>
>
>---------- Forwarded message ----------
>From: Mark Roseman <[log in to unmask]>
>
>CALL FOR PAPERS
>
>"THE CONTOURS OF LEGITIMACY IN CENTRAL EUROPE:
>NEW APPROACHES IN GRADUATE STUDIES"
>
>International Graduate Conference in the Humanities and Social Sciences
>
>European Studies Centre, St. Antony's College, University of Oxford
>24-26 May 2002
>
>Opening Keynote Panel (tentative):
>Mr. Timothy Garton Ash (St. Antony's College, Oxford)
>Dr. Martyn Rady (SSEES, London)
>Professor George Schoepflin (SSEES, London)
>
>Website: http://ce-conf.5er.com/
>PROPOSALS DUE: 1 FEBRUARY 2002
>
>The idea of Central Europe rests, paradoxically, upon ambiguous boundaries
>and essential definitions. This heartland remains a contested area in
>terms of overlapping and competing conceptions of territorial frontiers,
>political authority, economic trading blocs, ethno-linguistic communities
>and cultural development. Nonetheless, the region retains a genuine and
>unique character whose expression extends far beyond the terms of
>nationalist myth-making. In an effort to identify the workings of this
>paradox, and consequently the nature of the region itself, the Conference
>Committee of Postgraduates in Central European Studies at the University
>of Oxford is calling for papers in the field which focus on the concept of
>legitimacy.
>
>The notion of legitimacy embraces Central Europe's uncertainties and
>certainties: it is a model both of justification and vindication, based on
>a mixed historical legacy. On the one hand, Central Europe shares the same
>instances of great socio-political change as Western Europe, from the
>Reformation to the European Union. On the other hand, the dynamics of
>these changes were and are different in Central Europe. From the Early
>Modern period varied relationships between the spiritual and secular
>spheres combined with alternative forms of social-economic hierarchy,
>absolutism and imperialism to produce different founding principles for
>future state development. From these processes and principles we can trace
>varying subsequent patterns of ethnic diversity and national
>identification. This legacy ironically pushes the region to the periphery
>of Europe, even as its relations arguably provide the key to the
>continent's affairs.
>
>We are calling for interpretations of legitimacy that address this
>essential contradiction. Our starting point is Max Weber's definition of
>legitimacy as any one of three different ways of exercising power: by
>tradition, charisma or rational legal authority. We aim to draw from these
>three concepts of authority as we debate legitimacy in language, culture,
>history, geography, economics and politics in Central Europe. We hope that
>the ensuing discussion will bridge the methodological gaps between the
>academic disciplines, whose respective approaches have come to reflect
>cleavages in the subject matter itself. Panel sessions will follow a
>chronological framework, from the *Early Modern period to the present*.
>
>The boundaries of 'Central Europe' for these purposes remain broad and can
>include the region as it has been, and is defined, in relation to either
>Western Europe or Eastern Europe. In addition, we particularly welcome
>papers on minority (e.g Jewish and Roma) communities within the region.
>
>                                 *     *     *
>
>The Committee suggests the following possible topics for papers from the
>Reformation to the present.  However, proposals need not be limited to
>these suggestions, nor to the placement of particular themes within this
>loose chronology:
>
>* The Integrity of Community Life and Domestic Continuities
>* Religious Conflict and Authority -- The Process of Secularization
>* Nobility, Aristocracy, Intelligentsia - The Maintenance of Hierarchy and
>   Sources of Reform within Empire
>* Folklore in Relation to Definitions of High Culture
>* Hegemony and Language - Dominant Linguistic Traditions
>* Historical Construction as the Foundation of Ideology
>* Regionalism Versus Cosmopolitianism - The Pressures of Modernization
>* Great Power Interest and Ideological Influences - Changing Imperatives
>   for Nationalism
>* National Self-Determination, Civil Society and the Determinants of
>   Citizenship
>* Journalism - Representation of Social and Political Change, the Public
>   Voice and Literary Licence
>* The Problem of Common Critical Consensus - The Establishment of
>   'Legitimate' Forms of Art and Culture
>* Party politics and the Co-opting of Culture
>* Borderlands and the Persistence of Pluralism
>* World War II and the Holocaust - The Failure and Destruction of Civil
>   Society
>* Broadcasting and the Media - Locating Independent Viewpoints
>* Central Europe During the Cold War - Contested Bloc of European Security
>   Architecture
>* Cinema and the Projection of Self-Conscious Identity
>* From Revolutionaries to Politicians - A Troubled Path?
>* Redefining Left-Right Cleavages in Transition Politics
>* Devolution in Central Europe - Balancing the Centre-Periphery Relationship
>* Patterns of Economic Interdependence
>* The Emergence of National Business Elites
>* Doctrines and Values of Development - The Mixed Results of Growth
>* Political and Economic Infrastructures - Continuity or Change?
>* Constitutionalism, Legal Transformation and the Problem of Institutional
>   Reconstruction
>* Post-Marxist Ideology and the Social Question in Twenty-first Century
>   Central Europe
>* Redefining Central Europe on the Eve of EU enlargement and Globalization
>
>                                 *     *     *
>
>The Committee invites Post-Doctoral, Graduate and final-year Undergraduate
>students in the Humanities and Social Sciences to submit original research
>papers for discussion.  A one-page abstract of the paper (including
>title), along with a curriculum vitae and contact information (E-mail,
>Telephone, Postal Address) should be submitted no later than ** 1 FEBRUARY
>2002 **. Read papers in their final form should not exceed twenty minutes
>in length and must be in English.  The conference fee is yet to be
>confirmed and announced.
>
>                                 *     *     *
>
>Submissions may be sent by post or by E-mail (preferably in a Word
>attachment) to the Conference Coordinator:
>
>Larissa Douglass
>St. Antony's College
>Oxford, OX2 6JF
>United Kingdom
>[log in to unmask]
>(D.Phil. European History, St. Antony's)
>
>Senior Academic Advisor to the Conference Committee:
>Timothy Garton Ash
>Kurt A. Koerber Senior Research Fellow in Contemporary European History
>European Studies Centre, St. Antony's College.
>
>The conference is held under the auspices of the European Studies Centre,
>St. Antony's College, Oxford (http://www.sant.ox.ac.uk/esc.htm).
>
>Conference Committee:
>
>Monika Baar (D.Phil. European History, Brasenose)
>Martin Benedek (D.Phil. Politics, St. Antony's)
>Adam Fergus (M.St. European Literature, New)
>Michael Fleming (D.Phil. Geography, Pembroke)
>Katya A. M. Kocourek (M.Phil. Russian and East European Studies, St.
>    Antony's; M.Phil./Ph.D. SSEES, London)
>Stefan Szwed (M.Phil. European Politics and Society, St. Antony's)
>Wanda Wyporska (D.Phil. European History, Hertford)
>
>Assisting Panel to the Conference Committee:
>
>Deborah Holmes (Junior Research Fellow in Medieval and Modern Languages, The
>    Queen's College)
>Tim Noetzel (M.Phil. European Politics and Society, St. Antony's)
>Vanda Pickett (D. Phil. Czech Literature, Faculty of Medieval and Modern
>    Languages, St. Hugh's)
>Robert Pyrah (D. Phil. Austrian Cultural History, Faculty of Medieval and
>    Modern Languages, Magdalen)
>Marius Turda (Ph.D. History, Central European University)