Dissidents as Figures of Truth (since the 1970s)

Online, 14-16 July 2021

Organizers: Friedrich Cain, Bernhard Kleeberg, Dietlind Hüchtker, Karin Reichenbach, Jan Surman, in cooperation with the Faculty Centre for Transdisciplinary Historical and Cultural Studies (University of Vienna), the Leibniz Institute for the History and Culture of Eastern Europe/GWZO (Leipzig), the Research Group "Praxeologies of Truth" (University of Erfurt), and the Masaryk Institute and Archives of the Czech Academy of Sciences.

Programme | CfP

What do Andrei Sakharov, Noam Chomsky, Protestant Nonconformists separating from the Church of England in the 17th and 18th centuries, and today’s mask opponents have in common? They all have at times been called, and identified themselves as, dissidents. Though, we almost intuitively associate dissidents with Soviet intellectual nonconformists, and those from other countries of the Eastern Bloc.

At our conference, we want to look more closely at how the figure of the “dissident” became constructed and solidified across the Iron Curtain and after the fall of the Soviet Union. We will focus on practices, techniques, and media settings which (co)produce the dissident as a (mostly male) “truth figure”, which includes practices of staging oneself, and ways of embodying the (epistemic) values and virtues associated with this figure.

The participation in the workshop is limited. To register and for further information, please contact Karin Reichenbach (karin.reichenbach@leibniz-gwzo.de).

Keynote, round table and final discussion will be open to the public.

To sign up, please follow https:/<wbr />/bit.ly<wbr />/3yEfj6Y .
For technical help, please contact Ines Rößler (ines.roessler@leibniz-gwzo.de).