After each ICCEES World Congress, an important piece of follow-up work is the editing and publication of thematic volumes of collected papers. At Makuhari on 6 August 2015, at a preliminary meeting a number of themes were proposed and since then others have been added:
Raymond Taras (Tulane University) East Asian Perceptions, Images and Constructions of Russia in light of the Ukrainian Crisis Seongjin Kim (Duksung Women’s University, South Korea) Migration Issues, Gender Migration R.J. Marsh (University of Bath) 20th-21st century Literature, Women and Gender Suchandana Chatterjee (M.A.K.Azad Institute of Asian Studies, India) Memory and History Writing in Eurasia and Central and Eastern Europe Ildiko Asztalos Morell (Uppsala University), Yulia Gradskova (Stockholm University) Gender Issues in post/socialist contexts (Hungary, Serbia, Russia) David Wells (Curtin University, Australia) open literary theme, possible collaboration Georges Mink (CNRS-ISP, College of Europe, France) The Memory of Communism special issue of Nationalities Papers.
Further proposals are welcome. Anyone wishing to formulate a proposal may review the program panels, paper titles and abstracts, which will remain accessible on the Congress website (http://www.l.u-tokyo.ac.jp/makuhari2015/program.html) until at least the end of October. All Congress volumes should mention that the
papers are from the ICCEES IX World Congress (Makuhari, 2015), and editors are asked to advise ICCEES once the volumes/special issues are published.
Contact person on Congress volumes: Prof. Andrii Krawchuk
akrawchuk@sympatico.ca
Under the slogan “Makuhari – Where Many Wests Meet Many Easts”, the IX World Congress was held in very hot and humid weather. The Congress was a resounding success. There were 1310 delegates from 50 different countries attending 378 panels and roundtables. In terms of national representation, large numbers of delegates came from the immediate geographical region, and the Russian contingent, although reduced at the last minute by funding difficulties, was also substantial. The quality of papers and sessions was generally very high, with the lead being set by the opening session at which former prime ministers of Russia (Sergei Stepashin) and Japan (Yasuo Fukuda) and a former foreign minister of South Korea (Han Sung-Joo) shared candid really interesting thoughts on recent developments. Publication of a series of volumes of papers from the Congress is being organized by Professor Andrii Krawchuk.
This Congress was an exceptionally important one in ICCEES’ history: it was the first held outside Europe or North America, and it symbolizes the drive over the last five years to expand the organization’s scope throughout Asia. Sincere thanks is owed to our Japanese colleagues for organizing such a successful occasion, and we look forward to the next Congress to be held in Canada in 2020.
Prof. Graeme Gill, former ICCEES President
We are proud to announce that the Ninth World Congress of ICCEES in Makuhari, Japan, completed its 6-day long program and successfully closed on August 8, 2015. Over 1,300 participants from more than 60 countries explored all the disciplines of Slavic and Eurasian studies in both social sciences and humanities.
We would like to thank all the organizations and individuals for their financial and moral support. Our special thanks also go to the congress helpers whose number reached more than 100 in total.
We hope all the participants will get home safe and sound with a lot of (hopefully good) impressions about Makuhari. Bon voyage! 一路平安！Cчастливого пути! See you all again in Montreal in 2020!
The Organizing Committee for the 9th World Congress of ICCEES in Makuhari
For more informations, pictures and articles about the World Congress visit the website.
During the last several years, Japanese specialists on Slavic and Eurasian studies worked hard for the World Congress of ICCEES (International Council for Central and East European Studies) to be held in Makuhari on August 3-8, 2015. For example, the 5th East Asian Conference on Slavic Eurasian studies held at Osaka University of Economics and Law (Yao Campus) on August 9-10, 2013 was a “general rehearsal” for the world congress. This event, thanks to the generous support by the university and its president, Professor Wakio Fujimoto, was a great success. It is worth mentioning that a number of ICCEES leaders from Europe and Oceania took part in the conference. The Osaka conference created an agora where “many Wests meets many Easts.”
