International Conference at POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews
Warsaw, Poland
2-4 October 2017
Deadline : 30 April 2017
Sponsored by the NADAV Foundation, Israel
The Russian revolutions of 1917 played a key role in de ning the 20th century
by virtue ofthe processes they launched, the entities they helped create and
the reactions they triggered. The legacies of these transformative events and
their aftermath, not least the collapse of empires and the birth of
nation-states, still reverberate in many ways throughout Eastern and Central
Europe.
This conference, “Jews and Others: Ethnic Relations in Eastern and Central
Europe from 1917 and Onwards,” to be held at the POLIN Museum is the second
of a three-part series. The rst stage, “The Hundred-Year Legacy of the
Russian Revolution and the World Today: How the Revolution Divided, Uni ed,
and
Shaped a Continent,” is being held at the Kennan Institute (Wilson Center) in
Washington, D.C. on April 3-5, 2017. The nal conference is scheduled for
December 2017 at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
With the NADAV Foundation’s support, POLIN Museum, the Nevzlin Center, and
the Kennan Institute are inviting presentations from Central and Eastern
Europe
scholars (particularly from Poland, Ukraine, Lithuania, Czech Republic,
Slovakia, and Hungary) aimed at reassessing the profound implications of the
events of 1917-1918
through a regional lens. While focusing on the Jewish experience, the
participants will revisit the shared past of many nationalities throughout
this
area. The objective of this scholarly platform is to spark new conversations
on
the meaning of the nation-state and its narratives. Prevalent themes of our
sessions will include radical change, war and violence. What is more, we will
explore how these phenomena have found expression in collective memories,
migration, integration, and other socio-cultural developments.
To this end, the organizers invite proposals for twenty-minute papers that
address, inter alia, the following forces that the Russian revolutions set in
motion throughout Central and Eastern Europe:
• Co-existence of Jews and non-Jews before and after the wars: between
pragmatic alliances and anti-Semitism.
• Jews and hegemonic national groups – allegiance and estrangement, Jewish
vectors of assimilation and acculturation.
• Gender in the aftermath of 1917-1918: Jewish and non-Jewish facets.
• Jewish chapters, understated or otherwise, of current national narratives
and the historical memory of these fateful years.
All proposals should constitute original, wide-ranging, multifaceted research
that has yet to be presented in any academic forum. Written proposals of
200-300 words and a brief CV are to be sent to: conference1917@polin.pl no
later than April 30, 2017. Travel expenses, including accommodations in
Warsaw,
will be covered by the
organizers. The conference organizers reserve the right to publish proceedings
from the conference.
