AACPCS CONFERENCE PROGRAMME

Draft Program
(as at 25th Jan)

Bi-Annual Conference of

The Australasian Association of Communist and Post-Communist Studies

Contemporary Europe Research Centre

Monday 29th and Tuesday 30th January 2007

Day 1 Monday 29 January

8.45 - 9.15 am – Conference Registration
Level 2, Grand Foyer, 234 Queensberry Street

9.15 - 9.30 am – Welcome and Introduction
Leslie Holmes, President of AACPCS & Philomena Murray, Director of CERC

9.30 - 10.30 am – Session 1

Keynote Address - Svetozar Stojanovic (Serbian-American Centre, Belgrade and Belgrade University): ‘The State of Humanity and the Transition from Authoritarian Communism to Democratic Capitalism’

Chaired by Robert F. Miller

10.30- 11.00 am ¬– Morning Coffee

11.00 am - 12.30 pm – Session 2 (Parallel streams)

Stream 1 – Russian International Relations and Security (First Panel):
Russia as a Great Power – Implications for Asia-Pacific Security

Chair: Alexey Muaviev

Susanna Hast (University of Lapland, Finland): ‘Constructing a Concept of Sphere of Influence’

Yuri Tsyganov (Canberra and CERC): `Russia in North-East Asia’

Stream 2 – Literature and Culture (First Panel):
The Uses of the Past in Post-Communist Postmodernism

Kathleen Parthé (Rochester University, New York, USA): ‘Inherited Words: The Legacy of Dangerous Texts and Bold Speeches in Contemporary Russia’

Slobodanka Vladiv-Glover (Monash University): ‘A Genealogy of [Post]communist Ethics: Re-appraisals of the Past and Future in Russian Postmodern Culture’

Lynne Star (Deakin University): ‘Catharsis: The Communist Terror in a Bulgarian Film. Conversations with Vania Zhekova, Independent Documentarist’

12.30 - 1.30 pm – Lunch

1.30 - 3.00 pm – Session 3 (Parallel)

Stream 1 - Russian International Relations and Security (Second Panel):
Russia, Eurasia and Global Threats

Chair: Robert F. Miller

Alexey D. Muraviev (Curtin University of Technology, Perth): ‘Russian Strategic and Defence Policy in the Asia-Pacific’

Leslie Holmes (University of Melbourne): ‘Organised Crime in Russia and Eurasia: Implications for Australia’

Irina Babich (Moscow, Russia): ‘The Concepts of “Islamic State” and “Islamic Law” in the Contemporary North Caucasus: What do the Radical Islamic Leaders want to do in this Region?’

Stream 2 - Literature and Culture (Second Panel): New Discourses and Popular Arrivals

Chair: Slobodanka Vladiv-Glover

Julia Vassilieva (CCLCS, Monash): ‘Cosmos in Russian Postmodernism: “First on the Moon” as a Mocumentary (2005)’

Habibollah Abolhassan Shirazi (Tehran Azad University, Iran): ‘Religion as Discourse: Communist and Post-Communist Community’

Francesca Bedda (Editor, e-bulletin Asian Currents): ‘Frozen Music: The “New” Russian Revival of Art Moderne in the1990s’

3.00 - 3.30 pm – Afternoon Tea

3.30 - 5.00 pm – Session 4 (Parallel sessions)

Stream 1 – Comparative Post-Communist Politics

Chair: Leslie Holmes

Roderic Pitty (University of Western Australia): ‘Russia and Eurasia Responding to European Integration’

Enayatollah Yazdani (Isfahan, Iran): ‘Political Reform in the Post-Communist Societies: The Role of the Leadership’

Milenko Petrovic (University of Canterbury, New Zealand): ‘The Past, but Which One? - Investigating the Historical Causes of the Slow Progress in Post-Communist Transition in the Balkans’

Stream 2 - Literature and Culture (Third Panel):
Group Identity as a New Power Structure

Chair: Robert Horvath

Ana Androsik (Rutgers University, USA): ‘Multi-Ethnic Women’s Communities Representation in the Midst of the State Formation. Selected Cases from Kosovo’

Peter Barrer (Monash University): ‘Art, Engagement and Adversity: Slovak Popular Music during and after Communist Party Rule’

Elena Neva (Boston School of Modern Languages, USA): ‘Tajik Recovery of Ethnic History: The Crafts Collection at the Museum of Ethnography, Dushanbe’

5.00 - 6.00 pm – Conference Reception

7.00 pm – Conference Dinner

Day 2 Tuesday 30th January

9.00 – 9.30 am – Conference Registration

9.30 - 11.00 am – Session 5 (Parallel Sessions)

Stream 1 - Australia and Communism

Chair: Leslie Holmes

Peter Monteath (Flinders University): ‘Australia and the GDR’

Simone Battiston (Swinburne University): ‘The Italian Communist Party in Australia: Origins and Early Developments, 1966-1973’

Stream 2 – Economics and Political Economy (First Panel)

Chair: Stephen Fortescue

Alexandr Akimov (University of New England): 'Financial Development and Economic Growth: Empirical Evidence from Countries in Transition'

