ICCEES Congress: Roundtable on „Eastern Europe in Global Transformations“
The International Council for Central and East European Studies (ICCEES) is proud to announce that its upcoming XI World Congress will be hosted by University College London around the theme of “disruption”. The regions covered by ICCEES are currently navigating a period of profound change and rupture, particularly in the aftermath of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Recent events have shown the need to disrupt conventional approaches to thinking about, studying, and researching these regions – their histories, cultures, languages, politics, economics, infrastructures, and societies. Place-specific knowledge is as vital as ever in understanding how local and regional processes interact with transregional and global dynamics. At the same time, the need to reassess our methodologies, assumptions, and perspectives has never been more urgent. It is against this backdrop of transformation that we invite scholars, researchers, and practitioners to engage in conversations that push the boundaries of conventional understandings of past events and contemporary developments.
EEGA is represented with a roundtable on „Eastern Europe in Global Transformations“.
The thematic inputs will be followed by a moderated Q&A with the round table guests and open forum with the audience.
Date: Tuesday, 22 July 2025,
Panelists: Lena Dallywater (EEGA, Leibniz Institute for Regional Geography, Germany); Chris Saunders (University of Cape Town, South Africa), Dennis Dierks (Leipzig University, Germany); Derya Bozat (University of Bern , Switzerland)
Venue: University College London, Institute of Education, United Kingdom
In the aftermath of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, it is not only societies in Eastern Europe that have been shaken up. The war of aggression has also had a variety of effects globally. How are these ruptures described and interpreted? This is the question that the guests in the round table discussion will address. Based on the 8-year work of the Leibniz ScienceCampus „Eastern Europe – Global Area“ (EEGA), an interdisciplinary research network in Germany, panellists from political studies, history and geography will shed light on polarisations, re-territorialisations and narrative account of the crisis. With a view to a comparison, transregionally and historically, the disruptions in Eastern Europe and Southern Africa in the late 20th and early 21st centuries are contrasted. Speakers will reflect on the similarities and differences between the two cases of countries that moved from authoritarian rule to democratic systems on the one hand, and how contemporary thinkers engage with ideas of postcolonialism and decoloniality (aiming to expose and understand the asymmetrical power relations between the West and the non-European world that emerged during the period of colonial rule and continue to exist today), and how this relates to interpretations of the war in Ukraine and global power relations on the other hand.
You can find more information on the world congress here.
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