Petra James, ‘American Networks of the Czechoslovak Dissent in the 1970s and 1980s’

This presentation will explore the American networks of Eastern European dissidents by highlighting interactions (and competition) with other important activist causes in the 1970s and 1980s, such as human rights activism in general and more specifically the anti-apartheid movement and movement of international solidarity with the victims of Latin America’s military dictatorships. While examining how the ‘narrative strategies’ of American dissident activists and journalists had informed Eastern European dissidents, Petra James will specifically address the coverage of dissident activities in Eastern Europe by major American newspapers such as The New York Times and The Christian Science Monitor during that period.