integral to sociological, political, and cultural studies. Emerging after the "youth revolutions" of the late 1960s (the "long year 1968"), this concept encompasses practices, artistic works, and initiatives aimed at revising or deconstructing established social hierarchies, challenging hegemonic "common sense" and dominant tastes, and confronting neo-fascist and right-wing populist movements as sociocultural forces.

Cultural resistance creates a unified framework for understanding both the politicization of cultural practices (poetry readings, exhibitions) and the aestheticization of political actions (performative political speech, political movements developing subcultural characteristics).

While this concept was initially developed through examples from Western states and their colonies, it has only recently been applied to earlier historical periods. The Center for the Study of Russian Culture at Amherst College invites scholars to explore how this concept might illuminate social and cultural history of Russian Empire, the Soviet Union and post-Soviet states. This conference will examine the prospects and limitations of applying the concept of cultural resistance to the history of the Russian Empire, Soviet Union, and post-Soviet countries. We welcome researchers from diverse disciplines including literary studies, history, anthropology, sociology, political science, education, and of theater, music, and film studies.

We propose to discuss the following range of issues at the conference:

• Actors of cultural resistance: individuals and groups, mechanisms of group formation, struggle for visibility and political representation.
• Methods and strategies of cultural resistance. Types of resistance and subversion: public, semi-public, underground, internal ("for the drawer"). Languages of description and self-description, the role of "traditional" and new media, the role of humanities and social sciences in legitimizing certain forms and places of cultural resistance.
• Places of cultural resistance – real and virtual. In what geographical spaces/topographical locations was cultural resistance possible? What were the institutional "sites" of cultural resistance: magazine editorial offices, websites, clubs, or other "assemblage points"? What real or imagined communities (in Benedict Anderson's terminology) might have formed around these institutional "sites"?
• Regional differences in the strategies and intensity of cultural resistance, horizontal interaction between "points of resistance" independent of (or using) the imperial center.
• The diversity of cultural resistance programs and agendas.
• Does cultural resistance always entail the emergence of innovative practices or initiatives?

Conference Details

• Place: Amherst Center for Russian Culture, Amherst, Massachusetts, USA
• Dates: March 28-29, 2026

Submission Information

To participate, please send the following to mmayofis@amherst.edu:

• Name, institutional affiliation, city, and email
• Tentative paper title
• Abstract (maximum 300 words)
• Brief CV highlighting publications relevant to the conference theme

Deadline for conference proposals: September 1, 2025

The official working language of the conference is English.

Travel and Accommodation Support:

We are pleased to provide full travel expenses and three nights of accommodation for all invited participants. These arrangements will be handled directly by the conference organizers.