Keynote speakers:

Penelope Corfield, Emeritus Professor of History, Royal Holloway, University of London, President of the International Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies (ISECS)

Zenon Kohut, Emeritus Professor of History, University of Alberta

Key dates:

Call for papers: July 2020

Deadline for panels/roundtable proposals: 10 January 2021

Deadline for individual paper proposals: 18 January 2021

Notification of acceptance: 15 February 2021

Conference languages: English and Ukrainian

The eighteenth century has long been a marginal and even neglected period in the dominant master-narratives of Ukrainian history. In the traditional accounts of national history, it was subsumed into a more than two hundred years long Cossack Age. In the interpretations developed after 1991, it was either absorbed into the broader early modern age or squeezed as a pale transition period between pivotal “long” seventeenth and “long” nineteenth centuries.

The last decade has seen renewed scholarly attention to the eighteenth century in Ukraine. Considerable research into the history, culture, and literature of the period has demonstrated its importance and made eighteenth-century studies one of the most dynamic and innovative areas of research. Eighteenth-century studies have become a meeting point for scholars of social and cultural histories, literary studies, art history, as well as histories of empire, childhood, religion, and education.

This conference aims to consider a shift in attitudes towards the eighteenth century, re-assess the established narratives and concepts, and entwine eighteenth-century Ukraine into the broader East European and global context. It also aims to stimulate eighteenth-century studies and initiate a forum for scholars across a range of disciplines to meet regularly and to engage in discussions on a variety of topics related to the history and literature of Ukraine, Europe, and the wider world of the period. The conference will host the first General Meeting of the Ukrainian Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies (USECS). The Society seeks to promote the development of interdisciplinary eighteenth-century studies in Ukraine and to facilitate its integration into the global  institutional framework for study of the period.

We invite scholars working in all areas of eighteenth-century studies, including history, literary studies, and art history. to address the following topics:

• Ukrainian eighteenth-century studies: current state, challenges, and opportunities;
• global eighteenth-century studies: tendencies and new directions;
• ‘long’ vs ‘short’ eighteenth century, applicability of the concept of the ‘long eighteenth century’ (1680 – 1830) to Ukrainian and East European history;
• the Enlightenment and beyond: intellectual changes during the long eighteenth century;
• eighteenth-century literature, culture, and art;
• social and economic history of the long eighteenth century;
• church history and religious culture of the long eighteenth century;
• images of patria and nation: collective identities and state-building in the period;
• from traditional to modernizing empire: political imageries and practices of imperial and colonial rule;
• Ukrainian Cossackdom during the long eighteenth century: political, military, and social changes;
• images of Ukraine in eighteenth-century central and western Europe;
• circulation of knowledge and education in the long eighteenth century;
• the eighteenth century and digital humanities in Ukraine: archives and data;
• teaching the long eighteenth century: trends, perspectives, and new approaches

Proposals from senior scholars and early career researchers are invited for individual papers of twenty minutes duration (abstracts of approximately 250 words), fully organized panels of three papers with indication of the panel chair (a panel proposal should include abstracts of approximately 250 words for each paper and a brief description of the panel topic), and roundtable sessions of up to five speakers (abstract of 500 words). Each potential participant is to provide a short biographic note (50 words), including academic affiliation. Proposals on interdisciplinary research are warmly welcome.

Your paper abstract or panel/roundtable proposal as well as a short bio note and academic affiliation are to be provided in either English or Ukrainian. Please do not forget to indicate in which language your oral presentation will be delivered. Mind that oral conference papers, panels or roundtables in Ukrainian are to be accompanied by PowerPoint presentations/handouts in English.

For panels, please send your panel description, bio notes and academic affiliation of panelists and chair to [email protected] and [email protected] before 10 January 2021. For roundtable sessions, please send your roundtable description, bio notes and academic affiliation of panelists and chair to [email protected] and [email protected] before 10 January 2021. For individual papers, please send your abstract, a short bio note and your academic affiliation to [email protected] and [email protected] before 18 January 2021.

There is no fee for this conference.

Information about accommodation will be e-mailed to all accepted participants in February 2021.

A limited number of grants covering travel and accommodation costs will be available, further details will follow.

Sponsors

This conference is supported by a grant from the Peter Jacyk Centre for Ukrainian Historical Research, Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies.

Conference organizers:

• Volodymyr Sklokin, Department of History, Ukrainian Catholic University
• Frank Sysyn,Peter Jacyk Centre for Ukrainian Historical Research, Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies
• Nataliia Voloshkova, Department of English Philology, Drahomanov National Pedagogical University
• Maksym Yaremenko, Department of History, National University “Kyiv-Mohyla Academy”