Call for Papers | Embracing the New, Preserving the Old: Studying Fascism, Communism, and Totalitarianism in the 2020s (October 14-15) - Instytut Pileckiego

We invite historians, political scientists, sociologists, scholars of culture and media, and others interested to reflect on methods, cases, and knowledge production related to the study of fascism, communism, and totalitarianism in the 2020s.

Call for Papers: Embracing the New, Preserving the Old: Studying Fascism, Communism, and Totalitarianism in the 2020s

October 14-15, The Pilecki Institute, Sienna 82, Warsaw, Poland

We seek to foster an interdisciplinary conversation on how the pasts and presents of fascism, communism, and totalitarianism continue to shape scholarly, political, and cultural activity across Central and Eastern Europe and beyond.

More than thirty years after the end of the Cold War, the categories through which the twentieth century was once understood are being reactivated, revised, and (re)contested. In an era marked by misinformation, digital transformation, geopolitical tumult, and neo-imperialism, the legacies of fascism and communism once again occupy a central place in public and academic debate both within and beyond Central & Eastern Europe. The conference asks how these frameworks—and the scholarship around them—are being reimagined, reappropriated, or resisted today.

Participants are encouraged to engage with the multiple forces—intellectual, technological, sociocultural, and methodological—that are reshaping historical research and interpretation within this context. Among these are the expanding digitization of archives, the growing influence of artificial intelligence in historical analysis, and the emergence of postcolonial and other critical approaches. These developments nonetheless intersect with the longer traditions of inquiry into fascism, communism, and totalitarianism. Thus the Congress invites participants to consider what older forms of scholarship—archival work, philology, close reading, critical theory, or intellectual history—continue to provide indispensable insights in 2026, and how they might coexist or productively interact with new methodologies. While our focus is the twentieth century, we especially welcome work that links historical inquiry to contemporary challenges.

We invite contributions that revisit totalitarianism, fascism and communism as intellectual, cultural, political, and methodological concepts and phenomena. Topics may include but are not limited to:

• Case studies of specific events, phenomena, and processes related to totalitarianism, past and present
• Histories of knowledge, expertise, and scholarly exchange in twentieth-century Central and Eastern Europe
• New approaches to totalitarianism, fascism, and communism
• Digital archives, datafication, and the transformation of historical practice
• AI, automation, and the epistemology of digital history
• The continuing relevance of traditional scholarly methods today
• Propaganda, mis/disinformation, and censorship
• Reflections on neo-imperialism and (post)colonialism, conflict, and geopolitics

We welcome both individual papers and panel or roundtable submissions. See below for more details.

Timeline for submissions

• March 12 2026 - Paper submission opens
• May 15 - Call for papers closes
• June 5 - Confirmation of participation
• October 14-15 - Conference to be held at Pilecki Institute, Sienna 82, Warsaw

Important information

The language of the conference is English.

This is an in-person conference. However, opportunities for online participation will be available for participants unable to travel due to military hostilities and other extenuating circumstances.

Guidelines for submission

Sessions will be 90 minutes long, with 3 papers of 20 minutes each or 4 papers of 15 minutes. We welcome panel and roundtable submissions or individual paper submissions. Each panel/roundtable should have a moderator/chair. If you are submitting a proposal for a full panel or a roundtable, please include a moderator in your submission. If you are unable to find a moderator, we will assist.

The conference organizers will arrange sessions with moderators for single papers accepted for the conference. All participants in such a session will be put in touch with each other and with their moderator well in advance of the conference.

Participants may only present one paper; however they may serve as a moderator in one other panel session as well if they wish.

We are also planning to publish a post-conference publication with the consent of participating authors. More information will be made available closer to the date of the congress.

To submit, email proposals to conference2026@instytutpileckiego.pl by May 15:

• Individual paper proposals should contain a title, an abstract of approximately 250 words and a biographical note about the speaker of maximum 100 words.
• Panel proposals should contain a title and brief description and 3-4 abstracts (250 words each) along with biographical notes (100 words) in a single document. Indicate a proposed moderator on the first page.
• Roundtable proposals should contain a title, brief description and an overall abstract of 250 words along with biographical notes for 3-4 speakers in a single document. Indicate a proposed moderator on the first page.
• Email documents in .docx or .pdf format to: conference2026@instytutpileckiego.pl