CFP: "COLD WAR INTERACTIONS RECONSIDERED", Helsinki, Finland, Oct 2009

[Sanna Turoma]

ALEKSANTERI CONFERENCE 2009: “COLD WAR INTERACTIONS RECONSIDERED”,  
University of Helsinki, Finland, 29—31 October 2009

CALL FOR PAPERS

The 20th anniversary of the collapse of the Berlin Wall provides us  
with an ideal opportunity to look back at the Cold War era and  
reassess it from a modern day perspective. Two decades after the Cold  
War was said to have ended, the concept of a Cold War has once again  
reappeared in the rhetoric of world politics. Therefore, one cannot  
argue that the Cold War was merely a process of the past with minor  
relevance to the present.

The 9th Aleksanteri Conference “Cold War Interactions Reconsidered”,  
will be hosted by the Aleksanteri Institute and will take place at the  
University of Helsinki on 29—31 October, 2009.

Aims of the Conference

Traditional research on the Cold War has focused on conflicts and  
rivalries, highlighting state agents and diplomatic history. The 9th  
Aleksanteri Conference aims to challenge traditional analyses by  
looking at new ways to view and conceptualise the international and  
transnational histories of the Cold War era. The conference intends to  
place particular emphasis on Europe and the former Socialist  
countries, as well as smaller states, non-state actors and multilevel  
approaches. Leaving East-West bipolarity and superpower confrontations  
to one side, the conference will focus on interactions that
took place despite the existence of the Iron Curtain. Along with great powers,
individuals and their various interactions have helped form the course  
of history.

The conference wishes to promote critical self-evaluation and a  
theoretical discussion on disciplines that are not so obviously  
connected with traditional Cold War studies. We encourage scholars to  
evaluate the current state of the area studies and to discuss how the  
Cold War influenced and perhaps still influences our thinking,  
identities, communication and culture. The conference will also  
encourage discussion on the manifold ways of coming to terms with the  
past.

The conference will emphasise a multidisciplinary approach, in the  
belief that it will greatly enrich the discussion and bring forth new  
interpretations. Besides historians, we hope to gather a broad array  
of scholars from the social and political sciences, cultural studies,  
the arts and humanities, law and economics. The conference will cover  
the whole of the Cold War period and the post-Cold War period up to  
the present day.

Themes of the conference:

• Interactions across Boundaries. Cultural, economic and political  
exchanges, contacts and cooperation; know-how and technology transfers.
• Behind the Scenes and Beyond the State. Individuals and networks,  
non-governmental and non-state agents.
• The Cold War’s Effects. The impact of the Cold War and transnational  
interactions on ideology, culture, civil society; communication and  
identity, everyday life and consumption; and perceptions of the “other”.
• The Cold War and the Present. Politics of the past;  
Vergangenheitsbewältigung, (n)ostalgia.
• Reconsidering the Cold War. Critical reconceptualisation and  
periodisation; new approaches, theories and methodologies. The Cold  
War as a resource and/or a limitation.

Keynote speakers:

Nadia Arbatova, Institute of World Economy and International Relations, Russia
Jessica Gienow-Hecht, Goethe-University Frankfurt am Main, Germany
Serguei Oushakine, Princeton University, USA
Yale Richmond, USA
Jadwiga Staniszkis, University of Warsaw, Poland
Jeremi Suri, University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA

Conference Schedule and Deadlines:

Proposals for panels (approx. 500 words): March 15, 2009
Abstracts for individual papers (approx. 300 words): March 15, 2009
Notification of acceptance: April 30, 2009
Conference: October 29—31, 2009

Please submit all the above information through the forms on the  
conference website:

http://www.helsinki.fi/aleksanteri/conference2009

In addition, you will find further practical information on  
submissions, travel and accommodation on the website.

For further assistance, please contact the Conference Coordinator,  
Riikka Nisonen-Trnka, or the Conference Secretary, Eeva Korteniemi, at:
fcree-aleksconf at helsinki.fi or visit the conference homepage at:
http://www.helsinki.fi/aleksanteri/conference2009

The Aleksanteri Conference is an annual, multidisciplinary,  
international conference organised by the Aleksanteri Institute,  
Finnish Centre for Russian and Eastern European Studies, affiliated  
with the University of Helsinki. Aleksanteri Conferences have  
attracted broad interest among researchers and policy-makers in a wide  
variety of disciplines, both in Finland and abroad, interested in the  
development of post-socialist countries.

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