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How Is The Fall of Communism Remembered,
Why, And So What?

The Russian and East European Studies Program and The Slavic Club are presenting a lecture How is the Fall of Communism Remembered, Why, and So What? by Prof. Jan Kubik on Thursday, November 13th, 2014, 6:30 pm in 236 Fahy Hall – Seton Hall University campus, 400 South Orange Avenue, South Orange, New Jersey 07079. It is free and open to the public. (For more information call the university at 973-761-9000.)

Prof. Jan Kubik is the Chair of the Political Science Department at Rutgers University and author of several highly regarded books on post-Communism. He is a frequent contributor to NPR, the New York Times, and the Washington Post. His presentation will mark the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall.

Pr. Kubik has spent his academic career studying the intersection of anthropology and political science. Author of several influential books and numerous articles, Pr. Kubik recently published with Michael Bernhardt a new volume on the politics of memory in post-Communist societies – Twenty Years After Communism: The Politics of Memory and Commemoration (Oxford University Press, 2014).

After studying sociology and philosophy at the Jagielloninan University in Kraków, Poland, and several years of teaching in the Department of Sociology there, Pr. Kubik earned a doctoral degree in Anthropology from Columbia University. His research interests have focused on the relationship between power and culture. He also developed a lasting interest in social movements and protest politics. Pr. Kubik admits that his interest in the complex interplay between power (politics) and culture was solidified and even became “a bit of an obsession” in 1980-1, while he was living through the exhilarating experience of the first Solidarity period in Poland. He studies politics and culture comparatively, but the principal “source” of his observations and data is Poland and East Central Europe. He draws on his own empirical work in this region and regular collaborations with social scientists who work in and on Eastern Europe.

During the last few years Pr. Kubik has returned to his earlier interest in the philosophy and methodology of social sciences (particularly interpretive and ethnographic approaches) and contributed to this area through teaching, writing, and participation in conferences and workshops.

His present research is concentrated in three fields: (1) civil society, social movements, and protest politics, (2) the relationship between politics and culture, and (3) post-communist transformations.

Since 1992 he has been collaborating with a group of scholars on a large empirical project entitled “Strategies of Collective Protest in Democratizing Societies.” The main product of its first stage was a book Rebellious Civil Society. Popular Protest and Democratic Consolidation in Poland, 1989-1993 (University of Michigan Press, 1999). The book has been broadly reviewed and won two notable awards: (1) The American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies/Orbis Polish Book Prize, awarded to the best English language book in any discipline (2000) and (2) the Bronislaw Malinowski Social Sciences Award, awarded by Polish Institute of Arts and Sciences of America (2001). Since 2004, Pr. Kubik has been a co-PI of the project’s second phase entitled “The Logic of Civil Society: Contentious Politics in New Democracies: Poland, Hungary, South Korea and Taiwan”.

Additional details: http://www.shu.edu/news/article/494523#.VFfOS1fTfoo

Also, please check out, “Berlin Wall: THEN and NOW”: http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/ng-interactive/2014/nov/03/the-berlin-wall-in-the-cold-war-and-now-interactive

Everyone is Welcome! Slavic food will be served. This event is made possible through a generous support provided by the President’s Advisory Council and the Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences.

 

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Also, you are cordially invited to our remaining Fall 2014 activities:

11/20
Slavic Dancing Bonanza, conducted by Nick Hlushko, Duffy 81

12/05
Slavic Club Christmas Party, at the Vernissage Restaurant, Hawthorne NJ, with Slavic all night feast, live Slavic music & transportation by bus (www.vernissagenj.com)