Category Archives: Call for Papers

Call for Papers

CFP – EHESS–CEFRES PhD Students Workshop : Household, Kinship, Intimacy

Call for papers for PhD students

PhD Students Workshop organized by EHESS and CEFRES will be held on the theme:

Household, Kinship, Intimacy: The Reconfiguration of Living Together

Date: May 3rd, 2022 (9:30-17:00)
Deadline for submission: April 1st, 2022
Location: online and at CEFRES, Na Florenci 3 (Prague)
Language: English

The household (or home) is the institution par excellence in western societies, where live alone or together singles, heterosexual or homosexual couples, with or without one or more children, not forgetting neither flatmates, friends or relatives co-housing or homes of elderly. While the Western contemporary imaginary of household is linked to the idea of nuclear family, a shift in both the representations of home and sociological realities of what home/household looks like occurred. These social micro-entities are clearly concrete places that are subject to significant investment by their members; they are both economic units and shared intimacy spaces. Based on these two fundamental characteristics of the home, we propose to link the issue of the relationship between individuals with those relating to the family (relationships with children, relationships with parents outside the nuclear family), the economy (income and expenditure of domestic entities, production, consumption) and intimacy (a notion that covers a wide range of practices, emotions and affects, attitudes, from sexuality to the sharing of spaces, caring for bodies). Continue reading CFP – EHESS–CEFRES PhD Students Workshop : Household, Kinship, Intimacy →

Call for Papers

CFP – Urban Movements and Local Politics in CEE countries: Recent Developments and Conceptual Ambivalences

International Workshop organized by the CEFRES, in cooperation with the Institute of Sociological Sciences (Faculty of Social Sciences, Charles University in Prague), Fundacja Zatoka (PL) and Periféria (HU)

Date: 4-6.11.2021
Place: CEFRES, Prague and online
Language: English 
Deadline for submission: 30.5.2021
Pre-program:
Thursday evening: keynote and reception;
Friday: presentations
Saturday morning: critical urban tour in the Karlín district: from a working-class neighborhood to a symbol of gentrification

The workshop explores the role of political institutions and social movements in the process of urban change in the CEE countries. The case of Prague demonstrates that post-communist cities have particular historicity in terms of urban development after 1989. Continue reading CFP – Urban Movements and Local Politics in CEE countries: Recent Developments and Conceptual Ambivalences →

Call for Papers

CFP – Humanities and Social Sciences Facing the Unexpected

PhD Students Workshop organized by EHESS and CEFRES will be held on the theme of  Humanities and Social Sciences Facing the Unexpected.

Date: April 12th, 2021 (9:30-19:00)
Deadline for propositions: March 15th, 2021
Location: online and at CEFRES, Na Florenci 3 (Prague)
Language: English

Coordination: Falk Bretschneider (EHESS), Jérôme Heurtaux (CEFRES)

Supervisors: Michèle Baussant (CNRS/CEFRES), Falk Bretschneider (EHESS), Emmanuel Désveaux (EHESS), Jérôme Heurtaux (CEFRES), Pavel Himl (FHS UK), Claire Madl (CEFRES), Silvia Sebastiani (EHESS)

The sanitary crisis caused by the Covid-19 pandemic has thrown the whole world into deep uncertainty and radically shaken almost all our habits. This also applies to the research community. Lockdowns, travel restrictions, curfews, closures of libraries or archives and other measures of distance and protection have a direct and sometimes brutal impact on many scientific projects, especially those of many young researchers on fixed-term contracts. This context therefore leads us to question the ways in which humanities and social sciences can deal with uncertainty, the unexpected and the unforeseen, and this in two directions:

(1) On the one hand, it is a question of our own research practices, i.e., the techniques and methods that we have – or that remain to be developed – to confront us with a reality that has abruptly changed. In particular, how to deal with the sudden impossibility to access a research field or archives (whether it is due to the current pandemic or to any other unexpected event)? How to react in the face of external conditions making it impossible to carry out a project as originally planned? What opportunities offer the new means of remote research, but also what are the risks they entail – and how can we think about these two phenomena together in a methodological reflection that is both lucid and productive?

