CFA: International Summer School "Eigen-Sinn: Citizen Empowerment and “Soft” Protest in the Soviet and Post-Soviet World" (Technische Universität Dresden, Aug. 22-30. 2020)

Deadline: May 15, 2020

Aims and scope

The modern world is moving more and more towards the direction of the state control over citizens, which leaves less space for free civil actions. Looking at the processes currently taking place in Russia, Poland, and Hungary, and even in the countries of mature democracies like the USA – where under the pretext of protection against terrorism, rights and freedoms of people are infringed –, the academics are drawing on the ever-gloomier prospects of the future of modern democracy. Nevertheless, even in the countries with a harsh system of state surveillance, as in today’s Russia, there is still space for individual freedom and for a rather consistent resistance to power. This space can be found by considering not only textbook approaches to political agency of citizens, the paradigmatic examples of which would be participation in elections and protest demonstrations, but also diverse opportunities of other, more local and less spectacular ways of dealing with power.

In the disciplines focusing on Eastern Europe and especially on Russia, the issue of organisations and activities “from below” is gaining more and more importance. Equally relevant in current research seems to be the historical comparison of the 2000s and 2010s with the traditions and practices of the communism era – an epoch, which anticipated the diversity of oppositional patterns today. In order to describe multifaceted, often non-confrontative practices and patterns of resistance in this area, the summer school uses a strongly interdisciplinary approach based on the concept of “Eigen-Sinn”.

The term was coined by the German historians Alf Lüdtke and Thomas Lindenberger and draws on the polysemous meaning of the German expression, describing both stubbornness/obstinacy (that is, opposition to certain rules or demands), and one’s own/innate sense/meaning (that is, the creation of a meaningful attitude to life, especially in adverse political conditions). “Eigen-Sinn” is therefore considered as an appropriate historiographical concept for understanding individual behaviors and actions that impact the sphere of power and domination, submission and revolt, resistance and dropping out.

The main disciplinary fields upon which the summer school’s teaching sessions will be based are historical science (esp. everyday history), literary and cultural studies, sociology and political science. The program will be led by international scholars from Europe and beyond. It includes lectures, interactive seminars and group work on a wide array of themes, thereby casting light on the issue of soft resistance in the Soviet and post-Soviet world from various perspectives. Participants will have the opportunity to consolidate their theoretical and methodological skills, discuss concepts and ideas, present their own projects and network with international researchers.

Organisation and application

The summer school will take place at the Technische Universität Dresden; it is organized in cooperation with the Moscow School of Social and Economic Sciences.

It is open to doctoral students and postdocs from Slavic studies, East European studies, political science, (East European) history, literary and cultural studies, sociology as well as related fields and interdisciplinary contexts.

The working language will be English.

Programme

Participation, including travel to/from Dresden, accommodation and meals, will be completely funded for successful applicants subject to the condition that financial support by the Volkswagen Stiftung will be granted.

Applications are now open. Interested applicants should send a CV and a short motivational letter (up to 500 words), including research projects they are working on and why they would like to take part in the summer school, to annelie.bachmaier@tu-dresden.de. The deadline for applications is 15 May 2020. Successful applicants will be notified by 1 June 2020.

Any questions about the summer school can be addressed to annelie.bachmaier@tu-dresden.de.

Main organizer:

Professor Klavdia Smola, Chair of Slavic Literatures, Institute of Slavic Studies, Faculty of Linguistics, Literature and Cultural Studies, University of Dresden

Wiener Str. 48, D-01062 Dresden, +49 351 463-34459, klavdia.smola@tu-dresden.de

CFP: Eighth Graduate Workshop of the Russian Art and Culture Group: The Problem of Religious Art in Modernity. Uses and Abuses of the Icon in Russia

Deadline: May 15, 2020 


Location: Internationales Kolleg Morphomata, Cologne University
Dates: September 23–25, 2020 (exact dates tbd)

In Human, All Too Human, Nietzsche wrote: “that species of art can never flourish again which—like the Divine Comedy, the paintings by Raphael, the frescoes of Michelangelo, Gothic cathedrals—presupposes not only a cosmic but a metaphysical significance in the objects of art.” In his usual provocative manner, Nietzsche attracted attention to the problem of religious art in a secular modernity. This issue was already implicit in Kant’s notion of the viewer of the work of art as “indifferent to the real existence of the object of representation.”

The eighth graduate workshop of the Russian Art and Culture Group will consider the deep implications posed by the problem of religious art by examining the various ways in which the icon was adapted in modern Russia to serve different artistic, philosophical, and political agendas.

Suggested topics might include:

• the role of the medieval image in nineteenth-century Russian literature
• the role of the icon in the project of nation-building in late imperial Russia
• the avant-garde’s relation to religious art
• the Bolsheviks’ cultural policy on religious images

Other, related topics are also welcome.

We invite doctoral students, postgraduate researchers, and established academics to submit proposals for 20-minute presentations. Interdisciplinary approaches are particularly welcome. Please send an abstract of no more than 250 words along with a short biographical note of 100 words by May 15, 2020 to workshop@russian-art.net.

For further questions, please do not hesitate to contact the organizers using the email address above. You will receive notification on the acceptance of paper proposals by the end of May 2020.

Participants will have to organize and cover their own travel and accommodation, but we offer a limited number of small travel subsidies for speakers from Russia or oversees.

Initial idea and organization: Prof. Dr. Isabel Wünsche, Jacobs University Bremen, Clemena Antonova, Institute for Human Sciences, Vienna, and Ludmila Piters-Hofmann, Jacobs University Bremen.