New Directions in the Study of Czechoslovak Dissidence: Charter 77 in Transnational Perspective

Session Submission Type: Panel

Brief Description

Although the Czechoslovak oppositional human rights initiative Charter 77 has been thoroughly researched, a number of key questions have until now lacked examination. The recent trend in historiography towards global histories of socialism during the Cold War and the extensive scholarship on the rise of human rights internationally in the second half of the twentieth century demand that the history of the Charter also be examined in this light. This panel presents the newest research on Charter 77 that places the ideas and practices of this dissident initiative in a wider transnational context. The contributions to this panel analyse the Charter’s contacts and connections with international organizations such as Amnesty International and the International Labour Organization; consider how international journalists approached and reported on the Czechoslovak human rights initiative; and analyse to what extent Charter 77 was receptive to the global conversation on women’s equality taking place in international human rights organizations during the 1970s and 80s.

Sub Unit

• History: 1945-1990

Chair

• Padraic Kenney, U of Kentucky

Papers

• Transnationalism from the Bottom Up: Charter 77 Activists and International Human Rights Networks - Michal Kopecek, Institute of Contemporary History CAS (Czech Republic)

• The New York Times and Christian Science Monitor on Charter 77 and Human Rights - Petra James, U libre de Bruxelles (Belgium)

• Was Charter 77 Interested in Women’s Rights? - Veronika Pehe, Institute of Contemporary History CAS (Czech Republic)

Discussant

• Kieran David Williams, Drake U