Revisionism and Contemporary History Research – Call to Authors
10. 6. 2021 – The media controversy over revisionism in research on socialist Czechoslovakia drew attention to an important fact – that historiography, and the humanities and social studies in general, regularly revise the starting points and conclusions of their research. These revisions give rise to expert controversies, which often reflect current political disputes and may therefore spill over into debates far beyond the academic sphere. Issues in contemporary history have long been central themes of such controversies.
The debate on totalitarianism and revisionism in research on state socialism, most recently covered in Radek Buben and Martin Štefek’s article entitled Konceptuální labyrinty. Kolik pojetí totalitarismu znáš, tolikrát jsi revizionistou? [Conceptual labyrinths. For as many concepts of totalitarianism that you know, so many times are you a revisionist] (Soudobé dějiny 2/2021 https://sd.usd.cas.cz/corproof.php?tartkey=sod-000000-0019), is a famous and today archetypical polemic of this type. This was, however, only one of many similar disputes over methodological innovations and revisions of interpretations in contemporary history research. As a follow-up to the publication of the cited article, the editorial team of the Soudobé dějiny/CJCH journal invites authors to submit papers for a thematic issue dedicated to this phenomenon. The aim of the issue is to open up discussion on revisionism that would show the broad nature of this theme and point out, for example, the complicated history of the term revisionism, interaction between historiography and politics in controversies over interpretations of the recent past, or other “revisionist” disputes that so far have been overlooked in the current Czech debate.
The issues covered by the papers may include, for example, the following:
1) Revisionism – history of the term
2) Methodology of contemporary history research and the issue of revisionism
3) Historical revisions and study of expert controversies
4) Discussion on revisionism in Cold War research
5) Holocaust denial and other extreme forms of historical revision
6) Gender-inspired revisions of dominant historical concepts and actors
7) Revisionism and the media image of contemporary history research
8) Historical revisions and the politics of history
Manuscripts should be submitted by 15 February 2022 via the journal’s online editorial system at https://sd.usd.cas.cz, FOR AUTHORS – SUBMIT MANUSCRIPT
Call for papers in English
15. 2. 2021 – We are pleased to announce that as of 2021, the peer-reviewed journal Soudobé dějiny - Czech Journal of Contemporary History is published in two Czech and one English issue per year.
The editorial team is now accepting original article submissions in English exploring the history of the 20th and 21st century, with a primary focus on Czechoslovak and Czech themes in the broader international context, as well as the history of the wider Central and Eastern European region. Comparative and transnational perspectives are also welcome and the journal aims to cover a wide range of topics across political, social, intellectual and cultural history. The journal is open to contributions not only from historians, but also all scholars from related fields of the humanities and social sciences employing a historical perspective in their work.
The editors further invite English submissions of book reviews of recent monographs and edited volumes published in Czech, English or other languages related to contemporary Czech, Czechoslovak, as well as broader Central and East European history .
Soudobé dějiny - Czech Journal of Contemporary History is the leading scholarly journal in the field of Czech contemporary history and has been published by the Institute of Contemporary History of the Czech Academy of Sciences since 1993. The journal’s aim is to contribute to a deeper understanding of the recent past and to act as a platform for the exchange of the newest findings in the field, including conceptual and methodological innovations in contemporary history. Its new English edition aims to familiarize the broader scholarly community with the newest research on recent Czech and Czechoslovak history and serve as a medium of communication between Czech and international scholars.
The English issue is published in print in December of each year. The online version of the journal is fully Open Access (on a CC BY-NC license) and pre-print articles will be available on the journal’s website prior to print publication.