Workshop: Translating Transformations: Hermeneutics of Change in the Balkan Cultures and Beyond, The University Of Manchester, 16 March 2012‏

The University of Manchester
SCHOOL OF LANGUAGES, LINGUSTICS AND CULTURES
Institute for Transnational Studies in association with Centre for
Russian and Eurasian Studies

presents the workshop:

Translating Transformations:
Hermeneutics of Change in the Balkan Cultures and Beyond

March 16, Friday 2012, 9.30-17.30 Zochonis Lecture theatre D, The
University of Manchester

The workshop examines the hermeneutics of changes in the cultural and
political landscape of the Balkans – a region in Europe that has
undergone most drastic geo-political and socio- cultural changes
during the last two centuries. Scholars from University College
London, Trinity College Dublin, University of Essex, University of
Nottingham and the University of Manchester will discuss the ways in
which these changes were translated into artistic reflections,
intellectual discourses and cultural practices. How were the Western
European models translated into the Balkan cultural discourses? How
did policies and politics transform the religious and ethnic fabrics
of Balkan societies? Do we need to redefine ethical boundaries and
moral codes to understand the changes in the Balkan cultures?

The award-winning neo-noir film Zift (dir. Yavor Gărdev, 2008) will be
viewed and discussed as a part of the workshop.

All are welcome!

Programme:
March 16, Friday 2012, Zochonis Lecture theatre D, The University of Manchester

9:30–9:40 Welcome
9.40:00-10:40 Panel I. Hermeneutics of religious and ethnic
interactions in the Balkans
Key Address: Dr Ina Merdjanova (Trinity College, Dublin) Islam and
Politics in the Balkans: Understanding Two Decades of Change

Ksenija Kolerovic (The University of Manchester) Serbs towards Nation,
Vlachs towards 'Other': Shifts in Representations of Vlachs in Serbian
Discourses (1800-1914)

10:40-10.45 Break
10:45-11:45 Panel II. Hermeneutics of cultural production in the Balkans
Dr Sanja Bahun (University of Essex) Balkan, Bidirectionality,
Transformation: Modernist Objects (and How We Translate Them)

Alex Boican (University College London) The Dictionary and the Lost
Soul: Articulating Dislocation in the Work of Mircea Horia Simionescu

11:45-11.50 Break
11:50-12:50 Panel III. Translating social and cultural transformations
Key Address: Dr Zoran Milutinovic (University College London),
Spontaneous Common Culture and Yugoslav Cultural Policy after 1955

Piotr Goldstein (REES, University of Manchester) Neither Yugoslavia
nor Yugosphere: ‘The region’ and beyond for NGOs of Mostar and Novi
Sad

12:50-13.30 Lunch break
13.30-14.30 Hermeneutics of destruction and trauma
Dr Vladimir Zoric (University of Nottingham), City and Death: From the
Yugoslav Necropolis to the Post-Yugoslav Urbicide

Dejan Levi (The University of Manchester) TBA

Dr Adelina Angusheva (The University of Manchester), The Multiple Ends
of the Balkan Histories (with an introduction to the film viewing)
14:40-17.05 Film viewing and discussion (Zift, dir. Yavor Gărdev, 2008)

17.05-17.25 Final discussion. Concluding remarks by Prof. Stephen
Hutchings (The University of Manchester)