Hösten 2013
Seminarieprogram
Plats: Gamla Torget 3, tredje våningen, biblioteket
Tid: Tisdagar, 15.15-17.00 (om inget annat är meddelat)
SEPTEMBER
28 aug (onsdag, kl. 19:00-20:30) Debattseminarium om Pussy Riot med Per-Arne Bodin (Stockholms universitet), Yulia Gradskova (Stockholm universitet), Elena Namli (UCRS), Nadezhda Petrusenko (Södertörn universitet). Seminariet är ett samarbete med Sällskapet för studier av Ryssland, Central- och Östeuropa samt Centralasien. För med information ladda ner seminariets beskrivning. Anmäl dig till jevgenija.gehsbarga@ucrs.uu.se
3 sep Elena Namli (UCRS): "Orthodox Theology and the Temptation of Power". Ordförande: Stefan Hedlund. Språk: engelska.
The seminar "Orthodox theology and the temptation of power" is part of Prof. Elena Namli’s research project which aims at analyzing the Russian Orthodox theology and its social ethics. Anyone interested in reading the paper before the seminar can request a copy by writing to elena.namli@ucrs.uu.se.
Elena Namli is Professor of Ethics at the Faculty of Theology, and one of the three research directors at UCRS Uppsala Centre for Russian and Eurasian Studies, both at Uppsala University. Her research interests include ethical theory, theological ethics, human rights, Sharia law and human rights law.
6-7 sep Internationell konferens "Russia's Winter of Discontent. Taking Stock of Changing State-Society Relationships". Ladda ner programmet och affischen. För mer information besök konferensens hemsida.
10 sep Michal Smrek (Uppsala universitet/Statsvetenskapliga institutionen, UCRS): "Unwanted Equality of Opportunity? Female MPs’ Re-Election Prospects in the Slovak Republic". Ordförande: Li Bennich-Björkman. Språk: engelska.
While the focus of gender studies literature has until recently been on various top-down mechanisms aimed at facilitating women's entry into Politics, Michal Smrek argues that mere "election" might not be sufficient for making female politicians influential. It is one's re-election that determines how influential one becomes in the legislature. Senior positions are usually allocated based on one's political experience. Hence, as the number of one’s re-elections increases, so does the likelihood that one will eventually end up in an agenda-setting position within one’s party/national legislature. If female politicians only serve one term and do not get re-elected, their influence over political agenda will remain limited. In this seminar, Michal Smrek examines Slovak MPs' relative re-election probabilities and look at various mechanisms that might facilitate women's re-election. This is a first step towards understanding whether female politicians are still at a disadvantage vis-a-vis their male colleagues in Central-Eastern Europe.
Michal Smrek is a doctoral student at the Department of Government and Uppsala Centre for Russian and Eurasian Studies (UCRS). His primary research interests include gender studies, female MPs' re-election, gender quotas and female empowerment.
12 sep Yulia Gradskova (Stockholm universitet): "Women’s Rights Activism and Attempts of Institutionalization of Gender Equality in North-Western Russia (1990s-2000s)" Ordförande: Elena Namli. Språk: engelska.
In the center of the presentation is the history of women’s activism in Russia in the context of the global efforts for the institutionalization of gender equality and protection of women’s rights. Such institutionalization is suggested by the international bodies (first of all by UN’s recommendations on state’s control over the equality of rights and opportunities for men and women – gender equality machineries) and, is often expected to be realized through cooperation. The presentation is focused on the history of women’s activism in North-Western part of Russia after 1991 in connection to the attempts of institutionalization of gender equality and cooperation with international, European and Nordic organizations. Anyone interested in reading the paper before the seminar can request a copy by writing to yulia.gradskova@historia.su.se
Yulia Gradskova has a PhD in History from Stockholm University.
17 sep Richard Connolly (University of Birminghem) "On the Doorstep of Modernity? Obstacles to Social Order Development in Russia" Ordförande: Stefan Hedlund. Språk: engelska.
The seminar will consider the prospects for social order development in Russia. Using North, Wallis and Weingast's analytical framework, Dr. Connolly will explore what type of social order has been created in Russia over the past twenty years, and how the current social order type will shape economic and political development in the near future.
Richard Connolly is Lecturer in Political Economy at the Centre for Russian and East European Studies (CREES), University of Birmingham. His research is concerned with the political and economic development of Russia. He is the author of the recently published 'Economic Sources of Social Order Development in Post-Socialist Eastern Europe' (Routledge, 2013).
19-20 sep Internationell konferens "Contemporary Russian Utopianism: Geopolitics and Identity”. Ladda ner programmet och affischen. För mer information se konferensens hemsida.
