call for papers: Russia’s Politics of Truth and its quest for alliances in the Global South. Erfurt

call for papers: Russia’s Politics of Truth and its quest for alliances in the Global South. Erfurt, 24.10.2024 - 25.10.2024, Deadline 01.04.2024.

Since 2014, we have been able to observe Russia portraying itself increasingly not just as the only remaining power of the morally good and historically true. In relation to countries of the Global South, Russia has also especially presented itself as an anti-colonial protecting power. This framing is anchored within two broader narratives:

First, under the slogan of “historical truth”, Putin is pushing a specific historical policy, the central reference point of which is the victory of the Soviet Union over Nazi Germany in the so-called Great Patriotic War. This newly structured and enhanced past is turned into an ever-present prism – through iterative references by the state media, but especially events that allow a large portion of the population to directly participate in the commemoration of this past – by which the present can also be seen and interpreted (McGlynn 2023). At high-profile media events such as the Russia-Africa Summit, the Soviet Union's support of anti-colonial liberation movements has increasingly become part of these historical memory and updating practices, through which the claim of being on the "right side of history" is made.

Second, another anchor point lies in so-called “traditional values”, which primarily conceal an ultra-conservative gender policy that is characterized by homophobia, anti-feminism and anti-queer sentiments. Depictions of Gender Order can function as ‘symbolic border guards’ that allow essentialization and demarcation between communities (Riabova/Riabov 2014). Against this backdrop, comparative perspectives can be fruitful for our analysis: For the Polish case it has already been analyzed how the ultra-conservative gender policy agenda has appropriated an anti-colonial framing, with “gender” being depicted as “Ebola from Brussels” (Korolczuk/Graff 2018). The “traditional family” in this context becomes a signifier for self-determined, autochthonous, or even indigenous ways of life. This agenda is also being pushed and exported through the Russian Orthodox Church, not only within Russia but on a global scale, for example on the African continent.

Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine has sparked intensive discussion within the discipline of East European Studies about decolonizing the subject. In this context, the basic epistemological assumptions of the discipline have been called into question. In relation to present-day Russia, the concept of a Foucauldian regime of truth was suggested to examine the connections between institutional conditions and social systems of norms and values (see Vulpius 2021). This could not only help to analyze the consent to war in parts of Russian society, but also in parts of the Global South.

The aim of the workshop is to analyze these Russian Politics of Truth (Kleeberg/Suter 2014) with a special focus on interconnections with the Global South. With the help of which terms and concepts, but also media and political techniques, is the Putin regime working to restructure the Russian and global past and present? How are new alliances and imagined communities created, especially with countries of the Global South? As an analytical lens we propose methodological approaches such as political epistemology and praxeology.

Contributions may address, but are not limited to:

- Focal points of a shared history / experience between Russian society and societies of the Global South

- Russian media networks and structures in the Global South

- Formations of “historical truth” in Russian society or comparable cases in the Global South

- Moral economies of Good and Evil in relation to the Russian Politics addressing the Global South

- Policies of “traditional values” and gender politics in Russia and / or Global South contexts

- Religious Policies, the role of the Orthodox church especially on the African continent

- Analyses of specific key figures (like Dugin, Medinskiy, …)

- Analyses of specific key scenes of formation/performance of these truth politics (like the Bessmertnyi polk, Immortal Regiment)

- Alliances of the global far right concerning politics of history and gender

- Interconnections between politics, NGOs, thinktanks, and activism

- Differing visions of multipolarity in the Global South

- Adaptations of postcolonial theory

- Theoretical impulses from political epistemology and praxeology

For a 20-minute presentation in English, we kindly invite you to submit your abstract (circa 300-400 words) as well as a short CV (or a link to your profile website) via email forschungsstelle.wahrheit@uni-erfurt.de by April 1st, 2024. Notifications of acceptance will be sent by end of April.

The conference will take place 24th to 25th October 2024 at the University of Erfurt in an in-person format. However, in an effort to ensure a wider debate, we will allow virtual participation for the small number of speakers who may have difficulties attending in person. No fee is required in order to attend. We will try to cover the travel and accommodation costs for all speakers. The publication of the conference proceedings will be considered.

Literature:

McGlynn, Jade: Memory Makers. The Politics of the Past in Putin’s Russia, Bloomsbury 2023.

Riabova, Tatiana; Riabov, Oleg: The Decline of Gayropa? How Russia intends to Save the World, in: Eurozine, 05.02.2014, https://www.eurozine.com/the-decline-of-gayropa/

Edenborg, Emil: Anti-Gender Politics as Discourse Coalitions: Russia’s Domestic and International. Promotion of “Traditional Values”, in: Problems of Post-Communism 70/2 (2023), p. 175-184.

Korolczuk, Elżbieta; Graff, Agnieszka: Gender as “Ebola from Brussels”: The Anticolonial Frame and the Rise of Illiberal Populism. Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society 43/4 (2018), p. 797–821.

Vulpius, Ricarda: Sollte der Krieg Russlands gegen die Ukraine die Epistemologie der Osteuropäischen Geschichte verändern und wenn ja, wie?, [Should Russia's war against Ukraine change the epistemology of Eastern European history and if so, how?], in: Jahrbücher für Osteuropäische Geschicht 69/4 (2021), p. 588-592.

Kleeberg, Bernhard; Suter, Robert: »Doing truth« Bausteine einer Praxeologie der Wahrheit [Doing Truth. Components of a Praxeology of Truth], in: Zeitschrift für Kulturphilosophie 2 (2014), p. 211-226.