Continuity and Change in Southeastern Europe

Description of the Conference

Eligible topics for the conference

• Institutional Legacies: Tracing Historical Continuities: over the last century and a half, Southeastern Europe has been marked by a large number of critical junctures: from the collapse of multinational empires to the long period of wars form 1912-18 and World War II to the emergence of Communist states and their collapse. These monumental changes often disguise lines of continuity, especially in regard to institutions. This panel will bring together papers that help understand how and why institutional continuities and legacies persist over time. Avoiding historical determinism, the papers will shed light on particular paths institutional developments have taken and how this helps understand Southeastern Europe today. From ethnographic micro-cases to larger comparative studies, papers representing a variety of disciplines and approaches are welcome. Chair: Dr. Florian Bieber, Editor-in-Chief, Nationalities Papers
• Domestic-International Relationships in Political Reform in Southeastern Europe: what do case studies of political reform in post-socialist Southeastern Europe tell us about the conditions under which international actors can work together with domestic actors to develop institutions that are responsive to and valued by ordinary citizens? How have domestic actors in Southeastern Europe been able to incorporate domestic values and traditions into new institutions in the face of pressure to adopt Western models?  Under what conditions are international actors who promote reform sensitive to local knowledge?  This panel seeks to learn from case studies of reform that are considered unsuccessful, as well as those considered successful.   Papers will increase our understanding of the processes and outcomes of political reform viewed as valuable by Southeastern European peoples through investigations of case studies that cover various Southeast European countries and issue areas. Chair: Dr. Paula Pickering, Associate Professor, Department of Government, College of William and Mary
• Gender, Nation and Globalization: the last two decades have been a time of tremendous upheaval for the nations of Southeastern Europe, which have variously weathered the storms of sudden economic change, political disintegration, social instability, increasing crime and corruption, massive out migration, violence, and war.   Most recently, the region has been wracked with the economic turmoil of the global financial crisis and individual men and women are facing the ever-growing hardships of recession and IMF-imposed structural adjustment.  Throughout these twenty years, idealized notions of masculinity and femininity have shifted and been reimagined to take account of the local realities in an era of globalization.  In some cases, traditional gender norms and expectations have been subverted and/or overthrown altogether, with both men and women gaining from an increase of possible gender subjectivities.  In other cases, traditional roles for what makes a “real man” or a “good woman” have reasserted themselves with newfound force, finding allies in new or old religious movements and nationalist political rhetorics.  This panel aims to explore the continuities and changes in gender norms and gender politics in Southeastern Europe, and welcomes all papers that explore these dynamics with an eye to seeing the complex interactions between local and global forces. Chair: Dr. Kristen Ghodsee, Associate Professor of Gender and Women's Studies, Bowdoin College

Guidelines for submission

Organizer

• Kokkalis Program on Southeastern and East-Central Europe
• John F. Kennedy School of Government
• Southeastern Europe Study Group, Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies, Harvard University

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