5th Central and Eastern European Forum for Young Legal, Political and Social Theorists, Greifswald, Germany, 3–4 May 2013‏

th Central and Eastern European Forum for Young Legal, Political and Social Theorists, Greifswald, 3–4 May 2013

Dear colleagues and friends,

we would like to remind you of the approaching submission deadline of the Call for Papers for the 5th Central and Eastern European Forum for Young Legal, Political and Social Theorists, Greifswald, 3–4 May 2013. The CEE Forum is a platform for young legal, political and social theorists who come from, currently study or work in Central and Eastern Europe or have a research interest in the region. The regional boundaries are understood widely. The target audiences of the conference are young researchers, espe-cially doctoral students and post-docs, without a specific age limit. As in the previous Forums, the conference will be organised in three concurrent panels and will put its special emphasis on two major general topics.

(1) Separation of Powers & Constitutional Review

In the first panel we are going to discuss two core elements of modern constitutional democracies: separation of powers and constitutional review. These ideas are of enduring timeliness in legal and political theory. We especially welcome submissions to answer the following questions: Is the separation of powers still applicable to the complexity of modern polities or is it of mere historical importance? How is this principle realised in the governmental system of the European Union? What is the exact meaning of the term separation and its manifold synonyms and alternatives? What is the “nature” of constitutional review: Is it jurisdiction, politics in the cloak of the law, something in between or even something totally different? What are the borders of constitutional review? How does the relationship between separation of powers and constitutional review look like: What is (or should be) the place of constitutional review in a power-separating order? Is it a part or the top of the judiciary or an own branch?

(2) Constitutional Rights & Obligations

The second panel is dedicated to constitutional rights and obligations. Most modern constitutions provide basic rights and freedoms for individuals and/or groups in order to protect them against encroachments by the state. Additionally, there is some general consent in constitutional theory, which fundamental rights a constitution should at least guarantee. In contrast, obligations are much rarer in the constitutional landscape. Even basic necessities like tax paying are often not elevated to constitutional status. Analogously, it is controversially debated in legal and political theory whether constitutions should impose certain obligations on its citizens at all. Against this background, we are expecting contributions to discuss the following questions: Should constitutions incorporate obligations or do obligations systematically violate the basic principles of liberal and democratic polities? How are constitutional obligations related to constitutional rights – both normatively and empirically? In particular, how do obligations influence liberty rights? Finally, which perspective do concurrent theories of democracy take on constitutional obligations, for instance on the idea of compulsory voting?

(3) Open Panel

In order to meet the diverse interests of the Forum’s participants from different disciplines, the third panel will be open to all interesting topics from the vast area of legal, political and social theory.

The conference language is English. An up to 500 words abstract, indicating the preferable panel, should be submitted in the available application form (see below) by 31 December 2012 to cee-forum2013@uni-greifswald.de. Acceptance of the papers will be communicated by 31 January 2013. Participation without presentation is possible as well. In that case the deadline is 20 April 2013; please use the application form, too.

The conference fee for all participants is 50,- € (see the payment instructions). All participants will obtain conference material, drinks and snacks during the breaks, and altogether three meals. Participants shall make arrangements and pay for their accommodation individually.

Please find the Call for Papers including all additional information like application form, accommodation info, directions, payment instructions and contacts on our conference website:

http://www.cee-forum.org/2013.

After the conference, all participants will be invited to submit their papers in order to be published in the fourth volume of the Central and Eastern European Forum for Legal, Political, and Social Theory Yearbook (see http://www.cee-forum.org/yearbook). The details of the review process will then be published in a separate Call for Papers; the deadline will be 31 August 2013.

We are happy and eager to host you in Greifswald in spring of 2013!

Balkan Summer School on Religion and Public Life, Plovdiv, 10-24 August 2013‏

Balkan Summer School on Religion and Public Life
The Paissiy Hilendarski University of Plovdiv
August 10th-24th 2013

The organizers of the 2013 Balkan Summer School on Religion and Public Life (BSSRPL) on Syncretic Societies – Bridging Traditions and Modernity? proceed from the idea that religion and religious identities are central for the life of both individuals and society, and that our religious communities are often those to which we devote our greatest loyalties. In our diverse but increasingly interconnected world, we need to find ways to live together in a world populated by people with very different political ideas, moral beliefs and communal loyalties.

