Call for Papers: 1989 – twenty years after
Published: Fri 6th February
Call for Papers: 1989 – twenty years after
The East European revolutions of 1989 and the changes that followed will find well deserved praise and scholarly re-evaluation across Europe during this year. The 2009 IARCEES annual conference will be no exception to the rule. Yet, against the backdrop of Ireland’s relative remoteness to the events (at least geographically) and its crucial political role in the reforms of the European Union after the eastern Enlargement, the conference will focus on two particular problems:
(1) The incomplete reforms of the European Union after its most significant enlargement highlight that 1989 necessitated transition not just in the countries of existing socialism, but also in the apparently highly successful member states of the ‘old’ European community. Indeed, polities, societies and economies in the east did not travel along simplistic trajectories (dictatorship to democracies, planned economy to markets etc), nor did the ‘victorious’ liberal western democracies find it easy to deal with the re-unification of Europe across the former Iron Curtain.
Focussing on Eastern Europe, the 2009 conference will on the one hand debate the methodological implications of the first two decades since 1989 on transition research. On the other hand, a substantial part of the discussion will be devoted to the question from where transition started in 1989. How satisfactory was contemporary scholarship, how adequate is present day historical knowledge about the societies under socialist rule, say in the two decades preceding the seminal changes of 1989? Obviously very few experts had anticipated a swift erosion of the Eastern Block, seemingly firm in the grip of the Soviet leadership. In how far did socialisation under ‘developed socialism’ inform mentalities and attitudes that shaped the particular form transition took in the two decades since 1989?
(2) Ireland’s geographical situation notwithstanding, Eastern Europe has moved much closer. It is a truism that Ireland has become an important target area for immigration from Poland, the Baltic countries and Romania. At the same time economic relations are becoming closer, sometimes to the detriment of employment in this country. The 2009 conference will provide a forum for current research on migration processes in the wake of 1989 and their economic, social and cultural impacts on a macro level in Ireland.
The individual outlook on the seminal changes, and ensuing migration and cultural exchange, however, seem to be less important. How comparable are individual experiences and memories of the (larger number of) migrants from East to West, and those who migrated in the opposite direction?
The IARCEES 2009 annual conference will be held between May 8 and 9 and be hosted by the Centre for the Study of a Wider Europe on the North Campus of the National University of Ireland, Maynooth. The conference fees are 40 Euros; a reduced fee of 30 Euro is available for students and IARCEES members.
Maynooth offers a range of on-campus accommodations. The organisers will endeavour to offer travel grants to participants, particularly to graduate students wishing to present papers. Presentations should be no longer than 20 min.
Please send an abstract (150 words) to Christian.Noack@nuim.ie before March 15th.
Degree Courses
A number of degree courses related to the study of wider Europe are available at NUI Maynooth, including:
