Themes

The liberation of Macedonia during the Balkan Wars put an end to the long-lived Ottoman rule – and presence – while its incorporation into the Greek sovereignty marked the beginning of its official Greek “life”. Having been Greece’s fervent desire, the newly incorporated Macedonia provided the severed inland with the indisputable capital Thessaloniki. However, its incorporation into the Greek state did not mean the termination of the Balkan antagonisms; from that point onwards the Macedonian region became the center of new cyclones and the bone of contention in terms of regional conflicts and their pan-European dimension. Furthermore, the process of incorporation of the New Countries was no mean feat; whatever made the regions near the northern borders “special” - and therefore, under the constant protection of the center - also made them vulnerable because of the distance from the center and the inability of the latter to understand the features of their “special” character. In a bidirectional process, the new territories strived to integrate seamlessly and organically with the state at a time when the state itself needed to protect them on the one hand from alien claims, especially in times of local-peripheral and global warfare, and on the other from the deficiencies in its own assimilation policies. During the 1940s, Macedonia found itself in the center of violent conflicts, while in the first postwar years it got into a reconstruction phase ultimately forming its own modern, anthropocentric, environmental and developmental profile.

The present call for papers focuses on Western Macedonia, with a view to honoring the one-hundred-year anniversary of the liberation of Macedonia and its incorporation into the Greek state through a large conference. The aim of the conference is to attract proposals of a multidisciplinary approach to political, social, economic, historical and cultural affairs of Macedonia from its liberation in 1912 to date.  Issues of national life, the integration of the region in the Balkan area and the wider European environment constitute the reference framework of the conference. The conference themes revolve around, but are not restricted to, the following temporal and thematic axes:

Temporal axis

• Balkan Wars
• World War I and the Macedonian-Salonica Front
• Aspects of the history of Mid-War Period
• World War II: The decade of the 40s
• The period after the Greek Civil War (1950-1967)
• Dictatorship (1967-1974)
• The period after the restoration of democracy

Thematic axis

• Incorporation into the structures of the Greek state: policies and problems
• The refugee problem and population redistributions (influx, outflow, immigration)
• Military and diplomatic developments
• Electoral and political issues
• Ethnic issues, foreign propaganda and relations with the neighboring countries
• History and memory
• Economy and society
• Culture-arts, literature
• Education and educational policies

Those interested are invited to submit the title of their presentation, an abstract (300-400 words) and a short cv (one paragraph), according to the participation form until 15 May, 2012 31 May, 2012 (extended) at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .

Papers may be in Greek or English.

Call for Papers in format pdf or doc.