Moscow, Twelfth Balkan Readings

The twelfth Балканские чтения [Balkan Readings] conference, which took place in Moscow on 26-27 March 2013, had as its unifying theme the Balkan picture of the world from the perspective of the five human senses. Twenty-eight papers were presented, reporting on interdisciplinary studies in the areas of religion, mythology, magic, ritual, literature, folk poetry, folk music, drama, artistic performance, cuisine etc with a focus on sensory perception, cognition and language. A number of papers discussed linguistic evidence in support of the underlying unity of the five senses (synaesthesia). Papers differed in perspective: some were theoretically inclined or took a broad comparative perspective (S. M. Tolstaia, N. N. Kazanskii,  T. A. Mikhailova, U. Dukova & P. Assenova, T. V. Tsiv’ian, D. Burkhart), others had elements of comparison (D. S. Ermolin, A. A. Novik, I. A. Sedakova, M. M. Makartsev) or dealt with aspects of a specific tradition - Ancient Greek (M. Evzlin, T. F. Teperik, L. I. Akimova, Ia. L. Zabudskaia), Modern Greek (O. V. Chekha, F. A. Eloeva, A. A. Novokhatko, K. A. Klimova,  A. V. Tunin & V. A. Panov), Latin (A. V. Grosheva), Romanian (A. A. Romanova, I. Stahl, N. G. Golant), Albanian (A.V. Zhugra, M. V. Domosiletskaia), Bulgarian (G. V. Grigorov), Serbian (N. V. Zlydneva) and Slovene (M. Mencej).

The conference proceedings have appeared in: Макарцев, М. М., И. А. Седакова, Т. В. Цивьян (eds.) Балканская картина мира sub specie пяти человеческих чувств. Москва: Институт славяноведения РАН, Центр лингвокультурных исследований «Balcanica», Университет Дмитрия Пожарского, 2013, 184 с. (Балканские чтения 12. Тезисы и материалы) ISBN 978-5-7576-0270-7.

CALL FOR PAPERS: "Dropping out of Socialism: Alternative Cultures in the Soviet Bloc"

The Arts & Humanities Research Council (AHRC) are calling for proposals for articles relating to subcultures, drop-outs and the underground in late socialist societies. Any group and any time period between 1956 and 1991 will be considered, University of Bristol, UK; Workshop TBA Spring 2014 (Abstract Deadline: June 1, 2013)

Much emphasis has been placed in recent years on questions of conformity and everyday ordinariness in socialist societies. This project aims to look at increasingly forgotten elements in these societies: those who did not conform did not live the ordinary life, yet were also part of the late socialist every day.

Ranging from teddy boys, hippies and punks to non-conformist artists, Buddhists, yoga teachers or lesbian and gay communities, the list of 'drop-outs' is long and varied, yet in danger of being buried by histories that left better documentation and more archival traces. We intend to write these individuals and groups into the newly emerging history of late socialism and examine both their internal functioning as well as their complex relationship with mainstream society and socialist authorities. Was it possible to drop out from socialist society? How far could one distance oneself from the realities of late socialist life? What does the existence of alternative cultures and their daily practices say about the last three decades of socialism in Europe? Did they hasten its decline - or were they indeed a factor in its longevity?

We are calling for proposals for articles relating to subcultures, drop-outs and the underground in late socialist societies. Any group and any time period between 1956 and 1991 will be considered.

The workshop and subsequent publication of articles in a special journal issue is part of the AHRC sponsored project 'Dropping out of Socialism', which examines a variety of drop-out cultures in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union. We are planning to hold a workshop in Bristol, UK in the spring of 2014, when authors present their articles for discussion. A final manuscript will be expected by the summer of 2014.

Please send a short proposal (max 500 words) and a CV to:

josie.mclellan@bristol.ac.uk by 1 June 2013.

For further questions please contact: 

juliane.furst@bristol.ac.uk

2013 Summer School in Comparative Conflict Studies

Call for Applications

The Center for Comparative Conflict Studies (CFCCS) at the Faculty of Media and Communications (FMK), Singidunum University invites you to apply for the forth Summer School in Comparative Conflict Studies. The 2013 Summer School will take place at the Faculty of Media and Communications in Belgrade, from July 1-8, 2013.

