Jun 22, 2006

International Idil-Ural Studies Conference

11-12 November 2006
Kütahya Municipality Building
Kütahya

organized by Cultural Studies Association (Turkey) and Kütahya Municipality

The Cultural Studies Association of Turkey and the Kütahya Municipality are co-organizing an international ?Idil-Ural Studies Conference? with the collaboration of the World League of Tatars and the Kütahya Kazan Culture Association on 11-12 November 2006 at the Kütahya Municipality Building in Kütahya. The interdisciplinary conference will be open to discussion on all aspects of the history, literature, culture, and society of the Volga-Ural region in the
present Russian Federation and aims at serving as a meeting place for senior and emergent scholars of the field. The conference is the successor to the one-day seminar entitled ?Tatars and Tatarstan? organized in Istanbul by Marmara University in February 2003, the two-day workshop entitled ?Volga-Ural Studies? organized in Ankara by Bilkent University in February 2004, and the three-day conference
entitled ?The Golden Horde? organized in Istanbul by the Ayaz Tahir Foundation in 2005.

The languages of the conference are Tatar, Turkish, English and Russian. Proposals in any of those languages are invited for presentations at the conference. Possible topics include but are by no means limited to the cultural and political heritage of the Kazan Khanate, the cultural and political heritage of djadidism, the political heritage of the National Assembly (Milli Meclis), ethnogenesis of the people(s) of the region, theories of identity, nation building process(es), diasporic experience, the Soviet experience, the gulag experience, changing historiography of the region, the use of the alphabet as trope, orientalist perspectives on the people(s) of the region, religion as a factor in the forging of identity. Oral history work, life stories and testimonies are especially welcome. The conference proceedings will be published.

Please send a 100 to 200-word abstract accompanied by a brief resumé preferably by e-mail to

programi@kulturad.org or by fax to +90 212 292 2229.

The deadline is 15 July 2006. Results will be announced at the beginning of September 2006. You may write to the same addresses for additional information.

The organizing committte regrets that it can neither finance trips or accomodation, nor waive the registration fee, but is willing to be of guidance in requests to be made to alternate sources.

Gönül Pultar
President, World League of Tatars
and Cultural Studies Association (Turkey)

Abdullah Atasever
President, Kütahya Kazan Culture Association
Member, Kütahya Municipal Assembly

Ismail Türko?lu
Marmara University
Conference Coordinator

[sursa e-nass]