EXTENDED DEADLINE FOR ABSTRACT SUBMISSION
Feminisms and Politics in Interwar Balkans and East - Central Europe
November 28-30, 2024, University of Crete, Campus of Gallos, Rethymnο
We are pleased to announce a call for papers for the upcoming conference "Feminisms and Politics in Interwar
Balkans and East - Central Europe." The conference aims to explore feminist movements in the region of Balkans and
East - Central Europe in the uneasy interwar historical context, placing emphasis on transnational contacts and
collaborations of feminist and women’s organizations, the entanglement of their activity with politics and diplomacy at
regional and international scale, and the tensions emerged between national and international agendas.
The First World War was followed by an increased and intensive political movement aiming to eliminate likelihood of
new wars and consolidate peace on a global scale. This movement is reflected in the foundation of international
peace and diplomacy organizations, with the League of Nations prevailing among them, the signing of a series of
treaties between states securing the new border status quo, minority treaties and amity and cooperation
agreements, as well as in elaborated visions of forming “state federations” across Europe. In this context, the Balkan
states with a long history of competing nationalisms, wars, and rallying to rival war camps, gradually shifted towards
pursuing political rapprochement and mitigating national-political differences, while the new Central European states
that had arisen from the dissolution of the central empires and the redrawing of national borders sought alliances to
enhance security against presumptive revisionist attempts by neighboring countries. At the same time, the unsolved
national-transnational political issues and the new ones created by the post-war treaties, most notably that of ethnic
minorities, the rivalries of the victorious Great Powers in the region, the gradual dominance of totalitarian and
bellicose politics and the risk of a new great war that began to loom on the horizon, prioritized national security and
acted as centrifugal forces from ‘the transnational and international’ to ‘the national’, while the revisionist and anti-
revisionist camps and politics began to form distinct.
In this context, feminist movement, reconstituted and increased in density and massiveness, found a fertile ground
for linking its activity to international politics and diplomacy. International women's organizations (feminist,
professional, peace organizations), national affiliated organizations, as well as regional associations emerged at the
time, recognizing that progress towards full political and social rights and security for women depends on a peaceful
and stabilized world, declared it “their duty” to work for friendly international relations and humanitarian progress
worldwide, and to support national and international agents working towards these ends. Thus, conferences,
meetings, commissions, resolutions, memoranda, public events, and publications emerged dense in the service of
these objectives. It is this intensive and dense women's movement that this conference seeks to explore and discuss.
Topics may include (but are not limited to):
1. Feminism, national politics, and international diplomacy
2. Feminism, internationalism and nationalism: a changing relationship
3. National and regional feminists associations’ agendas: exploring the entanglements
4. Feminist and women’s collaborations in the region: associations and individuals
5. Liberal and socialist feminism’s agendas
6. Women's activism and peace - feminist pacifism
7. Feminist politics: social, economic, political rights
8. Women’s political activity: reception and impact
9. Researching feminism and politics: methodological issues - approaches and concepts
The conference will take place on-site, at University of Crete, Campus of Gallos, Rethymno. We welcome individual
submissions from senior and junior scholars and academics, as well as doctoral students and postdoctoral researchers
for 20-minute presentations. We also welcome full panel submissions consisting of 3 to 4 presentations (20 minutes
each). Abstracts of 250 words should be on the form, provided by the Conference, downloadable from fepib-
conference2024.ia.uoc.gr and sent by email to fepib-conference2024@ia.uoc.gr, by June 30, 2024 July 31, 2024. The
language of the Conference is English.
Important dates:
Abstract submission deadline: June 30, 2024
New abstract submission deadline: July 31, 2024
Notification of acceptance: July 31, 2024
Notification of acceptance updated: August 15, 2024
Draft conference program: August 31, 2024
Final conference program: October 15, 2024
Conference Dates: November 28-30, 2024
We are looking forward to receiving your submission and welcome you at the Conference.
Conference webpage: fepib-conference2024.ia.uoc.gr
For further inquiries please contact: fepib-conference2024@ia.uoc.gr
* The conference is part of “Feminisms and Politics in Interwar Balkans (1923-1939)”, a collaborative project hosted
by the University of Crete (UoC) and chaired by Katerina Dalakoura, Associate Professor at the UoC (http://feminisms-
politics.ia.uoc.gr/). The project is supported by the Hellenic Foundation for Research and Innovation (HFRI),
https://www.elidek.gr/en/homepage/.