Details
At: 08/01/2025 3:00pm, in cooperation with:
Speakers:
Arban Mehmeti,
Francesco Trupia,
Monika Bobako
The Transnational Aspect of Balkan Memories within Turmoils in Ukraine and Palestine, moderated by: Agata Domachowska
The current wars in Ukraine and Palestine have taken a toll on societies in whole Europe. In particular, both disruptive events have brought Balkan people to grapple again with the echo of their traumatic experiences of war and displacement. On a political ground, criticism has sparked by paving the way to debate the alignment of the region with the West and its position with the European Union. The aim of the panel will be to discuss how the reverberations of these key events unfolding in Eastern Europe and the Middle East influence the Balkan memoryscape in the context of people’s long-lasting traumas of the violent past. Since the Balkans continue to be the arena of interstate disputes and unfinished nation-buildings, this panel will explore the nexus of memory and traumas in the context of current East and West relations, as well as the influences that transnational cultures and political aspirations have had in the Southeast Europe.
Presenters
Arban Mehmeti is a PhD Candidate in South Slavic Languages and Cultural Studies at the Humboldt University in Berlin, working on his dissertation on the “Cultural Peace Process between Kosovo and Serbia”. He has conducted research on peace and conflicts, and he has many years of experience in the fields of cultural diplomacy and disinformation.
Francesco Trupia, PhD, is an Adjunct Researcher at the University Centre for Excellence IMSErt “Interacting Minds, Environments and Societies” at the Nicolaus Copernicus University, Toruń – Poland. He holds a PhD in Political Philosophy from the Sofia University St. Kliment Ohridski, Bulgaria, where he also obtained an International Master’s Degree in Philosophy with a major in Intercultural Relations after his BA in Political Science and International Relations from the University of Catania, Italia. His research interests range from identity and memory politics to minority ontologies and histories, encompassing issues of democratisation and borderisation in Southeast Europe and Caucasus. Between 2016 and 2021, he has been contributing to policy and research projects of the Kosovo Foundation for Open Society (KFOS), the Caucasus Research Resource Centre (CRRC) in Yerevan, and the Institute for Islamic Strategic Affairs in the UK.
Monika Bobako is an associate professor at the Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań, Poland. She holds a PhD as well as habilitation in philosophy and an MA in gender studies (obtained from the Central European University in Budapest). She is the author of two books, Islamophobia as a Technology of Power: A Study in Political Anthropology (Kraków 2017, in Polish) and Democracy and Difference: Multiculturalism and Feminism in the Perspective of the Politics of Recognition (Poznań 2010, in Polish). Her areas of specialization include political anthropology, critical race theory, postcolonial theory, and religious studies (with a special focus on Islam as well as gender).
Chair
Agata Domachowska is an associate professor (dr. hab.) at the Faculty of Humanities (Nicolaus Copernicus University, NCU) and a senior analyst at the Institute of Central Europe (Department of the Balkans). She’s a recipient of numerous scholarships and grants including a Kosciuszko Foundation in New York, the 2015 ASEEES Davis Travel Grant, Polish Ministry of Education, Ministry of Education and Culture in Croatia. She serves as the Head of the Laboratory for the Study of Collective Memory in Post-Communist Europe and a member of the Polish Commission of Balkan Culture and History. Her research focuses on identity and historical narratives, nation-building and the politics of memory in the Western Balkans, Balkan diasporas, politics and culture of Western Balkan states.