Call for papers

The conference seeks to explore the affective dimensions of everyday life in the context of Southeast Europe. In our world that has, for the last decades, been dominated by the impact of rationality and technical progress, of transformation and economic efficiency, of globalization and migration, the role of emotions in all spheres of life has all too often been neglected. It is in the past decade that developments in society, in politics and in other spheres of life have made it obvious that emotions are of utmost relevance and must
not by ignored. There is a renewed anthropological interest in the study of emotions, affects and feelings that bind individuals and groups in various ways, addressing their economic and political uncertainty and directing attention to people’s arts of existence.

The aim of this conference is to extend the exploration of the ‘everyday’ and ‘ordinary’ by focusing on the role of emotions and the varieties of senses in relation to the entire sphere of individual and social life, to social belonging and affect-saturated spaces and institutions such as nation or home region, neighbourhood or friends, family or relatives, strangers or intimates, religious or ethnic groups. Craving for well-being, solidarity and community in a time of insecurities and uncertainties can lead to a return to forms of tradition and heritage, to a strengthening of patriarchal settings or to a desire for religious belonging and spirituality.

On the other hand one can observe almost everywhere that there is a political use and misuse of such emotions, both in liberal left and in far right xenophobic discourses and politics. The political dimensions also include the emotional experience of state oppression under socialism or the loss of trust in public institutions just as well as the experience of wars or other conflicts.

An important aspect will be the ways in which emotions such as love or hatred, compassion or empathy (and lack of this) are expressed in everyday life and language, in pictures, narratives or songs. The aesthetics of expression may be controlled by the ethics of the group which decides on what constitutes beauty and ugliness or what is acceptable and what is not.

Feelings and emotions are essential parts of the human condition, shaping our interpersonal relations and connections as well as our world view. An important goal of the conference will be to apply these basic facts to the context of Southeast Europe, both in the present and in the past.

Accordingly, topics for papers may range widely and include the following:
▶ Post-socialist transformation, neoliberalism, globalization and affective past, present and future (affect and austerity)
▶ Emotional geographies and ordinary affects (cultural landscapes and ordinary affects)
▶ Architecture, art, objects and affective spaces
▶ Crises, wars, disasters and emotions; public feelings and traumas
▶ Nation, region, and cultural heritage
▶ Museum collections, archives and emotions
▶ Politics and emotions, politics of emotions
▶ Public and private life and emotions
▶ Economy, work, commodities and emotions
▶ Education, schooling, and emotions
▶ Religion, belief and emotions
▶ Life course, gender, childhood, marriage, old age and emotions
▶ Emotions and cultural contexts of health and well-being
▶ Emotions in cross-cultural encounters (migration, diaspora, transnationalism, refugees)
▶ Archives, museum collections and emotions
▶ Expressing emotions: language, verbal traditions, pictures
▶ Songs, music and emotions
▶ Popular culture and the economy of affects.

Please submit a proposal that contains your full name, e-mail address, institutional and disciplinary affiliation, the title of your paper and an abstract of 250 words with specific information about research methods and sources. The organizers give preference to submissions based on fieldwork and/or the use ofethnographic, folkloric, or closely related archive materials. The paper proposal must be in English, while the papers presented at the conference can be in English, French or German.
Panel sessions: We invite colleagues to propose panel sessions.
Poster and film sessions: We invite colleagues to propose posters and ethnographic films focused on the congress theme.

The deadline for the submission of panel and paper proposals is 31 JANUARY 2018.

Please send your proposal to:
Assistant Professor Danijela Birt, Department of Ethnology and Anthropology, University of Zadar

inasea2018.zadar@gmail.com

Participants will be notified before the end of April 2017 about the acceptance of their paper.

Conference Site, Organization
The 9th International Association for Southeast European Anthropology (InASEA) congress will be held at Department of Ethnology and Anthropology, University of Zadar, (Zadar) Croatia.

Funding, Travel and Accommodation
Depending on availability of funding, the conference organizers will cover at least part of the travel and accommodation costs for participants from Albania, Bulgaria, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, Greece, Kosovo, Macedonia, Moldova, Montenegro, Romania, Serbia, and Turkey.

Accommodation for participants who qualify for financial support will be pre-arranged. Other participants will also be assisted in making hotel reservations. More information about accommodation will be published on the official website (http://inasea.net/) in due time.

Registration Fee
InASEA members who have paid their dues for the last two years are exempt from the registration fee.
Non-InASEA members and non-paying members will be asked to pay an on-site registration fee equivalent to 25 € (for participants from the above-mentioned SEE countries) or 50 € (for participants from all other countries).

Publication of Papers
A selection of conference papers will be published (after peer review) in vols. 22 and 23 of InASEA’s journal Ethnologia Balkanica.

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