(2) On the other hand, it is relevant to raise the question of the rapid changes that sometimes affect our research objects, sometimes leading to their radical reformulation. The occurrence of an unexpected event or a brutal reversal – human history abounds in wars, revolutions, pandemics, or other cataclysms which each time induce a more or less complete reversal of the current norms and practices in the societies concerned. How can we analyse the effects of these transformations on past and present societies, both collectively and individually (biographical ruptures, etc.) and report on the forms of resistance and adaptation? How can we think about these disruptions, the reactions they provoke and the forms of resilience they give rise to?

We invite all PhD students interested affiliated to CEFRES, EHESS or a Czech University to submit their application, which will include, in a single PDF file, a CV (maximum two pages) as well as a brief description of the planned intervention (approximately 1.500 characters, including spaces). The workshop will be organised around the presentations of the young researchers and their discussion by the supervisors and other participants. In addition, there will be time for an exchange of individual experiences about the global pandemic. Please send your application by March 15th, 2021 to the following addresses: falk.bretschneider@ehess.fr and jerome.heurtaux@cefres.cz

 

More information:

falk.bretschneider@ehess.fr

jerome.heurtaux@cefres.cz

 

 

Call for Papers

CFP : History of French Cultural Diplomacy

For the celebration of the 100th anniversary of the French Association for Artistic Action (AFAA) and the foundation of the French Works Abroad Service (SOFE), the Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs and the French Institute, together with Sorbonne-Nouvelle University, are organizing a series of events to study the history of French cultural diplomacy. Other higher education and research establishments also have the opportunity to become partners in this initiative.

Among these events, an academic conference is planned for spring 2022 at Sorbonne-Nouvelle University, which will focus on the history and action of the French cultural network abroad, including the Cooperation and Cultural Action Services (SCAC), Instituts Français and Alliance Française branches. It will also look at the public policies underpinning this action. The proceedings of this conference will be published.

The scientific committee responsible for the conference is launching a call for submissions open to academics of all languages, nationalities and disciplines, although the main focus of the conference is historic.

Submissions could cover various fields of the French cultural diplomacy (such as language, artistic exchanges, cultural and creative industries, academic research, teaching and debate), its actors, including figures, public, semi-public and private institutions (departments of the Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Culture, Alliance Française branches, foundations, major cultural institutions, cultural and creative industry companies, profiles of major figures and studies of staff) and the core focuses of its action (audiences, vehicles and means of distribution, purposes and goals, and multilateralism). A comparative approach looking at other national models could also be proposed, as well as a country- or geographical region-based approach (French cultural diplomacy in Latin America, Asia, Europe, etc.).

The scientific committee will prioritise submissions which will make use of the abundant archival material available at the Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs, in the La Courneuve and Nantes archive centres (documents from consular services, Instituts Français, Alliance Française branches, cultural centres, the AFAA, the SOFE, the Directorate-General of Cultural Affairs, etc.) and which could be enriched with the input from various diplomatic missions requested in view of the conference.

Submissions should be sent in French or English (1,000 to 3,000 characters) to the scientific committee by 4 December 2020 to the email address HistDiplo2022@gmail.com,  accompanied by the CV of the author.

The authors of submissions selected by the scientific committee will be informed by 20 December 2020.

Scientific committee:

  • Bruno-Nassim Aboudrar (Sorbonne-Nouvelle University, France)
  • Bernard Cerquiglini (University of Paris, France)
  • François Chaubet (Paris-Nanterre University, France)
  • Charlotte Faucher (University of Manchester, UK)
  • Janet Horne (University of Virginia, USA)
  • Philippe Lane (Rouen-Normandie University, France)
  • Bruno-Nassim Aboudrar (Sorbonne-Nouvelle University, France)
  • Laurent Martin (Sorbonne-Nouvelle University, France)
  • Gisèle Sapiro (EHESS / CNRS, France)

See the call on the French Institute’s website

Call for Papers, Workshop

CFP: Shaping the ‘socialist self’? The role of psy-sciences in communist states of the Eastern Bloc (1948–1989)

