REES Graduate Student Conference

Graduate Organization for the Study of Europe and Central Asia

Russian & East European Studies

University Center for International Studies
University of Pittsburgh

Second Annual Graduate Student Conference

Conference Program

The conference program, including panel schedule, panelists and paper titles, is now available here.

Keynote Speaker:

Dr. Katerina Clark

Professor of Comparative Literature and Slavic Languages and Literatures at Yale University

Call for Papers:

Shifting Borders: political and cultural boundaries in Eastern Europe, Russia, and Central Asia

February 25-6, 2005

Borders in Eastern Europe, Russia, and Central Asia have been the subject of intense contestation and revision over the course of the 19^th and 20^th centuries. Boundaries within Europe’s multinational empires faced constant strain with the rise of nationalism and were redrawn following the dissolution of the empires in the First World War. Soviet nationalities policies codified, even invented nationhood in bounded and institutionalized Central Asian republics. Major territorial shifts occurred again after World War II. The dissolution of the Soviet Union ushered in yet another revision of the map, and today we watch as the borders of Europe continue to change. The debates about the boundaries of and within these regions are held at all levels of society, thus calling for a discussion that crosses disciplinary borders as well. The University of Pittsburgh’s Graduate Organization for the Study of Europe and Central Asia, in cooperation with the Center for Russian and East European Studies, invites fellow graduate students working on related topics from all disciplines to submit abstracts for our second annual graduate student conference.

The conference will raise a broad range of questions about the nature of boundaries within and around Eastern Europe and Central Asia. We welcome papers ranging in scope from multinational empire, to nation state, to ethnic minorities. Papers that engage the debates surrounding the boundaries of the regions themselves, such as the question of Central versus Eastern Europe, are also welcome. In addition to questions of geography, governance, and citizenship, papers dealing with boundaries between cultures, languages, genders and artistic traditions are highly encouraged.

Students of Eastern Europe, Russia, and Central Asia who are working on issues related to boundaries are encouraged to submit abstracts by December 1, 2004. Further details about submission requirements, dates, housing, etc. are on the conference's web page (http://www.pitt.edu/~sorc/goseca) or by emailing gosecaconference@yahoo.com.