Southeast European Studies Association

 

 

SEESA NEWSLETTER

MAY 2025(1)

 

Greetings!

 

The Southeast European Studies Association (SEESA) is pleased to present you with issue 2025(1) of the SEESA Newsletter.

 

Our organization has a history that spans four decades and an authentic legacy in the studies of this region. Our members are scholars with distinguished contributions to their fields of Balkan studies, and many of them have an international reputation in their respective areas of expertise. With this issue, we are reinstating the SEESA Newsletter in an attempt to make our members’ achievements known and accessible to the public, thus supporting further research and communication among experts in multiple fields.

 

In this issue of the newsletter, we are including publications, conference presentations, grants, awards, invited lectures and announcements on important academic events that have taken place in 2024 and in the first trimester of 2025. We invite partner organizations to circulate this Newsletter among their members and their academic networks and welcome news about academic events in these fields that they would like to share with us and see included in the next issue of the SEESA Newsletter: 2025(2).

 

Dr. Bavjola Gami Shatro

Associate Professor and President of SEESA

 

 

 

Ø Academic Events in 2024

 

§  The 23rd Biennial Conference on Balkan and South Slavic Languages, Literatures and Folklore, sponsored by SEESA, was hosted by the College of Liberal Arts at the University of Mississippi, Oxford (May 2-4, 2024). Scholars from universities in the United States, Australia, Japan, the United Kingdom, Albania, North Macedonia, Hungary, France, Italy and Kosovo met in Oxford, presented their work and engaged in academic discussions on various topics in linguistics, literature, anthropology, ethnology, geography and other fields in southeast European studies. Thirty papers were presented, which were offered in nine thematically organized panels. The conference offered an online session as well, followed by discussions that enriched the range of academic dialogue and exchange of ideas.

Victor A. Friedman (University of Chicago) and Brian Joseph (The Ohio State University) delivered the keynote address: “The Big Balkan Book: The sprachbund Unleashed.”

§  SEESA supported students’ research and their participation at the above conference with its annual Harrison Travel Grants by awarding two grants to the following graduate students on competitive basis: Lindon Dedvukaj, The Ohio State University; and Marija Pandeva and Boban Karapejovski, “Ss. Cyril and Methodius” University in Skopje, the “Krste Misirkov” Institute for Macedonian Language.

 

§  In 2024, a SEESA Harrison Travel Grant was awarded to Aytac Yurukcu, a doctoral researcher at the University of Eastern Finland, Joensuu Campus. The awardee will present at the XIII Congress of South-East European Studies Communication and Exchange: South-Eastern Europe within Global Social, Political and Cultural Processes, XIII AIESEE Congress, Skopje-Macedonia, 2025.

 

§  Balkanistica the iconic peer-reviewed journal of Southeast European Studies Association published at the University of Mississippi, issued volume 37 in 2024 and volume 38 in 2025. Dr. Donald L. Dyer, who has served as the editor of the journal for more than two decades, provides us with reports on the two volumes below.

 

     Volume 37 of Balkanistica, subtitled Language, Performance and Persistence: Proceedings from the Eleventh Macedonian-North American Conference on Macedonian Studies, was published and distributed to members of SESA in good standing in March of 2024. It featured papers from the conference held at Arizona State University, November 4-7, 2022, in Tempe, Arizona. The volume was co-edited by Keith Brown, Donald Dyer and Marjan Markovikj and was comprised of fourteen papers on Macedonian language, literature, culture and folklore, in both Macedonian and English.

 

     Volume 38 of Balkanistica was printed and distributed to members of SESA in good standing in March of 2025. The volume consists of seven independently submitted articles, one biography and two book reviews. The volume also includes an In Memoriam section for Howard I. Aronson, a Professor of Slavic, Balkan and General Linguistics at the University of Chicago, who passed away in 2024. The articles span themes in history, culture and economics, literature, law and political science. For detailed information on the journal, please see the link to the journal: https://olemiss.edu/modernlanguages/research/balkanistica/.