The goal of the Summer School is to provide a laboratory for the practical pedagogy of tolerance and living with difference in a global society. Its focus is on religion as a basic identification marker of the individual and society, and its aim is to produce new practices and understandings for living together in a world populated by “differences”.

The Balkan Summer School takes up this very real challenge and tries to critically define differences,especially communal and religious differences between people as the starting point of a publically shared life.Its basic aim is to help participants realize their prejudices and question their taken-for-granted assumptions of the other through the construction of a safe social space of exploration and interaction that includes an innovative mixture of academic teaching, experiential field experience (practicums) and affective engagement with the challenges of “living together differently”.

For centuries, if not millennia, the Balkans have been characterized by a diverse and complex mixture of religions, nations and ethnicities; of orthodoxies and heterodoxies, normative and subaltern beliefs, practices and ways of life. From medieval Bogomiles, to early modern Sabbateans, contemporary Bektashi, to the cult of Dionysius in antiquity – the Balkans has been a site of religious contestation and innovation. Not surprisingly, it has also been a cauldron of different forms of religious syncretism, with fractal boundaries between communities and a strong “lived” or practical tolerance of shared practices (rather than of homogenous beliefs). As in many other global spaces, this culture came under the assault of modern ideological agendas (nationalism, communism, fascism, liberal-secularism, etc.) with serious consequences for the practices of shared life that had characterized more traditional communal life-worlds.

Our 2013 summer school will explore the issue of religious syncretism (in the Balkans and elsewhere), as a unique form of accommodating difference (in law, community organization, religious practice, family obligations, definitions of gender, etc.). Inquiry into religious syncretism as lived practice in the area of the Rhodope Mountains and the Thracian plain around the Bulgarian city of Plovdiv will thus serve as the sharp lens of our inquiry. Ultimately, however we shall be focusing on the experience of our own boundaries, preconceptions, lived practices, prejudices and preconceptions – to better appreciate how to live with difference rather than deny, trivialize or abrogate it.

Drawing on over ten years experience of the International Summer School on Religion and Public Life (www.issrpl.org) the BSSRPL seeks to bring together some 30 fellows from different walks of life and different religious and confessional communities, (as well as those who define themselves as members of no such communities and have no religious identities) to explore these themes together, in conditions of mutual respect and recognition. We look forward to an enriching mix of post-graduate students, professors, NGO leaders, journalists, religious leaders, policy analysts, and teachers from the area of the Balkans, Europe and beyond to join us for the two weeks of the school.

As noted above, the BSSRPL combines more traditional academic lectures with field-work, practical, experiential learning and more affectively orientated forms of group learning; in a innovative approach to learning that goes far beyond the purely cognitive. In the past, schools have been held in Bosnia&Herzegovenia, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Indonesia, Israel, Turkey, United Kingdom, and USA. The BSSRPL draws, in personnel, pedagogical principles and orientations from these past experiences and is organized in affiliation with the ISSRPL, as well with the Equator Peace Academy that is run out of the Uganda Martyrs University and which is holding its first school in Uganda and Rwanda in December 2012 devoted to Whole Community? Memory, Conflict and Tradition Please join us this August in Plovdiv, Bulgaria.

Application forms can be downloaded and further information attained at:
http://uni-plovdiv.bg/logos/site.jsp?ln=2&id=1022

Young Leaders Program 2013, Aspen Institute Romania‏

Call for Nominations


The flagship program of the Aspen Institute Romania for the last 6 years, the Young Leaders Program, has reached its 7th edition. We hope this year's program will bring increased regional participation and create additional diversity and relevance for a growing Network of more than 120 Aspen Fellows, covering 12 countries.


What is it about?


The Young Leaders Program gathers each year around 20 high-profile young leaders from the region with a clear two-fold goal: to promote and advance progressive leadership within society; and to develop the regional network, based on shared values and common interests. Participants are required to have a high level of English fluency, as it is the working language of the program. Aspen Institute Romania will cover tuition costs, accommodation and meals, leaving participants to only cover their transportation expenses to and from Romania.

The program consists of four modules in Romania and has the following structure:


Module I: 15 - 21 April, 2013
Module II: 10 - 16 June, 2013
Module III: 16 - 22 September, 2013
Module IV: One-day event in December 2013 (tbd)


Who can participate?


