Memory of The Communist Past

30 years after the fall of the communist regimes in Central and Eastern Europe the Institute of Ethnology and Social Anthropology the Slovak Academy of Sciences (SAS) organizes the Conference “Memory of the Communist Past” to tackle this ever-present topic. Therefore, they search for analytic and theoretical papers, as well as qualitative research reports and essays on the broad topic of the “Communist past”. They aim to bring together experts from the areas of social sciences and the humanities to enable them to exchange their experiences and knowledge.

The contributions should focus on such topics as:

- How do images of socialism (if we use the emic term for the Communist dictatorship period) get communicated by the eye-witnesses as part of their biographies?
- Current representations of the Communist past and transformation of the individual memory of the Communist past
- How did the life under Communist regimes influence the values and attitudes of the witnesses?
- How are representations/recollections on Socialism transmitted to the younger generation (children, grandchildren)?
- How do the (grand)children generation deal with the experiences of their (grand)parents?
- In what ways family/social memory and cultural memory connected and related? A. Assmann, Shadows of Trauma: Memory and the Politics of Postwar Identity (New York: Fordham University Press, 2016).
- How are images of the Communist period shared in contemporary cultural memory and political discourse in Central and East European countries (in school curricula, literature, and theatre as well as documentary films, movies, museum exhibitions, memory policy)?
- What are the challenging methodological and ethical questions pertaining to the research focused on the Socialist past of the country?
- We would like to invite colleagues to share their expertise as well as present the possible questions or challenges of their work.

Each paper proposal should include a title and abstract (up to 300 words) and short c.v. (max. 300 words). All proposals should be submitted by email to: communistpast.conference[at]savba.sk. Submission deadline: 31st March 2020.
Applicants will be informed by end of April 2020 regarding inclusion in the conference program. Chosen conference papers will be published in a monothematic volume of Slovak Ethnology 1/2021 (in English) and in the Journal of Nationalism, Memory and Language Politics 1/2021 (in English). The final date for papers: 15th October 2020.

Dr. Monika Vrzgulova (IoESA SAS)
Dr. Ľubica Voľanska (IoESA SAS)
Dr. Petra Schindler-Wisten (OH Center, Institute of Conpemporary History, Czech Academy of Sciences)