
UNDERSTANDING AUTHORITARIANISM
New Frontiers in the Study of Dictatorship and Democracy
University of Ostrava
Ostrava, Czech Republic
29-30-31 May 2024
Call for applications will be opened soon
This international conference brings together young and experienced scholars working on non-democracies to present their latest findings on how dictatorships behave, perform and interact. We are aiming for full global coverage and warmly invite area specialists to present old and new takes on cases from their regions of interest. Of course, we do not exclude scholars, policy-makers and other experts working on democratization and democratic backsliding, which can offer complementary viewpoints in the study of democracy and autocracy.
The overall goal of this conference resonates with the mission of the M.O.R.D.O.R. project: To provide a more cohesive and clearer theoretical understanding of dictatorship to area specialists and democracy support policy-makers, while in return, have area specialists bring new (and overlooked) developments to the fore based on innovative fieldwork and their in-depth understanding of country studies, which in turn can challenge and improve existing theories. Practitioners and policy-makers, similarly, can expose the effectiveness and limits of the available tools used to promote and support democracy.
The conference will tackle these topics from theoretical, methodological and critical angles. Dictatorships by principle are defined by their exclusion, and therefore we welcome gendered and post-colonial perspectives. We aim to pry open the black box of political regimes to discuss their internal workings and interaction with non-regime actors, but in parallel we ponder behavioral patterns of autocracies in international relations, how they collaborate and learn from one another. The ‘clash’ of democracy and non-democracy is certainly a debate we look forward on continuing even with contested topics like autocratic “diffusion” and democracy “promotion” however, nuances are required to account for the heterogeneity of regimes and the actual causality of their IR interactions.
This conference is a one-time event, organized by the M.O.R.D.O.R. Erasmus+ project and hosted by the University of Ostrava. This event is co-funded by the Erasmus+ program of the European Union. We aim to connect about 100 participants working in fields related to dictatorship at this international conference.
WHEN – The conference will take place from Wednesday 29 May 2024 to Friday 31 May 2024.
FOR WHOM – This conference is aimed academics, experts, policy-makers and students working on authoritarianism and democratization. It is possible to attend the conference without presenting a paper. This is not a hybrid event. Selected participants have attend in person.
PRESENTING A PAPER – All paper proposals will be reviewed and organized into the most suitable section. Scholars can propose one or two sections, but the final choice will go the organizers. If your paper is not selected, it is still possible to participate without presenting. We do not plan a post-conference publication. We will not upload papers in a paper-room, but selected paper presenters will be put in email contact with their panel reviewers, so they can pass on their draft papers beforehand for feedback, if they choose to.
FEES – This conference is fully co-funded by the Erasmus+ program of the European Union, and for this region we are glad to announce that we can wave off any conference fees. However, an administrative fee of 50 EUR will be required in order to attend this event.
VISA & INVITATIONS – Once participants are selected, the University of Ostrava can – upon request- provide letters of invitations and visa requests to embassies. Certificates of attendance will be provided on the last day of the conference.
GRANTS – Regrettably, we cannot offer travel grants or other discounts.
LOCATION & LOGISTICS – We chose Ostrava as our event location because it is centrally located in Europe, well-connected by train, and is also served by various bus and train connections from airports like Katowice (Poland), Vienna or Prague. The costs of accommodation in Ostrava are very reasonable and the organizers plan to provide snacks and refreshments (as the budget allows) beside an informal dinner (on 30 May 2024).
VENUE – The conference will be hosted by the University of Ostrava in Ostrava, Czech Republic
DEADLINES – The call for applications (title / abstract / keywords) will be opened in September 2023 and by January 2024 we plan to announce the selected abstracts
CONTACT – for additional information please contact Dr. Nune Srapyan at admin@mordorproject.eu
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