24 sep (OBS! kl. 13:30-14:30) Dr. Ekaterina Furman, Prof. Boris Kheyfets och Dr. Daria Ushkalova (Institute of economy, Russian Academy of Sciences): "Reality and Prospect of Eurasian Economic Integration: Political and Economic Aspects" Ordförande: Elena Namli. Språk: English.
The seminar is a meeting with three Russian researchers – Dr. Ekaterina Furman, Prof. Boris Kheyfets och Dr. Daria Ushkalova (Institute of Economy, Russian Academy of Sciences) where they will present their project "Reality and Prospects for Eurasian Economic Integration: Political and Economic Aspects".
24 sep Igor Torbakov (UCRS): "Managing Imperial Peripheries: Russia and China in Central Asia". Ordförande: Elena Namli. Språk: engelska.
The seminar intends to discuss how China and Russia are adjusting to the new situation that arises from the profound shift in the balance of power caused by the former’s rise and the latter’s relative decline. The main focus is on Moscow’s and Beijing’s interaction in Central Asia - the area that for the last three hundred years has been a contested borderland sandwiched between expanding Russian and Chinese imperial states. One of the key arguments is that in this new geopolitical situation China has found itself in a stronger position:while Moscow has lost its Central Asian possessions, Beijing has retained its own segment of historical Central Asia (Xinjiang) and is now only happy to expand its influence at the expense of the weakened Russia. Yet under the new conditions the two historical overlords of Central Asia are mostly preoccupied with security issues and thus are faced with their perennial challenge: how best to manage the (former) imperial peripheries.
Igor Torbakov is Senior Researcher at the Uppsala Centre for Russian and Eurasian Studies at Uppsala University. He holds a PhD from the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences and specializes in Russian and Eurasian history and politics. He was Senior Researcher at the Finnish Institute of International Affairs in Helsinki, a Research Scholar at the Institute of Russian History, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow; a Visiting Scholar at the Kennan Institute, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, Washington DC; a Fulbright Scholar at Columbia University, New York; a Visiting Fellow at Harvard University; and a Fellow at the Swedish Collegium for Advanced Study in Uppsala, Sweden. His recent publications discuss the history of Russian nationalism, the linkages between Russia's domestic politics and foreign policy, and the politics of history and memory wars in Eastern Europe.
OKTOBER
1 okt Rustamjon Urinboyev (Lund University): "Welfare and Political Stability in Post-Soviet Central Asia". Ordförande: Li Bennich-Björkman. Språk: engelska.
Central Asian countries are facing multidimensional political stability and security challenges in the post-Soviet period. Current scholarly discussions of political stability in post-Soviet Central Asia continue to revolve around the issues of Islamic upheaval, ethnic conflicts, civil war or inter-clan struggles, and how the authoritarian regimes in this region deploy coercive strategies and penal sanctions to cope with political instability. There is a lack of research, though, that addresses the interlinkage between informal welfare structures and political stability. This seminar, through a case study of the Ferghana Valley in Uzbekistan, examines that interlinkage and how it influences state-society relations and patterns of governance.
Rustam Urinboyev is a research fellow at Lund University (Sweden), in the Department of Sociology of Law, where he received his Ph.D. in February, 2013. Rustamjon has conducted ethnographic fieldwork in post-Soviet Uzbekistan, Central Asia where his doctoral thesis examined the interlinkages between welfare and political stability. He received his MSc in Public Policy (2008) from Maastricht University (Netherlands) and LLB from the University of World Economy and Diplomacy (Uzbekistan). His current research examines legal cultures in post-Soviet societies, with particular emphasis on Uzbekistan and Russia and the roles of informal structures and rules in shaping post-Soviet transition there.
8 okt Phil Hanson (CREES): “Asset-Grabbing in Russia: How It Works and How to Stop It”. Ordförande: Stefan Hedlund. Språk: engelska.
The seminar is based on the paper that reviews some of the publicly-available knowledge about the Russian practice of reiderstvo – the illicit acquisition of business assets, usually with the involvement of law enforcement agencies. The practice is described, with some statistical evidence of its recent frequency. What characteristics of Russian institutions facilitate it? There is a review of the steps taken to counter it by Delovaya Rossiya and others, and the relationship of these ‘bottom-up’ initiatives to actions taken by Vladimir Putin and other members of the leadership.
Philip Hanson is an associate fellow of the Russia and Eurasia Programme at Chatham House, London and an Emeritus Professor of the Political Economy of Russia and Eastern Europe at the University of Birmingham.His books include an economic history of the USSR from 1945-91 and a study of patterns of regional economic change in Russia. His articles have appeared in Eurasian Geography and Economics, Europe-Asia Studies, International Affairs, Energy Economist and elsewhere. Past appointments have been at the Foreign & Commonwealth Office, UK, the UN Economic Commission for Europe, Radio Liberty and Michigan, Harvard, Kyoto and Södertörns universities. He is currently working on contemporary Russian economic policy and business-state relations in Russia.
