Annual Conference of the Leibniz Institute for East and Southeast European Studies
From Contested Pasts to (In)Secure Futures:
Politics in East and Southeast Europe
The 13th IOS Annual Conference marks the official launch of the newly established Department
of Politics at the Leibniz Institute for East and Southeast European Studies (IOS) in
Regensburg. Conceived as an inaugural event, the conference aims to introduce and discuss
the department’s emerging research agenda and to foster dialogue with scholars whose work
resonates with our focus on political institutions, actors, and processes in East and Southeast
Europe.
The Department of Politics investigates how political orders in Eastern Europe are constituted,
contested and transformed through the interaction of local institutions, governance and law
with regional and global dynamics. This conference aims to develop these focal points by
bringing together political science and related disciplines from the social sciences and
humanities. A further goal is to lay the foundations for future collaborations that consider
regional transformations from comparative and global perspectives. By utilizing diverse
theoretical and methodological approaches, especially those with a focus in area studies, the
conference will set the stage for sustained scholarly exchanges on the transformations and
fragmentations that define our regions of study and their place in the global order, both new
and already established.
Confirmed keynote speaker
Prof. Maria Mälksoo (University of Copenhagen)
Conference themes
We welcome proposals addressing political and social transformations across democratic and
authoritarian regimes, multi-scalar governance, and contestation in East and Southeast Europe,
including but not limited to the following themes:
- Democratic erosion and authoritarian resilience – Democratic backsliding,
autocratization, institutional change, and regime transformation. - Political mobilization, representation, and resistance – Electoral contestation,
protest movements, civic engagement, and opposition. - Digital transformations and security – Digital politics, social media, information
control, cybersecurity, and global contestation shaping governance and legitimacy. - Security, sovereignty, and regional orders – Evolving understandings and practices
of security, shifting alliances, impact of regional wars on governance legitimacy, and
global orders. - Politics of belonging and meaning – Identity, collective memory, processes of
contestation, reappropriation, and weaponization of symbols and narratives, affective
politics. - Law, expertise and knowledge in uncertain times – Knowledge, expertise, and
technocracy in shaping legitimacy and governance, politicization of science,
contestation of truth claims in times of crisis.
Submission guidelines
Applications should be sent as a single PDF file to annualconference@ios-regensburg.de
by 15 December 2025. The file name should include the author’s name. The application must
contain an abstract of no more than 300 words (indicating a connection to up to two
conference themes) and a short bio of no more than 200 words. Please also include your
institutional affiliation, contact information, and a list of up to three key publications.
Participants will be notified of the outcome of the selection process by 20 January 2026. For
those who are invited, accommodation for two nights and travel expenses (economy class)
will be covered and reimbursed by IOS. In cases of transatlantic or long-distance travel, a
contribution toward travel costs will be provided.
For inquiries, please contact: annualconference@ios-regensburg.de
Conveners
Prof. Cindy Wittke-Hohlfeld, Dr. Fabian Burkhardt, Dr. Katarina Damčević, Dr. Ekaterina
Paustyan
Organizing and Selection Committee
Prof. Cindy Wittke-Hohlfeld, Dr. Elia Bescotti, Dr. Fabian Burkhardt, Dr. Katarina Damčević,
Merritt Fedzin, Nikola Gajić, Maximilian Hartl, Dr. Ekaterina Paustyan, Dr. Artur Simonyan.