RIRNM Conference 2026
Call for papers
2026 ISPMN Conference on Nation-Building and Minority Strategies in a Changing International Environment
16-17 October 2026, Cluj-Napoca/Kolozsvár/Klausenburg, Romania
The international order has undergone profound shifts throughout the twentieth century, from world wars and decolonization to the bipolar standoff of the Cold War, prompting adaptive strategies among both ethnocultural majorities and minorities. Today, our world is changing at an unprecedented pace once again. Liberal democracies are under serious pressure worldwide; democratization no longer seems a one-way street. The resilience of the international order is put to the test, the regulatory capacity and the legitimacy of international organizations is being increasingly challenged by illiberal and autocratic tendencies. Even the inviolability of frontiers and the sovereignty of states are eroded as universally acclaimed principles underpinning interstate relations. The relevance of the international human and minority rights regime is also diminishing. Its capacity to safeguard the interests and rights of minority communities and to prevent the radicalization of majority nation-building, discrimination and exclusion is declining. An international environment perceived as wobbling and hollowing may also nourish discourses of securitization with regard to minority issues.
Under such circumstances, some of the strategies of ethnocultural claim-making, mobilization and interest representation that were devised and tested during the past few decades become less efficient or even obsolete, and agents acting on behalf of the minority communities face enormous pressure to come up with innovative and adaptive solutions to protect the position and interests of their constituencies. This also raises the question of how actors seek to mediate, connect, or navigate between different political, cultural, and institutional contexts. Furthermore, these strategies can only be fully understood against the background of their historical development and of the long-term trajectories of nation-building, migration, and minority–majority relations.
The aim of our conference is to explore the consequences and implications of the shifting circumstances detailed above through empirical and theoretical papers, comparative or single case studies. We wish to provide an opportunity for scholars working in the fields of social sciences and humanities, including political science, sociology, legal studies, anthropology, ethnography, linguistics, history, cultural studies and international relations, to present the results of their recent research on ethnocultural minorities in Central and Eastern Europe and beyond.
Presentations and panels dealing with (but not limited to) the following broadly understood research topics are welcome:
- Accounts of contemporary and historical instances of nation-building and ethnic mobilization/countermobilization in Central and Eastern Europe and beyond;
- The implications of the upsurge of populist and “sovereignist” political parties and movements on interethnic and interstate relations;
- Challenges to sovereignty from below: self-determination movements, instances of territorial or non-territorial autonomies;
- Citizenship, language rights and other minority-related state policies;
- Kin-state and diaspora policies in a changing international environment;
- Practices of mediation, connection, and transfer between states, societies, and cultural contexts, including the role of bridging actors and institutions;
- National minorities as subjects of securitization discourses;
- The interplay of ethnic and religious identities, the production of (in)tolerance;
- Ethnic agency and strategies under conditions of inequality and misrecognition, including intermediary practices of mediation, connection and negotiation;
- Immigrant integration – between multiculturalism and exclusion.
- Historical perspectives on nation-building, minority strategies and interethnic relations, including their long-term transformations and continuities.
- Memory cultures and the historical framing of minority experiences, including narratives of migration, displacement and integration against the background of (contemporary and historical) transformations of the international order
The conference is organized by the Romanian Institute for Research on National Minorities in Cluj-Napoca, Romania (ISPMN) together with the Institute of Danube Swabian History and Regional Studies in Tübingen, Germany (IdGL), Institute of Religious Studies in Cluj Napoca Romania and EURAC Research in Bolzano, Italy.
The working languages of the conference will be Romanian and English. The deadline for submitting paper or panel applications is May 31, 2026. 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 June 30, 2026.
The conference will be held in Cluj-Napoca, at the House of Religious Freedom.
There will be no fee charged for participating at the conference; the organizers are in principle unable to cover the accommodation costs of participants or to reimburse travel costs. In exceptional cases, particularly for early career researchers without access to institutional funding, the organizers will strive to provide accommodation. Please specify in your application if your participation at the conference depends on such support.
Selected papers may be published in a conference volume at the ISPMN Publishing House.
Further information about the conference will be made available on the website of the ISPMN: www.ispmn.gov.ro
Organizing Committee: Róbert Bálint (ISR), Cristian Cercel (IdGL), Sergiu Constantin (EURAC), Alice Engl (EURAC), Ágnes Kiss (ISPMN), Dénes Kiss (ISR), Tamás Kiss (ISPMN), Lehel Peti (ISPMN), Daniela Simon (IdGL), István Gergő Székely (ISPMN).
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