Event overview
An Anti-Disciplinary Search & Discussion for the Future of Balkan Studies
Presented by the Centre for the Study of the Balkans, "Transgressing the Balkans" is a seminar and public discussion that asks how the Balkans might be studied as a dynamic, contested spatial field rather than a fixed cultural, historical, or geopolitical object. The event begins with the proposition that the region is being reshaped by forces that exceed conventional area-studies frameworks, including the European Critical Raw Materials Act, the Chinese Belt and Road Initiative, and the social and spatial effects of post-2022 Russian migration. These pressures operate as material processes through housing, labour, logistics, governance, infrastructure, land use, and everyday life. The Balkans are understood as a terrain in which the ground is being continuously redrawn: legally, environmentally, socially, and imaginatively.
The seminar launches from a presentation of Mitesh Dixit’s PhD dissertation, which examines Krivelj, Serbia, as a site where the geopolitical race for critical raw materials becomes entangled with domestic space, planning law, environmental degradation, and lived experience. Focusing on the question of “how copper is done,” Dixit’s project investigates how extraction links European policy, Chinese investment, Serbian infrastructure, and global supply chains as they manifest in residents’ daily lives.
Following the presentation and (short) film screening, panellists and the audience will discuss how such work might inform a new approach to Balkan studies through an anti-disciplinary design lens. The event asks how spatial practice, media, and activist urban research can generate new methods for studying the contemporary Balkans.
Moderators
• Aleksandar Brkic, Goldsmiths, University of London, Centre for the Study of the Balkans
• Vana Goblot, University of London, Centre for the Study of the Balkans
Panelist
• Philipp Satlerr, architect & filmmaker, RCA, London
• Tim Waterman, Landscape Theorist, UCL Bartlett, London
Dates & times
| Date | Time | Add to calendar |
|---|---|---|
| 11 Nov 2026 | 5:30pm - 7:30pm |
Accessibility
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