Russia’s large-scale war in Ukraine challenges the modern world and calls into question the phenomena of peaceful coexistence, which seems to have been taken for granted in the system of international politics. For most critics of the Putin regime, the war did not come as a complete surprise. What has been shocking is the scale of military actions and the pace of their escalation. The impact of the war on Russian internal affairs, institutions, and culture has also exceeded all expectations. The goal of the conference is to explore the background and causes of the crisis, internal (i.e., pertaining to the history of the region) as well as global, related to the political interests and direct or indirect engagement of international agents of the military conflict. We will also reflect on perspectives of social and economic analysis of the current state of affairs and the role of education in the war-torn world. The conference will address such subjects as forced migration of academic institutions, international cooperation in education, the boundaries of such interaction, and the possibilities of intercultural dialogue between intellectuals of the countries involved in the war in Ukraine. Following the best traditions of Liberal Arts education, the conference will be interdisciplinary, inviting scholarly contributions from the perspectives of History, Philosophy, Political Science, Economics, Journalism/Media, and Cultural Studies.
Participants are invited to respond to the following panels questions:
Please submit your proposals by January 31, 2023, to gagarincenter[at]smolny.org (Subject line: “Gagarin Conference 2023”).
The application must include:
The organizing committee will inform panel organizers of their decision by February 10, 2023.
A limited number of travel grants to cover transportation and accommodation of conference participants is available on a competitive basis.
For inquiries, please write to gagarincenter[at]smolny.org