International Workshop

Venue: Prague
Date: 6 November 2020
Deadline for applications: 30 June 2020
Contacts: jakub.strelec@fsv.cuni.cz
Organizing institutions: CEFRES, Institute of Contemporary History of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Collegium Carolinum in Prague

The history of psy-sciences under communist rule in the former Eastern Bloc has been widely perceived as a mirror image of state socialist mental health policies. In the last years, however, the situation has changed: the history of psy-sciences in communist Europe has become an evolving field of research dealing with a variety of topics ranging from the transnational history of psychiatry to the history of social control and criminality. Following post-Foucauldian ideas, many historians and other scholars started to turn their attention to the relation between psy-sciences and distinctive communist art of governing. The role of psy-sciences in communist dictatorships came to be perceived within a broader framework of biopolitics and technologies of the self. Furthermore, drawing inspiration from science and technology studies, many of these works aim to analyse knowledge and practices of psy-sciences in relation to complex networks of agents and objects.

Following these newest developments, this workshop aims to bring together researchers dealing with the history of psy-sciences in communist Europe. The main aim is to (1) discuss contemporary approaches, topics and themes in current research about the role of psy-sciences in the communist states of the Eastern Bloc and to (2) outline possible questions and issues relevant for future research in this field.

We are interested in papers from various methodological backgrounds dealing with the history of psy-sciences in communist Europe. We especially welcome papers focusing on aspects and questions such as:

Psy-sciences between East and West: circulation of ideas and practices
  • How did the production of knowledge and practices of psy-experts look like in Eastern Europe?
  • Were psy-experts involved in discussions with their colleagues from other parts of Europe or were they working in isolation?
  • Were psy-experts in Eastern Europe more influenced by their national scientific traditions or by globalising trends in the field?
  • Was there any forum for exchanging ideas and theories?
  • What kind of role had international conferences in shaping the knowledge of psy-experts?
Creating the ‘socialist self’: psy-sciences, identity and politics
  • How did the knowledge and practices of psy-sciences form the ‘self’ of people under the communist rule?
  • How was the concept of ‘socialist personality’ constructed and where was it operating (e.g. in mental health institutions, at schools or in the military)?
  • Was the discourse of psy-sciences subjugating or empowering?
  • What kind of ‘techniques of the self did psy-sciences produce and to what extent did people internalize them?
  • How did psy-sciences shape the communist art of governing?
Regulating the socialist society: psy-sciences, security and social control
  • What was perceived as ‘abnormal’ or ‘anti-social’ behaviour and how was it treated by psy-experts and the state?
  • How did the knowledge and practices of psy-science influence socialist criminology and penology?
  • How was the ‘medicalisation’ of crime integrated into the socialist criminal justice system?
  • To what extent did psy-sciences get involved public health campaigns propagated by the socialist state?  

We welcome all contributions in different phases of research (e.g. an outline of research, a presentation of a chapter/article or finished research). Please send us a short biography (ca. 150 words) and an abstract of your paper (up to 400 words for a 20-minute presentation) before 30 June 2020. The workshop will be held in English.

Participants who are not able to secure funding for travel and accommodation will have the possibility to apply for financial assistance.

Organisation: Jakub Střelec (Faculty of Social Sciences, Charles University / Cefres PhD Fellow)

Scientific Committee

  • Jérôme Heurtaux (CEFRES Director)
  • Adéla Gjuričová (Senior Researcher, Institute of Contemporary History of the Czech Academy of Sciences)
  • Martin Schulze Wessel (Institute Director of Collegium Carolinum)
Call for Papers

CFP: Worker Photography in Museums: History and Politics of a Cultural Heritage in East-Central Europe

International Workshop

Date & Venue: 27 February 2020, Prague
Deadline for applications: 15 November 2019
Organizers: Institute of Art History (CAS) & CEFRES
In partnership with: Institute of Contemporary History (CAS), Université Paris-Nanterre
Language: English

Interwar East-Central Europe gave rise to an international movement of left-wing activist photographers, whose aim was to expose the workers’ living and working conditions through mass-produced documentary photographs. Despite growing research in the wake of the landmark exhibition “The Worker Photography Movement” in Madrid in 2011, we still have difficulties grasping this photographic production in its full scope because the conditions in which it was preserved and transmitted over generations have not been systematically explored.

