Deadline : 30.09.2018
Call for Papers:
“Knowledge Exchange in Academic Cultures through Migration between and within
Europe and the Black Sea Region (Until World War I and its Aftermaths)”
Conference organized by
Institute of National History
https://www.ini.ukim.edu
Grigor Prličev 3, P.O. Box 591, 1000 Skopje, Macedonia
11-12 January 2019
Frame & aim:
The transfer of modern sciences to and the study of the Black Sea Region (BSR)1 began in the
late 18th century, so this area became increasingly interesting for Europe in learning more
about its characteristics and circumstances. Because of the fact that a systematic
investigation of knowledge and culture exchange as well as of academic cultures within and
beyond the region is missing, this conference seeks to open the floor for debates on forms of
these issues within the BSR until World War I (WWI) and its aftermaths. More specifically, it
aims to investigate knowledge and cultural exchanges in a time of a changing geopolitical
landscape due to the disintegration of the Ottoman Empire, wars and massive migration on
the one hand and in a time of increasing institutionalization of academic research on the other
hand (first professors and founders of education units, establishment of national training
facilities, etc.). The goal of the conference is to analyse the exchange of knowledge and
science in correlation wıth the population movements across borders, scientific
advancements conveyed through the transfer of objects and exchange of knowledge in
practical contexts between the BSR and Western Europe. The comparative approaches will
address these issues with regard to emerging independent and semi-independent academic
cultures, as well as those under foreign domination in the early 20th century until WWI and
its aftermaths in Azerbaijan, Armenia, Georgia, North-Caucasian Russia, Ukraine, Moldova, Romania, Bulgaria, Macedonia, Greece, Turkey.
Objectives:
With this conference, we would like to invite scholars to contribute to a first systematic
research of the exchange of knowledge in the BSR’s academic cultures through migration, and
to analyse the role of migrations in the processes of the emergence of independent and semiindependent
academic cultures within the BSR until WWI and its aftermaths. We invite
scholars from different disciplines in the humanities interested in themes including (but not
limited to):
• The connection between migration flows and knowledge exchange
• Academic migration and the introduction of scientific achievements
• Movement of intelligentsia in (pre-)war times
• Exiled academic elite in the national educational institutional building
• Role of emigrants in establishing archives and museums in the BSR
• Schooling of intellectuals in exile
• Education obtained abroad by students and scholars from the BSR
• Women’s roles and figures in the BSR’s scientific world
• Migrations in travelogues, memoires and folklore
• Links between independent, semi-independent and dependent academic cultures
• Religious and cultural activity in diaspora
• Exchange of ideas between members of national movements in the diaspora
• Literary and artistic production in emigration
• Emigrants and non-institutional forms of establishing academic cultures
• Emigration press in transfer of knowledge
• Balkans and Caucasus at crossroads of migration and knowledge exchange
• Consequences of wars regarding the academic cultures
• Visual representations of intelligentsia in emigration
• Movements of people and objects through photography and film
• Print and printing techniques
• Trade and transfer of knowledge in the BSR
• Knowledge transferred through translations
• Personal observations of ambassadors visiting Europe and the BSR
• Traveling and documenting the BSR
• Intelligentsia and concepts of violence
There is no fee for participation in the conference, but the organizers do unfortunately not
have the possibility to cover the participants’ expenses for travel and accommodation. English
will serve as the main conference language. Please send 350-word proposals for 20 minute
papers along with a short academic CV to Prof. Dr. Biljana Ristovska-Josifovska
(brjosifovska@yahoo.com) no later than 30 September 2018. The organisers aim to let you
know within three weeks after the deadline whether your proposal has been accepted.
A selection of papers presented at the conference will be published in a special volume in the
first half of 2020.
The conference is organized within the project “Knowledge Exchange and Academic Cultures
in the Humanities. Europe and the Black Sea Region”, an MSCA-RISE-project funded by the
European Commission. Further information may be found on www.blacksearegion.eu.
