January Meeting 2025
New Research on Eastern Europe – Caucasus – Central Asia

On January 10, 2025, Aarhus University will host the 3rd annual full-day cross-university conference for researchers and practitioners in Denmark/Sweden with regional area expertise within the fields of Eastern Europe, the Caucasus, and Central Asia.

The annual meeting aims at gathering researchers and practitioners for exchange across a range of disciplines, spanning from anthropology, literary and cultural studies, international relations, sociology and political sciences, war and security studies to journalism and media communication, with the purpose of strengthening network and national capacity building in the study of our regions.

The event is funded by the School of Culture & Society at Aarhus University.

Program

• 10.30-11.00:   Registration & Welcome
• 11:00-12:30:   Research panel I: Media, ideologies and languages
  • Ilya Utekhin (AIAS fellow, AU): Immortal Regiment on Instagram
  • Tine Roesen (ToRS, KU): The World Seen from Russia: A Book Project
  • Nadiia Pavlyk (IKS, AU) & Nanna Vestergaard Ahrensberg (Political Science, AU): Language choices as political participation among Ukrainian refugee mothers in Denmark
  • Chair/Discussant: Birgitte Beck Pristed
• 12:30-13:30:   Lunch
• 13:30-15:00:   Research panel II: Regional perspectives from anthropology and religious studies
  • Vera Svirskaja (ToRS, KU): On the frictions of de-colonization in war-affected Ukraine
  • Maria Louw (IKS, AU): Spectral Ethics. Possibility, care and worldbuilding in 21st century Kyrgyzstan
  • Oleg Yarosh (IKS, AU): Public Islam in Ukraine in the context of war
  • Chair/Discussant: Jeremy Morris
• 15.00-15:30:   Coffee
• 15:30-17:00:   Research panel III: Geopolitics and Militarization
  • Karen Philippa Larsen (DIIS): Understanding the Wagner Group through actorness and state subordination
  • Jeremy Morris (IKS, AU): Russia’s fictive kinship regimes: the nexus between paternalist corporatism and neoliberal warmaking?
  • Rasmus Greffrath Damgaard Hardt (FAK): Caught between a Rock and a Hard Place: The Geopolitical Reality of the South Caucasus
  • Chair/Discussant: Jakob Tolstrup
• 17:00-17:30:   Final discussion – Planning of next year’s meeting
• 18:00- :             Dinner

Participation

The conference is free and open to all interested. Seats are limited. If you are interested in participating, please contact Birgitte Pristed: birgitte.pristed@cas.au.dk

Contact

Birgitte Beck Pristed, CAS birgitte.pristed@cas.au.dk / Jakob Tolstrup, BSS tolstrup@ps.au.dk