Author: aacapstudies

AACaPS invites panel and paper proposals for the 16th Biennial Conference to be held at the University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia on 2-3 February 2023. The event will be hosted by the School of Social Sciences, Faculty of Arts, Design and Architecture, University of New South Wales, Sydney.

Conference Theme: War, Peace, and the Post-Pandemic World: Eurasian Perspectives

In many ways, the dominant news themes in 2022 have been the ongoing impact of the Covid-19 pandemic everywhere and the Russian invasion of Ukraine. One focus of this conference will be on how both of these phenomena have impacted the Communist and post-communist societies of Europe and Asia in various ways. But we will also be looking at a much bigger picture – namely, the concepts of war and peace (broadly understood to include, for example, trade conflicts, old and new Cold Wars, culture and soft power competition, etc.) in these regions, as well as contemporary and likely future developments.

The topics can be examined from numerous angles, including the political and economic effects and implications of both wars and pandemics; the continuing rise and the implications of authoritarianism; the ramifications for arts and culture; historical comparisons; changing international allegiances and security patterns; education and public health; sustainable development; and more. In short, while the theme reflects recent developments of the global scale and thus might look somewhat narrow, we welcome presentations that focus on socio-economic, political, educational, cultural, environmental, other public policy topics in the countries of former USSR, Eastern and South-eastern Europe, and Asia whether they are contemporary or historical.

Submission of Proposals:

Please send the following details to aacapsconference@gmail.com
1) name, 2) current institutional affiliation, 3) title/position, 4) postal address and email, 5) title of panel or paper, 6) panel description and/or abstract of paper (200 words or less). Deadline for all proposals is 30 September 2022.

Important notes:

1) We particularly welcome PhD students and Early-Career Researchers from Australasian and overseas universities to attend and present your work at the conference. In-person or virtually. Limited funding might be available to support accepted presenters’ registration and/or travel costs. Further details will be made available in October 2022.
2) At the conference, the host will cover morning tea, lunch and afternoon tea on both days. Participants will cover their own traveling and local lodging.
3) We welcome expressions of interest among all participants to serve as panel chairs and discussants. Please send your EOI together with your paper/panel proposal submission.
4) Publications: Select papers presented at the conference will be invited for publication in special journal issues.
5) Two PhD student paper awards will be announced at the end of the conference.
6) While all panels will be in hybrid mode, we encourage all participants to make the effort and attend in person so that we all enjoy more academic and professional momentum.

Important dates:
Abstract submission deadline – 30 September 2022
Panel and abstract acceptance notification issued – 31 October 2022Registration deadline for your name to appear in conference program – 31 December 2022

Conference Registration Fees:
Standard – A$150;
Concessional – A$100 (current AACaPS members, full-time students);
Virtual only – A$50

Contact:
Conference email: aacapsconference@gmail.com
AACAPS website: http://www.aacapstudies.com
Conference Twitter: @Aacaps2023 (stay tuned!)

Conference Academic Committee:
Associate Professor Fengshi Wu, UNSW Sydney (convenor); Dr. Alexandr Akimov, Griffith University (convenor); Professor Emeritus Graeme Gill, University of Sydney; Dr. Alexander Korolev, UNSW Sydney; Dr. Nina Markovic, Macquarie University; and, Dr. Sofya Glazunova, Queensland Technology University.

The Jean Monnet Project on Comparative Migration (PROCAM) hosted by Monash University, Melbourne, Australia, analyses the implications of intra- and extra-EU migration in the context of the post-Brexit EU. Australian policy makers have a particular interest in the future development of the EU migration policy, the Single Market and its labour markets after Brexit. This conference aims to address developments in migration, labour mobility, and immigration policy in the European Union and Australia.
Key Conference Themes
· Labour mobility and immigration policy (Special areas of interest: Asia-Pacific region and Europe)
· Climate change and refugees (as part of Development and migration theme)
· Comparative Australia – EU migration policy
· EU candidate countries and migration
· The ‘Brexit effect’ on labour migration, and
· Global migration impacts on the Ukraine war.

Conference Details
This is a hybrid event (face-to-face and online) that will run from 25 to 26 August, 2022 and be held at Monash Conference Centre, Level 7, 30 Collins Street, Melbourne, 3000 and via Zoom. Please email an abstract of up to 200 words (with a short bio) on one of the key themes to Conference Coordinator, Jessica Quirk at Jess.Quirk@monash.edu
Submission deadline: Friday, 15 July 2022.
Additional conference information can be found on the Conference website here.

