Constructing the "Soviet"? Political Consciousness, Everyday Practices, New Identities

9th Annual Conference Constructing the "Soviet"? Political Consciousness, Everyday Practices, New Identities.
April 17-18, 2015
Saint Petersburg
Organizer: European University

The undergraduate and graduate-student conference "Constructing the "Soviet"? Political Consciousness, Everyday Practices, New Identities" has been held at the European University at Saint Petersburg annually since 2007. Our aim is to engage in an international discussion of Soviet history among PhDs and undergraduates, to create connections between scholars and to find new research methods and approaches to the study of Soviet history. The conference offers young scholars from Russia and abroad a chance to discuss different aspects of Soviet everyday life, politics, economics and the arts. Participants will be able to attend lectures of well-known experts in such fields as Anthropology, History, Sociology and Philology and to receive their commentary.

We invite papers on the following topics, among others:

- Opposition, authoritarianism and political culture;
- Production of knowledge: science, education, ideology;
- The history of technologies: large-scale projects and local actors;
- Bribes, "blat" and patronage: informal connections and practices.
- Soviet benefits: healthcare, mass housing, pioneer camps, salary, pensions;
- Gender and age issues in soviet social and symbolic space;
- NEP, Thaw, Perestroika: reform challenges and ability to change;
- The Soviet Orient in religious and national context;
- Construction of the "Soviet" abroad: transnational and international processes.
- Labor and leisure in a Soviet way;
- Faces of war: hostilities, military everyday life, militarization of society.