[Discussion] Nationalism in Post Ottoman Southeast Europe

[Gonul Pultar]

The Oxford University Balkan Society

The Second OUBS Graduate Workshop 2004: Nationalism, society and culture
in post-Ottoman Southeast Europe

European Studies Centre, St Antony's College, Oxford, May 28-29, 2004

Call for papers

The decline of the multiethnic, multireligious and multilingual Ottoman
Empire set the scene for the emergence of successor states shaped and
dominated by their respective nation-building projects. The ?carving out?
of homogeneous nation-states in most cases reflected the German
romanticist notion that saw nations as existing from time immemorial and
deeply rooted in their territory, language, architecture and folk idioms.
In consequence, larger minority groups were considered undesirable and
had to be reduced through population exchanges, forced migration or
concerted massacres.  National myths and hegemonic historiographies
emerged, which devalued the ethnic or religious Other (the Turk, the
Muslim, Greek, Armenian etc) and exalted the Self.  Languages were
purified, while the material culture of the Other (churches, mosques,
public buildings and houses) was (re-)appropriated either through
destruction and neglect, or by re-writing its history.

There has been some scholarly debate on the continuity or discontinuity
of a common Ottoman legacy in Southeast Europe, even up to our days*. This
workshop, however, aims to go a step further and explore the processes of
and the extent to which exclusionary nation-building projects have shaped
the historical discourses, the language and the material culture, in the
successor states we live in today.

The questions, which we would like to address in the workshop, are
related to historical and recent processes:

1.  To what degree have the homogenizing projects in particular countries
produced histories, languages, cities, architecture and geographies,
devoid of the perceived Other? To which extent have they been directed
against the Other?

2.  Are there trajectories of nation-building in the region, that were
more inclusive and accommodating of ethnic and religious difference?

3.  How are the homogenization projects related to the politics of
democratization and ethnic conflict at present?

4.  How do the processes of nationalist nation-building, as described
above, affect intra-regional co-operation in Southeast Europe today?

Looking at those questions, we hope to arrive at a more comprehensive
understanding of the workings of nationalism in wider Southeast Europe
in the 19th and 20th centuries.  We wish to investigate the processes
involved in homogenising multicultural cities, geographies and histories.
We are also concerned with collective memory as it relates to conceptions
of Self and Other.

Proposals for the workshop will be accepted from post-graduate students
and scholars who work on Ottoman successor states in Southeast Europe,
including Turkey, in all fields of the social sciences, especially
history, anthropology, politics, geography, cultural studies, urban
studies, architecture and linguistics.  Scholars in Armenian and
Kurdish studies are also encouraged to submit proposals.

The proposals should give an outline of the argument in not more
than 300 words, and contain a detailed CV, affiliation of participant
and full contact information.  Please send your applications to
<dimitris.antoniou@sant.ox.ac.uk> or <kerem.oktem@sant.ox.ac.uk>
until January 15, 2004.

Authors of the papers selected for the conference will be notified in
February 2004.  Participants will be required to submit the full text
of their respective papers to the conference organisers by April 15, 2004.
We will be contributing to the travel expenses of the invited participants
and arrange for their accommodation.

Informal preliminary inquiries regarding paper submissions are welcomed,
and may be directed to the Organising committee at the e-mail address
indicated above.

Organising Committee: Dimitris Antoniou, Dimitar Bechev, Kerem Öktem
(St Antony's College)

Academic Advisory Committee: Othon Anastasakis (Southeast European Studies
Program, Centre for European Studies, St Antony's College), Renee Hirschon
(St Peter's College), Philip Robins (Program on Contemporary Turkey,
Middle East Centre, St Antony's College)


From: Kerem Oktem <kerem.oktem@st-antonys.oxford.ac.uk>