New Approaches to the Memory and History of Communism. Bulgaria and Romania in Comparison
Sofia, 26-30.09.2008

Friday, 26.09

19:00 Keynote speech Istvan Rev: Just Afterthought(?). A History of the Memory of Communism (comment: Ivan Krastev)

Saturday, 27.09
University Sv. Kliment Ohridski ( Hall 1.)

9:30-9:45 Opening of the conference. Welcome by the project’s directors:
Maria Todorova and Stefan Troebst

State surveillance. Mechanisms of power and memory

9:45-11:00
Cristina Petrescu: Who Remembers the Romanian Secret Police? On Moral Correctness in Post-Communist Romania
Iskra Baeva: How the Bulgarian Society Perceives the Role of the State Security Service after 1989
Konstantin Iordachi: Totalitarianism and Historical Memory: Communism as Lived Experience in Romania

Panel commentator:

11:00-11:45 Discussion and Break

Socialism: Everyday Life and Lived Experience

11:45-12:40
Smaranda Vultur: Daily Life and Constraints in Communist Romania of the Late 80s. From the Semiotics of Food to the Semiotics of Power
Adrian Mihalache: The Post-Communist Memory of Everyday Life under Ceausescu’s Rule. A Methodological Perspective

Panel commentator:

12:40-13:15 Discussion

13:15-14:30 Lunch

The Memory of Transition

14:30-15:15
Nikolay Poppetrov: Myths about Socialism from the Transition Period
Dragoş Petrescu: Transitional History, Counter-Memory and Nostalgia. Remembering Ceauşescu’s “Socialism” in Post-1989 Romania

15:15-15:30 Break

15:30-16:30
Milla Mineva: Socialism “Reloaded”
Liliana Deyanova: Rewriting Official Memory after 1989. How Historians Remember Communism

Panel commentator:

16:30-17:30 Discussion

20:00 Dinner

Sunday, 28.09

Social Relations under Communism

9:30-10:45
Tanya Boneva: Remembering Socialism in the Field Studies of Pernik: 1960-1964
Dorina Orzac: Confronting Totalitarianism. Case study – The Region of Maramureş
Deyan Petrov: Does the “Working Class” Notion Exist in the Memories of the Workers? A Case Study on the Town of Targovishte of Workers Born Between 1947-1957 

10:45-11:45 Discussion and Break

The Social Texture of Socialism: Negotiating Family, Gender, Equality

11:45-13:00
Petya Kabakchieva: Social Inequalities under Socialism
Anni Kirilova: Within the “Family Cell” of Socialist Society and Without it
Iliana Atanasova: Women in Power under Communism: The Bulgarian Case

Panel commentator:

13:00-13:45 Discussion

13:45-15:00 Lunch

Culture Under Socialism: Inventions and Reinventions

15:00-15:45
Tsvetana Manova: Masquerade Rites and Festivals in the Cultural Memory of socialism
Nataliya Hristova: Theater-Makers and the Authorities in the 1960s: Memories of Conflicts, Conflicts of Memory

15:45-16:00 Break

16:00-17:00
Krasimira Koeva: Contemporary Interpretations of one Mystification (Bulgarian Fine Arts of the Late 1950s)
Vania Stoyanova: Socialism in Bulgarian Post-1989 Cinema

Panel commentator:

17:00-18:00 Discussion

Monday, 29.09

Socialism and its Entanglement with the Nation and the Local

9:30-10:45
Evgenia Kalinova: The Memory of the “Revival Process”
Tamás Lönhárt and Virgiliu Ţârău: Between Social and National. Dimensions of Interpreting the Memory of Transformations in the City of Cluj (1956-1989)
Vasile Docea: Local Historiography as a Form of Memory. Case Study – Timişoara

Panel commentator:

10:45-11:45 Discussion and Break

The Memory of Communism in Genres and Generations

11:45-13:00
Cătălina Mihalache: How the Present is Asking for a Suitable Past.
Schooling and Remembering Communism
Albena Hranova: “Loan-Memory”: Communism and the Youngest Generation.
Varban Todorov: Remembering Socialism in Written Sources – the Case of Prof. N. Todorov’s Diary

Panel commentator:

13:00-14:00 Discussion

17:45 Tservena Kashta Screening of the Documentary
Edna studena koka kola prez epohata na studenata voina (A Cold Coca Cola in the Period of the Cold War) (30. min) discussion in the presence of the documentary’s director: Irina Nedeva.

19:00 Keynote speech Chris Hann
Forgetting Eastern Europe
in Tservena Kashta