The Fourth Fitzwilliam Colloquium on Russian History and Culture 27-29 August 2008

"Media in Flux: Information Technologies in Russian Culture"

Building on the success of the last Fitzwilliam Conference (“Crossing Borders: Translations and Transpositions in Russian Culture”), which was devoted to the interrelationships and interpenetrations of cultural genres and forms, the 2008 conference will consider the interplay of cultural technologies, especially in periods of innovation and change. What have been the cultural implications of technological change? How has the broader ‘ecology’ of culture been affected by the introduction and development of e.g. writing, printing and other modes of duplication, electronic storage and transmission, technologies for the storage and projection of images, etc. etc.? To what extent are existing cultural technologies supplanted, restricted, or modified, but the appearance of new technologies? How have notionally competing technologies adapted to one another (e.g. film-television-video-digital recording; live performance-sound recording; letter-writing-email-texting; painting-printed illustration; hand-copying-typewriting-printing and other forms of duplication; telephones-internet chatrooms, etc. etc.). We are interested in assembling panels relating to a broad range cultural media, and touching on all periods of Russian cultural history.

Please send suggested titles of papers, together with a brief description (not more than 100 words) to: Professor Simon Franklin at slavon@hermes.cam.ac.uk, by 15 January 2008