The Cold War project is a multi-venue, inter-departmental project examining the Cold War in its political, cultural, and critical aspects.

Fifteen years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, the Cold War as a political and cultural paradigm has receded into the realm of History, and yet it continues to structure the shape of our world today. At the same time, our so-called post-9/11 world and the war on terror have radically shifted focus and policies away from the post-Cold War field that had been attempting to come to terms with what had just ended. This project seeks to return engagement to aspects of the Cold War for their own sake and to highlight the eerie and nostalgic parallels between Cold War rhetoric and paradigm and the current post-9/11 paradigm. The Cold War Project takes place during the 2005-2006 academic year.

ORGANIZERS Vladislav Todorov, Director Todorov currently teaches in the Department of Slavic Languages & Literatures at Penn. His research projects encompass politics, culture, and literature. His publications include Chaotic Pendulum: Studies in Politics and Governance, Short Paradox for the Theater and Other Figures of Life, and Red Square , Black Square : Organon for Revolutionary Imagination . His theoretical essays have been translated into English, French, German, Russian, and Hungarian. Liliana Milkova, Coordinator Liliana Milkova is a PhD candidate in the Department of the History of Art, University of Pennsylvania. Her dissertation explores the underground artistic practices in the Soviet Union during the late communist period. Her scholarly interests include the study of art, ideology, and propaganda in the Cold War as well as contemporary art and art market developments in post-socialist Eastern Europe. Joseph Benatov, Coordinator Joseph Benatov is a Ph. D. Candidate in Comparative Literature and Literary Theory at the University of Pennsylvania . His main research interests are in contemporary American Literature, the literature of Eastern Europe , and in the cultural relations between Eastern Europe and the U.S.

EVENTS Upcoming : April 3, 2006, 5:30 pm, College Hall 200: Sergei Khrushchev, Brown University, speaks about his father Nikita Khrushchev, Kennedy, and the Cold War. Followed by a book signing at 6:30 pm.  April 6-7, 2006, Penn Humanities Forum (3619 Locust Walk): Annual Slavics Conference Samizdat and Underground Culture in the Soviet Bloc Countries. Past Events : January 18 -February 18, 2006 : Future in the Past: Early Soviet Propaganda in the Cold War. Soviet Posters from the Collection of the Burrison Art Gallery at the University of Pennsylvania . Kelly Writers House, University of Pennsylvania . Reception and Lecture: 5:30 p.m., Wednesday, January 18, 2006 January 27- 29, 2006: Selling Democracy: Films of the Marshall Plan 1948-1953 January 27: Symposium on Selling Democracy TBA January 28 29: Film Screenings International House, 3701 Chestnut Street Philadelphia , PA 19104     September 1, 2005 -- October 7, 2005 Dancing on Embers: Cultural Heritage in Contemporary Bulgarian Art. Reception & Folklore Reading : September 14, 2005 , 5:30pm . September 15, 2005 : Gulag: History Reading & Conversation with Anne Applebaum 6pm , Kelly Writers House September 28, 2005 : Hiroshima , mon amour Director: Alain Resnais, 91mins, b & w, 1959 Introduced by Peter Schwarz, Kelly Writers House Screening @ 5pm , Stiteler Hall B21 October 4, 2005 : "Orbit: Imagining Gagarin" Reading & Conversation with nationally-acclaimed fiction writer, Ken Kalfus. 6pm , Kelly Writers House October 5, 2005 : Oratorio for Prague .Director: Jan Nemec, 26mins, 1968. Introduced by Peter Steiner, Department of Slavic Languages & Literatures Screening @ 5pm , Stiteler Hall B21 October 24, 2005 : The Good Fight. Director: Noel Buckner. 98mins, 1984. Introduced by Al Filreis, Kelly Writers House. Screening @ 7:30pm , Kelly Writers House November 8, 2005 : "My Body, My Choice: The Struggle for Abortion Rights" Lunch-time Discussion with women's activist Connie Bille. Noon , Kelly Writers House November 9, 2005 : The Red Stuff: The True Story of the Russian Race for Space Director: Leo de Boer. 100mins, 1999. Introduced by Vladislav Todorov, Department of Slavic Languages & Literatures. Screening @ 5pm , Stiteler Hall B21 November 16, 2005 : "Culture & US Foreign Policy during the Cold War" Lecture by John Brown, former US Foreign Service officer November 18, 2005 : Dr. Strangelove or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb Director: Stanley Kubrick. 94mins, 1964. Introduced by Nile Southern Screening @ 7pm , International House November 30, 2005 : The Red Menace Director: R.G. Springsteen. 87mins, 1949. Introduced by Joseph Benatov, Department of Comparative Literatures.

