The Faculty of Political Science at the University of Banja Luka is pleased to announce its forthcoming international conference on "The Balkans and the East: Dominant Discourses, Intercultural Communication and (Anti)globalization", which will be held on 30 September and 1 October 2022.
Through the critique of Balkanist discourse many authors have pointed to important issues concerning the patterns of intercultural communication in the Europe/West-Balkans relationship, but also between the Balkan peoples (Milica Bakić-Hayden, Maria Todorova, Vesna Goldsworthy, etc). However, despite the immeasurable contribution to the deconstruction of essentialist notions of the identity/identities of the Balkan people, the results of most previous research in the field of Balkan studies are mostly relevant only in the field of theory and political debate. In this context, the respective topic of this scientific conference aims to simultaneously shift the analytical focus from the Balkans-West relationship to the Balkans-East relationship, i.e., from theoretical to empirical research. Given the decades-long socio-historical trends, and in a narrower sense especially geopolitical events, which indicate the re-emergence of the East, we believe that questioning the patterns of intercultural communication between the Balkans and Eastern peoples is a very current academic topic. In other words, we believe that the end of the unipolar/west-centric global order constitutes the basis for the academic repositioning of the Balkans not only in the region and Europe but also in the world. According to the above, the primary task of the scientific conference will not be exclusively to consider the patterns of (de)construction of Balkanist and/or Orientalist discourse, but also to spread awareness of past, existing, and potential forms of cooperation between Balkan and Eastern peoples. To help the interested authors orientate easier, we draw attention to the titles of the planned thematic sections within the scientific conference: the Balkans as East, the Balkans and Russia, the Balkans and the Middle East/MENA region, the Balkans and the Far East/East Asia.
The conference will be held live in the premises of the Faculty of Political Science, University of Banja Luka.
The registration fee for participation in the scientific conference is 60 KM or the equivalent amount in another currency. The participants of the scientific conference bear the costs of the trip themselves. The organizers of the scientific conference will provide food and accommodation for the participants. Instructions for paying the participation fee can be downloaded from the official website of the scientific conference, which can be accessed via the link https://drustvoipolitika.fpn.unibl.org.
The working languages of the conference are the languages of the former Yugoslav peoples and English.
The deadline for application and abstract submission is 8 May 2022.
The application form should contain the following: name and surname of the author, institutional affiliation, email address, the title of the paper, abstract (up to 250 words), and keywords (up to 5 words). Authors shall submit their applications to the official email address of the conference drustvoipolitika@fpn.unibl.org or on the official website of the conference using the https://drustvoipolitika.fpn.unibl.org link.
The papers submitted undergo a double peer-blind review process. Accepted papers will be published in POLITEIA - Scientific Journal of the Faculty of Political Science University of Banja Luka (indexed in DOAJ, ERICH PLUS, CEEOL) or edited volume prior to the Conference.
Important dates:
- Application and abstract submission: 8 May 2022
- Information on the acceptance of the abstract: 15 May 2022
- Deadline for submission of papers: 31 July 2022
- Information on acceptance of papers: 9 September 2022
- Deadline for registration of participants: 16 September 2022
- Date of the scientific conference: 30 September and 1 October 2022