Here comes the abstract (cf. Balkan Studies 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6) of Peter Mario Kreuter (Regensburg): Slightly Nonsense. Or: Is there an Impact of (more or less) Scientific Balkan Studies in the Public (non-academic) Sphere?

"In Albania it is forbidden to listen to Manele; doing otherwise may be punished by imprisonment, fines, and whipping." This is what one can read when visiting the German Wikipedia in order to find some information about the Romanian musical style manele which also exists in Albania, but under a completely different name (tallava).

The abstract (cf. Balkan Studies 1, 2, 3, 4, 5) of Karl Kaser (Graz): Disciplinary Boundaries in Question: Balkan Studies in a Globalizing World

The disciplinary boundaries between Balkan Studies and Near East and/or Middle Eastern Studies were basically drawn in the course of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century within a certain political framework and as results of European political interests. Arabic and Islamic Studies were considered as the study of the culturally other. Balkan Studies in this period of time were conceived as the »orient within«. The dissolution of the Habsburg and the Ottoman Empires by the end of 1918 changed the political landscape. Near East and Middle East Studies received the flavour of British and French Colonial Studies, whereas the German Reich was interested to explore the designated food deliverer, the Balkans, within its concept of Großraumpolitik.

Here follows the abstract (cf. Balkan Studies 1, 2, 3, 4) of Maximilian Hartmuth (Istanbul): Image-ing Balkans History: Non-Creative Others, Attention Deficits, and Art as a Problem

There are some fields in the humanities and social sciences, such as Nationalism Studies, in which the Balkans are very present, and others, such as art history and related disciplines, in which they are practically invisible. My paper is to question the impact of this condition on perceptions of the Balkans and Balkan-ness beyond the academia. Are the established interests of Balkan Studies really maintaining the image of the Balkans as an essentially conflictuous, non-creative space?