Between the Worlds: Migrants, Margins, and Social Environment

Mila Maeva Announcement
Location
Bulgaria
Subject Fields
Anthropology, Immigration & Migration History / Studies, Nationalism History / Studies, Oral History, Sociology

The teams of the ‘Between the Worlds’ Conference and the research project ʽCultural Integration and Adaptation of Immigrants in Bulgariaʼ (funded by the Bulgarian Science Fund (DN 20/8 (11.12.2017) are pleased to announce their joint international conference ʽBetween the Worlds: Migrants, Margins, and Social Environmentʼ which is to be held on 1st and 2nd of December 2021 in Sofia, Bulgaria.

The dynamic social, political, and economic transformations globally in the past three decades have led to significant changes in the public and academic discourses concerning the migrations, mobilities, but also the perceptions of the national identities – their construction, creation and maintenance. Some state borders were or remain closed, while others have accelerated the active cross-border migration by ‘opening-up’, thus becoming the main catalyst for public and academic discussions regarding the concept of homogenization of national identities and cultures – an idea which is now a part of the political agenda in a number of countries.

In this perspective, migration is becoming a key issue and challenge for both the European Union and its individual member states and promises to stay for the decades to come. Taking the migrant communities as a central objective of our research we are motivated to study the dialectics between them and both the sending and receiving countries. Due to the diverse nature and varying intensity over time, the migration processes are bringing to the fore the idea that migrants are not a homogeneous mass, but rather a colourful mosaic of different groups and communities with specific ethnocultural, confessional and linguistic features, as well as motivated by a plethora of political, economic and social factors in the past and now. Therefore, the focus of discussions would be the patterns of adaptation and integration of migrant group, their success or failure, reasons for that and thus – the migrant milieu – at the social margins or in the core of their new societies. We are interested in how these processes impact the migrant group’s cultural specifics, their lifestyle, day-to-day life, but also how these accelerated movements from and to countries affect the social perceptions, stereotypization of migrants and attitudes towards them.

To ensure a fruitful and rich academic debate on the topic we are inviting scholars and researchers from all fields of the Humanities to take part in the conference with their work on topics concerning, but not limited to:

  • Student migrations, training and specialization mobility;
  • Labour migration;
  • Lifestyle and marital migration;
  • Refugee movements;

Working language of the conference is English.

All interested authors should send an abstract (between 200 – 250 words) along with a proposed title, five keywords, the author’s full name, e-mail, institutional and disciplinary affiliation and a short biography should be sent by February 28, 2021, to the following email: bgmigrations@gmail.com.

Participants will be informed about the outcome of the Organizing Committee selection process no later than March 15, 2021.

Following the pattern established during our previous conference of the ʽBetween the Worldsʼ Series initiative, selected authors will be invited to submit their manuscripts before August 31, 2021, for publication. After double-blind peer-reviewing, these will be published in an open-access e-collection at the web-site of the conference: https://conferenceworlds.wordpress.com/publications/

Please note that while there is no participation fee, the Organizing Committee does not cover travel and accommodation. Selected participants are expected to cover their own expenses. We advise future participants to search for potential financial support from their respective institutions, academic exchange programs, etc.

Due to the Covid-19 pandemic travel restrictions and health concerns the conference will be held in a hybrid form (with possibilities of online and offline participation). Should the circumstances change all the presenters will be notified.

 

We are looking forward to receiving your proposals!

 

 

 

Organizing Committee of BEW2021:

Assoc. Prof. Petko Hristov, phd

 Assoc. Prof. Mila Maeva, PhD,

Assist. Prof. Desislava Pileva, phd,

Assist. Prof. Ivaylo Markov, PhD,

Assist. Prof. Magdalena Slavkova, phd,

Assist. Prof. Mina Hristova. PhD

Contact Information

Mila Maeva

Contact Email
bgmigrations@gmail.com