The annual conference of the Centre for Southeast European Studies “Southeast European Dialogues” will be devoted this year to the centenary of the beginning of World War One. Rather than looking at the war itself and its causes, the conference will explore the way the war is remembered in Southeastern Europe. The narratives of the causes and origins of the war have been subject to reinterpretation and renewed interest over the past year and the conference will map out the debates over how to remember the beginning of World War One, the way in which these narrative fit into existing national historiographies and how larger historical debates fit into the regional context, as well as how these debates have evolved over time and interrelate with the present.

Thus, the conference will reflect on the origins of World War One and the war itself in three fields: Firstly, the conference will innovatively reflect the historiography on the outbreak of the war, its causes and the impact of the war in Southeastern Europe. Secondly, the conference will explore the ways the war is remembered in Southeastern Europe. And thirdly, the conference will offer insights into the ways in which the war and its break out have become subject to ideological and political interpretation.

As recent Western historiography has shifted the origins of World War One more to Southeastern Europe, focusing on Gavrilo Princip and the role of Serbia, the conference seeks to explore how this has partially fuelled anti-Western/victimization narratives in the region and also risks furthering an Balkanist view of the region.

Deadline for submission of paper is May 31, 2014.