CENTER "SEFER"
CENTER FOR JUDAIC-SLAVIC STUDIES, INSTITUTE OF SLAVIC STUDIES OF THE RUSSIAN ACADEMY OF SCIENCES
INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE
"Time for Change" in Slavic and Jewish Cultural Tradition (December 1–3, 2024, Moscow)
Dear colleagues,
Dear colleagues, we invite you to participate in the annual conference, which is the part of a long-term project on the comparative study of Jewish and Slavic cultures. The conference "Time for Change" in Slavic and Jewish Cultural Tradition will be the twenty-eighth in a series of annual meetings of scholars working on the international project "Slavic Culture and Jewish Culture: Dialogue, Similarities, Differences" since 1995. This project is carried out by the Center for Judaic-Slavic Studies of the Institute of Slavic Studies, RAS in collaboration with various scientific and public organizations interested in cultural dialogue.
In December 2022, we held the conference The ‘Last Times’ in Slavic and Jewish Cultural Tradition, primarily dedicated to eschatological themes reflected in ancient and medieval texts, literature, folklore, iconography, as well as the plots and images of the Apocalypse.
However, life is such that after the "last times," "new times" always follow; an era of revival comes after dark centuries. And "the time of change" becomes not only a boundary between epochs and a transitional period but also a chronological space where fundamental turns in history and culture occur.
Considering the centuries-old experience of ethnocultural coexistence between Slavs and Jews, we propose to discuss within the framework of the announced theme issues related to overcoming crises and social cataclysms in society (changes in social structure, social upheaval, class stratification, revolutions, moving beyond the Pale of Settlement, the relationship between people and power, repression and terror, resettlements and deportations, the Holocaust, periods of xenophobia, confessional conflicts, and struggles against religion, transitions from peace to war and from war to peace). We aim to analyze cultural phenomena that "the time of change" brings (innovation and conservatism in traditional culture, transformation of ethnocultural stereotypes under new formations, ethnolinguistic processes in social and political contexts).
A common saying describing the instability and difficulties of a changing world states: “God forbid we live in times of change.” But "the time of change" is also a time of choice; a turning point in epochs is a time for building scenarios for the future. The image of changing times is reflected in historical documents and ego-documents, in works of literature and folklore, in "oral history" texts, and in the language and symbols of culture. In folk and mass culture, any “time of change” is associated with predictions, prophecies, omens, and miracles.
The conference is interdisciplinary, welcoming presentations from historians, philologists, folklorists, ethnographers that reflect comparative aspects of the issue.
We kindly ask you to submit your applications, topics, and abstracts (up to 500 words) by October 15, 2024, via the online form.
Participant selection will be conducted by November 1, 2024.
The organizers will consider holding presentations via Zoom for participants from other cities. The organizing committee is unable to cover travel and accommodation expenses for remote participants. The best materials from the conference are expected to be published in the annual “Slavic Culture and Jewish Culture: Dialogue, Similarities, Differences” (Scopus).
The languages of the conference are Russian and English.
We would be very happy to see you at the conference—as speakers, discussion participants, or guests!
Sefer Team
Svetlana Amosova (ISS RAS)
Olga Belova (ISS RAS)
Irina Kopchenova (ISS RAS, Center "Sefer")
Victoria Mochalova (ISS RAS, Center "Sefer")
Ekaterina Zakrevskaya (ISS RAS)
