CfP: International Workshop “Uprooted: Central and Eastern European Diasporas in North America”, 26-27 June 2025, at New Europe College, Bucharest


8 April 2025

CALL FOR PAPERS

International Workshop “Uprooted: Central and Eastern European Diasporas in North America”
26-27 June 2025, at New Europe College – Institute for Advanced Study, Bucharest (Romania)
On-site & Online
Convener: Iryna Yakovenko (2024/ 2025 SUS Fellow); Associate Professor, Department of Linguistics and Translation, Borys Grinchenko Kyiv Metropolitan University

New Europe College Bucharest is pleased to announce the call for papers for the two-day workshop on historical and cultural aspects of Central and Eastern European immigration to North America, which will be held on June 26 – 27, 2025, at New Europe College in Bucharest, Romania. The workshop presentations and discussions will be held on the 26th of June, Thursday, and the next day, the 27th of June, Friday, is planned for a sightseeing tour in Bucharest.

The workshop’s aim is to deepen our understanding of the cultural and intellectual presence of the Central and Eastern European diasporas (Czech, Hungarian, Jewish, Polish, Romanian, Ukrainian, etc.) in North America. We seek to explore the historical backgrounds of the transatlantic migration, patterns, and dynamics of the “new” immigration to Canada and the USA; Central and Eastern European migratory experiences in the 20th century, and their literary (fictional/nonfictional) representations; histories of diasporic literatures, and their coexistence with the mainstream American and Canadian literatures. Young and experienced scholars are encouraged to submit papers addressing the following aspects:

  • theoretical approaches to migratory processes, integration, assimilation, and the diasporas;
  • histories and geographies of Central and Eastern European im/migration and re-emigration/return migration;
  • preservation of ethnic identities vs. cultural assimilation, the Old Country vs. “the new home”;
  • Central and Eastern European intellectual and cultural heritage in North America;
  • literary and transmedia narratives about immigrants and immigration;
  • narratives of trauma in diasporic literatures;
  • individual, collective, and cultural memory, remembering and nostalgia in fiction, nonfiction, and poetry;
  • ethnic and hybrid identities in diasporic literary narratives;
  • contacts/non-contacts, silences/cultural dialogues of the diasporas in Canada and the USA with their countries of origin;
  • translations of anglophone texts into Central and Eastern European languages (Czech, Hungarian, Polish, Romanian, Ukrainian, etc.)
  • readership and perception of diasporic literary texts in Central and Eastern Europe.

Please submit an abstract of 200-300 words and a short biography to iv.yakovenko@kubg.edu.ua by May 18, 2025, indicating if you need a travel grant (we will provide several such grants). The language of the workshop is English.

Contact
Iryna Yakovenko (iv.yakovenko@kubg.edu.ua, New Europe College Bucharest, and Borys Grinchenko Kyiv Metropolitan University)
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Photo: William Kurelek, The Ukrainian Pioneers, No. 2 (1971)
Source: www.mutualart.com