Balkan and South Slavic Conference Report

The 19th Biennial Balkan and South Slavic Conference in Linguistics, Literature, and Folklore was held at the University of Chicago April 25-27 2014.  The meeting was a rousing success.  Some 80 participants were in attendance, from a dozen countries (including China and Japan as well as European and North American universities).  As usual, the presentations addressed a wide variety of issues in many Balkan and South Slavic languages and cultures: the list this year included Albanian, Aromanian, Arvanitic, Bosnian, Bulgarian, Greek, Macedonian, Moldovan, Montenegrin, Rom, Serbian, and Slovenian, plus a large number of comparative or cross-Balkan papers dealing with more than one language.  The full program is available at the conference web site.

The conference was topped off by a buffet dinner and dance party, with local Macedonian musicians, at which organizer Victor Friedman was honored by a series of toasts, each in a different language.

Imagining Alternative Modernities: Interventions from the Balkans and South Asia

We are excited to announce the interdisciplinary conference, "Imagining Alternative Modernities: Interventions from the Balkans and South Asia", which will take place at The Ohio State University, Columbus, October 9-11, 2014. The conference completes and complements a series of interdisciplinary activities in 2013-14, supported by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation through the John E. Sawyer Seminars on the Comparative Study of Cultures grant program. For more information on the seminar, please visit: sawyer.osu.edu.

On the surface, the Balkans and South Asia might seem to have little in common. However, despite many specific differences, they share similar dilemmas of linguistic, religious, cultural, and ethno-national complexity, similar turbulent political developments associated with imperial, post-colonial, and Cold War legacies, and a similar diversity of responses to these historical and contemporary challenges. Both areas have seen a mixing of people through migratory settlement, conquest, contact, and trade. But both have also experienced periods of reaction to cultural hybridity: a radical unmixing of people through partition and population exchange. The impact of these upheavals is seen in the direct violence of war and devastation, but also through crises on the levels of language, religion, and other modes of culture and human creative activity. The unique yet similar issues within each region compel us towards a comparative approach that will offer a transnational perspective on the intersection of language, religion, culture, and nationalism.

We thus invite proposals for paper presentations from any disciplinary or interdisciplinary perspective within the humanities and social sciences addressing one or more of the following themes in the Balkans or in South Asia, or comparatively between the two regions: 

1. Violence, Gender, and Human Rights 

2. Nation, Religion, Language, and Secularism 

3. Minorities, State, Language, and Citizenship 

4. Postcolonial and Postsocialist Perspectives on Neoliberalism

Additionally, selected papers will be included in a collection of essays resulting from the conference.

Graduate students are encouraged to participate. Limited funding is available for student lodging.

Please send a 350-word abstract in PDF format and brief (one paragraph maximum) bio to sawyerseminar@osu.edu by Monday March 17, 2014 (11:59pm). Notifications of acceptance will be sent by May 1, 2014 and the program will be announced by June 1, 2014. 

19th Conference on Balkan and South Slavic Linguistics, Literature and Folklore

The 19th Biennial Conference on Balkan and South Slavic Linguistics, Literature and Folklore will take place at The University of Chicago in Chicago, IL, USA, April 25-27, 2014.

Abstract Submission Deadline: Friday, November 15, 2013

Acceptance Notification Date:15 January 2014

The conference organizers are now accepting proposals for papers that treat some aspect of Balkan and/or South Slavic linguistics, literature, or folklore, including culture. Abstracts should be maximum one page, including examples and bibliography, 12-point font, at least 1" margins, and should not contain name(s) or affiliations(s) of the author(s).

Abstracts should be submitted as an email attachment in PDF format to Meredith Clason. The paper title, author name(s), affiliation(s), and contact information should be given in the body of the email. The abstract itself should have only the title.

Questions about the conference may be directed to Meredith Clason.

Save the dates!

The 19th Biennial Conference on Balkan and South Slavic Linguistics, Literature and Folklore will take place at The University of Chicago from April 25-27, 2014.

More information will be available soon.

Questions may be directed to Meredith Clason, Associate Director, Center for East European and Russian/Eurasian Studies (CEERES) mclason [at] chicago.edu

Alia Vox

Moscow, Twelfth Balkan Readings

The twelfth Балканские чтения [Balkan Readings] conference, which took place in Moscow on 26-27 March 2013, had as its unifying theme the Balkan picture of the world from the perspective of the five human senses. Twenty-eight papers were presented, reporting on interdisciplinary studies in the areas of religion, mythology, magic, ritual, literature, folk poetry, folk music, drama, artistic performance, cuisine etc with a focus on sensory perception, cognition and language. A number of papers discussed linguistic evidence in support of the underlying unity of the five senses (synaesthesia). Papers differed in perspective: some were theoretically inclined or took a broad comparative perspective (S. M. Tolstaia, N. N. Kazanskii,  T. A. Mikhailova, U. Dukova & P. Assenova, T. V. Tsiv’ian, D. Burkhart), others had elements of comparison (D. S. Ermolin, A. A. Novik, I. A. Sedakova, M. M. Makartsev) or dealt with aspects of a specific tradition - Ancient Greek (M. Evzlin, T. F. Teperik, L. I. Akimova, Ia. L. Zabudskaia), Modern Greek (O. V. Chekha, F. A. Eloeva, A. A. Novokhatko, K. A. Klimova,  A. V. Tunin & V. A. Panov), Latin (A. V. Grosheva), Romanian (A. A. Romanova, I. Stahl, N. G. Golant), Albanian (A.V. Zhugra, M. V. Domosiletskaia), Bulgarian (G. V. Grigorov), Serbian (N. V. Zlydneva) and Slovene (M. Mencej).

The conference proceedings have appeared in: Макарцев, М. М., И. А. Седакова, Т. В. Цивьян (eds.) Балканская картина мира sub specie пяти человеческих чувств. Москва: Институт славяноведения РАН, Центр лингвокультурных исследований «Balcanica», Университет Дмитрия Пожарского, 2013, 184 с. (Балканские чтения 12. Тезисы и материалы) ISBN 978-5-7576-0270-7.

Which three books about the Balkans would YOU recommend?

Here is the answer given by Muharem Bazdulj (born in 1977, "one of the leading writers of the younger generation to appear in the countries of the former Yugoslavia") in an interview to John K. Cox:

JKC: If you could recommend three books to the Anglophone world for people who want to sample the beauty and complexity of Balkan culture and history, what would they be?

MB: The Iliad by Homer, Days of the Consuls in English by Ivo Andrić, and Imagining the Balkans by Maria Todorova. One epic, one novel, and one non-fiction book – all available to people from the Anglophone world and all really worthy of their attention.

Source: Spirit of Bosnia (Duh Bosne), issue: Vol.4, No.1 / 2009, pages: 1-7, on http://www.ceeol.com/.