10 okt Mikhail Suslov (UCRS): "Autocracy in Russian Orthodox Thought". Ordförande: Elena Namli. Språk: engleska.
The seminar discusses monarchism in the political thought of the Russian Orthodox Church in modern time, from 19th century to the present. Tainted by the long tradition of legitimization of the autocratic state, the Russian Orthodoxy and its Slavophile supporters came up with original theorization of the monarchy by the late 19th century. Neo-Slavophiles of the pre-revolutionary generation re-conceptualized the Byzantine concept of ‘symphony’ of Church and state powers in the way, which provided for the alternative public sphere. In this model an absolute monarch was counter-balanced by the Church at the top and parochial self-government in the bottom. Today’s Russian Orthodox intellectuals carry on with the interrupted tradition of monarchism, but in the considerably more complicated background, in which the Church oscillates between loyalty to the ruling elite and the position of a ‘revolutionary from the Right’. Dr. Suslov’s paper deals with ironies and paradoxes, which the Russian Orthodox Church encounters when trying to develop a monarchist political theory suitable for our time.
Mikhail Suslov is Postdoctoral Marie-Curie researcher at the Uppsala Centre for Russian and Eurasian Studies at Uppsala University. In 2009 he received his PhD in history from the European University Institute (Florence). He worked as a researcher of intellectual history at the Russian Institute for Cultural Studies (Moscow), at the Russian State University for the Humanities (Moscow), at the Hannah Arendt Institute for the Studies of Totalitarianism (Dresden), Central European University (Budapest), and taught as a lecturer at the Perm State University (Perm, Russia). In his recent publications he studies cultural, ideological and religious preconditions for productive imagination in modern Russian political thought. This general endeavor covers themes of the Russian diaspora (‘the Russian world’ project), political utopianism in post-Soviet narratives, and intellectual traditions of the Russian Orthodox Church.
11-12 okt Internationell workshop "Love and Sex after Communism: Post-Soviet Intimacies amid Political and Economic Change"
Workshop finansieras av Riksbankens Jubileumsfond. Arrangörer: Vaida Obelene (UCRS) och Christopher Swader (National Research University Higher School of Economics, Moscow). Ladda ner programmet. OBS! Begränsat antal platser. För att delta i workshopen, vänligen registrera dig genom att skicka ditt namn och tillhörighet till Jevgenija Gehsbarga jevgenija.gehsbarga@ucrs.uu.se. Först till kvarn.
15 okt Katarzyna Wolczuk (CREES Birmingham): "EU’s Relations with Eastern Neighbourhood". Ordförande: Li Bennich-Björkman. Språk: engelska.
Both the EU and Russia have been pursuing hegemonic region-building projects in the post-Soviet space. While the EU offers Association Agreements with Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Area, Russia has sought to attract the neighbouring countries to join the Eurasian Customs Union/Single Economic Space. Each of these projects promotes deep economic integration, something which makes the post-Soviet space unique in the world. The seminar will examine the intrinsic features of these projects and the growing rivalry between them in order to highlight the implications for the 'in-between' countries and their relations with the EU.
Dr Kataryna Wolczuk is Reader in Politics and International Studies at the Centre for Russian and East European Studies (CREES), the University of Birmingham. She holds an MA in Law from the University of Gdansk, Poland and a PhD from the University of Birmingham, UK. Her research has focused on the state-building process in the post-Soviet states; relations between the European Union and the post-Soviet states as well as Eurasian integration and its impact on EU's eastern policy. Her recent publications include R. Dragneva and K. Wolczuk (eds) Eurasian Economic Integration: Law, Policy, and Politics (Cheltenham: Edward Elgar, 2013).
16 okt (OBS! Onsdag, kl.17:00) Boklansering av “The Challenge of Non-Territorial Autonomy ” (eds. Ephraim Nimni, Alexander Osipov and David J. Smith) med Prof. David Smith. OBS! Anmäl dig senast på måndag, den 14 oktober till jevgenija.gehsbarga@ucrs.uu.se.
17 okt (OBS! Torsdag, kl. 13:15-15:00) Elena Grunt (Ural Federal University): "Modernization of higher education in post-communist Russia: pro and contra". Seminariet hålls i samarbete med Uppsala Forum för Demokrati, Fred och Rättvisa.
The former Russian (Soviet) five-year higher education system does not meet the demands of modern society. This in the light of current social developments, characterized by global trends impacting contemporary society in regards to both the economic, political and social spheres. Transformation of higher education in modern Russia in the light of social developments entails a number of contradictions, this more so when taking into account the Bologna Declaration and the formation of common European educational standards.
Elena Grunt will during her lecture focus on methodological and theoretical developments as well as new findings in the study of modernization of higher education in post-communist Russia. New theoretical approaches paired with methodological advances goes some way in explaining student core values and attitudes towards higher education in contemporary Russia.