The Program addresses people between the ages of 25 and 35 having achieved significant professional positions and accomplished results within their area of activity. Candidates should have demonstrated leadership potential, a record of initiative andentrepreneurship and a proven civic interest. We welcome candidates from: Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Georgia, Hungary, Kosovo, Macedonia, Republic of Moldova, Montenegro, Romania, Serbia, Turkey and Ukraine.


How?Nominations can be made by submitting the following documentation in English: theNomination Form (the nominator should be an Aspen Member, Aspen Fellow or a leader of the community, who can underline the candidate's suitability for the program), a letter of recommendation and the candidate's CV together with a letter of intention. The files are to be sent in PDF format to our Program Coordinator, Ms. Sorina Campean at sorina.campean@aspeninstitute.ro, by February 3rd, 2013.

Scholarship: Mellon Pre-doctoral Fellowship in Cold War/Post-1945 International History, IERES George Washington University‏

The George Washington University’s Institute for European, Russian and Eurasian Studies (IERES) is pleased to announce a call for applications for the Mellon Pre-doctoral Fellowship in Cold War/Post-1945 International History for 2013-2014.

Applicants need to have completed archival research for their dissertation in two or more countries and be at the final writing stage of their dissertation at an American University.

The Fellow must be in residence at IERES from September 2013 through June 2014 and will be provided with an office and computer. The Fellow will also help the IERES Director administer several workshops that train Ph.D. candidates to conduct archival research. The award will offer support in the amount of $25,000 per year, plus benefits. Interested applicants should submit an 8-10 page proposal, curriculum vitae, and a letter of recommendation from a member of your dissertation committee. Please also submit a cover letter that clearly addresses your experience with archival research and any previous administrative responsibilities. All applications are reviewed by a GWU faculty panel that rewards clarity of argument and method as well as the originality of the research and the argument.

Deadline for all fellowship applications is 15 January 2013.
Applications should be sent to sicar@gwu.edu by 15 January, 2013 with the subject line reading “Predoctoral Application.” Recommendation letters may be e-mailed or sent to:
Institute for European, Russian and Eurasian Studies
ATTN: Pre-doctoral Application
1957 E Street NW, Suite 412
Washington, DC 20052
Tel: 202-994-6340
Fax: 202-994-5436

Scholarship: Baldy Fellowships in Interdisciplinary Legal Studies for 2013-14, SUNY Buffalo Law School‏

Building on the success of our inaugural Baldy Fellows, I am pleased to announce that the Baldy Center is inviting Fellowship applications for 2013-2014.

Baldy Fellowships in Interdisciplinary Legal Studies are available to post-doctoral, mid-career, and senior scholars. This year's application form is at: http://baldycenter.info/fellowships2013 .
Completed applications are due February 1, 2013. It is important that all applications be submitted through our web-based system, both so that we can track all applications and so that our reviewers can readily access them. Further information on the Fellowships and application process is provided below and on the Baldy Center website:
law.buffalo.edu/baldycenter.

We are excited about our first group of Baldy Fellows -- anthropologist Mireille Abelin, historian Kathleen Biddick, constitutional theorist Nimer Sultany, and sociologist Julia Tomassetti. You can read their biographies on our website:
http://www.law.buffalo.edu/links/09-2012/baldy.html. We are eager to bring an equally outstanding group of scholars to the Center next year.

The Baldy Center for Law & Social Policy at the State University of New York at Buffalo plans to award several fellowships for 2013-14 to scholars pursuing important topics in law, legal institutions, and social policy. Applications are invited from junior and senior scholars from law, the humanities, and the social sciences.

Fellows are expected to participate regularly in Baldy Center events, but otherwise have no obligations beyond vigorously pursuing their research. Fellows receive standard university research privileges (access to UB libraries, high-speed Internet, office space, computer equipment, phone, website space, working paper series,
etc.) and are encouraged to develop collaborative research projects with SUNY Buffalo faculty members where appropriate. Those who wish to teach a course to aid their research or gain teaching experience will be accommodated on a case-by-case basis.

