Conference "The Balkans and the Post-Colonial World: Socialist Internationalism and Global Entanglements in the Cold War"

Welcome

This conference will be held on 17 and 18 June 2021. It will be hosted by the University of Vienna, but due to the Covid19 pandemic it take place entirely online.

We kindly ask you to register at 'conf2021_intbalk@univie.ac.at'. The zoom link will be sent to all registered participants.

This conference is funded by the University of Vienna and Academy of Finland.

 

Organising team and scientific committee: Idrit Idrizi (University of Vienna), Rinna Kullaa (Tampere University), Jan Zofka (GWZO Leipzig), Bogdan Iacob (Romanian Academy), Jure Ramšak (ZRS Koper)

 

Keynote speaker: Lorenz Lüthi (McGill University)

The Balkans and the Post-Colonial World: Socialist Internationalism and Global Entanglements in the Cold War

Recent years have shown a fast-growing interest in the internationalist policies and cultures of the communist Warsaw Pact countries, in the global engagements of East European actors, and in the active roles of smaller states in international relations during the Cold War. A variety of scholars have shown that in the post-Stalin era, especially in the context of de-colonisation, a wealth of interactions and interconnections developed among the First, Second, and Third Worlds. East European countries expanded their relationships with post-colonial states, while simultaneously amplifying their contacts with the west.

The internationalism of the socialist Balkans has also awakened some interest. Most recently, a few works adopting transnational history approaches have been published on topics such as circulation of experts, goods, ideas and culture. In the “traditional” diplomatic and international relations history, most attention has been dedicated to Yugoslavia as one of the leading states of the Non-Aligned Movement, followed by Romania whose leader Nicolae Ceaușescu also tried to make a name for himself on the stage of world politics. Less researched are Bulgaria’s activities, while research on Albania is still predominantly in its infancy. Many of these interactions, exchanges, and circulations were possible because of accelerating bilateralism engineered by Balkan governments. However, another site of global entanglement for the region were international organisations, particularly the United Nations and its specialized agencies (UNESCO, FAO, WHO, ILO, etc.). Last but not least, anti-colonial and counter-hegemonic solidarities fuelled common agendas between socialist states and regional political actors including in Greece and Turkey.     

Having in mind these recent trends in Cold War studies and the state of the art concerning the Balkans, the conference has three main goals. First, a) it aims to facilitate a forum for presenting and discussing ongoing research on internationalisms of the socialist Balkans. We are interested in all aspects of this theme and believe that combing traditional State-centred approaches with social and cultural history can best help to comprehensively understand the phenomenon under scrutiny. Second, b) bringing together experts on all four socialist Balkan countries provides the opportunity to adopt a regional outlook and to discuss comparative and entangled history approaches. What similarities and what mutual influences can be observed despite the political fragmentation of the region and the intra-regional rivalries? What was the impact of global developments and how did internationalist engagements and domestic policies influence each other? Third c) extending the question of commonalities across the Balkans, the conference is interested in assessing regional specifics as well as similarities with other parts of Europe and the world.

Altogether, the conference examines the complex interactions between politics, economy, ideology, mentality, identity and culture as well as between national, regional and global contexts. In doing so, it aims to comprehensively illuminate a comparatively understudied topic as well as to integrate Balkan internationalisms into the history of Cold War international relations and global interconnections.

 

 

Conference Program

Thursday, 17.06.2021

Opening remarks (13:00–13:15, CEST time) (7:00–7:15, EDT time)

Idrit Idrizi (University of Vienna) and Rinna Kullaa (Tampere University)

 

Balkans Constructing the Middle East as World Region in the Post-Colonial World (13:15–14:45, CEST) (7:15–8:45, EDT)

Chair: Rinna Kullaa (Tampere University)

  • Darryl Li (University of Chicago): Shades of Solidarity: Racialization of Arabs in Yugoslavia, from Non-Alignment to Pan-Islamism
  • Francesco Trupia (Nicholas Copernicus University of Toruń, University Centre of Excellence IMSErt): ‘Edinstvo’ and the Oriental: The Duality of (Post-)Coloniality in Communist Bulgaria 
  • Klejd Këlliçi (University of Tirana): Supporting Revolutions Abroad: Communist Albania and the PLO

                                                                                               Coffee Break

Keynote: Lorenz Lüthi (McGill University) (15:00–16:00, CEST Time) (09:00–10:00, EDT time)

Tito, Yugoslavia and the Tug of the Global Socialist Entanglements: Europe, The Middle East and Asia.