In 2014, this assembly was multiplied by the active cooperation of Japanese and foreign specialists. As of today, 1,761 of our colleagues have registered as Congress participants and 450 panels and roundtables have been organized. Obviously, the World Congress in Makuhari will be one of the largest congresses in the history of ICCEES. During the months leading up to the congress, the Organizing Committee is working to bridge the academic and business worlds and involve the latter in the world congress. This endeavor will result in a significant increase of representatives from business circles among the congress participants.
ICCEES was established in 1974 to promote what then called Soviet and East European studies. It is not a secret that the ICCEES was a product of the Cold War. In this framework, the West studied the Soviet-bloc countries. After the Cold War, ICCEES has tried to transform itself into a real world organization by opening the door to the former Soviet-bloc countries and Asia. In 2008, the Chinese Association for Russian, East European and Central Asian Studies (CAREECAS) became a full member of ICCEES. In that same year, the Korean Association of Slavic Studies (KASS) normalized its relationship with ICCEES, which had been strained since the early 1990s. In 2012, Mongolian colleagues created their national association of Central and East European studies and in the next year, they became a full member of ICCEES. In 2014, Kazakhstani specialists followed this example. That same year, the Institute of Russian History of the Russian Academy of Sciences, thanks to the initiative of its director, Dr. Yury Petrov, became an associate member of ICCEES. This is an extremely important step in the way towards the creation of Russian association on Slavic Eurasian studies, which will legitimately become an important member of ICCEES.
Based on the Memorandum of May 7, 2008, signed by the presidents of KASS (Park Soo-Heon), CAREECAS (Li Jinkjie), and the Japan Council for Russian and East European Studies (Hakamada Shigeki), Asian specialists on Slavic Eurasian studies declared they would hold a yearly East Asian conference (with the status of an ICCEES regional conference). We have already held six regional conferences — Sapporo in 2009, Seoul in 2010, Beijing in 2011, Kolkata in 2012, Osaka in 2013, and Seoul again in 2014. European colleagues hold a regional congresses once in five years (in Berlin in 2008 and in Cambridge in 2013), but we did not follow this example. Because of the colonial academic mentality of our research field, we, Asian Slavicists, were familiar with American, Russian (East European), and to a lesser extent, European historiography, but we did not know each other’s. It was necessary to hold a regional congress yearly.
The ICCEES used to have two problems hindering its development. The first was the lack of national associations on Slavic Eurasian studies in the Slavic Eurasian countries themselves. This weakness began to be overcome because of the establishment of national associations in Mongolia and Kazakhstan and of the associate membership of the Institute of Russian History of RAS. The other serious problem was that during the past quarter century, world congresses of ICCEES have constantly been held in Europe. It has not been held even in North America since the last “non-European” world congress in Washington D.C. in 1985. This situation resulted in a continuous decrease in the number of participants in the world congresses during the last decade. To change this situation and considering the active cooperation among specialists in Slavic and Eurasian studies in Asia, in 2010, the International Council of ICCEES decided to hold “the first world congress outside Europe and North America” in Makuhari.
We often observe that if a research field does not have a worldwide association, a North American regional association begins to assume that role. Even though North American associations on area studies, as a rule, are large, influential, and professionally minded, this does not seem a desirable scenario. Any national (regional) academic tradition has its strengths and weaknesses. This is why we should exchange our opinions internationally as equal and independent scholars, not as hosts and guests. It is our sincere desire to make Makuhari a place for such equal exchanges.
Kimitaka Matsuzato
Vice-President of ICCEES
Secretary of the 9th World Congress of ICCEES
Panel, paper, and roundtable proposals for this congress are being accepted at http://src-h.slav.hokudai.ac.jp/iccees2015/index.html.
Dear Colleagues,
As the deadline of proposal submission for the Ninth ICCEES World Congress (May 31) is coming closer, we are witnessing a real peak of submissions. Some of the prospective participants have requested the extension of the deadline because they could not submit their proposals in time for technical reasons.
Considering these circumstances, the Organizing Committee has decided to extend the deadline for proposal submissions until June 15 (Sunday), 12 p.m. (Japan time). No submissions will be accepted after this date.
Colleagues and friends! Do not miss this opportunity to visit Japan and participate in the ICCEES World Congress in August 2015! We look forward to welcoming you at the Congress next year.
