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| Invited Volume on Oral History in Post-Socialist Societies |
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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.grinchenKarazin Kharkiv National University) This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it (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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