KASTORIA · 14-15.12.2024
SCIENTIFIC CONFERENCE

Laboratory of Social and Migration Studies
Department of Communication and Digital Media

University of Western Macedonia

“Civil Wars: Narratives, Memories, Identities”

The Laboratory of Social and Migration Studies of the University of Western Macedonia invites paper proposals for a conference to be held in Kastoria, Greece on 14-15 December 2024 entitled:

“Civil Wars: Narratives, Memories, Identities”

This Conference calls for researches from a variety of disciplines (History, Political Science, Social Anthropology, Sociology, Social Psychology) that give ‘voice’ to all those who are not represented in the archival material (which usually focus on the more privileged voices and higher-ranking members, socially and politically, in local societies). Thus, we wish to enable a sense of empowered history-making by those who are not depicted in official historical sources.

Through the study and analysis of memory and the layers of such constructions of remembering and forgetting, invaluable information as regards lived experiences in Civil Wars are unveiled for those generations still alive today, but also subsequent generations, through inter/intragenerational transmission and storytelling.

The Conference invites research on Civil Wars in the 20^th century worldwide and aims to provide a comparative lens in order to ascertain both similarities and differences across chronological, spatial and temporal contexts and within regional diversities. Here, the focus is not just on the nation-state as territorial signifier, but rather on the historical parameters of such cultural geographies.

The conference invites papers investigating:

• political identities and action
• ethnic and national identities
• everyday life
• childhood
• population movements
• gender and generational relations
• memories and trauma in relation to civil wars
• reconciliation and development
• the (re)construction of civil war through (contemporary) public discourse
• conspiracy theories/disinformation about civil wars
• methodological and theoretical issues

The conference will be hybrid with live and online presentations through zoom and will be live streamed via YouTube.

Abstract submission

Academics, researchers, and professionals are invited to submit a 250-300 word abstract of their papers/presentations, in English, by Sunday 15 September 2024, at the following email: civilwarsconference2024@gmail.com.

Each abstract should include the title of the paper/presentation, the purpose and objectives, the methodology and the main findings/conclusions of the paper (where possible).

Each abstract should also include a brief bio (up to 100 words) with institutional affiliation and email address.

Evaluation of abstracts

Each abstract submitted will be subjected to the anonymous judgement of Scientific Committee reviewers on the basis of scientific ethics, quality and originality.

The outcome of the evaluation may be acceptance of the paper for presentation at the conference, conditional acceptance with amendments, or non-acceptance.

All accepted papers will be presented during the conference. Each presentation will be up to 15 minutes in length and there will be 5 minutes for discussion at the end of each presentation.

Important dates

Submission of abstracts: September 15, 2024

Notification of acceptance of abstracts: October 31, 2024

Registration deadline: November 30, 2024 (early bird registration by November 15)

Conference days: December 14-15, 2024
Submission of papers for the Conference proceedings in English only (optional): 30 April 2025

Conference participation fees: 

• Graduate, postgraduate and PhD students: No fees
• Onsite participants: 150 Euros (early bird registration 120 Euros)
• Online participants: 100 Euros (early bird registration 80 Euros)

Venue: University of Western Macedonia, Fourka Area, Kastoria, Greece

In the end of the conference, a certificate of attendance and/or a certificate of presentation will be sent electronically (via e-mail) to those who wish to receive it.

A prerequisite for the preparation and sending of the certificate of participation is the completion of the registration form at a link that will be disseminated during the days of the conference.

Conference Proceedings

Each full paper submitted by April 30, 2025, will be considered to be included in the Conference Proceedings and will be published after evaluation. Selected papers will be included in a collective volume published in U.K.

Each paper must be first presented at the Conference in order to be eligible for publication in the Conference Proceedings and the collective volume.

Any paper submitted for publication in the Conference Proceedings needs to be original and not published or submitted simultaneously in the proceedings of other conferences or in a journal, fulfilling the conditions of “no plagiarism”.

Detailed submission instructions will be provided after the conference.

Scientific Committee

• Domna Michail, Professor, Dept. of Communication and Digital Media, UoWM
• Stamatis Poulakidakos, Assistant Professor, Dept. of Communication and Digital Media, UoWM
• Anastasia Christou, Professor, School of Law, Middlesex University, U.K.
• Raymondos Alvanos, Postdoctoral researcher, Dept. of Communication and Digital Media, UoWm

Technical Support

• Stefanos Goutzios, Special Technical Laboratory Staff, Department of Communication and Digital Media, UoWM
• Anastasia Giannakopoulou, Assistant Professor, Dept. of Communication and Digital Media, UoWM
• Georgios Semertzidis, Special Technical Laboratory Staff, School of Social Sciences and Humanities, UoWM.