The Romanian Cultural Institute in cooperation with the Center for the Study of Post-Communist Societies (under the directorship of Professor Vladimir Tismaneanu) at the University of Maryland (College Park), the Cold War International History Project (Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars), Georgetown University (CERES), and the Embassy of Romania in the US are organizing the conference Ideological Storms: Intellectuals and the Totalitarian Temptation, which will take place on November, 14-15, 2011, in Washington D.C.
This event is the fifth in a series of conferences jointly organized by these institutions over the past four years, including "Stalinism Revisited: The Establishment of Communist Regimes in East-Central Europe and the Dynamics of the Soviet Bloc" (November 29-30, 2007), "Promises of 1968: Crisis, Illusions and Utopia" (November 6-7, 2008), "The End and the Beginning: The Revolutions of 1989 and the Resurgence of History" (November 9-10, 2009), Remembrance, History, and Justice: Coming to Terms with Traumatic Pasts in Democratic Societies (November 10-11, 2010).
The organizers wish to create a thematical framework that will provide an overview of the main issues raised by the temptation of the extremes in the 20th century and their impact upon the contemporary world. The conference will be a forum for discussing political passions, radicalism, utopian ideals, and their catastrophic consequences in the twentieth century's experiments of massive social engineering. The event will chart the map of and explain what Hannah Arendt called "the ideological storms" of a century second to none in terms of violence, hubris, ruthlessness, and human sacrifices.
Last but not least, following the practice of the past four conferences, the organizers wish to integrate the case of Romania within the larger discussion of the role of intellectuals and their relationship with fascism, communism, and nationalism.
Among the participants are: Mark Lilla (Columbia University); Richard Wolin (City University of New York); Michael Scammell (Columbia University); Jeffrey Herf (University of Maryland); Michael David-Fox (Georgetown University); Jeffrey Isaac (University of Indiana in Bloomington); Dennis Deletant (Georgetown University); Jan Werner Mueller (Princeton University); Jeffrey Wasserstrom (University of California Irvine); Constantin Iordachi (Central European University) - Romanian Intellectuals and the Specter of Interwar Fascism; Cristina Vatulescu (New York University); Nikos Marantzidis (University of Macedonia-Thessaloniki); Ian Ward (University of Maryland); Balazs Trencsenyi (Central European University); Michal Kopecek (The Institute of Contemporary History, Prague); Cristian Vasile ("Nicolae Iorga" History Institute, Romanian Academy); Vladimir Petrovic (Institute of Contemporary History in Belgrade).
Monday, November 14
Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars
One Woodrow Wilson Plaza
1300 Pennsylvania Ave., NW, Washington, DC 20004
RSVP: HAPP@wilsoncenter.org
Tuesday, November 15
Ebassy of Romania in the USA
1607 23rd Street, NW, Washington, D.C. 20008
RSVP: ideologicalstorms@gmail.com
For the conference program and more details see the documents attached
Program Bios and Abstracts Program pdf Synopsis pdf
