[aaus-list] CFP: “Reclaiming the Personal: Oral History in Post-Socialist Scholarship”

[Oksana Kis]

Please, fiind announcements in Ukrainian and English attached

Prairie Centre for the Ukrainian Heritage
at St. Thomas More College, University of Saskatchewan
Ukrainian Oral History Association
The Kowalsky Eastern Ukrainian Institute

Call for Papers:
Invited Volume on Oral History in Post-Socialist Societies
“Reclaiming the Personal: Oral History in Post-Socialist Scholarship”
One of the fundamental differences between traditional historic
methods applied to the
study of sociocultural phenomena and the oral historical method is the
sustained interest of the
latter in the person and personal experiences of the past. In the West
where oral history emerged
and established itself as a scholarly discipline such emphasis on
individual and on personal is not
accidental. The centrality of the individual to the Western way of
life has long been recognized
and acknowledged to be one of the foundational principles of the
Western civilization. On the
other end, in humanities and social sciences of former socialist
societies, the interest in personal
experiences of the past and in the individual as an agent of history
began to emerge only recently
and is a relatively novel academic phenomenon. This is not unexpected,
as institutionalized
scholarship and academic discourse in these societies have been for a
long time dominated by the
collectivistic stance in historical research imposed upon scholars by
the ruling socialist ideology
of a time.
Throughout the last two decades of post-socialism, how the shift in
focus in the study of
history and culture — from collective to individual experiences of
history, from institutional to
experiential aspects of the past — has been experienced in the
humanities and social sciences of
post-socialist societies? What role has oral history been playing in
emerging reinterpretations of
history and their attempts to reclaim the individual and his/her
agency from the collectivistic
past?
The proposed Invited Volume on Oral History in Post-Socialist
Societies focuses on the
above question. Contributions are invited from scholars in various
areas of humanities and social
sciences whose work utilizes the oral historical method and directly
speaks to the main focus of
the proposed collection — “Reclaiming the Personal: Oral History in
Post-Socialist
Scholarship.” We are seeking submissions that reflect on, deal with,
and respond to this changing
paradigm of scholarship from a variety of perspectives and stand
points. The articles, may deal
with, but don’t have to be limited to, the following themes and questions:
— ‘Life history’ interview and autobiographical interview in the study
of large-scale
sociocultural phenomena
— The intersection of personal and public in personal testimonies
— The impact of public discourse on personal perspectives on the past and the
impact of the personal experiences on public discourse
— The relationship between personal and collective memories in private
recollections
— The functions and manifestations of private cultural spaces in
socialism and after
— The role of the researcher in the construction of the oral
historical narratives and
in representation of personal voices of their respondents
Only the submissions which would clearly speak to the theme of the
volume — focusing
on individual in history and in scholarly analysis — would be invited
to the proposed
multidisciplinary collection of essays on oral history in
post-socialist scholarship. The
submissions should be also empirically ground in specific oral
historical research undertaken by
the author.
The prospective contributors are invited to submit their initial
proposals (500 words) to
the editors by February 1, 2010. All correspondence should be
simultaneously directed to:
gelinada.grinchenko at gmail.com (Dr. Gelinada Grinchenko, Karazin Kharkiv National
University)
natalia.khanenkofriesen at gmail.com (Dr. Natalia Khanenko-Friesen, University of
Saskatchewan, St. Thomas More College)
After the screening of the proposals, the Editorial Committee will
inform the initial
contributors about their decision to accept or not accept the
submitted proposal by no later than
March 1, 2010.
The invited contributors will be asked to submit their final essays to
the Editorial
Committee by April 1, 2010.
The language of the proposed publication is English. The initial
proposals may be
submitted in English, Russian, or Ukrainian. Final essays are to be
submitted in English,
electronically, using MSWord, font Times New Roman 12, spacing —
double space, footnotes
assembled at the end of the document, the list of cited bibliography
following the main text of
the essay. The length of the essay should be no more than 5 500 words
in total, including the
footnotes and bibliography. The editorial work on the volume will
continue on throughout the
2010. The projected time of publication is 2011.
The editorial committee will be happy to address further questions.
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