The Society for Romanian Studies
Conference of the Society for Romanian Studies (SRS) Bucharest, 17- 19 June 2015
The 2015 SRS conference will be hosted by the Faculty of Political Science, the University of Bucharest.
Anniversaries represent opportunities to reflect on past events, re-assess their impact on the present, and draw lessons for the future. Together with other 20th century historical events – including World War I, World War II, and the communist take-over – the overthrow of the communist regime represented a watershed event for Romania and Moldova, the most recent great transformation it is seen as having led to the end of the communist dictatorship, democratization of the political system, the introduction of market economy, cultural liberalization, the opening of borders, and a re-alignment with the West. At the same time, given Romania’s and Moldova’s persistent problems with political instability, pervasive corruption, slow economic growth, populism, and nationalism, the significance of the 1989/1991 regime change and its outcomes remains a source of contestation.
The aim of this conference is to take a fresh look at the transformative events of a quarter century ago. We wish to examine their significance for the two countries’ post-communist trajectories, past, present, and future both domestically and in the wider European and Eurasian contexts with the help of broad historical, political, literary, and cultural disciplinary and interdisciplinary inquiries.
Keynote Speakers: Dennis Deletant (Georgetown University) and Mihaela Miroiu (SNSPA).We welcome proposals for papers, panels and roundtables from junior and senior scholars working in a variety of disciplines: history, sociology, anthropology and ethnography, political science, philosophy, law and justice studies, literature and linguistics, economics, business, international affairs, religious, gender, film and media studies, art history, music, and education, among others.
Possible topics might include, but are not limited to:
- Precursors of 1989 (anti-Stalinist revolts and resistance, resistance through culture, the role of dissidents, everyday forms of resistance, Braşov 1987, etc.)
- The external context (Gorbachev’s Soviet Union, the events in East and Central Europe)
- Western propaganda and the Romanian diasporas
(Read more HERE)
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