[Commlist] CfP Studying Popular Culture in Eastern European Transition

Call for Papers: Panel "Studying Popular Culture in Eastern European 
Transition"
»Popular Cultures«, 8th Annual Conference of the Kulturwissenschaftliche 
Gesellschaft (KWG)
Saarland University, 27–30 September 2023

The study of popular culture has now spread worldwide as both an 
academic discipline and a general intellectual approach. However, a 
historical analysis reveals the very diverse trajectories of this field 
of study outside the English-speaking world. Our panel aims to discuss 
the different traditions of approaching the topic globally, focusing on 
the great social transformation of the former “second world”, i.e. the 
post-socialist transition in Eastern Europe. Depending on national and 
regional academic traditions, the study of popular culture was and still 
is incorporated into different disciplinary frameworks. While the 
academic reception of the approach represented by the Birmingham Centre 
for Contemporary Cultural Studies (CCCS) was often significantly delayed 
and problematic, culturology remained its dominant academic ally in some 
countries. In others, ethnology, social and cultural anthropology, 
cultural sociology, media studies, literary studies, and cultural 
history assumed responsibility for many of the research themes and 
questions addressed by Anglo-American cultural studies.

This conference panel proposes addressing the roots, objectives, and 
consequences of studying popular cultures of post-socialist transition 
to foster a better understanding of the generally understudied role of 
popular culture in the contexts of great social transformations.

We welcome contributions that discuss these topics by either providing 
general overviews or focusing on specific case studies. Questions to 
answer may include:
• Which approaches to studying popular culture have been used to address 
the transitional period in Eastern Europe?
• In which manners have the local contexts of economic, political, 
social, and cultural transformations shaped the study of popular culture 
in the region?
• Can the evidence from studying the popular culture of post-dictatorial 
regimes in Southern Europe, as well as that of different transitional 
processes in the Global South, form a common ground for a better 
understanding of societal concerns in uncertain times?
• How can different traditions of studying popular culture outside the 
Anglo-American realm become better integrated and share their 
proceedings effectively?

We invite cultural historians, cultural sociologists, cultural 
anthropologists, cultural geographers, scholars with interdisciplinary 
approaches to cultural and heritage studies, and members of all other 
relevant academic disciplines to hold a fruitful discussion. We plan to 
publish the contributions in a special issue of a high ranking journal.

Timeline:
• Abstract (300 words) and biography (50 words) by 20 January 2023.
• Contacting selected authors by 31 January 2023.

Panel chairs:
• Ondřej Daniel, Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic, 
(ondrej.daniel /at/ ff.cuni.cz) <mailto:(ondrej.daniel /at/ ff.cuni.cz)>
• Irena Šentevska, Independent Scholar, Belgrade, Serbia, 
(irenasentevska /at/ gmail.com) <mailto:(irenasentevska /at/ gmail.com)>

Further information about the conference (in German): 
https://kwg-ev.org/populaere-kulturen-2023/ 
<https://kwg-ev.org/populaere-kulturen-2023/>
No payment from the authors will be required.
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