SNAKLAB Regensburg Southeastern Europe Research Seminars
2025-11-24 16:00 - 18:00 UTC | IOS, Landshuter Str. 4, R 017
Olivier Winistörfer (Universität Zürich) will give a talk on…
“The Balkans and the Sprachbund. The impact of language contact on the languages of the Balkans”
Time: 4-6 pm
Venue: IOS, R 017, Landshuter Straße 4, 93047 Regensburg
Abstract:
The languages of the Balkans have fascinated linguists for almost two centuries. Researchers have documented striking structural parallels that make the Balkans a textbook example of a sprachbund, since Jernej Kopitar’s (1829) comparative work on Albanian, Balkan Romance, and Balkan Slavic.
In this talk, I bring together quantitative data (from linguistic typology and genetics) and qualitative evidence (from dialectology) to explore how areality, and thus, language contact, has shaped these systems. I’ll show not only where Balkan languages have converged structurally, but also why the absence of certain linguistic features can be just as revealing as their presence. This perspective sheds light on how linguistic systems influence each other over time and how we can detect those connections in the present.
Snacken with Balkans Snacks

SNAKLAB Regensburg Southeastern Europe Research Seminars
2025-12-10 16:00 - 18:00 | IOS, Landshuter Str. 4, R 017
Prof. Dr Josip Glaurdić (Université du Luxembourg) will give a talk on…
“Contagions – Nationalism, Populism, and the Pandemic at Europe’s Edge“
Time: 4-6 pm
Venue: IOS, R 017, Landshuter Straße 4, 93047 Regensburg
Abstract: What happens when a public health crisis collides with fragile democracies and deeply polarized societies? Why did some Southeast European states initially outperform expectations in managing COVID-19, only to later suffer some of the world’s highest mortalityrates? And what can this region – often dismissed as peripheral – reveal about the resilience and fragility of democracies everywhere?
This talk presents Contagions: Nationalism, Populism, and the Pandemic at Europe’s Edge, a forthcoming book that explores how ideology shaped the trajectory and memory of the pandemic in Southeast Europe. Based on original surveys, cross-national comparisons,and a wealth of empirical evidence, the book argues that the pandemic was not only a health emergency but also an ideological stress test – one that exposed the ways nationalism and populism structure public trust, compliance, and collective memory.
Join us for a discussion of the book’s core questions: How did nationalism and populism interact with crisis governance? What does Southeast Europe teach us about the vulnerabilities of liberal democracy under strain? And how might the pandemic’s legacies continueto shape political life long after the virus has receded?
Snacken with Balkans Snacks

Journalist Talks: Investigativer Dokumentarjournalismus auf dem Westbalkan
2026-01-20 18:00 - 19:30 | VHS, Thon-Dittmer-Palais, Haidplatz 8, R 219
Investigativer Dokumentarjournalismus ist auf dem Westbalkan entscheidend für die Aufdeckung von Machtmissbrauch, Korruption, sozialer Ungleichheit und den langfristigen Folgen von Krieg und politischer Instabilität. In diesem Journalist Talk spricht die preisgekrönte Journalistin und Dokumentarfilmerin Vjosa Cerkini über ihre langjährige Arbeit in der Region und die Herausforderungen, unter politischem Druck, eingeschränkter Pressefreiheit und gesellschaftlichen Spannungen zu recherchieren.
Anhand konkreter Beispiele aus ihren Dokumentarfilmen und Reportagen für internationale Medien zeigt sie die Unterschiede zwischen journalistischer Arbeit auf dem Westbalkan und in Zentraleuropa – etwa im Umgang von Polizei, Justiz und Behörden mit Korruption, Nepotismus und familiären Netzwerken.
Der Talk beleuchtet journalistische Methoden, ethische Fragestellungen und Sicherheitsrisiken vor Ort, betont die Verantwortung, marginalisierten Stimmen Gehör zu verschaffen.
Kurzbiographie
Vjosa Cerkini ist eine preisgekrönte internationale investigative Journalistin, Reporterin und Dokumentarfilmerin aus Pristina, Kosovo. Sie arbeitet seit über zehn Jahren für internationale Medien in Deutschland, Europa, den USA. Ihre journalistische Arbeit konzentriert sich auf Kriminalität, Politik, Menschenrechte, Korruption, politische Machtstrukturen und die Stimmen von Frauen in Konflikt- und Transformationsgesellschaften. Cerkini ist europäische Repräsentantin von Women’s Voices Now in Los Angeles und leitet internationale Medien- und Dokumentarfilm-Workshops für junge Frauen. Ihre Filme und Recherchen wurden international gezeigt und ausgezeichnet.

