CALL FOR PAPERS- SOYUZ Conference, April 1999

[Valentina Zaitseva]

>  Any sane nation should
>avoid closer contacts with this dying empire.
>Uladzimir Katkouski
>
>The problem is that hatred is not conducive to rational thought.
Genevra Gerhart

>> Now, as to the name "SOYUZ" ....
>> - Hanya Krill

Dear colleagues,
        I think we have to remember that SOYUZ is more or less an
abbreviation for Society of Anthropology of former USSR/Socialist bloc and
does not stand for
society that promotes the imperial ideas of the "soiuz nerushimykh
respublik svobodnykh."
        While the political/national practices of the USSR are so obviously
deplorable that it is a waste of our time to give ourselves to statements
of the obvious,- there is a great need of objective study of the impact of
that former empire.
        The pain of humiliated and discriminated nations and cultures is an
objective reality, but this is also an area where the worth and value of
scholarship is tested. I guess, once again we are witnessing the
fascinating and dangerous process of a conceptual/linguistic category
becoming referential: the main basis of communicative failures, especially
in cross-cultural communication. It is the scholarly stance that should
help one to move in the opposite direction: from emotional reaction to the
objective de-referentialized (Shishkov, prosti!) examination.
        Let us recall our long discussions on seclusion and diminishing
size  of the Slavic field. SOUIZ is a scholarly society interested in the
field which also concerns us, Slavists, and their invitation to participate
in their conference is a great opportunity for us to initiate mutual
studies, rather than go into  what looks like attics on the name of that
society (which perhaps was not seriously meant).
The serious study of the mechanism of categorization/classification, its
relation to language, culture,  referentiality and interpersonal reactions
(including aggression) surely requires the efforts of many  scholars from
different disciplines.

And since the topic came up now, I would like to announce that as a newly
appointed chair of the Norwich University Russian School I am organizing an
interdisciplinary conference in socio-cultural aspects of language (July
1999), which would provide another forum where questions like those
discussed (as well as in discussion on Contemporary Russisan Lit.)
could be given full scholarly investigation.The formal description of the
conference will follow soon.

Respectfully,
Valentina Zaitseva,
Department of Russian & Slavic Studies at NYU,
& Norwich University Russian Summer School, Chair