(Not) to sit in an ivory tower with a nice balcony: Highlights from the 2nd Southeast European Studies Forum (Prishtina, 19-22 March 2025)

The Future of Area Studies: Posted, Streamed, Shared, and Lived

The latest European Parliament Youth Survey found that 42% of young people (aged 16–30) get their news about politics and social issues from social media, with Instagram and TikTok leading the way. Only 11% rely on teachers or university lecturers for information in this area.

Social media and digital platforms present valuable opportunities for increasing academic visibility, especially among younger audiences. However, scholars must navigate a fundamental tension: the fast-paced, attention-driven nature of digital media often clashes with the slow, careful process of producing academic knowledge, as noted by Olsi Lelaj, director of the Institute of Anthropology at the Academy of Sciences of Albania. At the same time, our traditional audience—students—is shrinking and becoming less engaged with reading. Reaching people and making academic work visible is becoming harder.

Meanwhile, academia faces a growing crisis of trust, as public confidence declines, and conspiracy theorists and populists gain influence. The current debate—whether to publish insights in academic books or share them via short-form digital content like TikTok—highlights the evolving nature of how knowledge is produced and consumed. In this context, universities must move beyond targeting academic elites and focus on engaging broader communities. While public engagement has become a requirement in many research funding programs, it is often inconsistently implemented and lacks sufficient institutional support. Limited funding, staffing, and professional resources—along with a lack of recognition for outreach activities—continue to hinder effective public engagement.

Despite these tensions, as Edlira Palloshi-Disha  from South East European University in Tetovo argued, digital engagement is essential in today’s post-truth era. Scholars must learn to compete in these digital spaces and rethink how they communicate, without compromising academic integrity. This shift can enable Area Studies—and academia more broadly—to fulfil their social responsibility and empower students and the wider public. Public engagement in digital spaces can take many effective forms—such as student-driven content, podcasts, short videos, and creative projects like Gendering Wikipedia in Kosovo  that combine accessibility with educational value.

Whose Language Counts? Multilingualism, AI, and the Future of Language Learning

Multilingualism has always been a central goal of our project. Language is not just a skill—it is key to understanding cultures, regions, and societies, which is why it sits at the heart of Area Studies. This year, the Forum focused on how language learning—especially for heritage speakers—is evolving alongside digital technologies and shifting language ideologies.

One clear takeaway was the urgent need to rethink heritage language education. As Ledio Hala, seeFField’s Albanian language tutor, pointed out, many heritage speakers feel their dialects are “wrong” or “without grammar”—a perception shaped by narrow ideas of language that prioritize the standard. At the University of Regensburg, this is being actively challenged by including both standard and dialectal Albanian in the classroom. The launch of a Heritage Language Forum and new teaching materials marks a move toward more inclusive, respectful language teaching.

Another key theme was the broader crisis around language and literacy in education. As Stefanie Jug from the University of Osijek noted, academic language learning is increasingly reduced to technical skills. But literacy today is about much more—identity, communication, and navigating a digital world. A shift toward everyday inclusive language practices is long overdue.

And of course, no conversation about education now can ignore AI. Tools like ChatGPT are already changing how teachers and students interact with language. While some fear these tools might make us passive, others see real potential, especially for under-resourced languages like Albanian. This ties directly into wider efforts to rethink language education in a digital age. From localised AI models to integrating prompt skills into the classroom, embracing these tools while keeping learning grounded in human interaction and real-world research is challenging.

Language learning is at a real crossroads. It is not just about new apps or teaching methods but about shifting how we think about language itself—whose voices matter, how we define literacy, and how we bring tech into the classroom. By embracing diversity and using technology thoughtfully, we can build classrooms that reflect the world students live in and prepare them to shape it.

SEE-ing the Future: No tenure, no problem? Rethinking Academic Careers

Academic careers are not what they used to be—and that is both a challenge and a chance to rethink what “success” actually means. This question was at the heart of the third thematic block of the seeFField Forum, where participants dug into the growing uncertainty that shapes academic life in Southeast Europe and Germany.

As project leader Ger Duijzings put it bluntly but honestly: “Forget academic careers in Germany—think of a plan B.” He did not mean to discourage PhD students, but to offer a reality check. Stable, long-term academic positions are getting rarer, and early-career scholars are often stuck navigating temporary contracts, fierce competition, and the constant expectation to be mobile, flexible, and self-funded.

Mobility is still seen as a must for building networks and advancing careers—but it comes with serious hurdles, especially for students from SEE trying to pursue a PhD in Germany. Visa issues, patchy institutional support, and funding gaps can turn opportunity into stress.

That’s why mentoring, peer collaboration, and personal motivation matter more than ever. “Find your own box,” advised Vjeran Pavlaković from the University of Rijeka—a call to define career paths by passion, not just by outdated academic models.

Participants did not shy away from addressing inequality in academia. The “glass ceiling” is not just about gender—it is about internationalisation, too. Discrimination remains a reality for many working outside their countries of origin, regardless of their qualifications.

Still, the takeaway was not all grim. Whether through interdisciplinary projects, new funding approaches, or finding fulfilling work beyond the university system, the future of academic careers may look different, but that does not mean it has to be bleak.

The Forum made one thing clear: Southeast European Studies can no longer afford to sit in an ivory tower—even if it comes with a nice balcony.