Journalist Talks Series is a part of the seeFField project of the University Regensburg in cooperation with the Volkshochschule Regensburg.

SNAKLAB Regensburg Southeastern Europe Research Seminars
2026-01-28 17:00 - 19:00 | IOS, Landshuter Str. 4, R 017
Vassilis Petsinis (Institute of Global Studies, Corvinus University of Budapest, Budapest, Hungary) will give a talk on…
“Echoes of the War in Ukraine: Political Ramifications in the Baltics and the Balkans“
Time: 5-7 pm
Venue: IOS, R 017, Landshuter Straße 4, 93047 Regensburg
Abstract:
In a cross-regional approach, Vassilis Petsinis generates new insights about how developments of groundbreaking significance in regional and global politics (here, Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine since 24 February 2022) can exert powerful ramifications on the domestic politics of other states and societies. Inside the geopolitical context of Central and Eastern Europe, this monograph examines this ‘external impact’ on selected empirical cases from Northeastern (Estonia and Latvia in the Baltic States) and Southeastern Europe (Croatia and Serbia) through the spectrum of idiosyncratic and fluctuating intersections among ethno-nationalist, nativist, Eurosceptic, and ‘other’ trends (e.g. Occidentalism inside the political and sociocultural context of Serbia) at the level of domestic politics.
This is a highly relevant contribution inside an increasingly unpredictable international system where the responses of major actors (Russia, China, and the US) to armed conflicts, or other global crises, can vary from peculiar alignments all the way to alarming friction.
Snacken with Balkans Snacks

SNAKLAB Regensburg Southeastern Europe Research Seminars
2026-03-17 14:00 - 16:00 | IOS, Landshuter Str. 4, R 109, Landshuter Str. 4, Regensburg, Germany, 93047
Dr. Tanja Petrović (ZRC SAZU, IOS visiting fellow) will give a talk on…
Mining, Violence, and Moral Economy of Care and Debt: Mining Accidents in Former Yugoslavia in the Long 20th Century
Time: 2-4 pm
Venue: IOS, R 109, Landshuter Straße 4, 93047 Regensburg
Abstract:
The lecture reconsiders the relationship between mining and violence and discusses violence as historically constitutive of mining as a profession, and generative of mining communities’ social life. Violence is inscribed in the very nature of mining labor, and the history of mining is defined by accidents, disasters, and exposure of bodies and environments to health risks and deterioration.
Based on the analysis of archival and media texts on mining accidents and disasters in Slovenia and other parts of former Yugoslavia during the long 20th century, the lecture argues that the violence that encompasses mining should be understood as part of the social contract between miners and mining communities, on the one hand, and broader society and the state, on the other, and discusses ambiguous moral economy that governs their relationship.
Snacken with Balkans Snacks

