CfP: The Opening of the East and the Fall of the Iron Curtain

Call for Papers
The Opening of the East and the Fall of the Iron Curtain:
The Role of Europe’s Christian-Democratic and Conservative Parties, 1989.

Deadline: March 20, 2016
The upheavals of 1989 in Central and Eastern Europe are of singular importance from the
perspective of research on Christian Democratic and conservative parties. Among others, the
following areas need to be more closely examined:

1. The conceptualization, aims, and self-understanding of Christian Democratic movements,
both West and East of the Iron Curtain.

2. The fate of the bourgeois, non-socialist parties in the people’s democracies prior to 1989.

3. The role of the churches and the signal effect emanating from the election of Karol Wojtyla
as Pope, such as the role of the Christian-inspired trade union movement in Poland.

4. The stance of the Christian Democratic and conservative parties in the free West to the
developments announced in the 1980s.

5. Consideration of the amplifying political, economic and social processes in the upheavals in
Central and Eastern Europe.

6. Support of the Christian Democratic and conservative parties for emerging sister parties
before and after 1989.

7. The emerging conservative and Christian Democratic parties in East-Central Europe, their
protagonists, and their role as governing parties during the transition process and beyond.

A symposium dedicated to these questions and topic areas, organized by CIVITAS – Forum of
Archives and Research on Christian Democracy, and The Karl von Vogelsang Institute –
Institute for Research of the History of Christian-Democracy in Austria, will take place in
Vienna on November 10 and 11, 2016. The symposium is designed specifically to allow younger scientists, who are carrying out research on this topic, the opportunity to present their research results. The event will be held in English, and afterward, the presentations will be published in a volume of conference proceedings issued by CIVITAS.

Please send your proposal with title, questions, methodology and sources (No longer than
2500 characters) to PD Dr. Helmut Wohnout (kvvi@kvvi.at) or Prof. Dr. Michael Gehler
(gehler@uni-hildesheim.de) no later than March 20, 2016. Selection of the contributions will
occur by the end of May 2016.

Karl von Vogelsang-Institut
Zur Erforschung der Geschichte der
Christlichen Demokratie in Österreich
A-1120

Author: admin

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