 

Anti-Colonial and Counter-Hegemonic Solidarities – Pink Shade of Radicalism (16:00–17:30, CEST) (10:00–11:30, EDT)

Chair: Bogdan Iacob (Institute of History in Bucharest, Romanian Academy)

  • Milorad Lazic (US Naval Academy, Department of History): Healing the Wounds of Colonialism: Yugoslavia’s Medical Mission in Africa in the 1950s and 1960s
  • Ylber Marku (Zhejiang University, Department of History): Albania’s Communist Networks: Students, Workers, Experts, Revolutionaries
  • Ana Dević (KU Leuven): Amnesias of the Solidarities of a Modernist Past: Architectural Exports of Yugoslavia in the NAM Region
  • Mioara Anton (Institute of History in Bucharest, Romanian Academy): African Dolls or How Romanian Society Witnessed the Decolonization Process

 

Friday 18.06.2021

Balkan Cultural Representations in the Post-Colonial World (11:00–12:30, CEST) (5:00–6:30, EDT)

Chair: Jure Ramšak (Science and Research Centre Koper, Slovenia)

  • Bogdan C. Iacob (Institute of History in Bucharest, Romanian Academy): Balkans on a Global Stage: The Fifteenth Congress of Historical Sciences in Bucharest (10–17 August 1980)
  • Tina Palaić (University of Ljubljana, Department of Ethnology and Cultural Anthropology): The Museum of Non-European Cultures in Ljubljana: Knowledge Production on Non-European Cultures in the Time of the NAM
  • Jelena Ćulibrk (USC School of Cinematic Arts, Department of Cinema and Media Studies): Educational Imperialism? The BBC and Non-Aligned Movement’s New World Information and Communication Order, 1969–1980.
  • Igor Tchoukarine (University of Minnesota, Department of History): Building a Global Tourism Industry: Yugoslavia, the Global South, and the West (1960s–1980s)

 

Lunch Break

 

Balkan Bilateralism and its Impact in Constructing the Post-Colonial World (13:30–15:00, CEST) (7:30–9:00, EDT)

Chair: Idrit Idrizi (University of Vienna)

  • Anna Calori (University of Jena, Imre Kertész Kolleg): Cigar Socialism? Diplomatic Frictions and Economic Pragmatism in Yugoslav-Cuban Relations
  • Arjan Shahini (Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg): Albanian Foreign Policy and Transnational Exchanges with the Third World
  • Yuguang Zhou (Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, Graduate School for East and Southeast European Studies): Changing Discourse about Yugoslavia in People’s Daily, 1975–1980
  • Ma Li (East China Normal University): The Transformation of Bulgaria’s Perception of China and the Normalization of Sino-Bulgarian Relations (1978–1987)

Coffee Break

 

Balkan Internationalism via Economic and Diplomatic Entanglements: Effective Tools of Impact (15:30–17.00, CEST) (09:15-11.15, EDT)

Chair: Jan Zofka (Leibniz-Institute for the History and Culture of Eastern Europe GWZO Leipzig)

  • Robert Niebuhr (Arizona State University, Honors College Barrett), David Pickus (Shandong University, Qingdao School of Politics and Public Administration) & Zvonimir Stopić (Capital Normal University, Beijing): Early Yugoslav Globalism: Seeking Peace with Asia
  • Diana Georgescu (University College London, School of Slavonic and East European Studies): Child Diplomacy: Competing Pedagogies of Internationalism in International Pioneer Camps in the Late Cold War
  • Theodora Dragostinova (The Ohio State University, Department of History): Lucrative Contracts, Unlikely Contacts: Bulgarian Construction Projects in Nigeria
  • Elitza Stanoeva (European University Institute, Florence): Bulgaria’s Participation in International Trade Fora: Triangulating among the Comecon, the West and the Global South  

 

Roundtable Discussion – Balkan Internationalism Night School!/ Day School!

(17:30-18.30, CEST) (11:30–12:30, EDT)

Rinna Kullaa, Darryl Li, Ana Dević, Bogdan Iacob, Theodora Dragostinova, Anna Calori

Poster