The NordForsk network “The Modernisation Process in the Barents Region” hereby invites scholars, university instructors, doctoral and postgraduate students, as well as other specialists with expertise in the Barents region to take part in the International Research Conference "Regional Northern Identity: from Past to Future". The conference will be held at Petrozavodsk State University, Petrozavodsk, Russian Federation, on September 12 – 14, 2006.

The conference will focus on such a specific phenomenon as identity with the emphasis on the Nordic and neighbouring countries. We intend to study identity(ies) both as unique mental construction (“as such”) and in its interaction with political, economic, social, religious and cultural processes.

The conference sessions are:
Session 1. Northern Mentality and Identity as Unique phenomena?

This session is intended to cover both theoretical and practical research issues, i.e. how to study mentality and identity, what methodology to use, inter-disciplinary studies, etc.

The sub-topics might be:
- Basic mental concepts: space, time, the image of the Other;
- Border of frontier? Dividing and uniting functions of the borderland. Border studies;
- Northern mentality: traditional or innovative?

Session 2. Identity and Challenges of Globalization and regionalization.

This session is intended to focus on political, social, religious and economic impacts on social, ethnic, personal identities in the Nordic and neighbouring regions.

The sub-topics might be:
- Impact of industrial development on indigenous cultures;
- Patterns of survival of cultural or ethnic identity in front of changing socio-economic environment;
- Practices of revitalization;
- Religious studies;
- Political, economic, religious and social reforms and their impact on cultural and ethnic identity.

Session 3. Cross-Cultural Communication and Ethnic Identities.

This session is intended to concentrate on contemporary cultural environment in respect to ethnic identities.

The sub-topics might be:
- Multicultural society in the Northern Europe;
- Patterns of cross-cultural and inter-ethnic dialogue;
- Ethnopolitics;
- Demographic issues.

The issues of regional identity in the Nordic countries and Northern Russia should provide a variety of topics and questions of vital interest to discuss at the conference. It is also significant to understand the course of history in the Barents region as a result of mixture of various traditions, achievements and peculiarities of national historiographical schools, as well as a result of the facilities of historical sources in different countries. The working language of the conference is English. The participants are responsible for the translation of their abstracts and texts into English.

The Conference Organizing Committee will be able to provide limited financial support for participants. If the amount of applications exceeds the conference capacities, the Organizing Committee reserves the right to select among proposed papers.

All proposals for fifteen-minute presentations are due by April 15, 2006. Proposals should follow the outline given below:

Title
First and last name
Academic degree and rank
Organization, department
Contact information

Abstract (0,5 page in English) in Times New Roman (or equivalent), 12 pts.

Please submit your proposals in a MS Word or RTF format by e-mail to Liubov Arinina, the secretary of the Organizing committee (recenter@psu.karelia.ru) by April 15, 2006.

Conference deadlines:

Submitting abstracts (0,5 page in English) — 15 April 2006;

Confirmation for the accepted participants — 15 May 2006;

Distribution of the conference final programme — 15 June 2006;

The participants’ arrival to Petrozavodsk — 11 — 12 September 2006;

Conference in Petrozavodsk — 12 — 14 September 2006;

Participants’ departure from Petrozavodsk — 14 — 15 September 2006;

Submitting articles — 1 November 2006;

Publishing of the conference proceedings — 20 December 2006

Arrival and departure to/from Petrozavodsk

Participants from the Nordic countries are recommended to arrive and depart to/from Petrozavodsk by airplane via Helsinki or by bus directly from Tromsø and Luleå. All bookings for Nordic participants are to be made through Lars Elenius, the network project coordinator from the Luleå University of Technology.

Other participants should consult the Organizing committee for the best ways of transportation.

Organizing committee contact information:

Sergey Verigin
Dean of the Faculty of History of Petrozavodsk State University,
Ph.D. in History, Associate Professor,
Chairman of the Conference Organizing committee
responsible for the academic programme

verigin@psu.karelia.ru; tel. +7 (814 2) 71 10 74

Liubov Arinina
Manager of the Centre for Historical and Cultural Studies of the Northern Europe (Petrozavodsk State University) responsible for the organizational, practical and financial arrangements and submitting abstracts as well

recenter@psu.karelia.ru; tel./fax: +7 (814 2) 71 96 14

Lars Elenius
Coordinator of the NordForsk network
«The Modernization Process in the Barents Region», Ph.D. in History lars.elenius@ltu.se, tel.: +46-(0) 920-491259

Project web-site
http://www.ies.luth.se/norfa/index.htm

Welcome to Petrozavodsk in September 2006!

The Conference Organizing committee