Workshop ‘Decolonial and postcolonial discourses towards post-socialist Balkan countries’
July 18, 2018-August 1, 2018 in Prizren, Kosovo
The goal of this workshop, which will be held in Prizren, Kosova, in the summer of 2018 is to orient current decolonial and postcolonial discourses towards post-socialist Balkan countries. The workshop will gather international scholars, activists and artists to discuss and analyze anti-capitalist politics, feminism, critical race theory and postcolonialism in the context of Kosova, specifically, and eastern Europe, generally. Hence, the workshop will draw attention to places traditionally deemed unphilosophical as sites of theoretical and practical resistance.
Given the current situation in the Balkans, the workshop will address the following questions:
In what ways can discourse on decoloniality and postcolonialism help us address and analyze the current situation of post-socialist Balkan countries?
How does the status of European countries that are not EU members change our conception of Europe and hence the distinction between West and East?
What is at stake in capitalist logic that employs stability and security as the condition for the development of capitalism?
How has the history of racial and ethnic discrimination of Balkans by Western Europe informed the nature of political intervention in the region which has resulted in greater economic and socio-political devastation?
What is the relation between the racial and ethnic discrimination and politics that have “appeasement” and “peace” at their center?
How has transition politics and the “civilizing mission” of Europe foreclosed or opened up possibilities for non-heteronormative sexualities and/or gender expression in the Balkans?
How has queer identity become politicized in the campaign to Europeanize the Balkans?
Workshop Format
The goal of the Balkan Society for Theory and Practice workshop this year will be to focus postcolonial and decolonial studies on the Balkans. The workshop will be a collaborative space for sharing and workshopping research projects. Papers should be works in progress, open to development in response to feedback. Participants will be asked to share their papers before we gather on July 18th in Prizren. This will ensure that each participant has had sufficient time to review the material. The workshop format will consist of a 20-25 minute presentation of the key points discussed in the paper, followed by a general discussion, questions, and feedback from the group. We will discuss two papers per day, reserving approximately 2 hours per paper.
Other Events:
Evening programs will include screenings of regional films and documentaries, as well as parties with local music/musicians;
guest lectures and panels;
teach-ins organized by the workshop participants from the larger Prizren community.
Reception:
The first and last days of our program will include receptions following an afternoon of workshopping. Drinks and snacks will be provided for all the participants. A portion of the program fee will go toward reception catering services.
We invite submissions to the workshop by February 1st, 2018.
To apply, please submit your CV or portfolio and a 250-word abstract along with a 250-word personal statement indicating how your research relates to the workshop theme. While preferable, it is not a requirement that applicants work on Eastern Europe specifically. Anyone working on decolonial and postcolonial theory, race theory, disability studies, queer theory, feminism, aesthetics, critical theory and political theory in general is encouraged to apply.
Email submissions to: BALKANSOCIETYTP@GMAIL.COM
When & Where: July 18, 2018-August 1, 2018 in Prizren, Kosovo.
The workshop will take place at the Lumbardhi Theater. The Lumbardhi Theater is a major site of political activism in Prizren. Local activists have fought since 2002 to re-functionalize and claim the theater as a space for Prizren community.
Eligibility: This workshop is open to anyone who is interested with the requisite background, including activists, artists, independent researchers, and academics (e.g., graduate students, post-docs, junior faculty).
Program Fees:
350 euros for tenured or tenure-track faculty
300 euros for students and activists with organizational backing
200 euros for students, independent researchers, non-affiliated organizers/activists, and artists
Fees include the following: lodging for the entire duration of the workshop, lunch during workshop days, and an opening reception.
Guest Lecturers:
Dr. Marina Gržinić is a philosopher, theoretician and artist from Ljubljana. She is a professor and research adviser at the Institute of Philosophy at the Scientific and Research Center of the Slovenian Academy of Science and Arts. She is also a full professor at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna, Austria. Her research interests include ideology, technology, biopolitics/necropolitics, transfeminism and decoloniality. In addition to her work on video art, she has published numerous books and collection of texts, such as Border Thinking: Disassembling Histories of Racialized Violence (The Academy of Fine Arts, Vienna and Sternberg Press, Berlin 2018).
Dr. Tjaša Kancler is an activist, researcher and associate professor at the Department of Visual Arts and Design at the University of Barcelona. They hold a Ph.D. in Fine Arts from the University of Barcelona. Dr. Kancler has published on decolonizing transgender, non-Eurocentric academia, decoloniality, trans*imaginary, bodies, borders and zonification. They have been a part of Berlinale Talent Campus 2009, Decolonizing Knowledge and Life through Theory and Art, Vienna 2011; Material Matters in Times of Crisis Capitalism, Transnational Feminist and Decolonial Approaches, Giessen 2014; Decolonizing the Museum, MACBA 2014; Postcolonial and Postsocialist Dialogues: intersections, opacities, challenges in Feminist Theorizing and Practices, Linköping 2015; Decolonizing Transgender in North, Karlstad 2016, and more.
Dr. Piro Rexhepi holds a Ph.D. in Politics from University of Strathclyde. He is currently a research fellow at the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity. His research interests include the politics of (post)socialist sexuality in Kosova and Bosnia, LGBTQ activism in post-Yugoslavia, Islam in Eastern Europe, orientalism and homonationalism. His publications include “The Politics of (Post)Socialist Sexuality,” “Unmapping Islam in Eastern Europe Periodization and Muslim Islamophobia and Europeanization in Kosovo,” and many more
Dr. Sezgin Boynik lives and works in Helsinki. He has completed his Ph.D. in Jyväskylä University, Social Science department, on the cultural politics of Black Wave in Yugoslavia from 1963 to 1972. His research focuses on the relation between aesthetics and politics, punk, cultural nationalism, Situationist International, and Yugoslavian cinema. He has co-edited “Nationalism and Contemporary Art” (with Minna L. Henriksson, Rhizoma & EXIT, Prishtina, 2007), co-authored “History of Punk and Underground in Turkey, 1978-1999” (with Tolga Guldalli, BAS, Istanbul, 2008). He has published extensively on contemporary art, historical materialist aesthetics, Dusan Makavejev, Godard, anti-formalism, and much more. He is editor ofRab-Rab: Journal for Political and Formal Inquiries in Art.