 

 

Ø  Announcements for 2025

 

§  The 24th Biennial Conference on Balkan and South Slavic Languages, Literatures and Folklore will be held at the University of Newcastle in Newcastle, Australia, in 2026. For the conference’s Call for Proposals, please see SEESA’s blog [https://blog.seesa.info/] and the website of the host institution.

 

§  The 2026 SEESA Harrison Travel Grants will be awarded to graduate and undergraduate students for attendance and presentation at the 24th Biennial Conference on Balkan and South Slavic Linguistics, Literature and Folklore, which will take place at the University of Newcastle, in Newcastle, Australia, on May 20-23, 2026. SEESA plans to fund, on a competitive basis, two awards of $1,000 each.

Applicants must be undergraduate or graduate students in Southeast European Studies or a related field. Students may only receive one SEESA Graduate Student Travel Grant over the course of their undergraduate or graduate studies. Applicants should submit their conference paper abstract of no fewer than 500 words, proof that the abstract has been accepted, a C.V., a short bibliography of their paper and proof of student status as an email attachment to Dr. Bavjola Shatro [seesa.travel.grants@gmail.com]. Author name(s), affiliation(s) and contact information should be written below the title of the paper. The applications will be evaluated by SEESA’s Committee for Travel Grants. The quality of writing of the abstract as well as its content will be considered.

Questions about the conference may be directed to Dr. Shatro.

Application submission deadline: January 31st, 2026.

      Acceptance notification date: February 15, 2026.

 

 

SEESA Member Research and Achievements (2024-25)

 

The following are some of the accomplishments of our members during the past year and the beginning of 2025.

 

·       Dr. Eduard Baidaus, Lakeland College, Lloydminster, AB, Canada.

Member, SEESA

E-mail: baidaus@ualberta.ca

 

Publication

Article: “The River That Killed and Saved: Illegal Border Crossing of the Dniester in Romania during Stalin's Collectivization and Great Soviet Famine in the Late 1920sEarly 1930s,” Journal of Romanian Studies 6(1), pp. 5-26 (2024).

 

·       Dr. Georgeta Connor, Georgia Gwinnett College.

Member of the Executive Board, SEESA

Email: gconnor@ggc.edu

 

Publication

Book Chapter: “Urbanization,” Introduction to Human Geography, edited by David Dorrell and Todd Lindley (2024).

 

Book Review:

“Geopolitical Rivalries in the ‘Common Neighborhood’: Russia’s Conflict with the West, Soft Power, and Neoclassical Realism,” Balkanistica 38, pp. 255-59 (2025).

 

Conference Presentations

1.     “Julius Popper: A Jewish Romanian Explorer in Tierra del Fuego (1886-1893),” paper presented at the 28th Annual Conference on the Americas, University of Georgia, Athens, GA (February 21, 2025) and the History Slam/Conference, History-Geography Department, Georgia Gwinnett College (March 25, 2025).

2.     “Religious Pilgrimages in Romania: Symbol of the Unity of Orthodoxy,” paper presented at the 23rd Biennial Conference on Balkan and South Slavic Languages, Literatures and Linguistics, sponsored by the Southeast European Studies Association, University of Mississippi, Oxford, MS (May 2-4, 2024).

3.     “Reconstructing Historical Geographies of the Former Greek Colonies in Dobrogea, Romania: Ancient Urban Network,” paper presented at the Association of American Geographers annual meeting, Honolulu, HI (April 16-20, 2024) and at the History Slam/Conference, History-Geography Department, Georgia Gwinnett College (October 29, 2024).

4.     “Slow Food Movement USA: Conviviality and Localism in Georgia,” paper presented at the Georgia Archives Symposium Commemorating 150 Years of Georgia’s Department of Agriculture, Morrow, GA (April 6, 2024).

 

Grants

1.     Spring 2025: ALG Grant (team): Round 27. Ancillary material for the updated version (Version 3) of the existing OER textbook, Introduction to Human Geography, Team (PI): David Dorrell, Todd Lindley, Joseph Henderson, and Georgeta Connor.  Funded (team): $8,000. 

