Division for Agrarian History at the Swedish Univ. of Agricultural Sciences (Uppsala) and the Department of Economic History at Uppsala University

Time: 23.–26.08.2021
Venue: Uppsala University and Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Sweden
Proposals by: 15.09.2020

The aim of the Rural History 2021 conference is to promote a scientific discussion on new research on rural history in a broad sense by bringing together researchers dealing with different regions, different time periods and from different theoretical and methodological traditions.

In accordance with this, the conference is open for research on all aspects on the history of the countryside in Europe and its interaction with other parts of the world throughout time. The organisers welcome participation from different academic subjects (e.g. history, archaeology, geography, economic history, economics, sociology, anthropology, development studies, gender studies, environmental history, historical demography) presenting and discussing new research and thereby contributing to expanding our knowledge on the rural history of Europe and beyond.

In order to ensure a broad participation and high scientific value each session should focus on a specific topic and include presenters from at least two different countries. The topic could be both related to a specific theme, to methods, or to theories and concepts.

Each session will last two hours and include four papers. Sessions will be led by a chair and a discussant. Double sessions on a particular topic are possible. Participants are asked to limit themselves to a maximum of two presentations at the conference. Read more and source … (Web)

Institute of Applied Social Sciences, University of Warsaw (Web) & Institute of Rural and Agricultural Development, Polish Academy of Science (Web)

Time: 19.–20.11.2020
Venue: Warsaw, Poland
Proposals by: 31.07.2020

Cooperation – Economically Organized Democracy
The establishment of the first cooperative organizations was an attempt to realize the ideal of the common good not through top-down state programs or philanthropy of great capital, but the cooperation of those who were exposed to exploitation. The logic of cooperation was inclusive – membership in a cooperative was determined not by some special property that distinguished its members, but by a need that they shared with others. This is expressed by the words of Romuald Mielczarski – one of the fathers of the Polish cooperative movement: “Cooperation is an economically organized democracy.” Instead, it signified a conscious (in the ethical sense) and independent (in the political sense) mind, one that satisfies its (economic) needs through cooperative work: co-governing consumption and production. The two figures of participation in the social process that are split apart by liberalism, namely the member of the political community and the consumer, or subject of the market game, become one once more.

The Common between Two Crises
However, the concepts of cooperativists do not belong solely to the history of a certain stage of development of (peripheral) capitalism. The creators of the Polish cooperative movement from the interwar period believed that, in a sense, the best moment for social activities was precisely a time of crisis. It is then that the social mechanisms of mutual aid and democratic management are revealed. Since the global economic crisis evolved into a deep crisis of the very foundations of the socioeconomic order, deepening inequalities have undermined the fundamental principle of democracy: civic participation in the governance process. The “economization” of politics based on fetishizing private property and … read more and source (Web).

Stefanie Schüler Springorum, Center for Research on Antisemitism, TU Berlin; Anna-Carolin Augustin, GHI Washington; Sebastian Bischoff, Paderborn Univ.; Kristoff Kerl, Univ. of Copenhagen in cooperation with the German Historical Institute, Washington DC (GHI) and the Center for Research on Antisemitism (TU Berlin) (Web)

Venue: Center for Research on Antisemitism, TU Berlin
Time: 13.-15.12.2021
Proposals by: 01.07.2020

Although constructions of Jewish sexualities and alleged Jewish attacks on sexual morals have played a significant role in modern antisemitic worldviews, – whether the same is true for premodern times has to be discussed –, only few historical studies have focused on the connection between sexualities and Jew-hatred. Against this backdrop, the conference aims to stimulate further research and debate on this topic. To bring the differences in the role sexualitites played in judeophobic discourses at different times and in different regions into view, the temporal and geographical focus of the conference reaches beyond the times of modern antisemitism and beyond ‘Western societies.’

In manifold ways, sexualities have played a crucial role in the history of judeophobia. Since ancient times, sexuality has been one of the fields where the borders between different communities, Jewish and otherwise, were drawn most fiercely. At least since the rise of modern antisemitism imaginary conceptions of deviant and dangerous ‘Jewish sexualities‘ became crucial. In modern antisemitism, sexual desires attributed to Jews have been characterized by a transgression of the male-female binarity – a characteristic that corresponds to constructions of Jewish effeminate manhood and masculinized womanhood.

Whereas discourses ascribed ‘unmanly‘ desires to Jewish men in different ways, Jewish women were constructed as seductive, passionate, and sexually active: attributes that have typically had a male connotation. At the same time, constructions of Jewish sexualities have reinforced notions of male activity and female passivity. Read more and source … (Web)