ECMI at the Annual Conference of the British Association for Slavonic and East European Studies (BASEES)
The ECMI was present at the Annual Conference of the British Association for Slavonic and East European Studies (BASEES) held last week at Robinson College, University of Cambridge. Researcher Craig Willis organised and chaired a Roundtable on Kin-state Minorities and Media Consumption, featuring four panellists well known to the ECMI: Lara Sorgo, Institute for Ethnic Studies in Ljubljana, Andreea Udrea, Royal Holloway University of London, Federica Prina and David Smith, both University of Glasgow.
The group discussed different dimensions of the media sphere available to various kin-state minorities, including Russians in the Baltics, Romanians in Serbia and also Italians in Slovenia. Topics included the content available as well as known audience data, plus a reflection upon the ownership and economic models, and finally the role of international organisations in monitoring and providing guidance. The roundtable was intended as a prelude to a larger two-day workshop the ECMI will organise this coming September in Riga around similar topics.
In addition, Craig also presented an individual paper on Football Clubs and Kin-States: the Cases of Zrinjski Mostar and DAC 1904 within a panel featuring other kin-state minority topics in central and eastern European contexts. This built upon work on minorities and sport conducted by the Politics and Civil Society Cluster, alongside its Head, Sergiusz Bober – including a blogpost on ‘National and Linguistic Minorities in the Context of Professional Football across Europe: Five Examples from Kin-State Situations’. In addition, Craig has also published an individual piece on ‘Ethnic Identity and Football in Mostar: A Clear Divide Along the Old Front Line’. Both are available open-access through the hyperlinks above.
On top of this, the ECMI’s post-doctoral researcher, Elmira Muratova, was also present in Cambridge. She organized and chaired a panel on Ukraine's Minorities at War: Cultural Identity and Resilience and presented a paper on Collective Memory, Islam and Survival Strategies of Crimean Tatars in Occupied Crimea. The panel speakers showcased their chapters written for a collective volume slated for publication by Routledge this year. In her presentation, Elmira Muratova discussed three coping strategies of the indigenous Crimean Tatar minority group in Crimea, focusing on non-violent resistance, culture, and Islam. More of her research can be found through her google scholar profile.