SNAKLAB Regensburg Southeastern Europe Research Seminars
2026-04-16 16:00 - 18:00 | IOS, Landshuter Str. 4, R 017
Dr Dragana Prvulović (University of Ottawa, seeFField visiting fellow) will give a talk on…
“The Women of Krajina: Gender, Political Agency, and Everyday Survival in Wartime Croatia”
Time: 4-6 pm
Venue: IOS, R 017, Landshuter Straße 4, 93047 Regensburg
Abstract:
This lecture presents an ongoing postdoctoral research project on women’s everyday lives in the Republic of Serbian Krajina, a wartime statelet that existed during the 1991–1995 conflict in Croatia and remains marginal in both scholarship and public discourse. The lecture outlines the central questions guiding the project: how was everyday life organized under conditions of violence, economic hardship, and uncertainty, and in what ways did women—across Serb, Croat, and other minority communities—exercise political agency through practices of care, survival, and social negotiation?
The project seeks to move beyond dominant military and nationalist narratives by centering on multiethnic interactions and social relations between women in a highly militarized and ethnically stratified environment. The lecture situates the project within feminist scholarship on war and peace and conflict studies, and considers how it may broaden understandings of everyday life and gendered political agency in secessionist and wartime settings.
Snacken with Balkans Snacks

SNAKLAB Regensburg Southeastern Europe Research Seminars
2026-05-21 16:00 - 18:00 | IOS, Landshuter Str. 4, R 017
Dr Danica Trifunjagić (Institute of History, TU Darmstadt) will give a talk on…
“Beograd je (opet) svet: Protests in 1996/1997 and 2024/2026 between Students’ Claims and Media Frames”
Time: 4-6 pm
Venue: IOS, R 017, Landshuter Straße 4, 93047 Regensburg
Abstract:
This talk looks at how Serbian media covered student protests in two different moments—1996/1997 and 2024/2026—and how that coverage shaped public perception and political discourse. In 1996/1997, student protests were an expression of discontent against the authoritarian regime of Slobodan Milošević, following the annulment of local elections results. Fast-forward to 2024/2026: student protests have emerged in response to the collapse of the canopy at the newly renovated train station in Novi Sad. The media’s portrayal of the protests in both periods is complex, with state-controlled outlets often framing student movements as subversive, while independent newspapers presented them as a legitimate democratic force. The analysis provides insights into how media narratives shape the public’s understanding of student activism, revealing the continuities and shifts in how student protests are portrayed across different periods.
Snacken with Balkans Snacks

SNAKLAB Regensburg Southeastern Europe Research Seminars
2026-06-25 16:00 - 18:00 | IOS, Landshuter Str. 4, R 017
Dr. Karin Roginer Hofmeister (Charles University, Prague) will give a talk on…
“Towards Postsecular Memory Studies: The Serbian Orthodox Church and Hybrid Spaces of Remembrance“
Time: 4-6 pm
Venue: IOS, R 017, Landshuter Straße 4, 93047 Regensburg
Abstract:
This talk examines how the Serbian Orthodox Church has navigated the contested terrain of collective memory in Serbian communities, where political transition, social fragmentation, and the reconfiguration of national identity have defined the decades since the collapse of Yugoslavia. Drawing on the monograph Remembering Suffering and Resistance: Memory Politics and the Serbian Orthodox Churchalongside new findings from Negotiating ‘Serbhood’: Layers of Memories Among the Serbs in the Post-Yugoslav and Post-War Space, it explores the Church’s central role in shaping narratives of Serbian heroic victimhood.
The analysis highlights how the Church has employed both liturgical and non-liturgical practices of remembrance, blending sacred and secular elements to produce a hybrid commemorative landscape. In doing so, it has strategically mobilized its symbolic, ritual, and institutional resources to reassert authority and public relevance during times of instability.
The talk argues that in contexts of political upheaval and moral uncertainty, the quest for collective memory becomes especially urgent, and religious institutions such as the Serbian Orthodox Church emerge as influential actors in both memory-making and identity formation within the evolving post-socialist, post-conflict, and post-secular public sphere.
Snacken with Balkans Snacks

SNAKLAB Regensburg Southeastern Europe Research Seminars
2026-07-15 16:00 - 18:00 | IOS, Landshuter Str. 4, R 017
Assoc. Prof. Nataša Simeunović Bajić (University of Niš, seeFField visiting fellow) will give a talk on…
“Regimes of Representation: Knowing Roma, Constructing Roma“
Time: 4-6 pm
Venue: IOS, R 017, Landshuter Straße 4, 93047 Regensburg
Abstract:
TBC
Snacken with Balkans Snacks
