[ecrea] CFP: "Past the '-Post': Theorizing the Post-Post-Soviet via (New) Media and Popular Culture" (University of Amsterdam)

Past the “-Post”: Theorizing the Post-Post-Soviet via (New) Media and 
Popular Culture

Two-Day Conference, University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands

11-12 June 2015



Questions regarding time and temporality have occupied a central 
position in relation to both lived experiences and academic explorations 
of Soviet and post-Soviet spaces – indeed, the very addition of the 
prefix, the “post-” suggests the indispensability of the temporal when 
seeking to illuminate the sociocultural/sociopolitical. Scholars from 
diverse disciplinary locations (including Epstein, Yurchak, Boym, and 
Oushakine, inter alia) have shown the myriad ways that, for example, 
memory, nostalgia, and/or desire have been implicated in creations of a 
pre-Revolutionary past or a utopian Soviet future, such constructions 
being instrumental in the formations of identities, cultural narratives, 
or localities. In regards to this last, moreover, some (Clowes; Dobrenko 
and Naiman) have called for attention to dynamics of spatiality, in 
addition to those of temporality, in relation to the enterprise of 
“mapping” the cultural terrain of the [post-] Soviet.



And yet the cultural-spatiotemporal location which engendered the 
“post-” has altered radically over the past two-plus decades, the 
ensuing landscape often marked by an array of disparate events and 
phenomena related to the changes in media and popular culture: Tweets 
circulating among and emanating from the protesters at Euromaidan or in 
Moscow; Pussy Riot’s various actions posted to YouTube, and the “media 
tour” of Tolokonnikova and Alekhina upon release from prison; Russian 
legislation banning advertising on pay-television channels, and its 
effect on non-state-owned entities such as Telekanal Dozhd; US/EU 
popular musics/videos/films ubiquitous on radio stations, television, 
and the internet, and now widely available via numerous download sites 
or torrents; the broad popularity of Russian detektivy by authors such 
as Akunin and Marinina, and their wide availability, as with other 
media, online; Russia’s anti-“gay propaganda” law, and the appearance of 
internet-based support group for LGBT children/teens, Deti 404; and 
numerous others. Our intent in this conference, however, is not to 
analyze such phenomena in a cultural context, but to foreground the 
cultural context itself – the post-post – via the phenomena. 
Understanding, of course, the need for historicizing cultural practice 
and product, our guiding question is: how can we, via media and popular 
culture, theorize geopolitical and geocultural locations that can no 
longer be adequately defined by recourse to a predecessor? What is the 
successor to the “post-Soviet”?



Call for Papers

We seek submissions from scholars working in diverse fields (media 
studies, anthropology, sociology, musicology, film/television studies, 
political science, literary studies/comparative literature, cultural 
studies, among others), as our intent is to facilitate a dialogue that 
is as interdisciplinary as possible. Proposals for individual papers (20 
minutes) or panels are welcome. Please send abstracts of 350-400 words 
(450-550 words for panels), with name(s), title(s), and academic 
affiliation(s) (if applicable) and a very brief biographical summary.



Please send abstracts to (poposocon /at/ gmail.com) by no later than 1 February 
2015. You may address any inquiries to the same email address.



Keynote Speaker

Dr. Yngvar B. Steinholt, Associate Professor, Tromsø University, 
Institute of Culture and Literature, Norway

Dr. Steinholt is co-author of Punk in Russia: Cultural Mutation from the 
“Useless” to the “Moronic” (Routledge 2014), and has published 
extensively on popular music in the Soviet Union and Post-Soviet Russia. 
His current research interests include contemporary Russian art (and) 
activism, noise studies, and sound in literature.



Conference Organizers

Stephen Amico

Assistant Professor, Departments of Music and Media Studies, University 
of Amsterdam

Sudha Rajagopalan

Assistant Professor, Departments of East European Studies and Media 
Studies, University of Amsterdam



University of Amsterdam

Spui 21

1012 WX Amsterdam

The Netherlands

T: +31 (0)20 525 9111

www.uva.nl



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