Young Researchers Conference
October 29-31, 2009
The 9th Annual International Young Researchers Conference: 1989 Then and Now
Organizer: Neringa Klumbyte, Anthropology
Thursday, October 29
5:00-7:00pm, Harrison Hall 111
Keynote Lecture
Valerie Bunce, Cornell University
The Lesson of 1989: Democracy, Dictatorship and Diffusion.
Friday, October 30
9:00-10:30am Miami Inn A/B Room
Panel 1: What was 1989?
Chair: Neringa Klumbyte
Igor Stiks, University of Edinburgh
“The Berlin Wall Crumbled Down Upon Our Heads!” 1989 and Violence in Socialist Multinational Federations
Marko Grdesic, University of Wisconsin Madison
Do All Regimes Get the Critical Junctures they Deserve? Yugoslav Workers and Nationalists in 1989
Discussant: Carl Dahlman
BREAK
11:00-12:30 Miami Inn A/B Room
Panel 2: Changing Histories of 1989
Chair: Mila Ganeva
Mariya Chelova, Humboldt University
Making Sense of the History: How pre-Soviet Legacies Contribute to the Collapse of the USSR
Nona Shakhnazarian, Kuban Social and Economic Institute
Before and After 1989: National Ideologies, Survival Strategies and Gender Identity in the Political and Symbolic Contexts of Karabakh Movement
Discussant: Karen Dawisha
12:30-2:00 LUNCH
3:00-5:00, Irvin Hall 40
Keynote Lecture
Dominic Boyer, Rice University
Was 1989 an Extinction Event? Rethinking the Juncture of Late Socialism and Late Liberalism in Europe.
Saturday, October 31
9:00-10:30 Miami Inn A/B Room
Panel 3: Nature, Nation, and the Demos of 1989
Chair: Stephen Norris
Sevan Beurki Beukian, University of Alberta
The Politicization and Revival of Nationalist Movements in the 1980s Soviet Union: a Glance at the Caucasus Region
Eunice Blavascunas, University of Washington
Youthful Struggles and Time Lags in the Forested Belarusian/Polish Borderland
Discussant: Joshua First
BREAK
11:00-12:30 Miami Inn A/B Room
Panel 4: The Tiny Revolutions and 1989
Chair: Benjamin Sutcliffe
Joshua First, University of Michigan, 'The Problem of One Generation:' Cinema, 1989 and the Invention of the Sixties in Ukraine
Gregory F. Domber, University of North Florida
Émigré Networks, the National Endowment for Democracy, and American Support to Solidarność
Discussant: Gulnaz Sharafutdinova
12:30-2:00 LUNCH
2:00- 3:30 Miami Inn A/B Room
Panel 5: The Future of 1989
Chair: Vitaly Chernetsky
Oana Godeanu, Miami University
Deconstructing Ostalgia - the National Past between Commodity and Simulacrum in Wolfgang Becker’s Goodbye Lenin! (2003)
Artur Lipiński, Kazimierz Wielki University
The Meanings of 1989. The Right Wing Discourse in Post-Communist Poland
Discussant: Venelin Ganev
3:30-4:30 Closing Discussion
Past Young Researchers Conferences:
*Link to Conference Paper Archive*
2008 The Role of Law in the Construction & Destruction
of Democracy in Postcommunism
2007 Dream Factory of Communism: Culture, Practices and the Memory of the Cold War
2006 Orienting the Russian Empire
2004 The Problems of the Post-Communist State
2003 Russia in Global Context: Peoples, Environments, and Policies
2002 Placing Gender in Postcommunism
2001 Social Norms and Social Deviance in the Soviet and Post-Soviet Era
