Annual International Conference: "Post-CommunistNostalgia"

[YAN Hairong <yhairong@uiuc.edu>]

Russian, East European, and Eurasian Center
University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign

Annual International Conference
"Post-Communist Nostalgia"
7- 8 April 2006
314 Illini Union
Free and open to the public.  Registration not required.  For
complete program with paper abstracts see:
http://www.reec.uiuc.edu/events/annual.html
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Conference Program

Friday, April 7
9:00 - 6:45 pm, 314 Illini Union

9:00
Opening Address
"From Utopia to Propaganda and Back"
Maria Todorova (History, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign)

9:30 - 11:30
Panel I: Politics of Remembering and Forgetting
"Memory and Forgetting in Contemporary Tashkent"
Laura Adams (Sociology, Princeton University)
"Ostalgie, Westalgie, and the Politics of the Future in
Eastern Germany"
Dominic Boyer (Anthropology, Cornell University)
"'Yugonostalgics to Camps!:' Suppressing Socialist Nostalgia
in Contemporary Croatia"
Maple Razsa (Anthropology, Harvard University)
Chair: Carol Leff (Political Science, University of Illinois)

11:30 - 1:00 Lunch Break

1:00 - 3:00
Panel II: Economies of Nostalgia
"What Becomes a Legend Most? Moscow Pensioners Recall the Late
Soviet Period"
Cynthia Buckley (Sociology, University of Texas)
"Domesticating Discontent: The Work of Nostalgia in Bulgaria"
Gerald Creed (Anthropology, CUNY)
"Past for the Future: Nostalgia for Communism of Workers in
Serbia"
Tanja Petrovic (Scientific Research Centre, Slovenian Academy
of Sciences)
Chair: Zsuzsa Gille (Sociology, University of Illinois)

3:15 - 5:15
Panel III: Socialist Segues in Sound and Screen
"Goodbye Lenin, Aufwiedersehen GDR: The Social Life of Socialism"
Daphne Berdahl (Anthropology, University of Minnesota)
"Sounding Postsocialism: Music, Memory, and Marketing in
Post-1989 Bulgaria"
Donna Buchanan (REEEC, Music, University of Illinois)
"'I open my eyes and I see nothing': Sokurov, Nostalgia, and
the Limits of Vision"
Lilya Kaganovsky (Slavic Languages and Literatures, Cinema
Studies, University of Illinois)
"'World Spectators': Postcommunist Travel and Displacement in
German Literature"
Anke Pinkert (Germanic Languages and Literatures, University
of Illinois)
Chair: Matti Bunzl (Anthropology, IPRH, University of Illinois)

5:30 - 6:45
Documentary Film Screening (rough cut screening)
"Bastards of Utopia" (2006, 64 minutes; Directors: Pacho Velez
and Maple Razsa)
The documentary film Bastards of Utopia?based on 18 months of
filming? follows the fieldwork of anthropologist Maple Razsa
with anti- globalization activists in Zagreb, Croatia. The
film focuses on the daily struggles of three leading activists
and provides a unique critical perspective on the nationalist
and capitalist transformation of the region since the collapse
of socialist Yugoslavia. In the lives of Fistra, Dado and
Jelena we see one effort to recast local traditions of social
struggle in difficult new circumstances. We see one answer to
the question: what does it mean to be a leftist after
socialism? A co-production of the Harvard Film Study Center
and En Masse Films.

Saturday, April 8
9:00 - 6:00pm, 314B Illini Union

9:00 - 11:00
Panel IV: "Educations in Memory"
"A nation cannot be given as a gift, it has to be earned:
Remembering Josip Broz Tito, Constructing Bosnianness"
Fedja Buric (History, University of Illinois)
"Disremembering Narratives: Pre- to post- Soviet Turkmen Culture"
Victoria Clement
"Dignity in Transition: History, Teachers and the Nation-State
in Post-1989 Bulgaria"
Tim Pilbrow (REEEC, Anthropology, University of Illinois)
"'Let's all freeze up until 2100 or so': Nostalgic Indecision
in Post-communist Romania"
Oana Popescu-Sandu (Comparative and World Literature,
University of Illinois)
Chair: Erica Lehrer (IPRH, University of Illinois)

11:15 - 1:15
Panel V: "Manufactured Communities between Utopia and Propaganda"
"Cosmopolitan Baku"
Bruce Grant (Anthropology, New York University)
"Today's Unseen Enthusiasm: Communist Nostalgia for Communism
in the Brigadier Movement"
Cristofer Scarboro (History, University of Illinois)
"The Re-Visioning of Socialism: Soviet Pioneers, Sailors and
Other Patriotic Heroes Born Today"
Alexei Yurchak (Anthropology, University of California, Berkeley)
Chair: Diane Koenker (History, University of Illinois)

1:15 - 2:45 Lunch Break

2:45 - 4:45
Panel VI: "Speaking (the) Past"
"'Ceausescu Hasn't Died': Alternative Memory Practices in
Post-Socialist Romania"
Diana Georgescu (History, University of Illinois)
"Red Zion: A Post-Soviet Trip to Birobidzhan"
Harriet Murav ((Slavic Languages and Literatures, University
of Illinois)
"Velvet Prison in Hindsight: Hungarian intellectuals'
discourse in the 1990s"
Anna Szemere (Sociology, Washington State University, Vancouver)
Chair: David Cooper (Slavic Languages and Literatures,
University of Illinois)

5:00 - 6:00
Closing Roundtable
Matti Bunzl, Zsuzsa Gille, Diane Koenker
Chair: Maria Todorova (History, University of Illinois)

8:00 pm
Balkanalia Concert
Smith Recital Hall
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Faculty Organizers:
Maria Todorova (History)
Zsuzsa Gille (Sociolgy)
Matti Bunzl (Anthropology)

Cosponsors:
College of Liberal Arts and Sciences
European Union Center
Department of History
Department of Anthropology
Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures
Department of Sociology
Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures
Illinois Program for Research in the Humanities
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
YAN Hairong (surname capitalized)
Assistant Prof. of Anthropology & EALC
109 Davenport Hall
607 S. Mathews Ave.
University of Illinois, 
Urbana, IL 61801

Phone: 217-244-4117
Fax: 217-244-3490
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