The Institute of Ethnology and Folklore Studies with Ethnographic Museum of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences invites you to participate in the international conference “Balkan and Baltic States in United Europe: History, Religion, Cultures II” which will be held in Sofia, Bulgaria on the 1 – 3 October 2014.

The conference continues the discussions, which began in Sofia at the Institute of Folklore, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, dedicated to the processes of Euro-integration in the regions of the Balkans and the Baltic during the conference “Balkan and Baltic States in United Europe: History, Religion, Cultures” (October 2009). The recent developments that occurred in the fields of history, culture, migrations and identities in the new EU member states have turned out to be important research topic in the European Research Area. Both the region of Eastern Europe, defined as Balkans, and the Baltic, consist of diverse states with a great variety of ethnic and religious communities and cultures. The study of the dynamic national, ethnic, religious and migration processes in the mentioned above regions is of a particular interest for scholars coming from these regions, as well as for researchers in other EU-countries. We have been observing processes of national consolidation, on one hand, and of revealing of ethnic and religious diversity, on the other. While there have been endeavours for maintenance of “the most conservative” elements of the national, ethnic and religious cultures, at the same time dynamic processes of innovations and emergence of new “foreign” elements and cultures occur.

Considering the specifics of the various communities and cultures, we believe that there are certain commonalities in the processes and developments in the individual nation-states that allow us, on one hand, to talk about regions (based on common historical heritage and recent developments) and, on other hand, about comparison of the two regions in the course of state-building and Euro-integration process after 1989.

The conference aims at attracting researchers interested to present their investigations concerning these processes. Moreover, it hopes to provoke discussion and encourage the scientific contacts between researchers from both regions and the European Research Area as a whole, as well as with USA, Russia and counties from the post-soviet space, and thus enlarging their theoretical, methodological end empirical approaches.

The conference is targeted at scholars and researchers from all disciplines and background who are interested to present papers, related to the topic of the conference. Recent PhDs and other young researchers are also encouraged to participate. The themes of the presentations may vary, without being limited to:

– History and its interpretations;
– Religion and religious communities’ diversity;
– Culture and all its aspects: traditional, contemporary, cultural heritage, sub-cultures, etc.;
– Migrations: historical and contemporary dimensions;
– Identities and their transformations.

Working languages of the conference are English and Russian. Applications and presentations could be done in either of both languages. We intend to publish conference papers (after editing and peer-review) in a special issue.

The deadline for proposals is 30 January 2014. Please send a title of your paper, an abstract (not more than 500 words), your first and last names, academic degree, academic affiliation, address and e-mail to: balkanbaltic2014@gmail.com . Please note that only selected participants will receive e-mail with a confirmation of their abstracts. Response with acceptance of the papers: 31 March 2014.

Please find the full CfP here: PECOB