CFP: "From Samizdat to Blogging" Workshop, Feb 20-21, Budapest

[Jessie Labov <jlabov@stanford.edu>]

Call for Participants

>From Samizdat to Blogging: Globalization and New Forms of Political Expression

International Workshop organized by the International Samizdat [Research]
Association in cooperation with OSA Archivum, CEU Department of Political
Science, CEU Curriculum Research Center and the Alternative Culture Beyond
Borders Project, to be held in Budapest, Hungary 20-21 February 2008 (venue
TBA).

Deadline for submissions: 7 January 2008

This workshop aims to explore the changes in oppositional or alternative
political expression that have followed in the wake of the end of the Cold War.

The particular focus will be on the changes that have come about as a result
of the revolution in communications technologies, which has brought about
new forms and modes of alternative expression, but also new challenges to
alternative politics. We will be considering the role played by the
alternative press, gay and ethnic minority media, community radio, citizens'
political mobilization in e-mail and SMS, blogging, and Indymedia.

Possible questions to be addressed:

* There are still authoritarian regimes which try to suppress freedom of
information and expression. What are the means used today to bypass various
forms of control? We might examine the use of both broadcast media and
news-based websites in Belarus, Ukraine, and the former Yugoslavia, or the
use of blogs as a means of personal expression in Iran or Russia.

* Media in many parts of the world are also under growing restriction not so
much from the state, but rather from political parties (populism) and
pressure groups, and from market forces (concentration). Where can we see
instances of alternative political expression that work around these
extra-governmental concerns? Are these the same or different techniques used
by those directly opposing government authority?

* The study of samizdat often ignored those forms of samizdat that did not
contribute to the cause of developing civil society along the democratic
model endorsed by leading dissidents. Instances of ultra-conservative,
nationalist, and anti-semitic samizdat in Russia, for example, remain
underrepresented and under-explored in the critical literature about
samizdat. How can we avoid making this same mistake when transferring the
discussion to today's media environment?

* The new media offer a powerful instrument against the pressures listed
above. At the same time they are themselves subject to control, regulation
and commercialization. How, for example, can we better understand the
combination of governmental, commercial, and cultural restrictions that
regulate political expression on the internet in China?

Organizers: Jessie Labov (US), Barbara Falk (Canada), Olga Zaslavskaya (Hungary)

Participants are encouraged as well to bring their own case studies and
questions to the workshop, as it will ideally be shaped as much by their
specific interests as the issues outlined above.

The workshop is recommended to junior faculty with research and teaching
interests in communications studies, cultural studies, media and multimedia
studies, art theory and history, sociology, political science and other
areas of study dealing with contemporary forms of political expression.

The workshop will be organized in the framework of the CEU CRC session.
Participants from the CRC target region can apply for fellowships at
www.ceu.hu/crc by 7 January 2008.

Contact

Please submit a one-page statement describing your research interests in
this area and a C.V. to:

samizdatworkshop2008 at alternativeculture.org

for questions:
Jessie Labov <jlabov at stanford.edu>
Olga Zaslavskaya <zaslavsk at ceu.hu>

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