Call for abstracts:

Panel at the CBEES Annual Conference, Södertörn University: Where are we now? Perspectives on East European Area Studies today

1-2 December 2022, Stockholm, Sweden

DEADLINE for abstract 22 August 2022

Panel description:

European Ethnology and Baltic, Central and Eastern European Studies: Where do we come from and where are we going?

The discipline of Ethnology has, for as long as it has existed, been inextricably intertwined with national and regional politics. In the wake of romantic nationalism, its role in documenting, analysing and even reconstructing ‘authentic’ national culture was seen as essential. Already from its ‘founding period’ in the first half of the 20^th century, however, international connections were central for establishing European Ethnology as a scholarly discipline, not least with regards to formulating common scientific theories, central concepts, and scientific ways of working. Before the Second World War and during the Cold War, international cooperation was also significant for maintaining scholarly work, despite political limitations posed by dictatorships.

For a few decades now, ethnological knowledge about the region has been produced against the geopolitical backdrop of the end of the Cold War, often labelling it post-socialist (e.g. Burawoy 2000; Chari & Verdery 2009; Hann, Humphrey & Verdery 2003). Ethnographic thick descriptions and the focus on everyday culture were regarded the discipline’s advantages in order to capture the real-life consequences of the economic transformation, compared to quantitative and macro-approaches. More recently the conceptualisation of the region as postsocialist has been criticised for, among other things, reproducing the epistemic hegemony of the West, for orientalising the region, for its inherent connection to the economic transformation, and for situating very different societies in the past and exaggerating the impact a common socialist past has had on the region (e.g. Cervinkova 2012; Müller, 2019).

Against this background, and considering the vast geopolitical changes and crises Europe is undergoing – including the massive impact of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the ongoing war – this panel seeks to explore the changing face of European Ethnology, paying particular attention to geopolitical context, both historically and in the present – and to discuss its future. A central question of the panel is how ethnological knowledge is produced and how this knowledge production is related to the political frameworks and to the current geopolitical ‘backdrop’. With what can European Ethnology contribute to increase the knowledge and understanding of the consequences of current political polarisations, multiple crises and ongoing war in Europe? After February 24: How can we continue to work together scholarly if we are once again politically divided – and what can we learn from the discipline’s past about the conditions for, and advantages and potential pitfalls of such collaborations?

We welcome papers on topics such as:

• Collaboration, exchanges, and power relations in the region and in academia beyond Cold War geographical imaginaries and the West-East axis
• Critical interventions on the usage of postsocialism in ethnographic theory and applied research
• Critical examinations of – and power relations connected to – the way scholars conceptualise the region
• New ways of defining and conceptualising the region, in particular related to ethnographic Area Studies
• Discussions on the past and future relationship between European Ethnology and Area Studies, considering current geopolitical events
• Discussions on current and future impact of European Ethnology and ethnographic Area Studies post-24 February 2022

Conveners:

Associate Professor Petra Garberding (Department of Historical and Contemporary Studies, Södertörn University)

Professor Jenny Gunnarsson Payne (Department of Historical and Contemporary Studies, Södertörn University)

Dr. Florence Frölich (Department of Historical and Contemporary Studies, Södertörn University)

PhD-student Aleksandra Reczuch (Department of Historical and Contemporary Studies, Södertörn University)

We welcome contributions that address one or more of the themes outlined above.

The proposals should include the title of the paper, an abstract (max. 400 words), and a short bio of the author(s) including the contact details (name, email address, affiliation). Please send your proposal to jenny.gunnarsson.payne(at)sh.se by 22 August 2022. The accepted proposals will be announced by 27 August 2022.