Post-Doctoral Fellowships are available to individuals who have completed the PhD or JD but have not yet begun a tenure track appointment. Post-Doctoral Fellows will receive a stipend of $40,000 and may apply for up to $2000 in professional travel support. Mid-Career and Senior Fellowships are available as sabbatical supplements to established scholars who wish to work at the Center.
Stipends will be commensurate with experience, need, and duration of visit.

Application materials include: (1) a description of the planned research (question, conceptual framework, method, possible findings, importance to the field), (2) a complete academic and professional resume, (3) an academic writing sample, and (4) the names and contact information of three academic references. Applications should be submitted no later than February 1, 2013 at:
http://baldycenter.info/fellowships2013 For further information, see our answers to frequently asked questions. Additional questions about the Baldy Fellows Program should be addressed to Assistant Director Laura Wirth, baldyassistantdirector@gmail.com or (716) 645-2581.


The Baldy Center for Law & Social Policy is an endowed, internationally recognized institute that advances interdisciplinary research on law, legal institutions, and social policy at the State University of New York at Buffalo. More than 150 faculty members from numerous SUNY Buffalo departments participate in Baldy Center research, conferences, consortia, and publications. The Center maintains cooperative ties to other research centers and hosts distinguished scholars from around the world as visitors, fellows, speakers, and conference participants.

Conference: War and Culture Russia and Eastern Europe, University of Nottingham, 25-26 March 2013

Conference Announcement

WAR and CULTURE in Russia and Eastern Europe.

25-26 March 2013


Hosted by Russian and Slavonic Studies, University of Nottingham.
Funding from CRCEES and the Partridge Bequest


War's effects are manifest in all branches of culture. Key themes include: the immediate destructive impact; the responses to the exigencies of a national situation and maintenance of morale; post-conflict outcomes which engage the re-writing of national narratives; the shaping of visual culture; suppression of minority or vanquished cultures with subsequent changes to collective and individual memories; the search for ways to express the traumas of a particular war and their articulation within the traditions of representing war in cultural forms. The variety of response has been vast and through many different artistic forms.


CALL for PAPERS
The conference will cover 2 half day sessions. As well as topic-based panels of papers, the programme will include keynote speakers, film screenings, and the launch of an e-catalogue to Nottingham's rare collection of TASS WW2 propaganda posters.
15 minute papers are invited on topics which fit the conference theme and geographical area from WW1 to present day, and across the different cultural forms.
Scholars, postgraduate students, and independent researchers are invited to contribute. Abstracts (max 300 words) and a biography (50 words) should be sent to David Norris (david.norris@nottingham.ac.uk) by 31 December 2012. Authors of papers selected will be informed by 25 January 2013. There is some funding ( but regrettably limited) to support postgraduate attendance: please indicate if you need funding support.
16 November 2012.


For further information please contact: david.norris@nottingham.ac.uk

PhD - Scholarship: Language-Based Area Studies in Social Sciences, Nottingham Doctoral Training Centre‏

The Nottingham Doctoral Training Centre will produce the next generation of world-class social scientists as one of only 21 across the UK funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC).

Over the next five years the Centre will support around 200 students to undertake cutting-edge interdisciplinary research that provide insights into some of the world's biggest challenges.

Further information from www.nottingham.ac.uk/esrc-dtc/index.aspx

The Nottingham Doctoral Training Centre has scholarship awards for Language-Based Area Studies in Social Sciences and Dr David Norris is available to contact for those interested in pursuing research relating to the territories covered by the former Yugoslavia. If interested in this field please contact david.norris@nottingham.ac.uk for further information. This message and any attachment are intended solely for the addressee and may contain confidential information. If you have received this message in error, please send it back to me, and immediately delete it. Please do not use, copy or disclose the information contained in this message or in any attachment. Any views or opinions expressed by the author of this email do not necessarily reflect the views of the University of Nottingham.

This message has been checked for viruses but the contents of an attachment may still contain software viruses which could damage your computer system:
you are advised to perform your own checks. Email communications with the University of Nottingham may be monitored as permitted by UK legislation.