22 okt Prof. Marianna Shakhnovich (Saint-Petersburg State University): "Anticlericalism in Russia – History and the Current Situation". Ordförande: Elena Namli. Språk: engelska. Seminariet hålls i samarbete med Uppsala Forum för Demokrati, Fred och Rättvisa. Ladda ned evenemangets affisch.
In her lecture "Anticlericalism in Russia – History and the current situation", Professor Shakhnovich offers an analysis of the current developments in Russia, focusing on the increasingly strengthened cooperation between the state and the Russian Orthodox Church.
The lecture will focus on reaction towards these developments that could be described in terms of anticlericalism. Historical as well as contemporary forms of anticlericalism as a phenomenon will be analyzed and critically evaluated.
24 okt Alexander Osipov (European Centre for Minority Issues): "What are Soviet Institutional Legacies in Diversity Policies?". Ordförande: David Smith. Språk: engelska. Seminariet hålls i samarbete med Uppsala Forum för Demokrati, Fred och Rättvisa.
Alexander Osipov seeks to identify ideas and institutional settings in the framework of diversity policies inherited from the communist rule. This based on the fact that the fundamentals of the previous governmental social engineering ceased to exist or was deeply transformed during the Soviet Union’s collapse. His study covers Russia as well as Belarus, Moldova and Ukraine.
Alexander follows the definition of legacy offered by Jason Wittenberg: there must be at least two periods compared; the phenomenon in the latter period must be the same that occurred in the prior period, and the phenomenon must have been carried over from the past rather than merely replicated. Central to this is continuity of key concepts determining diversity policies during and after communist rule.
Osipov points to the continuity of major institutional settings, including some techniques of government, such as systemic discrepancies between symbolic and instrumental policies; co-optation of minority spokespersons into the system of governance; mobilization and channelling of public activities on ethnic grounds. He concludes that in major enactments of the ‘nationalities policy’ still exist. Current diversity policies in the post-communist states serve as a device for channelling potentially destabilising activities in a direction safe for the ruling elites, and for generating socially acceptable common agendas and narratives.
Alexander Osipov is a senior research associate at the European Centre for Minority Issues (Flensburg, Germany). Previously he worked in Russia in the Academy of Sciences, Centre for Independent Social Research and the Memorial Society. His disciplinary backgrounds are history, sociology and law; the research interests include ethnic and racial discrimination, non-territorial autonomy and models of diversity policies. He is currently working on communist institutional legacies in diversity management in the EU Eastern neighbourhood.
29 okt Yasushi Nakamura "Soviet Fund Use Efficiency and Management of Money: A Historical Analysis of the Change from Government Bond Financing to Bank Financing". Ordförande: Stefan Hedlund. Språk: engelska.
Under the Soviet monetary management established in the early 1930s, the government collected money through government bonds sales and provided the economy with the funds. The deterioration of the fund use efficiency led to the abolition of the government bond sales in 1958 and to an expansion of bank loan financing in hope of that the bank loan financing would increase the fund use efficiency. However, the monetary and loan management continued to rely on the administrative method. The fund use efficiency was not improved.The Soviet economy was not sustainable because of the lack of the management mechanism of fiat money.
Yasushi Nakamura has been a professor in the International Graduate School of Social Sciences, Yokohama National University, since 2000. From 1989 to 1991, he was a special researcher of the Japanese Embassy in the GDR. From 1999 to 2000, he was a visiting research fellow at Herriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, Scotland. He is now a visiting researcher of the Bank of Finland Institute for Economies in Transition (BOFIT). His areas of research interest are the Soviet and Japanese economic development, the Russian economy, and the national accounting.
31 okt Andrej Kotljarchuk (Södertorn universitet): "Soviet Nordic Minorities and Ethnic Cleansings on the Kola Peninsula, ca 1930-1955" Ordförande: Vladislava Vladimirova. Språk: engelska.
Dr Andrej Kotljarchuk is University Lecturer at the School of History and Gender Studies at Södertörn University. Currently Dr. Kotljarchuk is involved in an international project "The Roma Genocide in Ukraine 1941-44: History, memories and representations" on the genocide of Roma in Ukraine during World War II (Baltic Foundation) and the project management of an international network that highlights Stalin's terrors against Baltic and Nordic ethnic minorities in the Soviet Union (Swedish Institute).
NOVEMBER
5 nov Bo Rothstein (Göterborg universitet): "Why more democracy will not improve human well-being or political legitimacy in Russia". Ordförande: Li Bennich-Björkman. Språk: engelska.
