3rd International Conference Socialism on the Bench
COMMUNISTS AND COMMUNIST PARTIES: POLICIES, ACTIONS, DEBATES
Pula, September 28-30, 2017

CALL FOR PAPERS (pdf)
Application form (doc)

Deadline: April 1, 2017

While the themes of the last conference reflected the anniversaries of 1945 and 1990, with the beginning and end of state socialism, the third Socialism on the Bench conference will again be echoing historical events. With the theme Communists and Communist Parties: Policies, Actions, Debates, we want to encourage research into communist activity in a broader geographical area than the one covered by socialist Yugoslavia, and during a period lasting longer than the existence of that country. Primarily moved by the centenary of the October Revolution, we are open to all presentations that will consider realized and unrealized communist policies, successful and failed actions, fertile and sterile debates. In other words, all the stratified currents within the communist circles who have fought for power, or gained it, kept it and lost it, all the weight of the relationships between communists and towards anti-communist forces, all the successes and failures of communist activities in the fields of internal and foreign politics, social and economic relations, education, science, culture and art. Being aware of the fact that the last two conferences gathered scholars who are mainly working on Yugoslav themes, and that this interest will continue in the future, we emphasize another important commemorative motive: the 80th anniversary of Josip Broz Tito’s rise to the head of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia and the beginning of its federalisation with the establishment of the Communist Parties of Croatia and Slovenia. The League of Communists of Yugoslavia, the width of its impact and the amount of various available sources, are urgently demanding new researches and interpretations. We expect that the conference subjects will include: leading and anonymous party members, former communists, as well as those defined as their internal and external enemies; the events that communists initiated, the processes they managed, the occurrences they could not control; the theories and ideals they promoted, as well as the practices which confirmed the chosen line or forced them to divert from it. A look at the chronology would reveal even more major and minor anniversaries which also can be a theme of the conference, but 1917 and 1937 are strong enough catalysts for this conference call, and can help us to prepare the terrain for an exciting three days discussion in September 2017. Until then, participants will have almost a year time for research and for thinking through their submissions, which we are very much looking forward to receive.

News
04/11/2016 - The call for papers has been published. Application deadline: April 1, 2017.
12/04/2017 - Thanks for your 100 applications. Confirmations to accepted applicants will follow by May 15.
15/05/2017 - Participants notified about the acceptance of their proposal. Conference programme will be published in early July.
15/07/2017 - Conference programme published.
05/09/2017 - Conference programme updated.
16/09/2017 - Programme updated (third version).
21/09/2017 - Book of Abstracts published and programme updated.

Conference programme
Download PDF 21.9. (4th version)

Book of Abstracts
Download PDF

Keynote lecturers
Stephen A. Smith, University of Oxford
Jens Gieseke, ZZF Potsdam
Pavel Kolář, EUI Florence

Organizer
Sveučilište Jurja Dobrile u Puli / Juraj Dobrila University of Pula
Centar za kulturološka i povijesna istraživanja socijalizma / Centre for Cultural and Historical Research of Socialism

Organization Committee
Igor Duda, Lada Duraković, Boris Koroman, Andrea Matošević, Anita Buhin, Igor Stanić, Saša Vejzagić, Chiara Bonfiglioli

Contact
ckpis.conf@gmail.com

Photos
Facebook Album

Conference venue
Sveučilište Jurja Dobrile u Puli / Juraj Dobrila University of Pula
Filozofski fakultet / Faculty of Humanities
Ivana Matetića Ronjgova 1, Pula

Accommodation
Organised by participants.
Discount with a code in the hotel: Hotel Veli Jože, Bečka 9, Pula

We thank for the support
Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung Southeast Europe

Published papers
Igor Duda, ed., Komunisti i komunističke partije: politike, akcije, debate. Zbornik odabranih radova s Trećeg međunarodnog znanstvenog skupa Socijalizam na klupi, Pula, 28-30. rujna 2017., Srednja Europa and Sveučilište Jurja Dobrile u Puli, Zagreb and Pula, 2019. CeKaPISarnica