IOS Annual Conference 2026: From Contested Pasts to (In)Secure Futures – Politics in East and Southeast Europe
Call for Papers for the 13th Annual Conference of the Leibniz Institute for East and Southeast European Studies (IOS) on "From Contested Pasts to (In)Secure Futures: Politics in East and Southeast Europe".
The submission deadline is December 15, 2025. The conference will take place from April 22 to 24, 2026 in Regensburg, Germany.
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.
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.