2.     Spring 2024: ALG (Affordable Learning Georgia) Grant (team): Round 25. Funded (team): $10,000.

 

 

·       Dr. Donald L. Dyer, University of Mississippi.

Member of the Executive Board, SEESA, and Editor of Balkanistica

Email: mldyer@olemiss.edu

 

Publication

Co-Authored article with Dorin Uritescu: “Slavic-Romance Contacts,” Encyclopedia of Slavic Languages and Linguistics Online. Editor-in-Chief: Marc L. Greenberg, General Editor: Lenore A. Grenoble. Leiden. 2020. First published online in 2024.

 

Organization of International Conferences

23rd Biennial Conference on South Slavic Languages, Literatures and Folklore, University of Mississippi, Oxford, MS (May 2-4, 2024).

 

·       Dr. Victor Friedman, The University of Chicago

Member of the Executive Board, SEESA

Email: vfriedm@uchicago.edu

 

Publications

Book with Brian D. Joseph:  The Balkan Languages, Cambridge University Press (2025).

 

Articles:

1.     “Balkan Obscenities and the Balkan Sprachbund: The Lessons of History,” Mediterranean Language Review 31, pp. 69-80 (2024).

2.     “The Problem of Long versus Short Present Tense Forms in Balkan Romani,” Voicing Plurality in an Open World, Grond, Agnes, Angelika Heiling, Oana Hergenröther and Daniela Unger-Ullmann (eds). Wiesbaden: Reichert, pp. 121-31 (2024).

3.     “Velat deka sme gărci, ama ne sme: Transnational Voices from Visheni,” Balkanistica 37, pp. 97-111 (2024).

4.     “Obscenity,” Encyclopedia of Slavic Languages and Linguistics Online. Editor-in-Chief: Marc L. Greenberg, General  Editor: Lenore A. Grenoble. Consulted online on 26 August 2024 Leiden: Brill  <http://dx.doi.org.proxy.uchicago.edu/10.1163/2589-6229_ESLO_COM_036293> 2020. First published online in 2024.

5.     (with Brian D. Joseph): “Vowel Harmony in Contact Situations: The Case of the Balkans,” The Oxford Handbook of Vowel Harmony, van der Hulst, Harry, and Nancy Ritter (eds). Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 554-59 (2024).

6.     “Studimet për gegërishten në Britaninë e Madhe në fund të shekullit XX dhe në fillim të shekullit XXI” [“Studies on Geg in Great Britain at the End of the XX and Beginning of the 20th Century,” Studimet për shqiptarët në Britaninë e Madhe dhe në vendet e Evropës veriore [Studies on Albanians in Great Britain and the Countries of Northern Europe], Ismajli, Rexhap (ed.). Prishtina: ASHAK (2024).

 

·       Dr. Bavjola Gami Shatro, University of Mississippi

President, SEESA

Email: bgami@olemiss.edu

 

Publications

Book: Essays on the Awareness of Loss in Contemporary Albanian Literature; Voices That Come from the Abyss. Lexington Books (2024).

 

Articles:

1. “Discovering the Self in the Negative Space: Re-Visiting the Past under Communism in Luljeta Lleshanaku’s Poem Negative Space,” Mediterranean Studies 33(1). Spring 2025.

2. “(Re)Discovering the Poetry of the (Un)Known: Silence and Loss in the Poetry of Eqrem Basha,” Balkanistica 38 (2025).

Book Reviews:

1.   “Bożena Karwowska, The Witness and the Body in Auschwitz: Early Literary Accounts of the Camp Experience,” Slavic and East European Journal (2025).

2.   “Stalin’s Terror,” Slavic and East European Journal 68(3) (2024).

 

Awards

Honorary Mention: Awarded by The Society for Albanian Studies for their Annual Book Prize for the monograph Essays on the Awareness of Loss in Contemporary Albanian Literature: Voices that come from the Abyss. Lexington Books (2024).

 

Conference Presentations

1.     “The Rhetoric of Silence and (Self)Censorship: Drita Çomo’s Diary under Communism (Light That Comes from the Abyss),” paper presented at the annual conference organized by the Michigan Academy of Science, Arts and Letters, Alma College, Michigan (February 28, 2025).

