ISPMN 2023 Conference
CALL FOR PAPERS
Identities, Representations and Policies: State-Minority Relations in the 20th and 21st Centuries
The Romanian Institute for Research on National Minorities (RIRNM) proposes to launch a series of conferences dedicated to the discussion of recent research developments in the broadly defined field of minority studies in Romania and beyond. The first such conference will be held in Cluj-Napoca, on 5-6 October 2023, being co-organized by the RIRNM, the Department of History in Hungarian and the Department of International Studies and Contemporary History of the Babeș-Bolyai University, the Doctoral School of Population Studies and History of Minorities, and the Department for Interethnic Relations (Bucharest).
We propose a multi- and interdisciplinary approach, which can accommodate classical research perspectives (e.g. topics in the history of minorities and policies targeting them in the 20th century, identity processes, kin states, migration, etc.), but also new perspectives focusing on the shifting opportunity and discursive structures shaping state and minority agency brought about by recent geopolitical developments, including the War in Ukraine and the ensuing fears of destabilization.
We wish to provide an opportunity for scholars working in the fields of humanities and social sciences – anthropology, ethnography, sociology, linguistics, history and political science, to present the results of their recent research on minorities in Romania and beyond. While accounts focusing on meta-narratives are welcome, we want to broaden this framework by encouraging the submission of research dedicated to ‘bottom-up’ approaches too that bring the minorities, their lived experiences and perspectives to the fore. Presentations and panels dealing with (but not limited to) the following broadly understood research topics are welcome:
• Identities, self- and hetero-representations of ethnocultural groups, and the interrelationships between these definitions
• Language identities, practices and policies in and beyond the nation state
• The modes and cases of community experience of ethnicity
• Mediums of representation, identity attribution and their impact on the communities
• Nation-building, citizenship and other minority-related state policies in Central and Eastern Europe in the 20th and 21th century
• Kin-state and diaspora policies
• National minorities and state security concerns
• Migration, ethnicity and transnationality
• Trends in Romani studies
• New sources and new methods for the study of minority-related issues
• The cultural and political elites of minorities
The working language of the conference will be Romanian and English. The deadline for submitting paper or panel applications is June 30, 2023. For individual papers please send an abstract (200-300 words), together with a brief bio including your academic/institutional affiliation to the following e-mail address: confispmn@gmail.com. Panel proposals consisting of a chair, 4-5 speakers and a discussant are also welcome, for such proposals please include a brief cover letter for the panel, as well as information on all the participants. The selection of presentations will be carried out no later than July 14, 2023.
Further information about the conference will be made available on the website of the RIRNM: www.ispmn.gov.ro
