On an annual basis, the department of Slavic and a variety of co-sponsors coordinate symposia on topics of concern or interest.
Upcoming symposia:
Text, Context, and Non-Text: Grimoires in Central Europe
April 5 - 6, 2013
This conference is dedicated to the interdisciplinary study of a large corpus of magic texts that figure prominently in the cultural and intellectual history of Europe. Its focus will be grimoires, real or imagined, whose legacy has reverberated throughout European culture in the form of folktales, literature (Faust, for example), and graphic art down to the present, at times being among the few treasured possessions brought to the New World.
Past Symposia have included:
The Thirteenth Annual Czech Studies Workshop: Program April 27 – 28, 2012
The 13th Annual Czech Studies Workshop will take place on April 27-28, 2012, at the University of Texas at Austin. The Czech Studies Workshop was begun by Jindřich Toman at the University of Michigan in 1999 to bring together graduate students, younger scholars, and more established scholars in the field of Czech studies. Since then, the workshop has grown to become one of the most prominent scholarly gatherings in our field each year.
The keynote address will be delivered by Dr. Michal Kopeček,on Friday evening from 7-9 pm. His talk is entitled: “From Politics of History to Memory as Political Language: Czech Dealings with the Communist Past after 1989.” (Please see further details below)
The Czech Studies Workshop is sponsored by the Department of Slavic and Eurasian Studies/Czech Chair; the Department of History; the Center for European Studies; the Center for the Study of Modernism; the Department of American Studies; the Department of Theatre and Dance; and the Czechoslovak Studies Association.
The 2012 Czech Studies Workshop Committee: Mary Neuburger, Veronika Tuckerová. Zachary Doleshal, Tatjana Lichtenstein
Commodities and Culture in the “Other” Europe 1800-1945
University of Texas, Austin
March 9-10, 2012
The “West” and particularly Western Europe holds a privileged place in the recent state of literature on the history and “social life” of commodities across the globe. Direct colonies of the West, too, have been closely tied in to a history of global commodity exchange. In contrast, work on commodity and culture on Europe’s eastern periphery—including East-West flows of goods and models of consumption—has largely eluded study. “Commodity and Culture in the ‘Other’ Europe” will gather scholars working in relatively uncharted territory, that is, cultural and social processes surrounding commodity production, exchange and consumption in East Central and Southeastern Europe from 1800-1945. Among other things, symposium participants will consider the following questions. Were commodities and their accompanying social and cultural transformations experienced, lived, and filtered in entirely different ways in the “Other Europe”? In what ways did commodity-driven “Eastern” interaction with the West spawn imitation or, on the contrary, resentment and reaction? Were parts of “Eastern Europe” rightfully a part of commodity-driven core transformations, innovators not imitators, centers not peripheries? Also we will explore the extent to which the social lives of commodities were shaped by local mores and experiences. In other words was the consumption of certain products tantamount to a leveling “Westernization,” or was it integrated into distinctly local practices, forms, and meanings? Finally how were various incarnations of commodity exchange, production and consumption linked to the ushering in of modernityinto the region—to what extent did they make Eastern Europe modern and how tightly was this tied to the West European experience. Ultimately, discussion of these questions promises to shed light on contemporary cultures of consumption in “New Europe,” and more pointedly its ongoing encounter with the West via commodity exchange and consumption.
Teaching the Speakers: Heritage Language Learners and the Classroom
Presentations at this one-day workshop will focus on one commonly-taught language (Spanish), and less-commonly taught language (Russian). The talks will address the growing necessity of integrating learners with varying degrees of prior exposure to the language into the curriculum, recognizing the different instructional needs, cultural perceptions, and affective factors of heritage language learners. Following the morning presentations, an hour-long open discussion will address any questions and comments.
For more information on featured presentations, please view our Agenda page or View Event Poster Here
10 AM – 1:30 PM
Mezes (MEZ) 1.306
Sponsored by the Center for Russian, East European and Eurasian Studies and the Texas Language Center
