Our intention is to bring together researchers who will discuss the topics that have been unavoidable for the articulation of contemporary history of the area that until the beginning of 1990s formed Yugoslav federation. Politics of modernization and the development of a modern industrial society, with its various aspects, cannot be separated from the almost half-centennial history of self-management socialism. With this broadly defined theme, based on cultural and historical research within the frame of the humanities, we would like to open a dialogue about different aspects of culture, history and politics of the Yugoslav federation and offer dynamic and comparative interpretations of the events, processes and phenomena that formed contemporary identities, both those of the Yugoslav republics under communist rule, and of the independent states in the post-socialist era.
During the conference, socialism will again as a subject be put "on the bench" and in the focus of attention. Depending of the researcher's interpretation of Yugoslav and post-Yugoslav societies, socialism can be put on various "benches". It could simply be an academic topic, on a school bench, student's desk or a lab bench; it could end in front of a court bench, or be sitting on the bench as a substitute player.
The goal of the conference is to strengthen the communication and cooperation between scholars interested in similar socialist and post-socialist topics, whether they work in Croatia, neighbour states, or further abroad, and whether they are originally from the South-Slavic area or just scholars following their academic interests. This approach is especially important considering the complexity of recent common history and events that are still awaiting their academic interpretation.
The call for papers was sent in January 2013. The response was greater than expected, so in the Book of Abstracts there are names of 91 participants and 86 titles of individual or group presentations. Around a half of participants come from Croatia, from all seven Croatian universities and leading national research institutes. There are participants from the entire post-Yugoslav area, as well as around ten other European countries, America and Australia. Therefore the abstracts and presentations reflect the linguistic diversity in which English, Croatian and other South-Slavic languages are intertwined. It is also important to point out that around one half of participants are PhD students who are making their first steps as researchers and who will mark the years to come.
At the same time the Centre is participating in the program "Socialism on the Bench: CKPIS Presents" which is a part of cooperation with the Book Fair(y) in Istria and the 19th festival of books and authors in Pula.