Centrifugal Forces: Reading Russia’s Regional Identities and Initiatives
An interdisciplinary, international conference
at the University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia
March 26-28, 2015
Call for Papers
Contemporary Russia has been described as a “country of broken links,” where much of the financial
and intellectual wealth of the country is centered in Moscow and Moscow Region (with a population
of nearly 20 million), while the rest of the country (another 123 million people) remain unheard and
underestimated. At first glance, Russia’s regions often appear to mimic Moscow in all sorts of ways—
politically, visually, architecturally, and intellectually… Until they don’t—for example, in the 2010
census thousands of Siberians protested the impact of the center by self-identifying as “Sibiriak.”
Blogs, tweets, as well as conventional hard-copy writing, challenge overly centralized power and
resources. Legal challenges to maltreatment from Moscow have arisen in the South Russian-North
Caucasus region. Ethnographers, literary scholars, cultural historians, political scientists,
anthropologists—all are finding that many people in Russia’s regions are taking initiative and
articulating their particular identities and interests.
Proposals for “Centrifugal Forces” will resist “Moscow-centric” perceptions of Russia and, through
various disciplinary approaches to studying the Russian provinces, strive to hear voices from the
regions instead of allowing views and opinions from Moscow to dominate. They will consider ways in
which people on the peripheries engage in cultural, economic, and political processes; how they
represent themselves culturally, artistically, and socially; how self-perception is developing in various
regions; and, importantly in the 21st century, how the Internet impacts the very notions of center and
periphery.
“Centrifugal Forces” will be a three-day conference offering broad interdisciplinary perspectives on
approaching regional study. Panels will blend historical and contemporary perspectives on being
peripheral. Talks will deal with a broad array of regional experience, in relatively “hot” regions such as
the North Caucasus, as well as other areas in European and Asiatic Russia; and addressing activity in
rural areas, as well as regional cities.
The organizers invite 20-minute papers from scholars from all relevant disciplines. Please submit a
250-word abstract and 1-2 pp. c.v. by December 15, 2014 to: clowes@virginia.edu
Themes might include but are not limited to contemporary or historical themes that characterize
aspects of regional cultures that show local and regional initiative:
• Distinctive cultural groups, organizations and
• Defining or distinctive regional/local rituals
institutions (museums, theaters, film-making and
and events
music initiatives, literary groups)
• City or rural regional “branding”
• Political organizations that support regional
• Uses of the Internet (e.g. to help regional
rights and interests
people communicate, bond, and organize)
• Religious organization and expression showing
• Distinctive local/ regional imagined
regional initiative
geographies
For more information please visit our website: http://www.russiasperipheries.com.
Organizers: Edith Clowes (Brown-Forman Professor, Slavic, Univ. of Virginia; eec3c@virginia.edu)
Gisela Erbslöh (Radio journalist, SWR, DLF, deutschlandradiokultur, Germany; gerbsloeh@aol.com)
Ani Kokobobo (Assistant Professor, Slavic, University of Kansas; akokobobo@ku.edu)
“Centrifugal Forces,” Spring, 2015