CALL FOR PAPERS: The Topos of Justice Conference

A joint annual SOYUZ* and Havighurst Center Young Researchers conference on The Topos of Justice, February 27-March 1, 2014, Miami University (Ohio).

In 20th- and 21^st-century socialist and post-socialist countries various theories and practices of justice dramatically affected the lives of millions of people.  While states engaged in various experiments from constitutional to moral governance, from People’s Courts to human rights policies, citizens actively contributed, subverted, and renegotiated official regimes of justice. This conference will explore experiments in law and regulations, narratives and theories of justice, translations and material objectifications of justice, and ethic and affective circulations of justice and morality in its local and global forms.

We invite comparative and interdisciplinary research-based contributions on various issues interconnected with the topic of justice in various socialist and post-socialist societies and in the regions affected by socialism and post-socialism. Possible topics include, but are not limited to:

·         law, justice, morality

·         justice, nationalism, and the state

·         local, national, and transnational regimes of justice

·         art, science, religion, and justice

·         justice and citizenship

·         philosophical perspectives on justice

·         grassroots moral economies and ethical frameworks

Keynote speakers: Kim Lane Scheppele (Princeton University) and Robert M. Hayden (University of Pittsburgh)

Please send a 300 word abstract and a short CV by November 1^st, 2013, to Lynn Stevens at havighurstcenter@muohio.edu. Please include your full name, paper title, and academic affiliation. Write “YRC, SOYUZ 2014” in the subject line. Papers will be selected and notifications made by January 1, 2014. Funding will be available to cover accommodation, shuttle service from airports, and meals of participants. If selected to participate in the conference, you will be expected to submit a completed paper to the Havighurst Center by February 1^st, 2014.

The 2014 conference organizing committee includes Neringa Klumbytė (anthropology, Miami University), Ted Holland (geography, Miami University), Susanne Cohen (anthropology, University of Chicago). If you have any questions, please contact Neringa Klumbytė at klumbyn@miamioh.edu.

*SOYUZ, the Post-Communist Cultural Studies interest Group of the American Anthropological Association (AAA) and the official unit of the Association for Slavic, East European Studies and Eurasian Studies (ASEEES) began in 1991 as a regionally focused group responding to the fall of the Soviet and socialist states. Since then, it has broadened to include graduate students and scholars working in any region affected by socialism and post-socialism. http://www.aaanet.org/sections/soyuz/. SOYUZ unites young and senior scholars and graduate students and organize conferences every year, which are hosted by different institutions.

Young Researchers Conferences have been organized by the Havighurst Center for Russian and Post-Soviet Studies at Miami University since 2000 and have attracted young and senior scholars for discussions of various topics related to socialism and post-socialism and the region of Russia, Eastern Europe, and Eurasia. See http://www.units.muohio.edu/havighurstcenter/conferences/youngresearchers.html.