How Maoism was Made: Analysing Chinese Communism beyond the Totalitarian Lens, 1949-1965

2019 will mark the 70th anniversary of the People’s Republic of China, which aimed to create the world’s largest socialist society. Although popularly perceived as a rupture, historians have increasingly emphasised continuities across the 1949 divide, making the end of the Maoist system in 1978 a much more striking transition. The picture that emerges from the early PRC is one in which China is not a top-down totalitarian regime, but one enabled by ordinary people wishing to secure their place, including scientists, farmers, artists, and religious officials. By engaging with historians of the USSR, this conference will gather scholars of China offering new perspectives on the revolution, life under socialism, and the establishment of a new political order.

Conference convenors:
Professor Aaron William Moore, University of Edinburgh
Dr Jennifer Altehenger, King’s College London

Speakers
Dr Felix Boecking, Edinburgh University/Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars
Dr Mary Augusta Brazelton, Cambridge University
Dr Robert Cliver, Humboldt State University
Dr Robert Culp, Bard College
Dr Brian De Mare, Tulane University
Dr Nara Dillon, Harvard University
Dr Christine I. Ho, University of Massachusetts, Amherst
Dr Covell Meyskens, Naval Postgraduate School
Professor Michael Schoenhals, Lund University
Dr Aminda M. Smith, Michigan State University
Dr Nicolai Volland, Pennsylvania State University
Dr Shellen Wu, University of Tennessee
Dr Wang Xiaoxuan, Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity 

Chairs/ Discussants
Dr Juliane Furst, Bristol University
Professor Jochen Hellbeck, Rutgers University
Professor Stephen Lovell, King's College London
Professor Aaron W Moore, University of Edinburgh

Please click here for the current draft conference programme.                                                              

Registration:
A registration fee is payable at the time of booking. For further information and details of how to book please click on 'Book event'. 

Standard Admission: £95 for both days; £50 for one day
Early Bird booking (before 31 January 2018): £75 for both days; £40 for one day
Concessions: £36 for both days; £20 for one day

Image credit: © Aaron Moore

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