CALL FOR PAPERS: THE RIGHT TO A NAME: BIOGRAPHY IN THE 20TH CENTURY - St Petersburg, April 2012

[Josephine von Zitzewitz]

CALL FOR PAPERS

ANNUAL INTERNATIONAL BIOGRAPHIC READINGS

THE RIGHT TO A NAME: BIOGRAPHY IN THE 20TH CENTURY

 The Research and Information Centre «Memorial» (St Petersburg), the
European University in St Petersburg, the International «Memorial» Society
and the General Consulate of the Republic of Poland in St Petersburg are
pleased to announce this Call for Papers for the

*
*

*10th International Biographic Readings «The Right to a Name: Biography in
the 20th Century» in Memory of Veniamin Iofe.*


The Readings take the form of an academic colloquium, bringing
together historians,
sociologists, philosophers, ethnologists, anthropologists, psychologists,
scholars of literature and culture, psychologists, writers, directors,
journalists and museum specialists who work in the field of 20th century
biography.


The Readings in the Memory of Veniamin Viktorovich Iofe (1938-2002), who
was a historian, philosopher, political prisoner in the 1960s, Samizdat
author, activist in and historian of the resistance movement in the USSR
and, crucially, the founder of the Research and Information Centre
«Memorial», have been held annually since 2003; the take place in the
second half of April at the RIC «Memorial» and the European University in
St Petersburg.

The Readings provide a forum for discussing the methodology and practice of
compiling and using biography and the application of biographical methods
in various scholarly disciplines.


Topics for discussion and analysis are: biographical models (short bio,
autobiography, life writing); the combination of fact and event (the public
and the private in biography; the act); access to information; the language
of biography and the format of biographical records; biographical databases
an; sources of biography (sources and myths, distortion and falsification,
forms of omission); post-biography (death in biography, posthumous
biography, perpetuation of memory).


Of particular interest is the impact of politics and the state on the life
journey described in biography (resistance, oppression, editing of life
events).  This affects the sources from which biography is compiled, but
also the question to which level the biography itself can be regarded as a
source of sociological or historical knowledge. We will consider the
trustworthiness of various biographical sources and their
objectivity/subjectivity, authenticity, omission/mythologisation and other
issues that arise during research.

Conference papers are published in a separate volume, which is
traditionally presented at the opening of the subsequent readings (the
papers of Readings No 1-8 have been published; the 9th volume is scheduled
to come out for April 2012). Papers and abstracts are also published on the
website of the RIC “Memorial”, see  http://www.cogita.ru/analitka/9-e-
biograficheskie-chteniya-pamyati-veniamina-iofe/tezisy-9-h-chtenii-pravo-na-
imya...

The official language of the Readings is Russian. Papers must not exceed 20
minutes. Each paper is followed by 20 minutes of discussion.

 The Readings will take place on 21 -23 April 2012 at the European
University in St Petersburg

Paper proposals in Russian should be submitted before 1 April 2012 to
iofe.readings at gmail.com . They should consist of a short abstract of no
more than 2000 signs and a short CV (main data of the speaker, institution,
status, degree, contact details) of no more than 200 signs.

*The organisers do not fund travel, accommodation or food. There is no
conference fee.

*

Information: Chair of the Readings, Irina Flige (Drector of the RIC
“Memorial”): flige at yandex.ru,  + 7 921 7902179, Coordinator of the
Readings, Tatiana Kosinova (Co-founder of the RIC “Memorial”:
kossinova at mail.ru,  + 7 921 743 4557.

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