[ Call for Papers | Applications ]

The workshop is part of the Summer Research Lab. The central aim of this three-day workshop is to bring together doctoral students and junior faculty who focus on the modern Balkans in various disciplines to discuss their work and issues in the field. Although massive political change and the Yugoslav wars regularly put the region on the front page of major newspapers throughout the 1990s, Balkan studies is still a relatively underrepresented field. The workshop objectives, then,
are to foster a supportive network of colleagues involved in this field and to explore recent research paradigms and resources. The workshop provides a superb forum in which to investigate a variety of pressing issues, including, but not limited to, the following:

• state formation and democratization
• privatization and the creation of new market economies
• ethnopolitics and the civil rights of minorities
• law reform, the writing of new legal codes, and rethinking intellectual property rights
• human security (terrorism, trafficking of women and children, organized
  crime syndicates)
• demographic movement (displaced peoples, diasporic formations, refugees, guest workers)
• the culture of socialism and postsocialism
• education (rewriting of curricula; establishment of new institutions for higher learning)
• popular culture and contemporary society (entertainment industry, especially music and film)
• the arts, social change, and postsocialist identity (literature, fine arts, architecture)
• the changing position of Balkan states vis á vis the EU, the US, Russia, and the Middle East
• Islam in Europe (architectural restoration, revival of Sufism, renewal of worship practices)
• gender, especially changing roles and images of women in society.

Workshop Format

Workshop sessions will be devoted to a discussion of the participants' research; investigation of current literature and paradigms; and a presentation of scholarly resources, including relevant databases by staff specialists from the Slavic and East European Library. Time will also be available for research in the UI Library­one of the largest Slavic and East European collections in the U.S. Participants may stay beyond the workshop dates to conduct individual research.

Eligibility

The workshop is open to doctoral students and junior faculty in any discipline and professionals who specialize in the workshop-related areas. To be eligible for the workshop housing and travel grants, which are funded by a Title VIII grant from the State Department, participating scholars must be US citizens/permanent residents and must state the policy elevance
(broadly defined) of their research in the application. Very limited housing grants may be available for international scholars. Those who are not eligible for financial support may take part in the workshop at their own expense, if selected and pending space availability.

Deadline

15 April 2006 for U.S. citizen/permanent resident applications
1 April 2006 for international applications (limited housing grant only)

Application

All participants are considered Summer Research Lab associates and must submit a Summer Lab application and registration fee (submit fee upon acceptance). To apply, applicants must submit a one- to two-page research proposal that includes a statement clearly indicating the policy relevance
of the proposed research. For more information on this issue please click here. Workshop space is limited.
To download an application form go to
www.reec.uiuc.edu/srl/srl.html and click on “how to apply” in the navigation bar. To request a paper application form contact:
Summer Research Lab
Russian, East European, and Eurasian Center
University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
104 International Studies Building
910 S. Fifth Street
Champaign, IL 61820
(217) 333-1244; fax (217) 333-1582
reec@uiuc.edu.