The International Oral History Association in collaboration with the University of Guadalajara and the Mexican Oral History Association sponsored a conference 23 to 27 September 2008 on the topic Oral History - a dialogue with our times. The academic program has accepted more than 650 submissions from oral history specialists from five continents. Among the topics are those that reflect upon the memories of violence and war, memory and politics, gender and so on. and Pavel Mücke.
On September 16, 2015 theOriental Institute of the CAS organized an international conference, which addressed the question of the meanings of democracy in the Middle East, Asia, and Russia and the role that democracy plays in the discourse of the political elites and non-state actors in these regions. The case studies at the conference described the situation in Egypt, Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, China and Russia. Democracy plays a crucial role in the efforts of the Western world to promote peace and stability and maintain international security. However, in recent years, countries such as China and Russia have explicitly offered an alternative interpretation of democracy to the public, both domestically and internationally, one which builds on national, cultural and political traditions and contradicts the claims for universality common in theWest. Furthermore, non-universalistic discourses on democracy have become popular among diverse non-state actors, such as Islamicmovements, non-formal authorities, or civil society across the Middle East and Central Asia. These developments have important implications for both the efforts aimed at the promotion of democracy and for the advance of democracy in general. and Věra Exnerová.
The Centre for Science and Technology Studies of Leiden University organized the 11th International Conference on Science and Technology Indicators 8 - 11 September in Leiden. Science and technology indicators have become an increasingly important instrument for science policy and research management. The assessment of strengths and weaknesses of a country’s science system, ranking, benchmarking and classification of universities, finding excellence in research, identification of emerging and often interdisciplinary research themes, measuring knowledge transfer between academia and industry - all these examples show the value of S&T indicators for users. and Petr Ráb.