A common understanding of the many problems facing today's Russia is that more democracy is what is needed. Based on the research at The Quality of Government Institute at University of Gothenburg, this strategy will be questioned. A normatively troubling result is that measures of the level of democracy do not correlate positively with standard measures of human well-being. Moreover, democratic rights turns out not to be the main cause for political legitimacy. Instead, various measures of "good governance", "state capacity" or "quality of government" has stronger positive effects both on measures of human well-being as well as political legitimacy. A theoretical explanation and some policy conclusions for these puzzling results will be provided.
Bo Rothstein holds the August Röhss Chair in Political Science at University of Gothenburg in Sweden where he is head of the Quality of Government (QoG) Institute. He took his PhD at Lund University in 1986 and became assistant and associate professor at Uppsala University where he served until 1995. He has been a visiting scholar at the Russell Sage Foundation, Collegium Budapest Institute for Advanced Study, Harvard University, University of Washington-Seattle, Cornell University, Stellenbosch Institute for Advanced Study, the Australian National University and Stanford University. He has served as adjunct professor at University of Bergen and University of Aalborg. His most recent books are The Quality of Government: Corruption, Inequality and Social Trust in International Perspective (University of Chicago Press 2011, also published in Chinese in 2012 by Xinhua Publishers) and the edited volume Good Government. The Relevance of Political Science (Edward Elgar 2012, together with Sören Holmberg). His earlier monographs in English are Social Traps and the Problem of Trust (Cambridge University Press, 2005), and Just Institutions Matters: The Moral and Political Logic of the Universal Welfare State (Cambridge University Press, 1998) and The Social Democratic State (Univ. of Pittsburgh Press, 1996). He has published article in scholarly journals such as World Politics, Comparative Political Studies, Comparative Politics, European Political Science Review, European Journal of Political Research, Public Administration and Governance. In 2012, Rothstein was elected member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences and in 2013 he received an Advanced Research Grant from the European Research Council. He is also a regular contributor to the Swedish public debate.
7 nov (OBS! Torsdag, kl. 09:15-16:30, Gyllenhielmska biblioteket - Skytteanum, Valvgatan 4, Uppsala) Ett heldagsseminarium "Post-Electoral Debriefing: Lessons Learned for the Azerbaijani Opposition". Ladda ned affischen och programmet. För att delta i workshopen, vänligen registrera dig genom att skicka ditt namn och institutionstillhörighet till Jevgenija Gehsbarga jevgenija.gehsbarga@ucrs.uu.se. För mer information vänligen kontakta Sofie Bedford sofie.bedford@ucrs.uu.se. Evenemanget är gratis. Workshopen arrangeras med ekonomiskt stöd från Uppsala Forum för Demokrati, Fred och Rättvisa och Riksbankens Jubileumsfond.
8 nov (OBS! Fredag, kl.14:00-16:00) Rundabordsdiskussion om presidentval i Georgien. Ladda ned evenemangets affisch. Ordförande: Li Bennich-Björkman. Språk: engelska.
On October 27th sixth presidential elections are scheduled to take place in Georgia since the country's restoration of independence from the Soviet Union in 1991. The elections follow the landmark parliamentary elections of October 2012 which saw the transfer of power in Georgia through free and fair elections when Georgian Dream Democratic Georgia – coalition of opposition political parties founded by billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili defeated the incumbent President Mikheil Saakashvili’s United National Movement. The upcoming presidential elections 2013 are important in many respects. President Saakashvili cannot run for another re-election since he has already served two terms of Presidency. However, more importantly, after the elections, a series of constitutional changes will enter into force that significantly reduce the president's powers in favour of the Prime Minister and envisage turning Georgia into a parliamentary democracy.
12 nov Prof. Evgeny Dobrenko (University of Sheffield): "Soviet Multinational Literature: Approaches, Problems, and Perspectives of Study". Ordförande: Elena Namli. Språk: engelska.
Prof. Evgeny Dobrenko is head of the department of Russian and Slavonic Studies at the University of Sheffield. His research interests lie in Soviet and post-Soviet literature and culture, Socialist Realism, Soviet national literatures, Russian and Soviet film, critical theory and Soviet cultural history. Prof. Dobrenko held a Stanford Humanities Centre Fellowship, a Karl Loewenstein Fellowship in Political Science and Jurisprudence at Amherst College, and a Kennan Institute of the Woodrow Wilson International Centre Fellowship. He was a Fellow at the New York University International Centre for Advanced Studies and at the Centre for Research in the Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities at the University of Cambridge. He has also been a recipient of the Leverhulme Major Research Fellowship, the Guggenheim Fellowship, and in 2012 he was awarded the Efim Etkind Prize for the best book about Russian Culture. Prof. Dobrenko is the author, editor and co-editor of twenty books, and more than 250 articles and essays which have been translated into ten languages.