The International Council for Central and East European Studies (ICCEES) is the global alliance of national associations of Slavic and Eurasian studies, composed of the ASEEES (United States), CAS (Canada), BASEES (Britain), DGO / SOG (Germany), FAREES (Finland), ANZSA (Australia), CAREECAS (China), JCREES (Japan), KASS (Korea), and MACEES (Mongolia), and other respectable organizations. The ICCEES was created in 1974 and holds a world congress once every five years. The next world congress will be held in Makuhari (30 minutes from the heart of Tokyo), Japan, on August 3-8, 2015. The official languages of the congress are English, Russian, French, and German.
For too long, our scholarly community had been developing in relative isolation from each other. Most active international exchanges would seem to have been taking place among North Atlantic countries or between North Atlantic and former communist countries. This is the background against which all previous ICCEES world congresses were held in North America and Europe. More than twenty years have passed since the end of the Cold War, during which Euro-Atlantic perspectives of the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe indeed dominated. It is now time to create a real global agora on Slavic and Eurasian studies, in which scholars become familiar with diverse perspectives of the Slavic Eurasian region from East and South Asia (China, Japan, Korea, Mongolia, India, etc.), the Near East (Turkey, Iran, Syria, etc.), and Latin America. To achieve this, East Asian Slavic associations (CAREECAS, JCREES, KASS, and MACEES) have held an annual East Asian conference on Slavic Eurasian studies since 2009 (2009 in Sapporo, 2010 in Seoul, 2011 in Beijing, 2012 in Kolkata, and 2013 in Osaka). This annual conference began to unexpectedly attract many participants from North America, Europe, and the former socialist countries because it enables participants to become acquainted with unfamiliar national scholarly traditions that are barely touched upon at conferences in North America and Europe.
To further promote encounters with diverse scholarly perspectives on the Slavic Eurasian region, the ICCEES decided to hold the next World Congress for the first time outside Europe and North America, in Japan, Makuhari. The Organizing Committee of this Congress is working hard to make Makuhari a place “where many Wests meet many Easts.” Makuhari is an ideal location for international events. It takes only 30 minutes by bus from both Narita and Haneda International Airports, and also just 30 minutes by train from downtown Tokyo (Tokyo Railway Station). Though this might be unexpected for foreign colleagues, in Japan hotels and restaurants are much cheaper than in Europe and the United States (see: http://src-h.slav.hokudai.ac.jp/iccees2015/accommodation.html). You may enjoy Japan after or before the congress; it takes only two hours to go from Tokyo Station to Kyoto by New Express Train.
Send all queries to iccees2015@slav.hokudai.ac.jp and network via https://facebook.com/iccees2015
Find the CfP in PDF format here.
Organizing Committee of the Ninth ICCEES World Congress:
Co-Chairmen: Professor Nobuo Shimotomai of Hosei University, Professor Mitsuyoshi Numano of Tokyo University
Vice-chairman: Professor Kumiko Haba of Aoyama Gakuin University
General Secretary: Professor Kimitaka Matsuzato of Hokkaido University
The Executive Committee met on 20-21 June in the University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK, with all members present except for Professor Irina Sandomirskaja who sent her apologies. The most important issues discussed were: (i) Potential membership and leadership changes to the composition of the executive from 2015. (ii) The state of ICCEES finances. These were judged to be adequate in light of potential demands in the foreseeable future, although continued care would be needed to ensure that the balance did not run down excessively. The accounts had been audited, and were found to be in satisfactory order. (iii) A report was received about the forthcoming IX World Congress to be held in Makuhari, Japan, 3-8 August 2015. Preparations are proceeding on schedule, and the number of papers and panels submitted is higher than in recent congresses, with a very good international spread. The Japanese organising committee was to be congratulated on their work thus far. (iv) The Committee discussed preparations for the publication of papers from the IX Congress, and agreed that this would be pursued with vigour. (v) There was some discussion of the possible accession to ICCEES of organisations from countries that are not yet members, with the final decision on the application from one new potential member going before the Council meeting at the time of the Congress next year. (vi) There was some discussion of the site for the 2020 Congress. This decision must be finally made by the Council next year.
Graeme Gill,ICCEES President