2.     “Women, Writing and Politics in Interwar Albania (Musine Kokalari’s Life Writing, Political Involvement and Persecution in Communist Albania), paper presented at the International Conference on Feminism and Politics in the Interwar Balkans and East Central Europe, organized by the University of Crete, Rethymno (November 28-30, 2024).

3.     “Light That Comes from the Abyss: Drita Çomo’s Diary under Communism, an (Un)silenced Voice,” paper presented at the international conference Girl, Interrupted: Testimonies, Silences, and Self-Censorship in Eastern European Women's Life-Writing, organized by the Institute of Linguistics and Literary History, Sextil Puscariu, Cluj, Romania (September 29, 2024).

4.   “Silence and Loss in Contemporary Albanian Poetry; The Poetry of Eqrem Basha,” paper presented at the 23rd Biennial Conference on South Slavic Languages, Literatures and Folklore, University of Mississippi, Oxford, MS (May 2-4, 2024).

 

·       Dr. Motoki Nomachi, Hokkaido University, Sapporo, Japan.

Member of the Executive Board, SEESA

Email: mnomachi@slav.hokudai.ac.jp

 

Publications    

 

Book: Co-edited with Sofija Miloradović: Sećanje na akademika Milku Ivić. Delanje i naučno nasleđe (SES 36/Posebna izdanja Instituta za srpski jezik SANU knj. 1), 175 pp.

 

Articles

1.     Co-author with Sofija Miloradović: “Reč unapred,” Sećanje na akademika Milku Ivić. Delanje i naučno nasleđe (=SES 36/Posebna izdanja Instituta za srpski jezik SANU knj. 1), Miloradović, Sofija, and Motoki Nomaći (eds), pp. 7-9.

2.     Co-author: “Akademik Milka Ivić u Tokijskom institute za lingvističke studije 1968. godine,” Sećanje na akademika Milku Ivić. Delanje i naučno nasleđe (=SES 36/Posebna izdanja Instituta za srpski jezik SANU knj. 1), Miloradović, Sofija, and Motoki Nomaći (eds), pp. 19-38, 119-58.

 

Conference Presentations

1.       (with Robert Greenberg): “The Concept of Language Affirmation and the Emergence of New Languages Evidence from the Balkans,” paper presented at the 23rd Biennial Conference on Balkan and South Slavic Linguistics, Literature and Folklore, Oxford, MS (May 3, 2024).

2.       (with Robert Greenberg): “The Concept of Language Affirmation and the Emergence of New Languages: Evidence from the Balkans,” paper presented at the 21st International Congress of Linguists (September 8, 2024).

3.       “Existential Clauses in Kashubian: A Historical and Typological Analysis,” paper presented at the First Periodic Meeting of the Commission on Slavic Micro Languages of the International Committee of Slavists (December 1, 2024)

4.       “Contested Registers in Serbian in the Late 18th and Early 19th Centuries: The Case of Avram Mrazović,” paper presented at SRC 2024 Winter International Symposium Languages “Nations and Standardization in Slavia: So Similar and Yet So Different” (December 19, 2024).

 

Invited Lecture

 “Slavic Dialects/Languages at the Crossroads of Politics of Scholarship,” organized by the Department of Slavic languages & literatures at the University of Washington (May 24, 2024).

 

Award

Blaže Koneski Medal, The Macedonian Academy of Sciences and Arts, November 27, 2024.

 

Organization of International Conferences

1.        The First Periodic Meeting of the Commission on Slavic Micro Languages of the International Committee of Slavists (December 1, 2024)

2.        Slavic-Eurasian Research Center Winter International Symposium “Languages, Nations and Standardization in Slavia: So Similar and Yet So Different” (December 18-19, 2024)

 

 

·       John Polemikos, Harlem High School in Machesney Park, Illinois

Member, SEESA

Email: jpolemikos@hotmail.com

 

Publication

Book Co-author: Wallachian Mobility and Settlement along the Carpathian Arc, Routledge (2025).

 

 

 

            May 2025