Murray Raff and Anna Taitslin (University of Canberra): ‘Contradictions in Privatization in Eastern Europe as a Reflection of Contradictions in the Socialist Concept of Ownership’

Robert F. Miller (Australian National University), ‘The Difficult Fight Against Corruption in Transitional Systems: The Case of Serbia’

11.00 - 11.30 am – Morning Coffee

11.30 am - 1.00 pm – Session 6 (Parallel)

Stream 1 – Central and Eastern Europe (First Panel)

Chair: Robert F. Miller

Phillip Mikolajewski: ‘The Role of the Catholic Church in Poland in the 1980s’

Stefan Auer (La Trobe University): ‘Jan Patocka, Polemos and the Meaning of Europe’

Dr Uldis Ozolins (La Trobe University): ‘Re-evaluating Western interventions on Minority Rights in Eastern Europe in the Post-Soviet Period’

Stream 2 – Russia (First Panel)

Chair: Graeme Gill

Tony Phillips (University of Melbourne): Limits to political space – A defining logic of Russia’s transition?

Geoff Jukes (University of Melbourne): 'Russia under Putin; What the Data Suggest'

Stream 3 – Literature and Culture (Fourth Panel): Post-Communist Identities

Nikola Kalamir (University of Sydney): ‘Is there a Yugoslav Identity ?’

Tshimanga Bamana Kuamba Gabriel (Fr. Gaby Bamana) (Antoon Mostaert Center, Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia): ‘21st Century Mongol Identity in the Globalisation Context’

1.00 - 2.00 pm – Lunch

2.00 – 2.30 pm – AACPCS AGM

2.30 - 4.00 pm – Session 7 (Parallel)

Stream 1 – Central and Eastern Europe (Second Panel)

Chair: Leslie Holmes

Lynne Alice (Deakin University): ‘The Heritage of Communism & Post-Conflict Democratisation in Kosovo’

Iva Pauker (University of Melbourne): ‘Beyond the Barrel of the Gun: War Veterans and Reconciliation in Former Yugoslavia’

Aleksandar Pavković (Macquarie University), ‘Serbia and its role in the break-up of Yugoslavia’

Olivera Simic (University of Melbourne): ‘Gender, War and Peace: the Case of Bosnia and Herzegovina’

Stream 2 – Russia (Second Panel - Historical Aspects)

Chair: Graeme Gill

Anna Taitslin (University of Canberra): ‘Chayanov’s Peasant Utopia as the Narodnik Alternative to the Bolshevik Collectivism’

Adrian Jones (La Trobe University): ‘Peter at the Prut: 1711’

Stephen Wheatcroft (University of Melbourne): 'Economic Factors and the Great Terror'

Stream 3 – Literature and Culture (Fifth Panel): New Idioms/New Values in Post-Communist Culture

Chair: Julia Vassilieva

Anna Mostovaia (Monash University): ‘The Development of Beauty Ideals in Soviet and Post-Soviet Era as Reflected in Women Writers' Prose’

Anna Gladkova (Australian National University): ‘New and Traditional Emotion Terms in Russian: Semantics and Culture’

Elvira Callagher (Voronezh State University, Russia): ‘The “New Russian Language” in the Media and the Prose of L. Ulitskaya: Problems of Translation’

4.00 - 4.15 pm – Afternoon Tea

4.15 - 5.45 pm – Session 8 (Parallel)

Stream 1 – Post-Soviet Symbols, Discourses and Identities

Chair: Tony Phillips

Graeme Gill (University of Sydney): ‘The Fall of Socialism and the Fate of Bodies’

Ludmilla a'Beckett (Monash University): ‘Political Myths of the Ukrainian Orange Revolution in Russian Public Discourse’

Yitzhak M. Brudny and Evgeny Finkel (Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel): ‘Democracy and National Identity in Russia and Ukraine’

Stream 2 - Economics and Political Economy (Second Panel)

Chair: Murray Raff

Linda Bowman (Australian Defence Force Academy, University of New South Wales): ‘The Inquisitional Tax Inspector: Controlling Corporations in Silver Age Russia and Progressive Era America.’

Stephen Fortescue (University of New South Wales): ‘Regional Government - Business Relations Under Putin’

Hans Hendrischke (University of New South Wales): ‘Multilevel Governance and Local Power Nexus in China’

Stream 3 – Literature and Culture (Sixth Panel): Destruction and Reconstruction in Culture and Society

Stuart Hill (AAF): ‘Response of the International Community to Complex Emergency in Bosnia and Herzegovina’

Eleonora Morelli (Monash University): ‘The Deconstruction of Representation in Vladimir Sorokin’s Prose: Otkrytye Sezona’

Nikolai Gladanac (Monash University) ‘The Ethical Object in Jan Svankmajers (Post-) Communist Cinema’

5.45 pm – Closing Remarks

CONTEMPORARY EUROPE RESEARCH CENTRE
Jean Monnet European Centre of Excellence
The University of Melbourne
Level 2, 234 Queensberry St, Carlton