22nd Annual World Convention of the
Association for the Study of Nationalities (ASN)
International Affairs Building,
Columbia University, NY
Sponsored by the Harriman Institute
4-6 May 2017
***Proposal deadline: 27 October 2016***
Contact information:
Proposals must be submitted to:
Over 150 PANELS in nine sections:
Nationalism Studies
Migration & Diasporas
Balkans
Russia
Ukraine (and Belarus)
Central Europe (including Baltics & Moldova)
Eurasia (including Central Asia & China)
Caucasus (North and South)
Turkey and Greece (and Cyprus)
THEMATIC Panels on
The Conflict in Ukraine
Russia and the New Cold War
Internally Displaced People and Refugees
The Rise of the Far Right
Political Violence (Insurgency, Terrorism, War)
The Crisis in Turkey
The Political Use of Historical Memory
ASN WORLD DOCUMENTARY FILM FESTIVAL
ASN BOOK PANELS (SPECIAL PANELS ON NEW ACADEMIC BOOKS)
ASN AWARDS (BEST DOCTORAL PAPERS, BEST BOOK, BEST FILMS, BEST NATIONALITIES PAPERS ARTICLE)
The ASN World Convention, the largest international and inter-disciplinary scholarly gathering of its kind, welcomes proposals on a wide range of topics related to nationalism, ethnicity, ethnic conflict and national identity in regional sections on the Balkans, Central Europe, Russia, Ukraine, Eurasia, the Caucasus, and Turkey/Greece, as well as thematic sections on Nationalism Studies and Migration/Diasporas. Disciplines represented include political science, history, anthropology, sociology, international studies, security studies, geopolitics, area studies, economics, geography, sociolinguistics, literature, psychology, and related fields.
The Convention is also inviting paper, panel, roundtable, book, documentary, or special presentation proposals related to:
•“The Conflict in Ukraine,” on the domestic, regional and international crisis unleashed by Maidan, the annexation of Crimea, the war in Donbas, and the role of Russia, Europe and the United States;
•“Russia and the New Cold War,” on Russia’s involvement in international crises (i.e. Ukraine, Syria), authoritarianism, information warfare, geopolitics, NATO/EU, energy politics, sanctions, nationalism;
•“Internally Displaced People and Refugees,” on the refugee crisis in Europe, the Middle East and elsewhere, securitization of borders, human and civil rights;
•“The Rise of the Far Right,” on migration, multiculturalism, populism, nativism in Eastern/Western Europe and America,
•“Political Violence,” on insurgencies, civil wars, terrorism, the rise of ISIS, post-conflict settlement, international justice;
•“The Crisis in Turkey,” on the spectre of authoritarianism, the Kurdish question, Gulenism, the army and the state, refugees, the war in Syria, relations with Russia;
•“The Political Use of Historical Memory,” on the construction and contestation of the memory of historical events in sites, symbols, state and (social) media narratives, and academic research;
Prospective applicants can get a sense of the large thematic scope of ASN Convention papers and presentations by looking at the 2016 Final Program, which can be accessed at
Popular topics have also included language politics, religion and politics, EU integration/exit, nation-building, energy politics, and civil society.
For several years, the ASN Convention has acknowledged excellence in graduate studies research by offering Awards for Best Doctoral Student Papers. The ASN 2016 Doctoral Student Awards were given to:
Vujo Ilic (Political Science, CEU, Hungary — Balkans Section) on the civil war in 1941 Montenegro; Alexandra Klyachkina (Political Science, Northwestern U, US — Caucasus/Turkey Sections) on state-building in Chechnya; Egle Kesylyte-Alliks (Literature, U of Oslo, Norway — Central Europe Section) on the national flag and nationhood in Lithuania; Alina Jasina (Slavic Studies, U of Giessen, Germany — Russia/Ukraine/Eurasia Sections) on the Russian-speaking youth in Kazakhstan; and David Emre Amasyali (Sociology, McGill U, Canada — Nationalism/Migration Sections), on colonialism, non-colonialism and strategies of ethnic conflict.
Doctoral student applicants whose proposals are accepted for the 2017 Convention, who will not have defended their dissertation by 1 November 2016, and whose papers are delivered by the deadline, will automatically be considered for the awards (unless their paper is co-authored with someone not eligible for the doctoral prize). Each award comes with a certificate and a cash prize.
The 7th Annual Harriman ASN Rothschild Book Prize went to Edin Hajdarpašić for Whose Bosnia? Nationalism and Political Imagination in the Balkans, 1840-1914 (Cornell University Press, 2015). Honorable mentions were given to Ronald Grigor Suny for “They Can Live in the Desert But Nowhere Else”: A History of the Armenian Genocide (Princeton University Press, 2015) and Iryna Vushko for The Politics of Cultural Retreat: Imperial Bureaucracy in Austrian Galicia, 1772-1867 (Yale University Press, 2015).
The First Annual ASN Documentary Award went to Oleg’s Choice (Le choix d’Oleg) (France, 2016), from directors James Keogh and Elena Volochine, on Russian volunteers in the Donbas War. Honorary mentions were given to The Siege (Sarajevo 1992-1995)(France, 2016), directed by Rémy Ourdan and Patrick Chauvel, and All Things Ablaze (Ukraine, 2014), directed by Oleksandr Techynskyi, Alexey Solodunov and Dmitry Stoykov, on violence on the Ukrainian Maidan. http://nationalities.org/prizes/documentary-film-award/best-documentary-film-award-2016
The Convention is also inviting submissions for its ASN World Documentary Festival on new documentaries produced between 2015-2017. The documentaries are screened during regular panel slots and are followed by a Q&A. Documentaries are submitted with a secured streaming link. For information on how to submit a documentary, go to http://nationalities.org/prizes/documentary-film-award or see below.
