We are now inviting participants to submit abstracts for the 7th annual conference of the Slavic Graduate Students’ Association (SGSA) at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. The conference will take place April 7-8, 2017, in Urbana, IL. Prof. Jessica Greenberg from the Anthropology Dept. of UIUC will deliver a keynote lecture. Participation is open to graduate students in all related fields, including: literature, film, linguistics, history, anthropology, cultural studies, philosophy, visual arts, musicology and area studies. We are especially interested in interdisciplinary approaches to the study of Slavic, East European, and Eurasian cultures.

 In anticipation of the anniversary of the 1917 October Revolution, the theme of this year’s conference is A Century of Revolution: Culture, Politics, and People. Revolution, considered both politically but also interpreted more broadly as radical change to the status-quo, has played a recurring role throughout Eastern Europe, Russia, and Eurasia, shaping these regions’ history, culture, art, and politics. We want to examine these experiences and trace their developing narratives.

 Relevant topics might include, but are not limited to:

●     Revolutionary aesthetics, e.g. Futurism, the avant-garde, sots-art, conceptualism

●     The Solidarity movement, Prague Spring, and Hungarian Revolution of 1956

●     LGBTQIA rights movements, problems of gender, and the crisis of masculinity

●     Marxism before and after 1989, democracy in practice, and the rightward turn

●     Alternative medias and genres (science fiction, pornography, comics, etc.)

If you would like to participate, please submit an abstract (up to 200 words) and the title of your paper to slavic.uiuc@gmail.com. Please include your name, email address, institutional affiliation, year, major area of study, and any audiovisual equipment requests at the top of the page. The deadline for submitting abstracts is January 30, 2017. Participants will be notified by March 1. Applicants are welcome to submit abstracts on any and all topics related to the Slavic, East European, and Eurasian regions.