Deadline: 5 September 2016
Open to: graduate students and early career researchers in a range of humanities and social sciences working on the Central European region in the broadest possible sense
Venue: 23-24 February 2017, Prague, Czech republic

Description

The image of the bureaucrat stamping piles of documents is recognizable as a Central European cultural trope. Labyrinths of paper and faceless institutional corridors have long been part of the literary imagination of the region. In East Central Europe Between the Two World Wars, historian Joseph Rothschild suggests that bureaucracy was a feature both typifying this region and stunting its growth. But bureaucratic organization is a staple of any modern state (Weber). The organizers invite reflections on both state and private (corporate) bureaucracies and the myth of bureaucratic coherence, as well as notions of efficiency and inefficiency.

Encouraged are submissions pertaining, but not limited to work with institutional archives and materiality, representations of bureaucracy and the bureaucrat, anthropological and sociological investigations of embodied experiences of bureaucracy, and studies of institutional change and continuity over time under imperial, authoritarian, and democratic regimes. Despite the twentieth-century examples in the title, the organizers seek submissions relating to earlier historical periods too. Submissions which take a trans-national, trans-imperial and pan-regional view are particularly welcome.

The language of the conference is English.

Eligibility

• Proposals from graduate students and early career researchers in a range of humanities and social sciences working on the Central European region in the broadest possible sense

Costs

The conference will be sponsored by New York University and the Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes in Prague. Contributions towards travel and accommodation are available.

How to apply?

In fine bureaucratic tradition, submissions should include a 300 word abstract and a CV. It should be sent to Rosamund Johnston and Veronika Pehe at rj849@nyu.edu and veronikapehe@gmail.com latest by 5 September, 2016.

Notification of acceptance will be made before 30 September 2016.

For more information, please visit the official website.