Oral Histories of Socialist Modernities:
Memories and Lived Experiences in Central and Inner Asia
Conference
16–17th December 2009
The Mond Building, Free School Lane, Cambridge CB2 3RF
Mongolia & Inner Asia Studies Unit,
University of Cambridge
The National Museum of Ethnology, Osaka, Japan
Tuesday 16 December
9:30—9:40 Opening remarks (Uradyn Bulag, Cambridge)
Panel I: Overview / methodology (Chair: Caroline Humphrey)
9:40—10:20 Keynote Address: Yuki Konagaya (Minpaku, Japan)
Narrative on socialist modernization after socialism
10:20—11:00 Christopher Kaplonski (Cambridge)
Oral histories of modernities: reflections on methodology and other processes
11:00—11:20 Coffee break
11:20—12:00 Timur Dadabaev (Tsukuba, Japan)
Power, everyday life experiences and public memory in post-Soviet Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan
12:00—12:40 Guljanat Kurmangaliyeva Ercilasun (Maltepe, Turkey)
Remembered traditions and life-styles of Soviet Kyrgyzstan
12: 40—14: 00: Lunch break
Panel II: Problems of socialist memory (Chair: Timur Dadabaev)
14:00—14:40 David Sneath (Cambridge)
History, tradition, and the construction of collective identity in Mongolia
14:40—15:20 Shiro Sasaki (Minpaku, Japan)
Socialist modernisation of hunting culture of the indigenous people in the Russian Far East: equipment, techniques, and world view
15:20—15:40 Tea break
15:40—16:20 Junko Fujiwara (Minpaku, Japan)
Narrative over the past and present: the revival of magic in post-socialist Russia
16:20—17:00 Ai Maekawa (Institute of Humanities and Nature, Japan)
The struggle for the establishment of Mongolian ‘National Design’ in the architecture?: case study interviews with Mongolian architects
19:00—21:00 Dinner
Wednesday, 17 December
Panel III: Battlegrounds of Memory (Chair: Christopher Kaplonski)
9:30—10:10 Uradyn Bulag (Cambridge)
Memory struggle: the moral economy of post-revolutionary oral histories in Inner Mongolia
10:10—10:50 Tsering Shakya (British Columbia, Canada)
Competing memories: contests over oral narrative and testimony
10:50—11:10 Coffee break
11:10—11:50 Hildegard Diemberger (Cambridge)
Forgotten heroes? On the life histories of grass-root cadres, monastery leaders and community elders who reconstructed Tibet in the post-Mao era
11:50—12:30 Robert Barnett (Columbia, USA)
National narratives and politics in Columbia University's Tibetan Oral History Project
12:30—14:00 Lunch break
Panel IV: Heroes and Villains: Memories and Nationalism in Mongolia (Chair: Shiro Sasaki)
14:00—14:40 Hurelbaatar Ujeed (Cambridge) & Sampildondov Chuluun (National University of Mongolia)
Embodiment and ritualization of oral history: Mongolian oral narratives on Chingünjav
14:40—15:20 Grégory Delaplace (Cambridge)
Chinese ghosts in Mongolia: (hi)stories of ethnic predation
15:20—16:00 Concluding remarks (David Sneath, Cambridge) and general discussion