[ecrea] cfp: “Listening to the Wind of Change”: Popular Culture and Post-Socialist Societies in East-Central Europe

The Centre for the Study of Popular Culture
and The Department of Czech and Comparative Literature, Faculty of Arts, 
Charles University
in Prague are proud to invite you to an international conference
“Listening to the Wind of Change”:
Popular Culture and Post-Socialist Societies in East-Central Europe”

Organised in conjunction with
The Institute of Ethnology and Folklore Research, Zagreb,
The Institute of History, Slovak Academy of Sciences and
The Institute of Western and Southern Slavonic Studies, University of 
Warsaw.
.
18–19 October 2013 in Prague, Czech Republic
Deadline for abstracts: 15 May 2013

Despite important particularities amongst different countries of 
East-Central Europe the fall
of state socialism brought new conditions for ways of production and 
distribution of popular
culture. At the same time the “longue durée” nature of popular culture 
meant that it persisted
beyond the late state socialist period. But did the dynamics of popular 
culture follow any
of the shifts that marked the economic and political spheres? Which 
patterns of cultural production
and reception were mobilized to influence popular culture and how 
important remained local
contexts? How can we interpret these changes to reflect present-day 
societal problems?
During the break up of multinational federal states such as the Soviet 
Union, Yugoslavia
and Czechoslovakia new elites utilized popular culture for nationalist 
mobilization (Holy, 1996;
Barker, 1999; Gordy, 1999; Baker, 2010). Across East-Central Europe 
discourses of exclusion based
on economic, professional, social, educational, age, gender, ethnic and 
racial characteristics were
spreading and they found their expression in mass media and in popular 
culture in general
(Verdery, 1996; Hann, 2002; Borenstein, 2008).
Understanding popular culture as a battlefield for hegemony and a sphere 
of conflicting power
relations based in cultural, subcultural, and post-subcultural studies 
as well as postcolonial theory,
and other lines of emancipatory thinking, we invite scholars from wide 
range of social science
and humanities disciplines to present their research at the conference.
Selected Topics
We welcome paper and panel proposals related to the conference theme, 
including but not limited
to such topics as:
? Transferring Culture: Westernization and Commodification of the “East”,
? Culture of the Post-Socialist New Rich: Continuities with Late State 
Socialism
and Neoliberalism,
? Re-traditionalization, Nationalism, Exclusion and Mobilization in 
Popular Culture,
? Fostering Free-market Ideology through Popular Culture,
? Conflicting Memories of Anti-/Post-communism in Popular Culture,
? Reflections of Sexuality and Gender in Popular Culture,
? Exploitation Culture as Reply to Fast Changes in Post-Socialist 
Societies,
? Visual Culture of Post-Socialist Societies of East-Central Europe,
? Popular Culture in East-Central Europe as Commodity,
? Travelling Cultural Theory (East West).
Conference deadlines
Submission of panel proposals 15 April 2013.
Submission of paper abstracts 15 May 2013.
Notification on acceptance 30 June 2013.
Conference registration will open 30 June 2013.
Full conference papers are due 15 September 2013.
Full version of papers for publication 5 December 2013.
Guidelines for Abstracts
Abstracts should be submitted by email to the contact below and should 
include:
Author title, name and affiliation with full contact details.
Abstracts should not exceed 300 words.
Submission of Panel Proposal
In addition to the regular submission of paper abstracts we also welcome 
the submission of panel
proposals. Maximum 5 papers in English can be submitted in a panel 
proposal. If 3 or more papers
of the proposed panel pass the review process, the panel will be accepted.
Panel proposals should be sent by email and should include:
Panel title, name of proposing organisation/individual, name and full 
contact details of the contact
person, name and affiliation of panel chair, panel abstract (between 200 
and 300 words in length)
as well as title, author, affiliation of author and name of each paper 
to be presented in the panel.
Paper/panel submissions will be subject to peer review.
The organizers intend to put together a themed monograph, in which 
selected papers will be
published as full-length chapters.
Submissions and contact email
All submissions must be made exclusively via email 
_pop.postsoc@gmail.com_ <mailto:(pop.postsoc /at/ gmail.com)>.

Keynote speakers
Prof. Ann Gray, University of Lincoln, Centre for European Cultural Studies
Dr. Eric Gordy, University College London, School of Slavonic and East 
European Studies
Conference Fee
15 €/375 CZK Early Bird (until 15 July 2013)
25 €/625 CZK Main Registration (until 30 August 2013)
40 €/1000 CZK Late Registration (until 30 September 2013)
All payments will be paid via bank transfer (as identifier please put 
your family name).
Bank account number for international transfers (Eurozone):
IBAN: SK3983300000002900060868,
BIC: FIOZSKBAXXX.
Czech domestic payments number: 2900060868/2010
Slovak domestic payments number: 2900060868/8330
Visitors/Accompanying Guests: 10 €/250 CZK (on spot)
The conference fee covers coffee breaks, conference materials and an 
“alternative” city walk.
It does not cover travel, meals, accommodation or insurance.

Program Committee
Prof. Petr Bílek, Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic
Dr. Stanislav Holubec, Friedrich-Schiller University Jena, Germany
Dr. Robert Kulmin'ski, University of Warsaw, Warsaw, Poland
Dr. Miroslav Michela, Slovak Academy of Science, Bratislava, Slovakia; 
Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic
Dr. Reana Senjkovic', Institute of Ethnology and Folklore Research, 
Zagreb, Croatia
Dr. Jir(ina Šmejkalová, University of Lincoln, United Kingdom

Organizing committee
Ondr(ej Daniel, Tomáš Kavka, Jan Lomíc(ek, Jakub Machek, Lucie 
Procházková, Ina Píšová
Contacts
URL: _http://pop-postsoc.webnode.cz/_