From: "Mihnea Vasilescu" <[log in to unmask]>

CONF./CFP- Grad Student Conf. on Post-Communist Societies, Univ. of
Pittsburgh

CENTER FOR RUSSIAN AND EAST EUROPEAN STUDIES
UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH

Call for Papers
1st Annual Graduate Student Conference

Historical and Contemporary Forces of Integration and Disintegration in the
Post-Communist Societies
March 5-6, 2004

Deadline for paper submissions:

What used to be the communist bloc in Europe and Asia was characterized by
divergent tendencies and was influenced by opposing forces, which can be
traced into the past and remain part of the tumultuous present of the
post-communist world.  Empires formed and collapsed, ideologies were
embraced, imposed, and rejected, boundaries shifted and identities
redefined, solidarities broke and new commitments were made, policies were
implemented and challenged together with the governments that put them into
practice. Geographic labels, such as Central / Eastern / Southern Europe
and, more recently, New Europe, are contested territories themselves. If the
problems of the region are to be addressed, and the successes to be
understood, it is necessary to improve our understanding of this dynamic
region through an interdisciplinary approach. It is in this effort that the
graduate students of University of Pittsburgh's Center for Russian and East
European Studies invite all interested graduate students to submit abstracts
of a paper for presentation at its first annual graduate student conference.

The theme of integration and disintegration should be viewed most broadly.
The conference will focus on agents of integration and disintegration,
solidarity and conflict, tolerance and antagonism, inclusion and separation,
continuity and disruption, construction and dissolution. The level of
analysis could be any, from the family and community, to the state and
international level. The conference will include panels devoted to aspects
of:

 * history
 * politics
 * culture and society
 * governmental policy
 * law
 * economics
 * business
 * literature
 * film
 * public health
 * education
 * others

Graduate students that are working on the region of eastern Europe and the
former Soviet Union from any discipline are encouraged to submit abstracts
by December 1, 2003.  Further details about submission requirements, dates,
housing, etc. can be found on the conference's web page
(http://www.pitt.edu/~creesgsc) or by e-mailing [log in to unmask]