We are now receiving applications for the following four courses to choose from:

1. The Politics of Land and Identity: States and Minorities in Conflict

Prof. Oren Yiftachel (Ben-Gurion University, Israel)

2. International Intervention in a Globalised World

Dr. Maxine David (University of Surrey, UK) 

3. The Role of Social Memory Studies in Conflict Analysis and Transformation
Dr. Orli Fridman (Faculty of Media & Communications (FMK) & SIT study Abroad, Serbia)

4. From the discourse of brotherhood and unity to the discourses of EU integration: the case of "transition" in Serbia

Dr. Jelisaveta Blagojević (Faculty of Media & Communications (FMK), Serbia)

**Language instruction in all courses is English**

We invite graduate students, advanced undergraduate students, NGO leaders and civil society activists from all countries to apply.

Reduced tuition is available for applicants from Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro, and Serbia. This reduced tuition is also available for students from other conflict or post-conflict regions.

A limited number of travel and accommodation scholarships may be available for applicants from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro, and Serbia. 

Deadline to submit applications: May 13, 2013 

Application form and cost information are available on our website and Facebook page.

FOR MORE DETAILS please visit www.cfccs.org
Visit our FACEBOOK Page
Check out our MA program in Politics and Conflict Studies

SEESA Sponsored Panel at ASEEES 45th Annual Convention

SEESA sponsored panel entitled "Post-Socialist Identities in a Global Context: Cultural Negotiations in Southeast European Literature and Theatre" at the ASEEES 45th Annual Convention, to be held at the Boston Marriott Copley Place in Boston, MA, from November 21-24, 2013.

• Chair: Laura Olson Osterman, U of Colorado, Boulder
• Discussant: Antje Postema, U of Chicago
• Post-Socialist Masculinity in Crisis: Georgi Gospodinov’s 'Natural Novel', Angelina Ilieva, U of Chicago
• Miljenko Jergović at the Crossroads of post-Communism, Ex-Yugoslavia, and Globalization, Cynthia Simmons, Boston College
• Post-Communist Dialogs with the post-Colonial Balkans in the Bulgarian Theatre, Vessela Warner, U of Alabama at Birmingham

Workshop in Scholarly and Literary Translation from Slavic Languages

Call for Applications:

Workshop in Scholarly and Literary Translation from Slavic Languages


The Russian, East European, and Eurasian Center at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign is pleased to announce a Workshop in Scholarly and Literary Translation from Slavic Languages to take place during the annual Summer Research Laboratory at the University of Illinois. The workshop will run from June 10 to June 15, 2013.

This workshop offers advanced graduate students and recent post-doctoral scholars an opportunity to build skills through an intensive experience of translation with guidance from experienced translators, as they will be paired with mentors who work in the same language(s). The program will also include presentations by specialists in translation.

Prospective participants must submit an application for the Summer Research Laboratory to be considered for admission to the Workshop. For more information and to apply please see the REEEC SRL page:

http://www.reeec.illinois.edu/srl/?utm_source=transwksp&utm_medium=listserv&utm_campaign=SRL2013 

To be considered for the Translation Workshop, include the language you would like to work with, information about the text you want to work with (author, title, publication date, etc.), and a draft translation of one page from that text. The draft doesn’t have to be perfect; it is meant to show the selection committee the point where you are starting.

Mentors and Languages:

Brian Baer (Russian), Professor and Graduate Coordinator, Modern and Classical Language Studies, Kent State University. Translation series editor at Kent State University Press, editor of the journal Translation and Interpreting Studies, ed. of Contexts, Subtexts and Pretexts: Literary Translation in Eastern Europe and Russia (Johns Benjamins, 2011); co-editor, Russian Writers on Translation (forthcoming, St. Jerome Press)

David Cooper (Czech, Russian, and Slovak), Associate Professor and Director of Russian, East European and Eurasian Center, UIUC. Creating the Nation: Identity and Aesthetics in Early Nineteenth-Century Russia and Bohemia (Northern Illinois UP, 2010); editor and translator, Traditional Slovak Folktales (collected by Pavol Dobšinský, 2001)

