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ANNOUNCEMENTS

THE OTHER EUROPE - from the 1960s to the 1980s. Dissent in Policy and Society, Cultural Alternatives. Contributions to a comparative contemporary history

International Conference in Bremen, from June 14th to 16th, 2007

The Research Institute for Eastern Europe (Forschungsstelle Osteuropa) celebrates its 25th anniversary on June 14th, 2007. On this occasion an international conference entitled “The Other Europe - From the 1960s to the 1980s Years. Dissent in Policy and Society, Cultural Alternatives” will take place. The conference will be opened in the town hall of Bremen on the 14th of June in the evening with a ceremony, in which many protagonists of the civil right movement and the underground culture are going to participate.
The conference aims for the first time at a systematic comparison of the samizdat-culture by putting them in a contemporary context. Following panels are planned:
- public sphere versus counter public spheres (dissent being in conflict with the predominating political orders;
- society between adaptation and dissent;
- political systems in functional distress and strategies of repression;
- movements of resistance and cultural alternatives compared historically;
- Eastern Europe after the transformational period: political options and cultural alternatives.

Founded in 1982 the Research Institute for Eastern Europe attends to contemporary social and cultural developments in Eastern and Middle-East Europe. In connection with its research work the Institute built up nowadays world-wide acknowledged archives consisting of samizdat documents and estates from Poland, Hungary, the former Soviet Union, the Czechoslovakia and the GDR. Its main objects of research are situated in the fields of contemporary and cultural history as well as in the area of actual analyzes of social and economic developments.

Further information and the program of the conference you will find under: http://www.forschungsstelle-osteuropa.de

NEW COURSE AT UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, LOS ANGELES, IN JANUARY 2007:

The Hidden Worlds of Communism: Arts, Identity, and Everyday Life in Eastern Europe, 1945-1990
--Special Issues in Comparative Politics (Online)--

Focusing on the daily resistance to communism, we will look into the material culture of communism (how was life lived under communism?), the symbolism of space (communal flats vs. dacha), and the political aesthetics of "socialist realism"; overt resistance to communism - the 1956 Hungarian Revolution and the 1968 Prague Spring - counterpoised to subversive sites of resistance - intellectuals’ dissidence, samizdat, youth rock’ n’ roll, and folklore; gender, sexualities, and youth negotiated construction of identities versus communist imposed identitary models; cinema and communism; avant-guards and "body art"; architecture and communism; and the rise of popular culture in postcommunism.

* ONLINE COURSE APPROVED BY UCLA FOR DEGREE-CREDIT: CONTACT THE UNIVERSITY IN YOUR STATE OR COUNTRY ABOUT APPLICATIONS OF THESE CREDITS TOWARDS A DEGREE
* NO RESIDENCY REQUIRED AT UCLA (ONLINE COURSE)
* COURSE MAY BE TAKEN FOR CREDIT (4 UNITS) AND NON-CREDIT
* DATES: 13 JANUARY- 17 MARCH 2007

Course led by Denise Roman, PhD, Center for the Study of Women, UCLA; author, Fragmented Identities: Popular Culture, Sex, and Everyday Life in Postcommunist Romania; member, Authors Guild of America; European Editor, Women's Studies International Forum.

For more information, please contact course representative, Ms. Marianne Hudspeth, at: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it .
To enroll, please visit UCLA Extension's website, at www.uclaextension.edu.

GULAG STUDIES

Submissions are welcome to the new scholarly annual journal: GULAG STUDIES.
The first inaugural issue is expected to come out December 2006. The journal will boast in impressive international editorial committee, including Robert Conquest, Leona Toker and Kenneth Lantz.
Please submit scholarly articles, documentaries, reviews, essays, stories, testimonial and pictorial materials to either of the founding editors of the journal: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

Toronto Slavic Quarterly, 18, 2006
University of Toronto · Academic Electronic Journal in Slavic Studies

The INTERNATIONAL SAMIZDAT [RESEARCH] ASSOCIATION (IS[R]A) NEWSLETTER
calls on all IS[R}A members and other researchers and specialists working on topics related to samizdat, dissent, opposition and protest movements in the XX century to submit items for our January-February issue. We welcome announcements on archival and museum acquisitions, news regarding the processing of collections, calls for papers, project updates, and announcements on new publications and exhibitions.
We also invite articles on the themes above.
Please email your submissions to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it by January 15, 2007
Zaslavskaya Olga
IS[R]A Newsletter Co-Editor