[ Call for Papers | Applications ]

This Call for papers is mainly addressed to young scholars (ABDs, Post-docs, Assistant-Professors, etc.), who are working in the field of East-European and Russian Studies/Philosophy; they are hereby cordially invited to submit abstracts on these or any other issues related to the topic Thinking in/after Utopia. East-European and Russian Philosophy before and after the Collapse of Communism. The conference (organized by the Havighurst Center for Russian & Post-Soviet Thought, Miami University of Ohio) will take place from 27 to 30 October, 2005.
Plenary speakers will be:

• Vladimir Tismaneanu (University of Maryland): The End of Leninism and the Future of Liberal Values
• Mikhail Epstein (Emory University): (The Platonic Drama of Russian Thought: Ideas against Ideocracy'
• Catharine Nepomnyashchy (Columbia University)

The 2005 annual Havighurst young researchers' conference is dedicated to exploring

• The state of East-European and Russian philosophy today
• How philosophical ideas contributed (or didn't contribute) to the process of dismantling of the Communist system
• The effects that the collapse and Communism had on shaping new configurations/movements of philosophical ideas in Eastern Europe and Russia

The conference is conceived of as a forum where young researchers in the field of East-European and Russian studies/philosophy come, from all over the world, and share their views and the outcomes of their research, interact with senior researchers in the field, and with Miami University faculty and students.

The Organizers are interested in bringing together papers that deal not necessarily with philosophical problems/topics taken in themselves, but especially with the sophisticated, ever-changing interplay that took place in the Communist countries between philosophy and politics, philosophy and ideology, philosophy and social life, philosophy and the other humanities, philosophy and the arts. What role (if any) did various philosophical practices (teaching, research, philosophically-informed cultural journalism or philosophically-inspired civic movements, etc) play in undermining the Marxist ideology in East-Europe and Russia? On the other hand, how precisely did philosophy (Marxism included) permeate the (societal, intellectual, cultural) life in the Communist regimes? What happened with philosophy - and with the net of relationships that it had established with politics, ideology, social life, etc. - when the system collapsed? What happens with the life of the mind when one school of thought (Marxism) becomes the only accepted school of though? What happens with that school of thought itself under such conditions? What happened with all the Marxist philosophers of Eastern Europe and Russia in the 90'? What have become of them? What are, in general, the sources of the post-communist Russian and East-European philosophy? To what extent the (dissident philosophers' (Patocka, Havel, and others) can be seen as practitioners of the ancient conception of (philosophy as a way of life'? These are only some of the issues to be addressed in the course of the conference.

Funding:
Those selected to present papers will be provided with accommodation for the duration of the conference, ground transportation from/to the airport, and partial travel funding (up to $250 for domestic travel and up to $500 for international travel).

Publication:
We plan to publish the conference papers in an edited volume with a major US academic press.

Deadline for abstracts: 10 April, 2005. Email submissions are strongly encouraged.
Please send abstracts (no longer than 300 words) and a copy of your CV to:
Dr. Costica Bradatan,
Havighurst Fellow and Conference Coordinator
Department of Philosophy,
221 Hall Auditorium,
Miami University,
Oxford, OH-45056
USA