OBS! INSTÄLLT 12 nov (Brusewitzsalen, Gamla torget 6, 3 vån, kl.09:00-16:15) Symposium "WTO and Russia; What Can We Expect? Economic, Legal and Political Implications". Ladda ned programmet. Symposiet arrangeras av UCRS och Juridiska institutionen vid Uppsala universitet. För mer information, vänligen kontakta arrangören Kaj Hobér kaj.hober@jur.uu.se.
After 18 years of negotiations Russia has finally become the member of the World Trade Organization (WTO). Russia is an important trading partner for many countries, especially for Europe and Scandinavia. The aim of this symposium is to discuss Russia's WTO membership from economic, political and legal perspective. Issues to be discussed include, for instance, how Russia’s membership affects its foreign trade in general, its exports of oil and gas, and the possibility of foreign investments in Russia. An overarching issue is whether the WTO can serve as a catalyst for change within Russian bureaucracy and legal system. Speakers at the symposium will discuss these and other issues from both practical and theoretical perspectives.
14 nov Leonid Polishchuk (UCRS/Higher School of Economics in Moscow): "Institutions and the Allocation of Talent". Orförande: Stefan Hedlund. Språk: engelska.
Leonid Polishchuk is an Economics Professor at the Higher School of Economics (Moscow, Russia), where he heads the Laboratory of Applied Studies of Institutions and Social Capital. His research interests include political economy, institutional reform, and the role of culture, social networks and norms in economic development, political processes, and government performance. His present and recently completed research projects deal with Russian institutional performance; the role of social capital in government accountability and public service delivery; economics of post-secondary education and the impact of institutions on the allocation of talent; historical roots of norms and values in the Russian society; self-organization of urban and rural communities; and the role of political institutions for property rights protection.
16 nov (OBS! Lördag, kl.10:00-17:00 på Museum Gustavianum, Artillerigatan 3, Uppsala) TEMADAG FÖR HELA FAMILJEN "IDENTITETER I EN GLOBALISERAD VÄRLD".
Möt hela världen på Museum Gustavianum den 16 november - det bjuds på allt från pekingopera till argentinsk tango och ryska folklåtar. För mer information besök Gustavianums hemsida och ladda ned evenemangets affisch. Språk: svenska.
Det sägs ofta att världen idag förändars snabbare än aldrig förr, med ett konstant utbyte av människor, varor och idéer länderna emellan. Migration, religiösa strömningar och politiska och kulturella uppfattningar påverkar olika länders syn på sig själva och resten av världen. Men hur pass lika eller olika är vi egentligen? Hur ser vi på oss själva? Vad innebär det egentligen att vara amerikan, ryss, kines, eller afrikan? Uppsala universitet bjuder in till en spännande dag med föreläsningar och roliga aktiviteter där olika länders syn på sig själva diskuteras.
Evenemanget arrangeras av forskargrupper knutna till de sju områdesstudier som finns vid Uppsala universitet: Centrum för Rysslandsstudier, Forumen för Afrika-, Kina-, Latinamerika-, Sydasien-, och Tysklandsstudier, samt av Engelska institutionen/Svenska Institutet för Nordamerika studier och Museum Gustavianum.
19 nov Leo Granberg (Helsingfors universitet) och Ann-Mari Sätre (UCRS): "Breaking Out of Poverty: Space of Local Actors in Second Russia". Ordförande: Stefan Hedlund. Språk: engelska. Paper: planerar du att delta i seminariet och vill veta mer om projektet, vänligen begär ett working paper genom att skriva till ann-mari.satre@ucrs.uu.se.
Granberg has made ten years research in Karelian Republic and Sätre in Archangelsk Oblast. They are now making a joint effort to compare and analyse the data, composed mainly of qualitative interviews in villages and small towns. Part of the data is evaluating consequences of foreign development projects in the region. The general research question is: how social change is taking place on local level in Russia. They look for indicators of change, which are connected to either coping with everyday problems or more strategic agency; and analyse how the wider Russian context is effecting such activity, as well as, if and how the activity is changing local circumstances and the wider context.
Leo Granberg is Professor for Rural Studies in Social Sciences from the University of Helsinki. He is also Scholar in the Finnish Centre of Excellence in Russian Studies “Choices of Russian Modernisation”. He has co-edited among others books Sakha Ynaga – Cattle of the Yakuts (Granberg et al. 2009), Reflecting Transformation in Post-Socialist Rural Areas (Heinonen et al. 2007), Green Ring (Granberg et al. 2001) and Snowbelt, studies on the European north in transition (Granberg 1998). He is currently co-editing a book on evaluation of EU’s LEADER approach.
Associate Professor Ann-Mari Sätre is an economist specialized in the structure and performance of the Soviet/Russian economy. She is a senior lecturer/researcher at the Centre of Russian and Eurasian Studies at Uppsala University. The most recent publications concern women’s work in contemporary Russia. Since 2010 she is engaged in the research project about poverty in Nizhny Novgorod. Together with Ildikó Asztalos Morell she is working on a five year comparative study of rural marginalization processes in Russia and Hungary, financed by the Swedish Research Council. They are currently editing a book on poverty and survival strategies in Russia, Belarus and Ukraine.