CONFERENCE Samizdat and Underground Culture in the Soviet Bloc Countries, April 6-7, 2006 All events will take place at thePenn Humanities Forum at 3619 Locust Walk unless otherwise noted. “Samizdat and Underground Culture in the Soviet Bloc Countries” is the first scholarly gathering in the United States dedicated to the specific practice of underground anti-establishment literature and artistic activities that flourished from the mid-1950s through the 1980s. The conference aims to assemble experts in the field from both the US and abroad to offer a comparative study of the variety of literary and artistic practices in the Eastern Bloc countries, and to offer a critical approach towards their national specificity and formative socio-political factors. The conference is a bi-partite event. The first part will comprise a day-long Samizdat workshop (first of its kind in the US) led by representatives of the largest collections of Samizdat materials, including the Open Society Archives in Budapest, who will present and discuss their holdings, followed by a reading of Vaclav Havel’s 1978 underground play “Protest.” The second day will comprise scholarly presentations organized in three panels with three speakers each. The presenters will include leading scholars from Belgium, Bulgaria, Hungary, Canada, the Czech Republic, and the US, as well as representatives of the Penn community (including faculty and a graduate student in Art History). The panels will feature original article-length (20-30pp.) papers by each participant, which will be pre-circulated to conference participants and audience members. Participants will present 20-25-minute summaries of their papers, making possible a compact event with time for productive discussion. Presenters include: Albena Vassileva , Professor in English and Comparative Literature, Brooklyn College of the City University of New York Alexander Gribanov , Professor, Suffolk University and Archivist of the Andrei Sakharov Archives and Human Rights Center , Brandeis University Ann Komaromi , Professor in Comparative Literature, University of Toronto Carol Rocamora , Professor of Theater, Tisch School of the Arts, New York University James Christy , Professor in Theater, Villanova University Jan Kubik , Professor in Political Science, Rutgers University and Polish Academy of Sciences J. Martin Daughtry , Ethnomusicology, University of California , Los Angeles Martin Machovec , Professor in Literature, Comenius College and Charles University , Prague Michael Hollinger , Playwright and Assistant Professor in Theater, Villanova University Olga Zaslavskaia , Samizdat Archivist, Open Society Archives, Budapest Wolfgang Eichwede , Professor and Director of the Research Centre for East European Studies, University of Bremen Vera Skop , Board of Directors, Skoloskyp, Inc., Kiev , Ukraine Schedule: April 6, 2006 2-5 pm: Samizdat Workshop led by Olga Zaslavskaia (Open Society Archives, Budapest), Ann Komaromi (University of Toronto), Wolfgang Eichwede (Director, Research Centre for East European Studies at the University of Bremen) and Vera Skop (Skoloskyp, Inc., Kiev) 6-7 pm : “Protest” by Vaclav Havel, translated by playwright, translator and New York University professor Carol Rocamora and read by Villanova University professors James Christy and Michael Hollinger. Free and open to the public. April 7, 2005 9 am : Opening remarks Session 1, 9:30 – 11:30 Chair: Joseph Benatov, University of Pennsylvania Discussant: Liliane Weissberg, University of Pennsylvania Ann Komaromi, University of Toronto, "The Material Existence of Samizdat: Methodological Implications"   Martin Machovec, Comenius College and Charles University , Prague, " The Types and Functions of Samizdat Publications in Czechoslovakia in 1948-1989. " Wolfgang Eichwede, Research Center for East European Studies, University of Bremen, "Archipelago Samizdat. The Impact of Samizdat Culture on the Contemporary History of Central and Eastern Europe."  Session 2, 11:30 – 1:30 Chair: Vladislav Todorov, University of Pennsylvania Discussant: Ben Nathans, University of Pennsylvania   Jan Kubik, Rutgers University and Polish Academy of Sciences, " Avant-garde Theater Contra State Socialism: What Was Global before the Era of Globalization (in Tadeusz Kantor’s Theater)?" Carol Rocamora, Tisch School of the Arts, New York University, "' Far from the Theatre' : The Playwright Vaclav Havel in the 1970s” J. Martin Daughtry, University of California , Los Angeles, "'Est' Magnitofon Sistemy "Yauza!" I Etogo Dostatochno!': Magnitizdat as Musical Practice." Lunch Break, 1:30 – 2:30 Session 3, 2:30 – 4 Chair: Liliana Milkova, University of Pennsylvania Discussant: TBA   Albena Vassileva, Brooklyn College of the City University of New York, "Discursive Resistance in Bulgarian Late Communist Culture."  Alexander Gribanov, Suffolk University, "Samizdat in KGB Analysis of 1970-1971: Reading and Comparison of Two Documents." Vypiski iz prikazov 4 pm : Concluding remarks 5 pm : Receptiom (Venue: TBA)