Sibelan Forrester (Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian and Russian), Professor of Russian, Swarthmore College. Co-editor of Engendering Slavic Literatures (Indiana UP, 1996) and Over the Wall/After the Fall: Post-Communist Cultures through an East/West Gaze (Indiana UP, 2004); translator of Irena Vrkljan, The Silk, The Shears (Northwestern UP, 1999), Elena Ignatova, The Diving Bell (Zephyr Press, 2006), and Vladimir Propp, The Russian Folktale (Wayne State UP, 2012)

Amelia Glaser (Russian, Ukrainian and Yiddish), Associate Professor and Director of Russian and Soviet Studies Program, University of California - San Diego. Jews and Ukrainians in Russia’s Literary Borderlands: From the Shtetl Fair to the Petersburg Bookshop (Northwestern UP, 2012); translator and co-ed. of Proletpen: America’s Rebel Yiddish Poets (U of Wisconsin Press, 2005)

Joanna Trzeciak (Polish and Russian), Associate Professor of Russian and Polish Translation, Kent State University. Translator of Miracle Fair: Selected poems of Wislawa Szymborska (W. W. Norton, 2002) and Sobbing Superpower: Selected Poems of Tadeusz Różewicz (W. W. Norton, 2011)

Russell Valentino (Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian, Italian, Russian), Professor and Chair, Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures, Indiana University. Editor-in-chief, The Iowa Review, translator of Fulvio Tomizza, Materada (Northwestern UP, 2000), Carlo Michelstaedter, Persuasion and Rhetoric (Yale UP, 2005), Sabit Madaliev, The Silence of the Sufi: And I Do Call to Witness the Self-Reproaching Spirit (Autumn Hill Books, 2006), and Predrag Matvejević, The Other Venice: Secrets of the City (Reaktion Books, 2007)

Other workshop components include: daily meetings between participants and mentors; dedicated time for work on individual translation projects; access to the exceptional library resources of the University of Illinois; and bibliographic support from the Slavic Reference Service.

Those selected will receive funding support as well as access to the University of Illinois Library and Slavic Reference Service.

Participants should bring one text in the language they specialize in to work on independently and in the workshop setting during the course of the workshop. (This text can be, but does not have to be, connected to the sample submitted with the application.)

Translations in Russian, Czech, Polish, Slovak, Bosnian, Croatian or Serbian, Ukrainian, or Yiddish are preferred, but anyone with translation projects in a regional language is encouraged to apply. For more information contact the workshop organizer, Dr. Sibelan Forrester of Swarthmore College, at <sforres1@swarthmore.edu>.

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Journal of Balkanology /Zeitschrift für Balkanologie

Founded in 1962 by Günter Reichenkron, Franz Dölger and Alois Schmaus, the Journal of Balkanology by international standards counts as one of the leading publications specializing in Balkanology. It continues to profile the teaching and research program developed by the former Institute of Balkanology at the Free University Berlin and continued by the Friedrich Schiller University Jena, with the objective of studying the Balkan peninsula’s cultures in their linguistic and non-linguistic manifestations, across ethnic and linguistic families, on a comparative, interdisciplinary-integrative basis. The Journal of Balkanology is therefore also a forum for scholarly discourse on the core questions that occupy Balkanology or Southeast European studies. Its goal ultimately, however, is to convey to the scholarly community and to an interested readership the widest possible range of findings from interdisciplinary and comparative research on a broadly conceived Southeastern Europe stretching from Turkey across the Balkans to Hungary. It covers the gamut of subject areas of linguistics, cultural studies, literature, ethnology, regional studies and folklore. Contributions by European and non-European Balkanologists and specialists on Southeastern Europe will be published here in German, English, French, Russian and Italian.

The University of Washington is inaugurating a "Discovery Seminar to Romania" this Autumn

In Bucharest, Brasov, Sibiu, and Suceava, the major stops of our journey in Romania, students will attend lectures offered by Romanian scholars and will also directly encounter artifacts, edifices, monuments, and artwork previewed in class. Lectures will address topics from medieval history to the 19th century transformation into a nation-state and 20th century literature (Blandiana, Cartarescu, Popescu, Manea), as well as the struggles of artists under communist censorship. In Bucharest, students will have the opportunity to meet award-winning directors (Cristi Puiu and Cristian Mungiu) and watch some of their internationally acclaimed movies.

For more information see:

The Honors webpage:

<http://depts.washington.edu/uwhonors/international/romania/>
and the facebook page:
<http://www.facebook.com/ExplorationSeminarRomania2013>