21 nov Paul Jordan (Cardiff): "National Assertion versus Nationalism: The Politics of Nation Branding in the post-Soviet Space". Ordförande: David Smith. Språk: engelska. Seminariet hålls i samarbete med Uppsala Forum för Demokrati, Fred och Rättvisa.
This lecture focuses on the debates surrounding the launch of the nation branding initiative, Brand Estonia in 2001/2. Brand Estonia, with the slogan, Welcome to Estonia: Positively Transforming, was launched to coincide with Estonia staging the Eurovision Song Contest in 2002. Nation branding has attracted increasing scholarly attention in recent years; in much of the current literature on nation branding, states and nations are viewed as similar to goods which can have a brand attached to them. However in the case of the nation (as a political community and social entity) this brings into focus questions of power such as who decides/purports to speak on behalf of the nation? How does this fit in with the notion of popular sovereignty supposedly at the heart of the national project? As the building of national solidarity and the building of the national brand have to be orchestrated simultaneously, this also produces a tension. This presentation explores these inherent tensions between nation branding and nation building.
Paul Jordan is a postdoctoral researcher working on issues of nationalism, history, identity politics, international relations and nation branding in relation to Central and Eastern Europe. He defended his PhD thesis, "The Eurovision Song Contest: Nation Branding and Nation Building in Estonia and Ukraine" at the University of Glasgow in September 2011. He is currently working with Professor Göran Bolin and Dr Per Stahlberg from Södertorn University on a new international research project funded by the Foundation for Baltic and East European Studies (Östersjöstiftelsen), which explores the relationship and tensions between processes of nation branding and nation building in Ukraine. Paul is also working with Dr Nikolas Glover (postdoctoral researcher in History at Uppsala University) and Dr Louis Clerc (University of Turku) on a joint book project on public diplomacy in the Nordic and Baltic countries.
OBS! INSTÄLLT! 26 nov Konstantin Kostuyk (Moskva): "Русская церковь: жизнь в разрывах времени". Ordförande: Elena Namli. Språk: ryska.
The seminar seeks to explain the inability of Orthodoxy to synchronize its development with the pace and trajectory of social development. Dr Kostuyk will also try to reveal the social and ethical content of the Orthodox Church, which the Church connects with the concept of historical time.
Dr Konstantin Kostuyk defended his PhD thesis entitled ”Понятие политического в православной традиции” at Catholic University of Eichstätt in 2002.Among his scientific interests are social teaching of the Christian church, including the social concept of the Russian Orthodox Church, religion in society, the philosophy of the modern mass media and the information society, modern Western philosophy. Dr Kostuyk is the author of numerous publications and several books, including «История социально-этической мысли в Русской православной церкви» (2013).
27 nov (OBS! Onsdag, kl. 19:00) En litterär afton: "Drömmen om världsförvandlingen. Magnus Ljunggren om den ryska symbolismen." Språk: svenska. Evenemanget anordnas i samarbete med Sällskapet för studier av Ryssland, Central- och Östeuropa och Centralasien. Medverkande: Magnus Ljunggren (Göteborgs universitet), Irina Karlsohn (UCRS/Högskolan Dalarna) och Julie Hansen (UCRS). Föranmälan senast den 25 november till Jevgenija Gehsbarga: jevgenija.gehsbarga@ucrs.uu.se Ladda ned inbjudan.
DECEMBER
3 dec (OBS! tiden kl.13:15-15:00) Paneldiskussion om Kaukasus: “Special Status: Can the Moldovan-Transnistrian Conundrum be Resolved by Consociational Democracy?” med professor Karl Cordell (Plymouth University) och professor Stefan Wolff (University of Birmingham). Ladda ned evenemangets affisch.
There is principal agreement among most participants and observers of the Transnistrian conflict in Moldova that its settlement will most likely be achieved through granting Transnistria 'special status'. Yet, very different meanings are attached to this widely used term, ranging from (enhanced) local self-government to a confederal arrangement. Intriguingly, however, a range of past proposals for the settlement of this conflict and a track record of resolving similar conflicts elsewhere clearly point into the direction of a consociational settlement. In our presentation we thus start with an overview of the basic tenets of the consociational approach to conflict settlement and then discuss the specific requirements of special status in the Transnistrian case, arguing that the establishment of consociational arrangements between the two parties offers the only realistic option for a sustainable settlement of this dispute.
Karl Cordell is Professor of Politics at Plymouth University. He has published extensively on German politics: German-Polish relations; German minorities in post-communist Europe, the politics of ethnicity in Europe and conflict resolution. He is co-editor of Ethnopolitics and Civil Wars journals, both published by Taylor and Francis. He is also co-chair of the UK's Political Studies Association specialist group on Ethnopolitics.