Proposal Information
The ASN 2017 Convention invites proposals for individual papers or panels. A panel includes a chair, three or four presentations based on written papers, and a discussant.
The Convention is also welcoming offers to serve as discussant on a panel to be created by the Program Committee from individual paper proposals. The application to be considered as discussant is self-standing, and does not apply to applicants already involved in individual or panel proposals. (At a later stage, many applicants whose proposals were accepted will be invited to serve as chair or discussant on other panels).
In order to submit proposals to the Convention, the three mandatory items indicated below (contact information, abstract, biographical statement) must be included in a single Word document (PDF documents will not be accepted) attached to a single email message. Applications containing more than one attachment will be returned.
Each applicant – including co-authors (unless they are not planning to attend the Convention if their proposal is accepted) and each member of a panel proposal – must also fill out a Fact Sheet online that can be accessed at
Applicants that are on two proposals need to fill out two separate Fact Sheets.
Individual paper proposals must include four items:
*Contact information: the name, email, postal address and academic affiliation of the applicant.
*A 300- to 500-word abstract (shorter abstracts will not be considered) that includes the title of the paper.
*A 100-word biographical statement, in narrative form (essentially one paragraph). Standard CVs will be rejected and the entire proposal must be sent in a single document.
Individual proposals featuring more than one author (joint proposal) must include the contact information and biographical statement of all authors and specify who among the co-authors intend to attend the Convention to present the paper. Only co-authors attending the Convention will have their names in the official program.
*A Fact Sheet, to be filled out online (see above). In the case of co-authors, only those intending to attend the Convention must send a Fact Sheet. The Word document proposal must indicate that the Fact Sheet has been filled out online.
Panel proposals must include four items:
*Contact information (see above) of all proposed panelists.
*The title of the panel and the title and a 200- to 300-word abstract of each paper.
*A 100-word biographical statement (see above) for each proposed panelist. Statements in standard CV format will not be considered. The rules on joint proposals are the same as with individual proposals (see above).
*A Fact Sheet, to be filled out online (see above), for each panelist attached to the proposal. The Word document proposal must indicate that all panelists have filled out their Fact Sheet online.
Proposals for roundtables include a chair and four presenters, but no discussant, since the presentations, unlike regular panels, are not based on written papers. Roundtable proposals include the same four items as a panel proposal, including the title of each presentation, except that the 200- to 300-word abstracts are presentation abstracts, rather than paper abstracts.
The Convention is also inviting proposals for Book Panels, based on books published between September 2015 and February 2017. The proposal must include the Chair, three discussants, as well as the author. A Book Panel proposal must include the same four items as a panel proposal, except that the abstract is limited to a 200- to 300-word abstract of the book. The discussants need not submit an abstract. The organizer of a Book Panel might, but is not required to be the book’s author.
Proposals for documentaries must include four items:
*Contact information (see above)
*A 300 word abstract of the documentary
*A 100-word biographical statement (see above).
*A Fact Sheet filled out online (see above).
*A secure streaming link for reviewing purposes.
The ASN Documentary Festival prioritizes films longer than 50 minutes. Shorter documentaries will be considered.
Proposals to serve as a discussant must include four items:
*Contact information (see above)
*A 100-word statement about your areas of expertise
*A 100-word biographical statement (see above). CVs will not be considered.
*A Fact Sheet filled out online (see above)
Discussant proposals can only be sent by applicants who are not part of an individual or panel (or roundtable) proposal.
TO REPEAT: All proposals must be sent in a single email message, with an attached proposal in a Word document (PDFs will not be accepted) containing contact information, an abstract, a biographical statement, as well as a confirmation that the Fact Sheet has been filled out online (or multiple Fact Sheets, in the case of co-authors and/or panel proposals). Proposals including contact information, the abstract and the bio statement in separate attachments, or over several email messages, will not be returned. The proposals must be sent to darel@uottawa.ca AND darelasn2017@gmail.com.
The receipt of all proposals will be acknowledged electronically, with some delay during deadline week, due to the high volume of proposals.
IMPORTANT: Participants are responsible for covering all travel and accommodation costs. Unfortunately, ASN has no funding available for panelists.
An international Program Committee will be entrusted with the selection of proposals. Most applicants will be notified by January 2017. Since final decisions are dependent upon room availability, some applicants may not be notified until early February 2017. Information regarding registration costs and other logistical questions will be communicated afterwards.
Several dozen publishers and companies have had exhibits and/or advertised in the Convention Program in past years. Due to considerations of space, advertisers and exhibitors are encouraged to place their order early. For information, please contact ASN Executive Director Ryan Kreider (rk2780@columbia.edu).
and click on the “Like” option.
We very much look forward to hearing from you and receiving your proposal!
Dominique Arel, ASN Convention Director
Ceren Belge, Evgeny Finkel, Harris Mylonas, ASN Convention Associate Directors
Sherrill Stroschein, ASN Program Chair
On behalf of the ASN Convention Program Committee
To contact the ASN Convention’s headquarters:
Ryan Kreider
ASN Executive Director
Assistant Director, The Harriman Institute
Columbia University
420 W. 118th St., Room 1218, MC 3345
New York, NY 10027
