Papers from all disciplines in the arts and social sciences are invited for a two-day conference on the theme of ‘Communist Nostalgia’. 2015 will be the 70th anniversary of the apogee of Communist influence in Europe and the 30th anniversary of, arguably, the beginning of the end of the Eastern Bloc. This conference aims to build upon the burgeoning work on post-Communist nostalgia, while extending its scope geographically and temporally. A wide range of questions can be addressed, including: who expresses Communist nostalgia, where, and in what form? How has nostalgia for Communism manifested itself in non-Communist countries, as well as in those still nominally Communist (China, Vietnam, Cuba…)? How was nostalgia expressed during the period of Communist rule? What art forms, genres and objects could be related to Communist nostalgia? What is the place of nostalgia in Communist /Marxist theory and culture?
Guest speakers will include Brian Pollitt, specialist on Cuba and son of Harry Pollitt, historic general secretary of the Communist Party of Great Britain, and Owen Hatherley, author of Militant Modernism; A Guide to the New Ruins of Great Britain; A New Kind of Bleak, and the forthcoming The Nostalgia Industry.
The conference is sponsored by the Socialist Theory and Movements Research Network, the PSA Communism Study Group, and the journal Twentieth Century Communism. Participants will be invited to submit their papers for a special issue of the journal.
Please submit proposals (500 words max) by 1 March 2015 to:
Gavin Bowd ([log in to unmask]); [log in to unmask]; [log in to unmask]
Please include your name, contact details and institutional affiliation.
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