Culture wars in post-socialist societies: public conflicts on the arts, gender and recent history

Culture wars in post-socialist societies: public conflicts on the arts, gender and recent history

Time: 24 October 2019, 9.30 -16:00
Place: South Campus, room 4A-0-56
Organizer: Centre for Modern European Studies (CEMES)

The participants of the mini-conference deal with three Eastern European countries: Russia, Slovenia/Yugoslavia, and Poland. Our aim is to discern specific patterns of culture wars in Eastern Europe. What is, for the moment, at the top of culture wars in these countries? Which actors (and for what purpose) exploit specific strands of culture wars? Does the post-socialist legacy play a role in creating and keeping conflicts alive? What is the meaning of the conflicts, how do they influence—and how are they influenced—by the discourse of populism/illiberalism?

Program:

9.30 - 9.45:        K. Stala, A. Pluwak: Opening remarks

9.45-10.15:        Tea S. Andersen (KU): What was Thompson doing on that bus? Far-right nationalism, football triumphs and alienation in the Croatian public

10.15-10.45:      Mitja Velikonja (Ljubljana): New Yugoslavism in Contemporary Music in Slovenia.

10.45-11.15:      Mikhail Suslov (KU): 'Teaching it the Right Way': Conservative reinterpretation of history in present-day Russia.

11.15-11.45:      Tomas Sniegon (Lund): Katyn as site of memory of the WW2 and the Gulag

11.45-12.15:      Elzbieta Korolczuk (Stockholm): Right-wing populism and gender: lessons from Poland

12.15 -13.00:     Lunch 

13.00-13.30:      Anita Pluwak (KU): Diverse and Multifarious: A Typology of Postcommunist Arts Conflicts.

13.30-14.00:      Leszek Koczanowicz (Wroclaw): Aesthetics of Cultural Wars

14.00-14.30:      Krzysztof Stala (KU): Controversies around the socialist past (1944-1989) in the Polish context: recent
revisions of the mainstream narrative

14.30 14.45:      Coffee

14.45 -15.30:     Concluding remarks, discussion