Conference: Albania and National, Ethnic and Cultural Minorities, Tirana, 13-14 February 2013

INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE “ALBANIA AND NATIONAL, ETHNIC AND CULTURAL MINORITIES” TIRANA, 13-14 FEBRUARY 2013,




Organizers: Law Faculty and Albanian Institute for Public Affairs at Marin Barleti University

Organizing Committee:
Chairman: Member of the Academy of Science. Prof. Luan Omari
Members: Dr. Ilir Panda; Dr. Zamira Cavo; Dr. Artan Puto; Drnt. Ledian Droboniku

Conference secretariat
Ll.M., Msc. Edlira Lloha
Msc. Elona Bano
M.A. Jonida Lamaj





Conference Thematic
The conference will have an interdisciplinary approach and its thematic will include topics from the fields of law, politics, economy, culture and education, sociology, demography, etc. The conference thematic will attempt to encapsulate various aspects of the national, ethnic and cultural minorities, putting a particular emphasis on the following topics:




- Juridical regime of the national, ethnic and cultural minorities in the Albanian legislation and/or in a comparative approach with that of other countries;
- The role of minorities in the development and modernization of the country (respective countries) addressing in particular their contribution in the economic and cultural sphere;
- The relations between various ethnicities in Albania;
- Patriotism and nationalism from an historic viewpoint;
- the situation of minorities as reflected in various population censuses held in the Albanian state;
- the situation of the Albanian communities in Macedonia;
- the rights of minorities in the international acts;
- International organizations and the issue of minorities in Albania;
- Republic of Albania and its commitments deriving from international acts;
- the issue of minorities’ language in the international acts;
- Economic situation of minorities in Albania;
- Issues concerning minorities’ education;
- Media and minorities;
- Other issues referring to the minorities rights, in particular in view of minorities’ rights for: a) education; b) association and gatherings; c) the prohibition of discrimination in the working relations;
- Minorities and electoral law of the Republic of Albania;
- European Court of Human Rights case concerning minorities, with special consideration of the following rights: a) right to life, b) the prohibition of torture, cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment and punishment, c) the right for private and family life, d) the right of association and gathering, e) the right of property, f) the right of education, g) the right for fair and free elections, h) freedom of religion, etc.

We invite all the researchers that are involved in the studying of the national, ethnic and cultural minorities, as well as other professionals that have been active in the realization and protection of minorities’ rights to participate in this conference, and in particular: members of scientific institutions, NGO, think-tanks, academia, Universities, ministries, associations of minorities in Albania, and abroad, representative of minorities’ in Albania and abroad, groups of interest, etc.





Requirements for the presentations delivered in the conference:
The presentation shouldn’t exceed 20 minutes.
Persons that are interested in the preparation of a presentation are required to submit, within the 30 of November 2012 the title of the presentation, together with an abstract not longer than 300 words, to the following address: e.lloha-aipa@umb.edu.al.
The conference’s organizing committee will confirm the presentation within the 15 of December 2012.
The complete presentation should be delivered to the same electronic address within the 1st of February 2013.





For more information ...
http://aipa.umb.edu.al/pdf_docs/Announcement_Conference_on_Minorities_organised_by_MBU_eng.pdf

Conference: 3rd Island Dynamics Conference, Famagusta, North Cyprus, 14-18 May 2013‏

3rd Island Dynamics Conference (with Performing Island Identities)

14-18 May 2013, Gazimagusa (Famagusta), North Cyprus




The 3rd Island Dynamics Conference explores maritime and island studies worldwide. The events theme is islands of culture and practice. Although talks are welcome on any island or maritime topic, we particularly encourage presentations on how traditions whether artistic, religious, economic, political, etc.; develop in culturally and geographically insular communities and on what island and mainland communities can tell us about one another.

At the 3rd Island Dynamics Conference, representatives from academia, government, business, and the third sector will explore island issues, past and present, worldwide. Although the conference will include talks on all aspects of maritime and island studies, this year’s conference theme is islands of culture and practice.

Islands are often home to unique artistic, social, economic, and political traditions. They both preserve traditions that have been lost on the mainland and function as meeting places for traditions, the mingling of which result in new traditional forms. We can even speak of archipelagos of culture and practice, where traditions flourish in dispersed geographical areas. How do traditions develop in such circumstances, and what can island and mainland communities tell us about one another?


Alan Jabbour, Owe Ronström, Philip Hayward, and Stephen A. Royle will act as keynote speakers.


The deadline for abstracts is 1 December 2012.



More information available at

http://www.islanddynamics.org/3idc.html