Goldsmiths - University of London

Goldsmiths increasingly attracts scholars from various disciplinary backgrounds - particularly those based in the departments of History, Politics, Anthropology and Sociology - with research interests in the Balkans. Centre for the Study of the Balkans brings together this expertise and provides platform for inter-departmental collaboration and interdisciplinary dialogue, within Goldsmiths and between the Centre and the College and other academic institutions, in the UK and abroad. In line with the College mission, the Centre seeks to engage in activities that pursue intellectual curiosity and encourage creative and radical thinking with the aim of achieving the highest standards of research relevant to the study of the Balkans.

The Balkans is a peninsula in south-eastern Europe which includes, broadly speaking, former Yugoslavia, Albania, Bulgaria, Greece, Romania and Turkey, but the region cannot be understood by geography alone. Complex historical and cultural legacies - such as those of the Byzantine, Ottoman and Habsburg imperial rules - and interaction of major religions - Eastern Orthodoxy, Sunni Islam and Roman Catholicism - have created a multi-cultural, multi-ethnic and multi-confessional mosaic that survives despite numerous ethnic and religious conflicts that have shaped the region, together with as numerous examples of coexistence and interaction. The Balkans provides a fertile ground for further exploration of issues relevant to research carried out across Goldsmiths, such as the study of past and present cultures, societies and identities, nationalism, ethnic conflict, transitional justice, multiculturalism, relationship between faiths - issues that are also relevant for an understanding of today’s world and challenges it is facing.