Two quick Ukraine related notes. First, the Chair of Ukrainian Studies at the University of Ottawa now has “its own blog”:http://chairukrstudies.wordpress.com/. The Chair of Ukrainian Studies is described as “the only research unit outside [of Ukraine] primarily devoted to the study of contemporary Ukraine”. The blog will:
bq. will offer musings on ongoing developments in Ukrainian politics and society, on Ukrainian Studies and on activities of the Chair. Comments on the posts are welcome at darel@uottawa.ca.
Second, the Chair of Ukrainian Studies also hosts an annual conference on contemporary Ukrainian Studies. The conference pulls together political scientists, historians and anthropologists primarily, and is a great opportunity for anyone working on Ukraine to get feedback on their work from specialists on the country. They also do a very good job of bringing in scholars from Ukraine. When I first started working on a project on the Colored Revolutions – which for me was more explicitly comparative and not just Ukraine focused – I found it very helpful to attend the conference and get the perspective of people who were indeed experts on Ukraine on the research I was doing.
For anyone interested, the conference announcement is after the break:
Sixth Annual Danyliw Research Seminar on Contemporary Ukraine
Chair of Ukrainian Studies, University of Ottawa, 28-30 October 2010
CALL FOR PAPER PROPOSALS
The Chair of Ukrainian Studies, with the support of the Wolodymyr George Danyliw Foundation, will be holding its Sixth Annual Danyliw Research Seminar on Contemporary Ukraine at the University of Ottawa on 28-30 October 2009. The Seminar will feature research papers, touching on Ukraine, from the disciplines of political science, history, anthropology (ethnology), sociology, economics, religious studies, demography, geography, literature, cinema, folklore and other fields of social science and humanities. Papers with a theoretical and comparative focus are particularly solicited.
The Seminar is open to all social science and humanities research topics, including topics in history and literature, on topics that include Ukraine-Russia relations, Ukraine and the European Union, electoral politics, political regime and practices, constitutional politics, national identity, religion and society, gender, language, and more.
In addition, two of its sections will feature special themes:
The first will pursue the Seminar’s ongoing exploration of the politics of memory, with papers touching on the Famine (Holodomor), the Holocaust (Shoah), the purges, deportations, forced labor and other cases of mass violence, committed on the territory of what is today Ukraine, in the 1930s, during World War II and the immediate post-War period, involving, among others, the NKVD, German military and paramilitary forces, the Soviet Army, Soviet partisans, the OUN, the UPA, and the Polish Home Army, police, and military forces. We are inviting paper proposals based on current research on social and political history for this period and/or on an analysis of contemporary political issues raised by the memorialization of these events, and are expanding the scope of social science and historical research to the representation of memory in literature, cinema, and the arts more generally.
The second theme will continue our presentation of new research on the political economy of Ukraine, particularly as it relates to the informal economy and informal politics, trans-border exchange and other practices, internal and international migration, economic “clans”, corruption, oil and gas politics, the impact of global economic factors, the rule of law, rural political economy and related topics.
Scholars and doctoral students are invited to submit a 1000 word paper proposal and a 250 word biographical statement, by email attachment, to Dominique Arel, Chair of Ukrainian Studies, at darel@uottawa.ca AND chairukr@gmail.com. Please also include your full coordinates (institutional affiliation, preferred postal address, email, phone) and indicate your latest publication (or, in the case of doctoral applicants, the year when you entered a doctoral program, the [provisional] title of your dissertation and year of expected completion).
The proposal deadline is 15 June 2010. To be eligible, papers must not have been accepted for publication by the time of the Seminar. The Chair will cover the expenses of participants, including discussants, to the Seminar. An international selection committee will review the proposals and notify applicants shortly after the deadline.
The aim of the Seminar is to provide a unique forum for researchers from Canada, Ukraine, the United States, Europe and elsewhere to engage in fruitful inter-disciplinary dialogue, disseminate cutting-edge research papers on the Chair web site, encourage publications in various outlets, and stimulate collaborative research projects. Papers of the first four Annual Danyliw Research Seminars in Contemporary Ukrainian Studies can be downloaded at “here”:www.ukrainianstudies.uottawa.ca. The Seminar adopts the format of a Workshop, where each presentation is followed by group discussion, and is open to the public.
The Seminar is made possible by the commitment of the Wolodymyr George Danyliw Foundation to the pursuit of excellence in the study of contemporary Ukraine