[Bilimsel Haber] CONF./CFP- Symposium: The Balkans and the Caucasus, Bucharest, Apr. 12-13

[Gonul Pultar]

CONF./CFP- Symposium: The Balkans and the Caucasus, Bucharest, Apr. 12-13

Posted by: Irina Vainovski Mihai <imihai at nec.ro>



Call For Papers

New Europe College - Institute for Advanced Study in Bucharest,
Romania, is planning an international symposium, The Balkans and the
Caucasus. Parallel processes in the historical destiny, mentality,
culture, and future trends on the opposite sides of the Black Sea.
Please find an introductory statement concerning this event appended
to this message.

Besides its intrinsic interest, this symposium is also the opening
event of a new program starting at the New Europe College in October
2010, the Black Sea Link.

The symposium is scheduled to take place on 12-13 April 2010, on New
Europe College's premises, 21 Plantelor str., 023971 Bucharest,
Romania. Our aim is to bring together scholars from prestigious
research institutes and universities in Europe as well as outside it,
who work on such topics. Should you be interested to take part in this
symposium, we kindly ask you to send us the title of your contribution
and a short abstract (200-300 words), together with a one-page CV
(including title, positions, institution, degrees, awards, main
publications) until January 15, 2010. The selection committee will
inform you about their decision in due time (by the end of February at
the latest).

The working language of this international symposium will be English.
The organizers will cover travel and accommodation expenses.


Submissions should be sent to: applications at nec.ro

When sending the submission by email, please include in the Subject
entry of the message the following: "Black Sea Symposium"


New Europe College
Phone: (+4) 021 307 9910,
Fax: (+4) 021 327 0774
Mailing address: str. Plantelor 21, 023971 Bucharest, Romania
www.nec.ro


Introductory Statement

The Balkans and Caucasus
Parallel processes in the historical destiny, mentality, culture,
and future trends on the opposite sides of the Black Sea

The Balkans and the Caucasus are geographically and historically close
areas at the periphery of the European-Mediterranean civilization,
that usually were not put together in a comparative research on their
cultures, historical past, and future destinies. Maybe the unique
attempt to study and to approach them together are some new
generalizing researches on the Black Sea, as well as the political
initiatives to create an organization of the states of the Pontic
area. It has to be stressed that in this political endeavor the
argument in favor of membership is not the territorial proximity to
the Black Sea coast, but the cultural affiliation to the Balkans, the
Caucasus, to the Northern Steppes or Anatolia. This suggests that
proximity to the sea is more of a symbolic criterion, since neither
the Balkans, nor the Caucasus were ever truly open towards the water,
but mostly inwards-oriented, toward the mountains.

The aim of the proposed project is precisely to propose a comparative
study of these two regions, and to highlight their common features. At
a very general level, such common features could be seen in the fact
that both regions are contact zones between East and West, between
Christianity and Islam; both regions are at the periphery of Europe,
as they have been at the periphery of the Empires and of the modern
imperial states; both of them are now integrating, or attempting to
integrate, into the European Union. In attempting to go deeper in
identifying and analyzing such features, we are proposing an inquiry
in three main directions or sections:

I. Identity Building and its Development in the Balkans and in the
Caucasus region.

This section would cover the shaping of a specific type of
solidarities, as well as conflicts (confessional, ethnic or military)
in both areas, starting with those based on religious belief and their
preservation over the centuries, up to the problems of nowadays
specific (sometimes hostile) relations between different communities.
Among the topics to be addressed: 1) The Old Testament-based idea of
the Chosen People as a factor in the identity formation of the Balkan
and Caucasian peoples, and its consequences; 2) The New
Testament-based idea of the sacred mission of a nation and its role in
the identity formation in both regions; 3) Religion and the formation
of national identity. Differences and common features.

II. The Balkans and the Caucasus at the periphery of Empires and
modern imperial states.

Our understanding of "Empire" takes its starting point with Rome and
goes through Byzantium and the Ottoman Empire to Russia, in also
taking into consideration some pre-modern (Venice and Genoa) and
modern (Russia, the Soviet Union) imperial powers. One should take
into account the fact that some of the states in the region
(especially in the Balkans) developed the imperial idea at a
predominantly ideological level.

The countries of the Balkan Peninsula and the Caucasus were always -
culturally and politically - at the periphery of the Empires (the
Byzantine, the Ottoman, the Russian) with which they formed a kind of
(cultural and political) commonwealth. Thus, they were destined to be
a buffer against the clash of the empires. Both areas are at the
crossroads not only geographically, but also politically, culturally
and commercially, and this made them, over the centuries, prey to the
struggles of the great political powers for supremacy in these
regions. A comparative study might analyze the role of the countries
on the opposite sides of the Black Sea as participants or buffers in
the clash of the great powers. On the level of mentalities this can
generate either the vision of the "last wall" of defense of a
civilization, or the opposite one, of the buffer-innocent victim.

III. Disintegration and Integration.

The disintegration of the empires and the formation of modern
multiethnic imperial states impacted strongly the destinies of the
Balkan and the Caucasian peoples. The consequences can be seen as the
birth of the national states, or as a change of domination. A special
stress should be set on the different results of the disintegration of
Byzantium or Ottoman Empire, and that of the Soviet Union and its
system of satellites. There is now at work in this region the prospect
of a new integration, into the European Union and NATO.


These three sections of the project can be seen through a common
focus: that of parallel processes at the two opposite sides of the
Black Sea. These common processes, due to the common culture and
mentality, as well as to a similar past, may be seen as leading to a
parallel development and - possibly - to a common future. We propose
to bring together, in this symposium, representatives from both
regions, in a shared attempt to discover what unites and what divides
our cultures.

Ovidiu CRISTEA
Senior Researcher and Deputy Director, "Nicolae Iorga" Institute of
History of the Romanian Academy, Bucharest
and
Ivan BILIARSKY
Senior Researcher, Institute of History, Sofia; Associate Professor,
Free University of Varna






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