Call for Papers: Strategies of Symbolic Nation-Building in South Eastern Europe
Roland Clark
Call for Papers
Strategies of Symbolic Nation-Building in South Eastern Europe
University of Rijeka
Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences
Rijeka, Croatia
9-10 May 2014
Proposal deadline: February 1, 2014
The conference “Strategies of Symbolic Nation-Building in South
Eastern Europe” represents the final event within the scope of a
3-year project funded by the Norwegian Research Council. While the
conference is on one hand intended to serve as the public promotion of
the edited volume (http://www.ashgate.com/isbn/9781472419163) produced
by the members of the research team, on the other hand we would like
to invite scholars to participate in analyzing the results of our
research project and contribute to a broader discussion on
nation-building in South Eastern Europe. The project and accompanying
volume focused on nation-building in seven countries – Albania,
Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro, and Serbia
– but conference paper proposals are not limited to these states,
since comparative or theoretical approaches are welcome.
We encourage submissions from both established scholars and advanced
graduate students. Participants chosen to present at the conference
will have their accommodation and meals provided, but only a limited
number of grants are available for travel funding. There are no
conference fees and all of the panels are open to the public.
The keynote lecture will be delivered by Maria Todorova (University of
Illinois Urbana-Champaign).
The modern, if not to say postmodern, conditions under which the
on-going processes of nation-building in the Yugoslav successor states
are unfolding have made symbols and rituals prominent tools in the
hands of the nation-builders, arguably more important now than in
earlier generations. At the same time, the presence of established
narodi, replete with their historical and religious symbolism and
rituals, means that the state leaders have at hand a reservoir of
ready-to-use symbols that may well be tempting to employ, but which do
not resonate among all the citizens of the state, or at least not
automatically. The crucial role of symbols and rituals in the
construction of any society has been recognized at least since Emile
Durkheim published his seminal study The Elementary Forms of Religious
Life in 1915. Even if Durkheim refers to the ‘techniques’ used to
strengthen the collective feeling, his approach was basically
functional, with no reference to the agents who employ these
techniques. In his theory, society constitutes itself, as it were: the
state is strangely absent. Later researchers have focused more
directly on the manipulative power of political usages of symbols and
rituals.
In our research project we singled out four parameters of identity
controversies often found in South Eastern Europe: religious culture,
ethnic culture, historical imagination, and geographical imagination.
Mapping the variations of nation-building projects was only the first
step. Our next step was to measure the results of these strategies: do
they have the desired effect, or are they a waste of effort? Relying
on the quantitative research results of the project along with a
variety of interdisciplinary approaches, the project contributors
discovered that whereas the citizens of some states have reached a
consensus about the nation-building project other states remain
fragmented and uncertain of when the process will end. Although the
volume answers many of the key questions regarding the “success” of
nation-building projects, we feel that further analysis of the
research results and their interpretation provide material for
considerable discussion which we hope to inspire at this two-day
conference.
We encourage scholars who are interested in participating in the
conference to consult the quantitative results of the research project
(10,500 opinion poll responses from seven countries conducted in 2011
available at http://www.hf.uio.no/ilos/english/research/projects/nation-w-balkan/)
and incorporate them in their paper proposals. Possible conference
topics include, but are not limited to, the following:
* Case studies or comparative research in nation-building
* The role of religion and religious institutions in nation-building
* The politization of ethnicity and minority policy in South Eastern Europe
* Language and identity politics
* Debates about ethnicity and EU integration
* War remembrance and commemorative practices as nation-building
* Debates in historiography and history textbooks
* Nation-building during socialist Yugoslavia and Albania
* Geographical identities and debates about borders and boundaries
* Construction, destruction, and reinterpretation of monuments and memorials
* The role of the ICTY in nation-building debates
* Popular culture and national narratives
* Theoretical reflections on the relationship between state- and
nation-building
* Economic factors and the success (or failure) of nation-building.
* Sports and the nation
All proposals must be sent in a single email message to: Jon Kvaerne:
jonkv...@yahoo.com
with an attached proposal in a Word document
containing contact information, an abstract (300-500 words), and a
biographical statement in narrative form.
Organizing Committee:
Pål Kolstø, University of Oslo
Jon Kvaerne, University of Oslo
Vjeran Pavlaković, University of Rijeka
Martina Draščić, University of Rijeka
The PDF version of the call for papers can be also be found at:
https://www.hf.uio.no/ilos/forskning/prosjekter/nation-w-balkan/dokumenter/call-for-papers.pdf
The conference and project were made possible by the generous funding
from the Norwegian Research Council.