Kategorien:
Forum News
CfP: ‘Justice’ and ‘Legality’ in Imperial and Post-Imperial Spaces
11. Januar 2025
This conference seeks to track struggles of ethnic and religious
minorities in the Russian Empire, the Soviet Union, its successor states
and a range of adjacent regions (especially West Asia and South Asia).
Organizers: PD Dr. Stefan Kirmse, Senior Research Fellow, Leibniz-Zentrum Moderner
Orient [ZMO], Berlin, Germany; Prof. Dr. Oliver Reisner, Ilia State
University
Location: Tbilisi, Georgia
Time: 1 - 3 May 2025
Deadline for Paper Abstracts: 31 January 2025
While
there is no set definition of the ‘rule of law’, with over half a dozen
indices competing for recognition and influence, many nineteenth and
twentieth-century empires and post-imperial spaces would not score high
on any of these. And yet, the notions of legality and justice greatly
mattered in them. Political and cultural elites invoked these notions as
much as ordinary people, with outcomes that could not be scripted.
While existing literature has addressed legality and justice mostly in
histories of intellectual opposition to authoritarian rule and in
studies of state policy (focusing, for example, on imperial reform, or
on ‘socialist legality’), there is little recognition of how important
and instrumental they both were to the struggles of ethnic and religious
minorities. We understand ‘minority’ not primarily in numerical terms
but following legal scholarship on ‘minority protection’, as an
experience of being dominated by powerful ‘Others’.
This conference seeks to track these struggles in the Russian
Empire, the Soviet Union, its successor states and a range of adjacent
regions (especially West Asia and South Asia). Non-Russians made up over
half of the population in late imperial Russia (thus constituting a
numerical majority, if taken together) and just under 50% of people in
the Soviet Union. Whereas religion was one of the key determinants of
rights, privileges, and obligations in the empire, ‘nationality’
understood in ethnic terms replaced religious affiliation in this
capacity under socialism. Just as religion greatly affected access to
places of residence, occupation, and education in the imperial period,
nationality did so under Soviet rule – and in some cases continues to do
so, albeit indirectly or covertly. Being part of a religious or ethnic
community other than the dominant one could mean open or subtle forms of
discrimination. Yet, such discrimination was neither automatic, nor did
it go unchallenged.
This conference therefore explores the ways in which ethnic and
religious minorities, from the mid-nineteenth century to the present,
invoked and employed ‘legality’ and ‘justice’ to further and enforce
their rights. It asks to what extent the political orders allowed, even
encouraged, them to do so, even if the debate and activism thus invited
could help to erode their authority. What is more, ‘minorities’ were
also represented among the political and cultural elites, from imperial
lawyers to party officials. Thus, the three-day conference looks at
minority actors from both ‘above’ and ‘below’, as participants in
policy-making and public debate, as judges and litigants, and as
activists. What did non-dominant religious or national minorities expect
when they called on ‘justice’ and ‘legality’ (or rather: ‘injustice’
and ‘illegality’)? More importantly, to which degree did this strategy
help them defend their rights?
The research aims to answer questions that include (but are not limited to) the following:
- In what ways did elites and ordinary people understand and
articulate the ‘rule of law’, ‘legality’ and ‘justice’ in their
respective socio-political contexts?
- How did religious and ethnic minorities invoke justice and
legality in their appeals to authority? What did they want, and what did
they achieve?
- What did these diverse groups expect when navigating the constraints imposed by authoritarian regimes?
Please submit your CV and abstract of up to 500 words, including information on your research methodology, to Maija.Susarina@zmo.de.
You will receive an acknowledgement of receipt and within 4 weeks, you
will be informed about your participation in the conference. The venue
will be confirmed at the end of February (please note that due to the
current political situation in Georgia, the venue may have to be moved
to another country in the region, such as Armenia or Turkey).
Some funding is available to cover the travel costs of applicants
(transport, accommodation), with funding priority given to scholars from
the region, and PhD students.
The conference papers are designed to be published in a special
issue or edited volume, upon the necessary revisions, and should
therefore not be under consideration for publication elsewhere.
Proposed conference venue: Ilia State University, 3/5, K. Cholokashvili Ave., F Building, Office F.404, Tbilisi, 0162, Georgia
Contact information: Maija.Susarina@zmo.de