Kazan (Volga Region) Federal University
Institute for Comparative Study of Modernity
Center for the Cultural Study of Postsocialism
Organization of Social Sciences Teachers
Invite participants to take part in:
A SUMMER SCHOOL
Postsocialist Cultural Studies: Methodology and Research
St. Petersburg (Russia), June 29 – July 5, 2013
Program description
More than twenty years have passed since the collapse of the Soviet Union, the end of the Cold War, and the dispersal of the global socialist movement. Since then, we have been living in a post-world that is variously characterized as postsocialist, post-Marxist, postmodernist, and postcolonialist. This new condition has challenged scholars to find appropriate concepts, theories, and methods. In the 1990s, such theories as “transition”, “path-dependency”, and “multiple modernities” became popular among post-scholars. Over the decades, these concepts have revealed their problematic character. Empirical studies of the cultural condition of postsocialism in its most problematic manifestations – class, gender, generational, regional, ethnic, confessional, etc. – reveal continuities, gaps, and hybridizations that were not predicted by ideologues. But the concept of post-socialism is still in demand. In various forms that range from memory to inertia, the socialist legacy makes its impact on cultural processes, social troubles, and the political quests in the post-Soviet and global space.
In our problematic world, methodologies and reality illuminate and challenge each other. The Summer School will discuss the emerging concepts and visions that inform our research of the world after socialism.
Faculty:
Prof. Katherine Verdery (City University of New York, USA)
Prof. Alexander Etkind (Cambridge University, UK)
Prof. Almira Ousmanova (European University for Humanities, Lithuania)
Prof. Vladimir Ilyin (St. Petersburg State University, Russia)
Target group: Doctoral students and junior researchers.
The languages of the summer school are Russian and English.
Dates: June 29 – July 5, 2013.
Place: St. Petersburg, Russia.
Doctoral students and junior researchers who are accepted for the summer school are eligible for grants. These grants are limited and cover travel and/or accommodation costs up to a set amount.
Applications should be submitted to: summerschoolkazan@gmail.com by April 15, 2013.
Applicants will be notified about their acceptance no later than May 6, 2013.
The application should include:
● letter of motivation (1 page max.)
● brief description of current research project (1 page max.)
● short CV (no more than 3 pages)
● contact information (email, telephone and postal address)
● indication of interest in applying for grant to cover travel and/or accommodation costs.
The Summer School is supported by the Open Society Foundation.