There is a limited funding for domestic travel and accommodation for selected papers.

AACAPS has written to Australian Universities calling for some practical support to students and scholars displaced by war in Ukraine and crackdown on academic freedoms in Russia and Belarus.

We will publish the list of the initiatives on our website as we get to know about them.

1. CDU has announced a scholarship fund to support students from Ukraine. For further information, please see:

https://www.cdu.edu.au/news/cdu-announces-new-scholarship-fund-ukrainian-students

AACAPS is closely following the situation in Ukraine with grave concern. We condemn the war of aggression launched against Ukraine by the Russian government. We urge all parties involved to seek a peaceful resolution to this conflict. In this terrible crisis, our thoughts are with the innocent victims of warfare.

Beyond Borders and Boundaries: Europe, Eurasia and Asia

More than 60 scholars, veterans and emerging, from Australia, New Zealand and around the world, gathered physically or digitally on November 25-26th 2021 at RMIT University’s European Union Centre of Excellence. The conference was jointly sponsored by AACaPS (Australasian Association for Communist and Post-Communist Studies) and ESAANZ (European Studies Association Australia and New Zealand).

Amidst a raging global pandemic which respects no boundaries, it was more than appropriate for scholars to be presenting and reflecting on array of topics that went beyond any one nation state in terms of place and time. Hence the broad geographical and temporal lenses, from Central Asia to the Balkans, from the Second World War to post-Cold war conflicts and relations. Hence too the sweep of approaches: from literature, geo-politics and economics to diplomatic, environmental and cultural considerations.

Among the highlights were:

• a keynote speech on ‘How Central Bankers Transformed the Postcommunist World’ by Professor Juliet Johnson MacGill University
• a special presentation on the ‘Road to Peace and Cooperation’ in Nagorny Karabakh, by His Excellency Dr Alexey Pavlovsky Ambassador of the Russian Federation.
• ‘The Flight of Soviet Refugees to Iran, 1928-1933, a novel paper by Marcus James (ANU) and ‘Internationalisation of Higher Education as a Threat: Voices of University Lecturers in Post-Soviet Uzbekistan’ an insightful analysis by Dilnoza Ubaydullaeva,  which won the conference PhD awards.

Conference participants were privileged to see a special showing of a celebrated documentary directed by Petar Bojovic tracing the human side of Europe’s migration crisis in the Balkans: ‘Routes: Humanising the journey.’ https://www.routesdocumentary.com/

Warmly received were keynote addresses by two longstanding, distinguished members of AACaPS:

• Emeritus Professor Graeme Gill, on ‘Democracy and Dictatorship’ in Post-Soviet Russia
• Emeritus Professor Leslie Holmes on the ‘Decline of Neo-Liberalism in Europe and Asia.’

Graeme and Leslie’s engaging addresses were capped off with celebrity presentations for their years of service: glass trophies and hoodies appropriately emblazoned: ‘Russian Soul Here’! A fitting end to an excellent conference!

Bob Miller and AACaPS

Bob was one of the founding members of AACaPS, or as it was then the Australasian Association for the Study of the Socialist Countries (AASSC), when the organisation was established under Harry Rigby’s guidance in the mid-1970s. Bob was always a full and positive participant in the association’s activities. He served as the president, was a long-time member of the executive, and was active in the production of the newsletter that characterised the association’s early decades. Bob was a permanent fixture at the biennial conferences, always giving papers, commenting on the presentations others gave, and adding his wisdom to the conduct of the association’s general meetings. His papers, many of which were on Yugoslavia but he also wrote on the USSR, were always solidly researched and usually provided a sound basis for discussion and disagreement. Bob liked nothing more than involvement in such discussion, and when disagreements arose, Bob always engaged in them in a robust fashion. He would vigorously make his points and defend his positions, but he always remained within the bounds of respectful scholarly discourse; he was known for the assistance he gave to younger scholars. Bob’s presentations were usually characterised by a sardonic humour, fuelled by his objection to the authoritarian nature of the systems he studied, and he was a never-ending source of “Radio Armenia” jokes. Conference sessions have been the poorer since his health problems prevented him from attending.

Graeme Gill

Dear members

Please register for the Joint AACaPS-ESAANZ Conference 2021 here: https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/conference-beyond-borders-and-boundaries-europe-eurasia-and-asia-tickets-175924092697

The conference program is available here.

