Call for papers
Conference
IMAGOLOGY OF THE COLD WAR:
‘US’ AND ‘THEM’ IN SOVIET AND AMERICAN MASS CULTURE
St Petersburg, October 3-5, 2024
Herzen State Pedagogical University of Russia
Organized by
- The Institute of History and Social Sciences at the Herzen University;
- Research project “The Images of Enemy in the Cold War Popular Culture: Their Content, Contemporary Reception and Usage in Russian and U.S. Symbolic Politics” (Russian Science Foundation, grant No 22-18-00305).
The aim of the conference is comparative analysis of:
- production, promotion, and consumption of the images of “Us” and “Them” in Soviet and American Cold War mass cultures;
- the influence of these images on contemporary Russia-U.S. relations.
The current event continues to work on the problems the international conference “The images of American and Soviet enemies in the USSR and U.S. Cold War films” held in St Petersburg in 2020 focused on. Now the subject of discussions are constructing the images of “Us” and “Them” also in other branches of mass culture: cartoons; comics; posters; photographs; pop-music; advertising; fiction; sport; video games; and others. The time period – 1946 – 1991; at the same time the questions how the images of “Us” and “Them” have been transformed after the end of the Cold War and how these images are reflected in contemporary social views and political usage are also of great interest. Though the conference focuses on the two superpowers mass cultures, the papers on the experience of other countries – participants of the Cold War confrontation are welcome as well. The subject of the analysis will be both the ways of constructing the enemy images and their deconstruction and attempts to establish mutual understanding between the USSR and USA.
The main topic:
Section 1. Imagology of the Cold War: methodology of studying Soviet and American mass culture.
Section 2. “Us” and “Them” in the Cold War mass culture: cartoons; comics; posters; photographs; pop-music; advertising; fiction; sport; video games; and others.
Section 3. “Us” and “Them” in the Cold War cinema;
Section 4. The Cold War imagery in the Russian and U.S. mass cultures after 1991;
Section 5. The images of the Cold War in contemporary politics and social views.
The conference will be held in a mixed format: face-to-face and remote. The working language is Russian. There is no conference fee. Please note that travel and accommodation funds cannot be provided.
Please send the proposals to riabov1@inbox.ru no later than July 20, 2024. The notification of acceptance will be sent to the corresponding author by July 31, 2024.
On behalf of the Organizing Committee:
Prof. Dr. Oleg V. Riabov
The Institute of History and Social Sciences at the Herzen University
E-mail: riabov1@inbox.ru
The conference web page http://en.coldwarenemy.ru/conference2024/
Conference
IMAGOLOGY OF THE COLD WAR:
‘US’ AND ‘THEM’ IN SOVIET AND AMERICAN MASS CULTURE
St Petersburg, October 3-5, 2024
Herzen State Pedagogical University of Russia
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