Originally, social, proletarian, or worker photography, as named by its proponents, was presented by the Communist propaganda as a weapon in the class struggle. It was meant to supply left-wing printed media with images documenting the life of workers in order to counteract the influence of “bourgeois” illustrated magazines. Therefore, some of the photographs were kept in the picture archives of newspapers, while others remained in the hands of their authors. The Nazi occupation of Europe brought about a shift in the conservation of worker photography by leading the Communists to hide or to destroy archives that were deemed compromising. As a result, picture archives in journals such as Arbeiter Illustrierte Zeitung in Germany, Regards in France or Rudé Právo in Czechoslovakia, as well as other archives of press agencies and leftist organizations across Europe, disappeared.

After World War II, however, many of these photographs resurfaced and were granted a second life. Some were moved to documentary collections of the Communist historical museums which blossomed in countries of the Eastern Bloc in the 1950s, while others were included in the photographic collections founded in art museums from the 1970s. Such transfers brought about shifts in the status and uses of these images. Worker photographs turned into historical documents or works of art, despite having been originally conceived of as news or reportage photography and mass-reproductions. Having become cultural objects in their own right, they were used for political or historical purposes. Today, this visual material still raises issues of status and past political uses, which art and history museums in East-Central Europe have to address through new museum practices.

This international workshop examines the legacy of worker photography as museum object, cultural heritage and history in East-Central Europe from 1945 until today. How was worker photography preserved, historized, and mediated in East-Central European museums? The goal is to provide a multifaceted perspective on worker photography by confronting its political and historical uses and its musealization (van Mensch 1992) after 1945 on the one hand, and the memory issues it raises today on the other.

The workshop is part of the interdisciplinary and international sessions organized by the Photography Research Centre at the Institute of Art History of the Czech Academy of Sciences (https://www.udu.cas.cz/en/photography-research-centre/). Established in 2018, the Centre ambitions to become a singular platform for interdisciplinary research in the Czech Republic, with the objective of overcoming national, branch-based and mono-institutional approaches of photography and photographic history in Central Europe.

Papers are sought on worker photography in museum collections in East-Central Europe, addressing the following questions :

  • Contextual and ethical reasons that led to conserving worker photography;
  • Actors and institutions involved in this process;
  • Conservation and cataloguing procedures (themes, metadata and documentation);
  • Exhibition, mediation and display practices;
  • The political, ideological and cultural uses of worker photography in museums;
  • Historiography: uses of worker photographs as illustrations of official narratives, or worker photography histories, be they local or transnational;
  • Worker photography as evidence, historical document, work of art;
  • Shifts observed: from the private to the public sphere, from one medium or format to another;
  • Material forms: analogue (prints, photomechanical reproductions) or digital;
  • International exchanges between institutions and circulation of photographs;
  • Comparative outlooks on worker photography collections in East-Central Europe and beyond.

This call for papers welcomes presentations from scholars, curators, archivists and collection managers who engage with the questions of the preservation, collection, exhibition and historiography of worker photography in East-Central European museums after 1945.

Deadline for submissions: 15 November 2019

Paper proposals: abstract of up to 300 words for 20 minute talks and a short biography (c. 150 words) can be sent to Fedora Parkmann (parkmann@udu.cas.cz).

Conferences costs: Help with travel and accommodation costs may be offered to participants who are not able to secure funding from their institutions.

The workshop will take place in Prague on 27 February 2020 at the CEFRES (French Research Center in Humanities and Social Sciences). The workshop language is English.

Organization:

  • Fedora Parkmann (Institute of Art History, Czech Academy of Sciences/CEFRES)
  • Christian Joschke (Université Paris-Nanterre, Paris) – scientific collaboration

Scientific committee:

  • Jérôme Heurtaux (CEFRES)
  • Petr Roubal (Institute of Contemporary History, Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague)
  • Petra Trnková (Photographic History Research Centre, De Montfort University, Leicester/Photography Research Centre, Institute of Art History, Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague)