Want to start the New Year not only successfully (sharing Russian Cyberspace's delight concerning Ellen's grant being approved!) but playfully as well? Then you might think about joining us - in real time or virtually - at a conference in Berlin.The second Future of Russian Conference focuses on the playful and creative aspects of Russian language culture on the internet (or broader, in the era of new technology). Key issues and questions that will be touched  upon in the various presentations are:

• Linguistic play/linguistic creativity on the Runet
• Playful negotiation (of linguistic, literary, social norms) in Russian online culture
• Playful responses to new technology
• Literary games, e.g. in the Livejournal
• Collective creation of imaginary textual worlds on the Internet: MUDs, fanfiction, co-writing of novels and scenarios, etc.
• Computer games and their influence on the linguistic and literary discourse / imagination / narrative
• Communicative practices in flesh-mobs
•  Invention and representation of virtual identities: game, mystification, alternative lifes
• Jokes, storytelling, anecdotes in the new media

Conference Organizers: The Future of Russian Project (University of Bergen), in cooperation with the Institute of Eastern European Studies / Peter Szondi Institute for Comparative Literature (Freie Universität Berlin, Germany). Attendance is free, registration requested. Please contact Henrike Schmidt, schmidthATzedat.fu-berlin.de