Centre for the Study of the Balkans News and events

The Oxford Handbook of Medieval Central Europe, ed. Nada Zecevic and Daniel Ziemann (OUP, 2022) - book presentation

March 28, 6.30pm GMT (online)

The Oxford Handbook of Medieval Central Europe summarizes the political, social, and cultural history of medieval Central Europe (c. 800-1600 CE), a region long considered a "forgotten" area of the European past. The 25 cutting-edge chapters present up-to-date research about the region's core medieval kingdoms — Hungary, Poland, and Bohemia — and their dynamic interactions with neighbouring areas. From the Baltic to the Adriatic, the handbook includes reflections on modern conceptions and uses of the region's shared medieval traditions. The volume's thematic organization reveals rarely compared knowledge about the region's medieval resources: its peoples and structures of power; its social life and economy; its religion and culture; and images of its past.

In this book presentation, three world-renown medievalists discuss about what constituted medieval Central Europe, giving special attention to this region’s peripheries and their place in the region’s medieval and modern conceptions.

Speakers:

Prof. Piotr Górecki, Department  of History, University of California, Riverside, CA

Dr. Damir Karbić, Department of Historical Research in the Institute of Historical and Social Research,Croatian Academy of Sciences

Doz. Mag. Dr. Mihailo Popović, Institute for Medieval Research (IMAFO) - Division of Byzantine Research (ABF), Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna

Respondents:

Dr. Daniel Ziemann, Department of History, Central European University, Vienna

Dr. Nada Zečević, Department of History, Goldsmiths University of London (event moderator)

Register for the event.

2022/2023

"The Greek Revolution of 1821 and ... Race? Stories of Black Greeks and Doubts about the Racial Paradigm"

Online 15 March, 2023 BST, 6.30 pm Public lecture by Prof Yannis Kotsonis

The Greek Revolution and War for Independence (1821-1830) was fought largely on a confessional axis, and it produced a state of Christians alone. It is right to ask whether a new awareness of race should inform these events, but this does not mean that we should accept the centrality of race. This talk will focus on some stories of Greeks and revolutionaries and propose that, of the many categories that were adopted from the west, race was not among them. We will ask why.

Yanni Kotsonis is professor of history at New York University. He is trained as a Russian specialist and recently has expanded into imperial history with a focus on the Greeks as imperial creatures and the Greek Revolution and as an imperial event. He is currently writing a book, The Greek Revolution: A New History.

To attend the lecture, please book here. The registration will be open until March 14 at 11 pm; the link to the session will be provided after the closure of the registration.

Blank - book presentation with Fedja Stukan

On March 3 2023, the Centre for the Study of the Balkans, in collaboration with Goldsmiths’ Department of Media, Communications and Cultural Studies, and Institute for Creative and Cultural Entrepreneurship, will host the presentation of book Blank by Fedja Štukan (2020).

Štukan – internationally renowned actor from Bosnia-Herzegovina (A Perfect Day; In the land of Blood and Honey; Kursk), producer, human rights’ activist, rock musician and pilot – will talk about his personal past featured by war in Sarajevo, substance addition, hopelessness, loss, death, acting, writing, and finding strength to stand for peace, justice and tolerance.

The event will take place on: March 3 (Friday) at Goldsmiths University of London Professor Stuart Hall (PSH), Room LG01, at 6.30 pm

A reception will follow in the Hall’s Atrium.

Discussion respondents:

• Dr Vana Goblot, Lecturer/ Department of Media, Communications and Cultural Studies, Goldsmiths University of London
• Dr Aleksandar Brkić, Lecturer in Arts Management and Cultural Policy Institute for Creative and Cultural Entrepreneurship, Goldsmiths University of London
• Dr Nada Zečević, Lecturer in History of the Balkans and Director of the Centre for the Study of the Balkans, Department of History, Goldsmiths University of London (moderator of the event)

Purchase tickets (free). Purchase the book Blank by Fedja Stukan in the English language.

Sava - film screening and discussion with director Matthew Somerville

November 30, 6.30 pm, BPB Lecture Theatre, Goldsmiths University of London

Sava is a river movie, a documentary film and a journey down what was once the longest river in Yugoslavia