Borderlands and Contact Zones in Ukraine and the Black Sea Region
Annual Conference of the “Ukrainian Regionalism: A Research Platform” Network 11-14 September 2019
Vinnytsia, Ukraine
The Transcultural Contact Zones project brings together an international and interdisciplinary research team for the annual meeting in Ukraine. Coordinated by the University of St.Gallen (HSG) in Switzerland, the project is focused on the concept of transculturality by way of examining regionalism in Ukraine through various methodologies. Affiliated researchers include historians, sociologists, anthropologists, economists, literary scholars, and linguists from Ukraine, Switzerland, Poland, Austria, Estonia, the Czech Republic, Russia, Germany, Romania and the U.S. Please visit the project website from more information on hitherto project activities.
Mary Louise Pratt defined the concept of contact zones in relation to post-colonial Studies as social arenas in which cultures meet, clash, and grapple with each other within spaces of asymmetrical power relations. The Transcultural Contact Zones project applies this concept to the heterogeneous cultural and social phenomena of Ukrainian regionalism. Contact zones in Ukraine might be described as dynamic cultural spaces that go beyond national narratives to encompass current processes of renegotiating identity, history, and belonging.
The thematic scope of the conference includes, but is not limited to:
- Case studies of borderlands and regionalism in Ukraine and the Black Sea region
- Transcultural history and heritage of borderlands
- Neighborhood relations,everyday diplomacy and patterns of othering
- Imperial and socialist legacies
- Multiple identities and polyphonal belongings
- History of nation-building vs. local subcultures
- instrumentalization of the past and formation of collective memories
- Language and literature as a form of contact zones
- Religion and secularization in the public sphere
- Economy, mobilities, and migration
- Shifting contact zones:military conflict,refugees and IDPs
- Post-conflict societies and reconciliation strategies
How to apply
We invite sociologists, historians, anthropologists, economists, geographers, political scientists, and academics from related disciplines to apply for the conference. We are looking forward to receiving applications from scholars who work with the framework of transculturality. Proposals from academics working on Ukraine, East-Central Europe and the Black Sea region are particularly welcome. The conference committee invites early stage, as well as advanced researchers. A special workshop session for PhD students will be organized in frames of the conference. The working language of the conference is English. To apply, please send the following documents:
- A curriculum vitae
- A 300 to 500 word conference abstract
Please send application materials to uaregio@gmail.com by April 30, 2019.
All travel expenses, accommodation, and meals are covered by the conference committee.
© Photo: Teatralna street in Vinnytsia, beginning of the XX ct., public domain