Stefan Wolff is Professor of International Security at the University of Birmingham. He is a specialist in contemporary security challenges and has extensively written on ethnic conflict, international conflict management, and state-building. Among his 17 books to date are Ethnic Conflict: A Global Perspective (Oxford University Press 2006, 2nd ed. 2007), Ethnic Conflict: Causes--Consequences--Responses (Polity 2009, with Karl Cordell), The European Neighbourhood Policy in Perspective (2010, paperback edition 2012, with Richard Whitman), Conflict Management in Divided Societies: Theories and Practice (Routlegde 2011, with Christalla Yakinthou), and The European Union as a Global Conflict Manager (Routledge 2012, with Richard G. Whitman). Bridging the divide between academia and policy-making, he has been involved in various phases of conflict settlement processes, including in Transnistria/Moldova, Kirkuk/Iraq, Kosovo, Sri Lanka, and Yemen. Wolff is a graduate of the University of Leipzig, the University of Cambridge, and the London School of Economics and Political Science.
5-6 dec Internationell konferens: "Latvia – A Work in Progress? 100 Years of State and Nation-building". Ladda ned programmet. Är du intresserad att delta anmäl dig senast den 29/11 till Jevgenija Gehsbarga jevgenija.gehsbarga@ucrs.uu.se.
A quarter century after the formation of the Popular Front and a decade since joining the EU, processes of state and nation-building in Latvia are still on-going. Issues such as citizenship, language policy, minority rights, democratic legitimacy, economic stability and security all remain the object of vigorous public discussion. The current situation reflects in turn longer-standing debates over the course of the past century concerning the relationship between state, nation and sovereignty in the context of Latvian society and polity. By examining different aspects of this relationship this conference will seek to reveal both key turning points and continuities in its development and thereby help to inform current debates.
11 dec (OBS! Onsdag kl.10:15-12:00) Arkimandrit Dr Cyril Hovorun (Yale University): "Church and Democracy". Ordförande: Elena Namli. Språk: engelska. Seminariet arrangeras i samarbete med Sankt Ignatios Andliga Akademi och Folkhögskola.
Two arguably irreconcilable approaches to the issue of authority will be examined in the lecture. One is egalitarian and the other, hierarchical. Both approaches are based on the theological grounds. The former, on the Trinitarian and Incarnational theology, while the latter, on the so-called Christian Neoplatonism. How the two approaches clashed in the history of the Church, became embodied in its structures, and shaped relations of the Church with the state, will become the focus of the presentation. The dialectics of egalitarianism and hierarchism gives a clue to the theological justification of the socio-political patterns of modernity, including democracy.
Archimandrite Dr Cyril Hovorun is a research fellow at Yale University. He worked for the Moscow Patriarchate as a president of the Department for external Church relations of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, first deputy chair of the Educational Committee of the Russian Orthodox Church, and vice-rector of the Postgraduate and Doctoral School of the Russian Orthodox Church. On behalf of the Russian Orthodox Church, he participated in a number of ecumenical dialogues, including the ones with the Lutheran, Anglican, Catholic, and Oriental Churches. He also took partin the interreligious fora. Fr Cyril taught in Russia, US, UK, Germany, China, and other countries. His main field is post-Chalcedonian Patristics. He currently works on Ecclesiology and Public theology.
12 dec Marina Germane (University of Glasgow): "Max Laserson – Zionist, Latvian Statesman, and European Minority Thinker". Ordförande: David Smith. Språk: engelska. Seminariet hålls i samarbete med Uppsala Forum för Demokrati, Fred och Rättvisa.
This lecture explores the intellectual legacy of Max Laserson (1887-1951) - leader of the Latvian Social Zionists, member of the interwar Latvian Parliament, delegate to the Congress of European Nationalities in Geneva, lawyer, and minority thinker. This lecture aims to contemplate what this legacy reveals about the dynamics of ethnic relations in both Latvia at the time and of minority rights, in theory and in practice, in a wider European context. Like many other Jewish intellectuals in Central and Eastern Europe, Laserson embraced the opportunities of the interwar era, immersing himself simultaneously in modern Jewish politics, in democratic state-building in his native Latvia, and in minority rights advocacy at home and at the international level.
In the course of the 1920s, against a background of growing nationalism and economic depression, Laserson increasingly found himself trying to balance overarching state interests with minority rights at domestic and international levels.After the authoritarian coup had ended parliamentarian democracy in Latvia in 1934, Laserson left, first for Palestine and then for New York, where he taught at Columbia University until his death in 1951. Laserson demonstrated exemplary intellectual courage in going against the tide, though received little recognition for his theoretical work during his lifetime, and nowadays his legacy is largely forgotten.