Deadline 15 marzo 2019
The Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation is pleased to announce the convening of Toward Freedom: Celebrating Central and Eastern European Independence, a conference generously supported by the Polish National Foundation.
The conference aims to explore the character of and differences in the political, social, economic, and cultural independence of Central and Eastern European countries during the interwar period, World War II, the Cold War, and post-1989 era. We welcome paper and panel proposals from students and scholars from a wide range of disciplines (including history, economics, political science, sociology, psychology, and philosophy), for presentations, workshops, panels, interactive round tables, performances, readings, screenings, or installations dealing with (but not limited to):
• Life under Communist regimes in Poland and other Central and Eastern European Countries
• The role of America in the restoration of independence in Central and Eastern Europe in 1989
• State building and democratic transition in Central and Eastern Europe
• Forms of anti-Americanism in Communist countries
• Then and Now: The American presence in Central and Eastern Europe (culture, religion, literature, etc.)
• The role of soft power in promoting independence in Central and Eastern Europe
• The Polish-American experience
• The role of social movements in the fall of communism in Central and Eastern Europe
• The fall of communism in the public sphere: memory and interpretations in Central and Eastern Europe
• The road from Communism to a new world
We especially encourage scholars to incorporate into their presentations a consideration of the commemoration of the above-mentioned issues in public space and historical memory. We are also interested in proposals that deal with the lessons that can be learned from the Central and Eastern Europe democratic transitions and applied in the future transition to democracy in Cuba and China.
Those interested should submit abstracts of no more than 300 words by March 15, 2019. The proposal should be formatted as follows:
a) author(s)
b) affiliation(s) as you would like it to appear in program
c) email address(es)
d) title of proposal
e) abstract of no more than 300 words
Submission emails should be addressed to murray.bessette@
All papers accepted for and presented at the conference must be in English and will be eligible for publication in an ISBN eBook. Selected papers may be developed and expanded for future publication in a themed, edited hard bound volume.
The deadline for submissions is March 15, 2019.
A limited number of travel grants (up to $500 USD) are available for international and out of state participants to help defray the costs associated with attendance. All grants made will require the submission of expense receipts and the appropriate tax form.
All proposals accepted for presentation must have at least one presenter registered for the conference no later than April 1 to be guaranteed inclusion on the program. A limited number of conference registration waivers are available for graduate students, teachers, and contingent faculty members.
For more information please contact the director of academic programs, Dr. Murray Bessette, at murray.bessette@
