The international conference "20 Years After: Central and Eastern European Communist Regimes as a Shared Legacy" focuses on the legacy of the non-democratic past of Central European countries. Unlike the more common approaches stressing the radical nature of ruptures accompanying the demise of communist regimes in the region, twenty years after the fall, both the scientific community and Central and Eastern European societies are probably ready to accept a more detailed account of prevailing – but also of transformed – social and political practices.

The conference is based on an interdisciplinary or multi-disciplinary approach towards the late communist period of the 1980s and its legacy to the present day. It will offer uncommon methods and topics to the wider academic community as well as to the interested public. An institutionalized coming to terms with the past, as the key panel of the conference, will be presented through the comparative prism of transitional justice, a field well known in Western social sciences but less known terrain in the East.

Applications (consisting of an abstract no longer than 500 words and a short academic CV relevant to the subject of the conference) should be sent to katka.volna@ustrcr.cz. The deadline for applications is July 10, 2009.

All submissions satisfying the basic requirements will be subject to a review. Only papers of sufficient academic quality will be accepted. Successful applicants will be informed of the acceptance of their proposal by July 24, 2009.