An international workshop Reading the City: Urban Space and Memory will be held at the Cultural Centre Tocka in Skopje from May 10-16, 2009. The hypothesis of the workshop "Reading the city: Urban space and memory" in Skopje is that every historical, political, and social development and trend is mirrored in the city's built environment. Cities, accordingly, consist of a multitude of layers of narratives and thus become an image of individual and collective memory. Deadline for applications: April 26, 2009.

The abstracts of the upcoming workshop Balkan Studies - quo vadis? will be posted here in alphabetical order:

Zrinka Blažević (Zagreb): Globalizing the Balkans: Balkan Studies as Transnational/Translational Paradigm

Starting from the premise that space is both a physical givenness and a social construct, the
main focus of this paper will be placed upon an alternative theoretical conceptualization of
the Balkans as a possible heuristic framework for rethinking and epistemological broadening
of the Balkans Studies. Drawing upon Michel Foucault’s concept of heterotopia as
"impossible space" of coexistence of the opposite, distinctive and incommensurable, I
will propose a conceptualization of the Balkans as a heterotopical space in geographical,
historical, social, political, cultural and symbolic terms. Accordingly, it will be argued that
such a conceptualization might provide a basis for a transnational and translational politics
of the discipline which could not only bring about useful heuristic models and research
protocols for future Balkan Studies, but also ensure a survival of this academic and research
field in the post-transitional, global age.