At UMass (Boston), at the Research Center for Urban Cultural History on April 27, 12:30-17:00, Eve Blau (Harvard) will present her research on the Croatian capital, "Project Zagreb: the city as open work" (forthcoming in book-form), as part of the "hypermedia conference" Documenting Cities: exploring, recording, mapping. images of the city.

"The International Network for Traditional Building, Architecture & Urbanism (INTBAU) has launched the Call for Papers for one of its major events in 2007 - the "History, Heritage & Regeneration: The future for traditional architecture in Eastern Europe" conference. The event will take place from 23 - 25 September in the city of Sibiu, Romania, which serves as the Cultural Capital of Europe for 2007. The conference aims to examine the challenges faced by the emerging economies of the former Eastern bloc in the field of heritage and preservation of traditional places." (more at the INTBAU website...)

More events in Istanbul. The Koç University Research Center for Anatolian Civilizations is hosting a mini-symposium on Architecture and Text on April 18, 2007, after 4PM. Chaired by Zeynep Kuban, the presentations are as follows: Martin Seyer: "Rock Tomb and Sarcophagus: Considering Combined Tomb Buildings in Lycia"; Maria-Cristina Carile: "Imperial Palaces and Heavenly Jerusalems: Perceptions of Sacred Places"; Jonathan Bardill: "Text, Archaeology, and the Architecture of the Church of St. Polyeuktos"; Deniz Karakas: "Clay Pipes and Marble Fountains: Composers of Urbanism in Early Eighteenth-Century Istanbul".

A Bulgarian NGO is (urgently) looking for a Turkish partner from the Thrace/Trakya region (Edirne, Vize, Kirklareli) for a PHARE project in transborder cooperation in the field of heritage/culture/youth. Please contact Yordanka Bibina.

Following the International Court of Justice's acknowledgement that genocide was committed in Srebrenica (eastern Bosnia) in 1995, Bosniak town council members have demanded a special status for the district within the Serb-dominated Republika Srpska (RS), one of the two entities comprising Bosnia-Herzegovina. Deemed unconstitutional by RS Prime Minister Dodik, eventually a "special social-economic status" was yielded to Srebrenica Municipality. Dodik, SETimes, reported, "promised that the RS cabinet would step up efforts to implement social and economic projects in Srebrenica to improve the quality of life there, adding that 7.5m euros will be earmarked this year to finance return projects, rebuild the power network and build two new main roads." The RS cabinet moreover obliged "all relevant institutions and state-run companies to draw up economic development projects and ensure the equal employment of all constituent peoples' members in Srebrenica. It also requires the RS Privatisation Commission to conduct an immediate review of all privatisation deals conducted there." (Sources: 1,2,3)

An event not to miss: Shirine Hamadeh (Rice University) will speak about Public Life in 18th ct. Istanbul - presumably a synopsis of her upcoming book "The City's Pleasures: Istanbul in the Eighteenth Century" - at the Ottoman Bank Archives in Istanbul, next Wednesday (April 11) between 18:30 and 20:30. See announcement (in Turkish).

In Subotica (Serbia), architect Viktorija Aladzic is fighting to stop the demolition of the city's theatre building from 1854. See an article (with picture) here.