Conference «The Holodomor in Global Perspective» (Cambridge (UK), 22-23 June 2022)

A burgeoning field of academic inquiry, Holodomor Studies has come to occupy an important space in Soviet, East European, and Eurasian scholarship. The 1932-1933 famine in Soviet Ukraine, now commonly referred to as the Holodomor, took the lives of millions in one of the most deplorable and tragic events of the twentieth century. While considerable scholarship has been dedicated to the subject, the role of this famine in global history has yet to receive serious attention. Indeed, the famine was of such a scale that it affected global economics, politics, and international relations. It was covered in hundreds of press accounts internationally, debated and discussed by world governments, and became a crisis that drew the attention of humanitarian aid and relief groups on nearly every continent. 

This conference invites proposals from scholars interested in examining the 1932-1933 famine in global perspective. We invite submissions focusing on any aspect of the Holodomor that contributes to an understanding of how the famine shaped, and was shaped by, global processes at work during the interwar period. Proposals are welcome from scholars from any academic discipline and may include, but are not limited to, the following subjects:

• Foreign workers in the USSR engaged in Soviet industrial and agricultural projects
• Grain and wheat imports and exports; the role of the Soviet Union in the global economy
• International actors in collectivization practices
• The famine in international relations and in the context of Soviet denial
• Government and organizational responses (or lack thereof) to the famine
• The famine in the context of humanitarian aid and relief 
• News and coverage of the famine in the world press
• The famine as a multiethnic experience of minority groups who lived in Soviet Ukraine
• Displaced famine victims; refugee and migration history

Directions for submitting a proposal

If you are interested in presenting a paper at this conference, please submit an abstract of no longer than 500 words and a short bio by Friday, February 11, 2022. The working language of the conference will be English. Accepted participants will be notified of their selection by late February. Proposals may focus on one of the areas specified above or propose new directions for the study of the Holodomor in global perspective.

Please email all relevant documents to BOTH Daria Mattingly dm628@cam.ac.uk and John Vsetecka vsetecka@msu.edu by Friday, February 11, 2022.

Selected participants must submit their papers two weeks before the conference. A publication of the presented papers is planned. Organizers of the conference have arranged funds to offset some of the costs of participant accommodations, meals, and travel expenses. The organizers are grateful to the Holodomor Research and Education Consortium, the Leverhulme Trust, and the University of Cambridge for their generous support.