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Call for Papers Theme: Key Moments of the 20th Century and Their Legacy Type: 2019 Interdisciplinary Conference on Human Rights Institution: Anglo-American University Norwich University Location: Prague (Czech Republic) Date: 7.–8.3.2019 Deadline: 31.10.2018 __________________________________________________ Conference organizers solicit inter-disciplinary papers and presentations from undergraduate students, graduate students, and faculty. The theme of the conference, which all submissions are encouraged but do not have to address directly; will commemorate important dates in Central European human rights history. In 1919, delegates at the Versailles Peace Conference drafted the Covenant of the League of Nations, the first parliament of nations in world history. In 1938, participants in the Munich Conference abandoned Czechoslovakia to Nazi Germany, which in 1939 was violated by Nazi occupation and resulted in the most destructive war of 1939-1945. A decade later, a 1948 coup engineered by the Soviet KGB overthrew an elected government of Czechoslovakia and replaced it with a communist regime. The Prague Spring, an attempt to assert free speech and cultural expression, challenged communist rule of Czechoslovakia in 1968-1969 and foreshadowed a successful return to democracy twenty years later. In 1977 the European Communities representatives met in Helsinki with representatives of the Soviet block on a conference that opened the gate to respecting human rights in Eastern Europe. A cascading chain of dissent led in 1989 to the peaceful democratic transition termed the Velvet Revolution, in the former Czechoslovakia. Emphasis on self-determination led soon to a division of the country into the Czech Republic and Slovak Republic. We believe, that the complicated historical developments in Central European countries gives strong reasons to turn the attention of academic community, and especially the young generation, to the seemingly distant (but close) historical moments mentioned above. A better understanding of the recent past may help in interpreting current developments in politics and their consequences to the human rights movement. Thus, the goal of the conference is to apply the lessons from the past to recent developments in many countries. This goal is important especially in the context of populism’s rise and the electoral success of parties that incline to authoritative and nationalistic policies. The rise of these policies and values is marked by the decline of public trust in democratic institutions. This is reflected not only on the rise of the populist radical-right parties but also in the salience of secessionist movements in established democracies. On the other side, the new democracies formed after 1989 have witnessed the slow and incremental erosion of democratic institutions as a result of the fear of terrorism, political violence, and linkage of politics with narrow economic interests. This erosion includes causes political apathy in the public, lack of political culture including misrepresentation and misleading information provided by politicians, a misuse of historical experience, ineffective coalition building, and the oppression of media and civil society. It seems the democratic momentum gained in the early stages of the post-Cold War has disappeared. As a result of this emerging transnational wave of authoritarianism, of growing importance to derive lessons from the past to make sense of how and why this is happening across different contexts. The conference will offer strong emphasis on feedback and discussion, moderated by expert chairpersons in various sessions. The conference will aim at young scholars as well as student works – both in presentations and active discussions in special sessions. The conference will also include experiential learning for students. One of the planned events will be a two-day Moot Court for students that will include competing teams from both organizing universities. The Moot Court will include external experts and will be open for conference attendants to become a part of audience. Another feature of the conference will be Round Table on Roots of Human Rights. Although the competent authorities have been able to approve the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union there are ongoing discussions about the roots and the foundations of human rights. This Round Table should add to these discussions especially from historical, philosophical and religious points of view. Format of the contributions in this section are standard academic papers (proceedings to be submitted into Web of Science) or alternative formats (notes, papers in non-academic discourses) accepted. Language: English Participation Academic papers submitted to the conference will go through a rigorous review process. After acceptance, contributions will be included in the conference proceedings. (However, authors can opt out from publication in proceedings). Conference proceedings with ISBN will be published on conference web. Online conference proceedings will be sent for evaluation to Thomson Reuters to be entered on the Conference Proceedings Citation Index. Accepted student works will be published in a parallel Conference proceedings with ISBN. Abstracts and full papers in English should be sent to [email protected] in MS Word file format. Detailed instructions for authors will be posted on the conference website. - Register via email: [email protected] - Submit Abstract (150 words) ASAP (latest deadline October 31, 2018) - Submit full paper (18.000-36.000 characters incl. spaces) by January 10, 2019 (see more instructions for authors on the web) - Comments on the paper will be communicated within 14 days after submission. - Submit revised version of full text by February 15, 2019 - Notification of acceptance is issued within 7 days after submission. - Pay conference fee by February 15, 2019 (see instructions below) - Attend conference March 7-8, 2019 and present your work. Attendance certificate will be issued automatically and handed out at the end of the conference. Important Deadlines Abstract: October 31, 2018 Full papers: January 10, 2019 Revised papers: February 15, 2019 Final Revisions: April 31, 2019 Conference time: March 7-8, 2019 Proceedings published: May 2019 Venue Anglo-American University Letenská 5, Prague, Czech Republic Directors of the Conference Rowland Brucken Norwich University, Northfield, VT, USA Peter Bolcha Anglo-American University, Prague, Czech Republic Contact: Dr. Rowland Brucken History and Political Science Faculty Norwich University 158 Harmon Drive Northfield, VT USA Phone: +1 802 485-2362 Email: [email protected] Web: https://www.aauni.edu/human-rights-conference-2019/ __________________________________________________ InterPhil List Administration: https://interphil.polylog.org InterPhil List Archive: https://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ __________________________________________________
