CfP: Microhistories of Socialism

Call for papers, deadline 15 May 2021

Since 2015, every year at the end of summer, in Pula we organise a workshop for PhD students in history and related fields. Even last year we succeeded in doing so, although through a distance learning platform, so we are sure that the workshop will be also held in 2021, in circumstances which are still uncertain due to the pandemic. Depending on travel possibilities, we will work entirely in person in Pula, or entirely online, or in a hybrid way. We will be flexible and make every endeavour to find the most suitable solution for every participant.

So far, the Workshop has focused on various topics in contemporary history, history of socialist Yugoslavia and the wider European context: The History of Everyday Life in Socialist Yugoslavia; Yugoslav Socialism: Similarities and Exceptionalities; A New Man for the Socialist Society; Yugoslavia and the Global 1968: Contexts, Perspectives, Echoes; Industrial Societies of Late Socialism: European Comparisons; Cooperation, Exchange and Solidarity in Europe 1945-1990. The themes were often connected to the research projects at CKPIS or with the cooperation network around the Chair for South-East European History at the Humboldt University of Berlin. Over the past years, the Workshop has received an excellent response, with PhD students and lecturers coming from various universities and other institutions (Belgrade, Berlin, Birmingham, Budapest, Durham, Florence, Ghent, Giessen, Glasgow, Graz, Hamburg, Iaşi, Konstanz, Koper, Ljubljana, Montreal, Munich, Nottingham, Paris, Potsdam, Prague, Regensburg, San Diego, Sarajevo, Skopje, Sofia, Split, Vienna, Warsaw, Warwick, Zagreb and Pula). Information on past workshops is available on our website.

This year, the theme is connected to the research project Microstructures of Yugoslav Socialism: Croatia 1970-1990 (Microsocialism), which is financed by Croatian Science Foundation, and focuses on social, cultural, political and economic processes on the microlevel, in selected municipalities as case studies. Some of the workshop lecturers will talk about their research within this project. However, the theme of the Doctoral Workshop is broader: we are not exclusively interested in Yugoslav space, but are also enquiring into microhistories of state socialist societies in the European and global context, from the end of the World War II to the 1990s. We welcome presentations which bring views from below in working and living environment, views into the space of a city, a village, a factory, some other collective or an organization. By discussing events and structures, and analysing historical episodes and longer processes, we will build meeting points, contextualize and compare them, and connect microhistories and case studies into a larger whole.

We hope the workshop will again attract PhD students in the field of history, as well as in other fields of humanities and social sciences. Our objective is to enable exchange of knowledge and ideas, as well as participation in motivating discussions. We would like to enhance networking and exchange among young researchers and map new research trends, especially at the level of PhD studies.

The filled application form needs to be sent to tinafilipovic.pu@gmail.com by May 15, 2021. The form includes the abstract (max. 200 words) and a short biographical note (max. 200 words). By July 15 the elected applicants are expected to send a paper (max. 1,800 words), based on their dissertation or another research, to the same address. The workshop languages for both the application form and the paper are English, Croatian, Serbian, Bosnian, Montenegrin, Slovene or Macedonian. Based on the paper, each presentation at the workshop should last up to 15 minutes. It will be followed by a discussion. A certificate will be issued to PhD students confirming their participation and the value of 2 ECTS credits.

Participants are expected to arrive by late afternoon of Wednesday, August 25, when the workshop starts, hopefully in Pula. The programme ends by noon on Saturday. The workshop venue is the Faculty of Humanities/Filozofski fakultet (Ivan Matetić Ronjgov Street 1).

As organisers, for around ten participants we are able to cover the cost of the first dinner (Wednesday) and two lunches (Thursday, Friday), as well as the accommodation (three nights) at the new student dorm in the close neighbourhood of the Faculty. The participants are expected to organise the travel to Pula and cover its cost, hopefully with the support of their universities or other sources.

The application form and all information are available at the website:
https://www.unipu.hr/ckpis/en/doctoral_workshop/2021.

We are looking forward to your applications!

Organizing Committee
Dr. Igor Duda, Associate Professor
Dr. Anita Buhin, Postdoctoral Researcher
Tina Filipović, PhD student
Sara Žerić, MA

Posted