Conference theme: Beyond Borders and Boundaries: Europe, Eurasia and Asia

Most of us have become acutely aware of borders and boundaries since Covid-19 struck! These boundaries are physical, psychological and systemic. No doubt ‘borders and boundaries’ are acutely relevant to the regions of our interest (Europe, Eurasia and Asia). In adopting ‘borders and boundaries’ as the theme for this conference, the organisers hope to include analysis of – and/or to cross – as many types of boundaries as possible.

Therefore, there could be consideration of physical borders (e.g. the problems of joining or leaving the EU, Schengen, NATO, the Eurasian Union, the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation or the Belt and Road Initiative; Brexit; territorial disputes), psychological boundaries (e.g. Russians having to think of themselves as Russians but not Soviets; Serbs seeing themselves as Serbs but not Yugoslavs), cultural boundaries (e.g. problems of translation; problems of harmonising legislation or systems); political boundaries (e.g. transitioning from one type of system or regime to another), economic boundaries (e.g. from free trade to protectionism), historical boundaries (e.g. impact of certain historical events or actions) or transgressions of various kinds (e.g. challenges to cultural traditions, historiography, gender stereotypes; criminality; cyber security and digital challenges). Methodologically, there could be papers that challenge or cross discipline boundaries.

In short, there should be room for all at this exciting conference.

Dear colleagues

This free event focusing on Central Asia (September 2021) could be of interest to you and your networks.

“Held in Ghent (in Flanders, Belgium) from Wednesday 22 to Friday 24 September 2021.

The purposes of the event are threefold:

Firstly, to bring together scholars, students, interested members of the public and policymakers working on or interested in the Central Asian region to interact and, as such, strengthen a network of Central Asia-related research and -education in Europe.

Secondly, to show, by examining its identities and historical roots, societal and political dynamics, external interactions, and economy and environment, that the Central Asian region is not merely a passive object in abstract geopolitics, but that it also has histories, societies, identities and aspirations of its own.

Thirdly, examine what (potential) effects and impacts of developments in Central Asia, a region situated right beyond Europe’s eastern rim, have on the EU and Europe in general (and vice-versa).”

Further information: https://eiscas.eu/events/upcoming-events/eurasian-insights-conference-in-ghent-past-current-and-upcoming-dynamics-in-the-central-asian-region-and-their-possible-impacts-for-europe/

Conference theme: Beyond Borders and Boundaries: Europe, Eurasia and Asia

Most of us have become acutely aware of borders and boundaries since Covid-19 struck! These boundaries are physical, psychological and systemic. No doubt ‘borders and boundaries’ are acutely relevant to the regions of our interest (Europe, Eurasia and Asia). In adopting ‘borders and boundaries’ as the theme for this conference, the organisers hope to include analysis of – and/or to cross – as many types of boundaries as possible.

Therefore, there could be consideration of physical borders (e.g. the problems of joining or leaving the EU,  Schengen, NATO, the Eurasian Union, the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation or the Belt and Road Initiative; Brexit; territorial disputes), psychological boundaries (e.g. Russians having to think of themselves as Russians but not Soviets; Serbs seeing themselves as Serbs but not Yugoslavs), cultural boundaries (e.g. problems of translation; problems of harmonising legislation or systems); political boundaries (e.g. transitioning from one type of system or regime to another), economic boundaries (e.g. from free trade to protectionism), historical boundaries (e.g. impact of certain historical events or actions) or transgressions of various kinds (e.g. challenges to cultural traditions, historiography, gender stereotypes; criminality; cyber security and digital challenges). Methodologically, there could be papers that challenge or cross discipline boundaries.

In short, there should be room for all at this exciting conference. 

Submission of proposals

Please send the following to aacaps2021conference@gmail.com

Proposal to include:

1)    Full name, 2) current institutional affiliation, 3) title/position, 4) contact details including telephone number, 5) title of panel or paper, 6) panel description or abstract of paper (200 words or less).

 If you are submitting a panel proposal, please provide the contact details and abstracts of all panellists, with a maximum of 4 speakers per panel.

Key dates

§  Abstract/panel submission deadline: 1 September 2021

§  Panel and abstract acceptance notification issued: By 1 October 2021

Depending on the nature and quality of submissions, we are working on arranging special issues in journals such as Australian and New Zealand Journal of European Studies (ANZJES), Journal of Soviet and Post-Soviet Politics and Society, and Europe-Asia Studies.

Conference registration

§  Standard—A$120

§  Concessional – A$80 (current AACAPS/ESAANZ members, full-time students)

§  Virtual only – TBC

Contact

Organising Committee

Email: aacaps2021conference@gmail.com