Dear all -

Please see below and attached for details of postgraduate conference, "Peripheral Histories?", to be held at the University of Manchester in April next year.

Best,
Alistair.



PERIPHERAL HISTORIES?  POSTGRADUATE RESEARCH INTO THE LATE-IMPERIAL RUSSIAN AND EARLY-SOVIET PROVINCES, LOCALITIES, AND REPUBLICS

We are delighted to announce a one-day postgraduate conference, sponsored by BASEES, CEELBAS, and artsmethods@manchester, to be held at the University of Manchester on Friday, April 17, 2015.

	Peripheral Histories? will bring together postgraduates currently conducting and preparing to conduct historical research into the provinces, localities, and republics of the Russian Empire and USSR.  Since 1991 and the opening up of provincial cities and archives to foreign researchers, the study of locations outside of Moscow and St. Petersburg has expanded dramatically, producing a number of significant historical works and prompting a new wave of postgraduate research.  Nonetheless, academic networks in this important and growing area of historical research can be developed further and the challenges facing postgraduates researching late-Imperial and early-Soviet histories outside the Russian capitals are numerous.  This conference seeks to facilitate the continued expansion and integration of this historical field by providing a forum for postgraduate researchers to present their work and exchange research experiences and techniques.

	The conference consists of three separate panels for postgraduate researchers to present and discuss their work.  It will conclude with a roundtable discussion of the challenges and practicalities of conducting historical research outside Moscow and St. Petersburg led by established and early-career academics, including Sarah Badcock (University of Nottingham) and Jonathan Waterlow (University of Oxford).

	We welcome individual paper proposals addressing any aspect of local, provincial, national, or sub-national history in the Imperial Russian and/or early-Soviet periods.  These may include, but are not limited to, the following areas:

·         Interactions on the “periphery”:
-       social, ethnic, and national relations at local, provincial, and national level
-       cross-border interactions in Imperial Russian and Soviet borderlands
-       centre visions of the “periphery” and local visions of the centre
·         Imperial Russia and the USSR as imperial spaces:
-       Imperial Russia and the USSR in comparative imperial and international context
-       construction of Imperial, colonial, and orientalising identities within Imperial Russia and the USSR
-       local elites and their interactions with central authorities
·         Municipal government and self-administration:
-       localisation of political, economic, and cultural authority
-       development of local administration and practices
-       relations between local and central governmental structures
 
Papers will be allotted 15-20 minute slots.  Interested participants should submit an abstract of up to 250 words, as well as a list of key words and their institutional affiliation, to [log in to unmask] by Monday, February 2, 2015.  Responses to proposals will be given by Friday, February 27, 2015.

SLAVONIC-EE-POSTGRAD, a list for postgraduate students in Slavonic and East European Studies in the UK and elsewhere, is a project of BASEES, the British Association for Slavonic and East European Studies (www.basees.org.uk).  For subscription information, please see www.basees.org.uk/postgrads.htm .  To unsubscribe, see instructions at www.jiscmail.ac.uk .