Workshop ‘Diversifying Perestroika’

Convened by Victoria Musvik, Stephen Whitefield (Pembroke College, Oxford) & Florence Faucher (SciencesPo, Paris)
In collaboration with OxPo

With
Kathy Rousselet, Directrice de Recherche/Senior Research Fellow, Sciences Po
Alexandra Koroleva, PhD candidate, Centre d’histoire de Sciences Po/Centre for History (CHSP), Sciences Po
Anna Sidorevich, Research Associate, Centre for History (CHSP), Sciences Po
Carole Sigman, Tenured Senior Researcher (political sociology), CNRS

Although very popular with Western scholars in the late 1980s-1990s, in the subsequent years perestroika has dropped out of the research mainstream and become poorly conceptualised. Recently, however, new generations of researchers have started to suggest new approaches and more complex perspectives. 
Methodologically, in the past few years, the field of ‘perestroika studies’ has been getting increasingly diverse, in several disciplines, and academic traditions. Besides, ‘newer’ research methodologies, such as visual studies, history of emotions, affect theory, trauma and memory studies, and decolonial, critical regionalist and imperial research, among others, have developed around or since 1985. Scholars mostly agree that the mainstream narrative about perestroika as a gift ‘from the centre’ and ‘from above’ should be subverted. This means concentrating on various regional roots and contributions, giving more space to non-metropolitan and local voices, and encouraging looking from previously marginalised perspectives. To celebrate perestroika’s 40th anniversary, the conference will bring together researchers from diverse disciplinary fields and countries.