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SAMO VJERAN PAS? Workshop on Post-Yugoslav Neoliberal Academic Selves and Possibilities of Knowing the Balkans Otherwise

University of St Gallen, 5.2. – 7.2.2020.
Organizers: Jelena Tošić (Transcultural Studies, University of St Gallen),
Sandra King-Savić (Center for Governance and Culture in Europe, University of St Gallen),
Sunčana Laketa (Institute of Geography, University of Neuchâtel)

What are the features and the politics of knowledge production about the Balkans in contemporary academia? Are the Western Balkans a testing ground for Western intellectual hegemony? If so, how and why do we, as post-Yugoslav scholars, reproduce these dominant forms of knowledge, however inadvertently? How does the contemporary neoliberal academy foster the self-colonization and (re)balkanization as a career strategy? Can we disrupt the uneven power geometries in which we ourselves partake? What are the ways by which to know the Balkans otherwise?
The dissolution of former Yugoslavia – as one of the particularly dramatic chapters of the implosion of real-socialism – served as an unprecedented impetus for knowledge production. The newly emerging Yugoslav republics soon turned into the object of vibrant research by scholars who, by and large from Central and Western Europe and the U.S., aimed at understanding the causes and consequences of conflicts, the processes of “transition”, religious revitalization, reconciliation, gender regimes, (forced) migration, and a number of other issues.
In the years to follow, new protagonists are emerging together with the newly reorganized Balkan region. They embody different biographical configurations of im/ mobility, which include decades of labour- and chain migration, as well as forced migration brought about the Yugoslav Succession Wars. At the same time, established and emerging scholars who stayed in the region produced knowledge under totalitarian conditions, which hindered transnational networks and mobility. In the course of developing critical (anti-nationalist, anti-totalitarian, feminist etc.) social science perspectives, these differently positioned scholars forged cooperation under global conditions of consolidating neoliberal academia. The increasing competition, precarity, marketization of ideas, concepts, and academic
selves led to the bizarre result that it was/is precisely “profitable” to produce knowledge on former Yugoslavia as an “indigenous” (migrant) scholar already “equipped” with the core language and “cultural” competence nonnative scholars have to invest significant time and effort to acquire. This, at times, created a paradoxical result of auto-balkanization in ways that perpetuated the myths and failed to offer a truly emancipatory project.
The aim of the interdisciplinary workshop is to bring together scholars across disciplines and generations to employ a radical selfreflexion of experiences, epistemologies and the subjectivization of knowledge production about the Balkans under highly politicized (post-) totalitarian, neoliberal and deterritorialized conditions. The workshop will offer a challenging, productive and safe space of exchange among scholars who embody different (post-)Yugoslav
experiences. We invite both emerging and established scholars to join us in exploring one of the coreaims of the workshop – to engage with feminist postcolonial and other solidarity movements/ commitments to radically transform what is considered legitimate knowledge about the Balkans. The workshop will contribute to critically envisioning possible futures of this line of scholarship both in terms of its epistemological/ theoretical relevance for socio-economic and political developments in the post-Yugoslav space as well as its potential as an avenue of participating in wider global emancipatory knowledge horizons.

For more information see the programm of the workshop. Samo Vjeran Pas Program

Call for Papers Interdisciplinary conference "Transculturality in the Black Sea Region: New Theoretical Approaches and Research Methodologies"

The Center for Governance and Culture in Europe at the University of St.Gallen in Switzerland invites paper proposals for a conference “Transculturality in the Black Sea Region: New Theoretical Approaches and Research Methodologies” to be held in Chișinău, Moldova on 10-12 September 2020.
This multidisciplinary conference aims to explore the present and historical dynamics shaping the Black Sea Region through the lens of transculturality. The region that was governed by three European empires and then dominated by the Soviet Union, has experienced extreme violence during the XX ct. and continues to be the space of contemporary conflicts and geopolitical turmoil. At the same time, the region’s countries, both within and outside the EU, are often analyzed through the prism of methodological nationalism and a “container-culture approach”. We propose to regard the Black Sea region as a fluid realm where various discourses and ideas interact, compete and merge. We seek to explore novel theoretical concepts and methodologies to studying the transcultural space of the Black Sea region and the contemporary challenges that it faces.
The thematic scope of the conference focuses on but is not limited to the following fields:

Theoretical concepts and approaches: applicability and limitations for studying the Black Sea region
New methods and methodologies of transcultural research
Digital, environmental and spatial turns in researching the Black Sea region
Post- and beyond: Black Sea region as a post-socialist, post-imperial, post-colonial and post-genocidal space
Case-studies and comparative studies of transcultural contact zones in the Black Sea region
New geopolitical developments, conflict resolution and security challenges in the Black Sea region

How to apply:
We invite sociologists, historians, anthropologists, economists, geographers, political scientists, and academics from related disciplines to apply for the conference. We are looking forward to receiving applications from scholars who work with the framework of transculturality. While the primary focus of the conference is the Black Sea Region, the researchers focused on other regions are welcome to apply. The conference committee invites early stages, as well as advanced researchers.
The working language of the conference is English.
To apply, please send the following documents:
1. A brief CV (up to 2 pages)
2. A 300 to 500-word conference abstract
Please send application materials to uaregio@gmail.com by March 30, 2020.
All travel expenses, accommodation, and meals are covered by the conference committee. CfP Transculturality 2020

Ab dem Frühling 2020 beteiligt sich das GCE an den HSG-Ethnography Talks. Weitere Infos sind hier erhältlich.