Seeffield

03/09/2026

Liebe Community, wir sind wieder zurück aus unserer Sommerpause und präsentieren euch unser Thema des Monats September: Lehre 📚🖌️
Es warten spannende Beiträge, Blogposts und Podcasts auf euch!

27/08/2026

IOS recommends: How do historical myths become accepted as common “knowledge”? In our journal Comparative Southeast European Studies, Alex Cruikshanks deconstructs such a piece of “knowledge” surrounding the outbreak of the Bosnian War of 1992–1995.

Information pervading both online and offline publications stated that an alleged meeting took place between US Ambassador Warren Zimmermann and Bosnian President Alija Izetbegović on 28 March 1992 in Sarajevo. However, Cruikshanks, an independent researcher from Wakefield, UK, shows that this is an error. The meeting never took place.

This is significant when it comes to knowledge about the roles played by leading politicians in the outbreak of the war.

This particular myth of a meeting plays into the hands of the aggressors and perpetrators of genocide, because it maintains that Zimmermann persuaded Izetbegović to reject the Carrington–Cutileiro peace plan, thereby setting the stage for conflict. It thus reverses cause and effect, thereby significantly blurring the answer to the question of who was the aggressor in the Bosnian War.

Cruikshanks’ research reveals that there is no evidence that the meeting between Zimmermann and Izetbegović ever even took place, and substantial evidence that it did not. The decision to reject this particular peace plan was taken earlier.

Today, this “myth of a meeting” is even being repurposed to draw misleading analogies to the war in Ukraine to manipulate public opinion once again.

🔗 Read the full article for free in the latest issue of our Open Access Journal Comparative Southeast European Studies: https://www.degruyterbrill.com/de/document/doi/10.1515/soeu-2025-0084/html

18/08/2026

500 Follower – und ein herzliches Dankeschön! 🎉

Wir feiern nicht einfach nur eine Zahl. Wir feiern, dass ihr uns dabei begleitet, Südosteuropa-Studien sichtbar zu machen – jenseits von Klischees und Schlagzeilen.

Hinter diesem Studiengang und unseren Projekten stehen echte Menschen: Forscher:innen, die brennen für ihre Themen, Studierende, die Fragen stellen, die die Region neu denken, und ein Team, das mit Herzblut Wissenschaft vermittelt – manchmal ernst, manchmal mit einem Augenzwinkern, immer mit Neugier.

Und jetzt seid ihr dran: Was gefällt euch besonders gut an unserem Content? Was fehlt euch noch – mehr Einblicke hinter die Kulissen, mehr Personen, mehr Themen aus der Forschung? Schreibt es uns in die Kommentare – wir lesen (und planen) mit! ✍️

Danke, dass ihr zuhört, mitdenkt und mitfeiert. Auf die nächsten 500! 🥂

06/08/2026

Work with historical maps and images in one of Germany's most beautiful cities: The IOS invites historians, geographers, cartographers, art historians and scholars of cognate disciplines focusing on Eastern or Southeastern Europe to apply. Fellows spend up to four weeks at the institute and contribute to the development of GeoPortOst, the IOS gateway for historical maps that were printed in books and are now published digitally in GIS format for the first time, and of ImagOst, the IOS gateway for visual sources on Eastern and Southeastern Europe.

What we offer:
- Close exchange with our research departments and with specialized institutions at the Universität Regensburg.

- Full access to our library holding over 360,000 media items on Eastern and Southeastern Europe, plus a variety of electronic research services and repositories.

- A fully equipped workplace close to the old town of Regensburg, a vibrant UNESCO World Heritage site known for its exceptional quality of life.

The fellowship is named after Augustin Hirschvogel (1503–1553), a cartographer whose maps were among the earliest depictions of Southeastern and Eastern Europe and who shaped how these regions were visually represented in the early modern period.

📅 Deadline for applications: September 30, 2026

➡ Details: https://leibniz-ios.de/en/knowledge-transfer/news/newsdetail/augustin-hirschvogel-fellowship-at-the-ios-2027

06/08/2026

📣 Looking for a community of fellow researchers dedicated to investigating the dynamics of conflict and cooperation in Eastern Europe, Southeast Europe, Central Asia, or the Caucasus? The KonKoop Research Network has just launched a Call for Expressions of Interest for its new Early Careers Lab.

Coordinated by the Leibniz Institute for East and Southeast European Studies, this Lab initiative is an academic incubator that provides various – free – opportunities for your professional development:

🔹 Receive vital research support and professional skills training.

🔹 Have access to advice and support from the wider KonKoop network and be able to develop various skill sets from the range of tools within it.

🔹 Engage in mutual knowledge transfer and science communication, supporting each other’s scholarship.

This call is especially relevant for researchers based at German institutions or those with a biographical background in the target regions who study themes such as peace and conflict, borders, war and trauma, or nationalism.

📅 Deadline for applications: 10 September 2026.
🔗 Download the call and find all details: https://leibniz-ios.de/en/knowledge-transfer/news/newsdetail/konkoop-early-career-lab

Funded by – the Federal Ministry of Research, Technology and Space, KonKoop (Cooperation and Conflict in Eastern Europe) is a joint project by ZOiS - Zentrum für Osteuropa- und internationale Studien, Leibniz Institute for Regional Geography (IfL), Universität Jena, Hochschule für nachhaltige Entwicklung Eberswalde, Leibniz-Zentrum für Zeithistorische Forschung Potsdam / ZZF and the IOS.

31/07/2026

📢 Internal Call for Applications: Outgoing Fellowships 2026/2027
For members of the University of Regensburg and IOS only

Are you a doctoral or postdoctoral researcher, habilitated colleague, or professor at the University of Regensburg or IOS? Here's your chance to take your research abroad!

Our Outgoing Visiting Fellowships let you spend 1 to 8 weeks with one of twenty international partner institutions across Albania, Austria, Bulgaria, Canada, China, Croatia, Czechia, France, Germany, Italy, Kosovo, North Macedonia, Romania, Serbia, Turkey, and the United Kingdom. We'll cover travel and accommodation costs for two outgoing scholars from Regensburg in the 2026/2027 academic year.

📅 Applications close 30 September 2026.

The Outgoing Visiting Fellowships are open to doctoral and postdoctoral researchers, colleagues with a habilitation, and professors working at University Regensburg or IOS.

30/07/2026

Call for Applications – International Visiting Research Fellowship Programme in Regensburg for 2026/2027

The call is open especially to early-career scholars holding their PhD, from South-Eastern Europe, historians, anthropologists, linguists, and scholars of cognate disciplines. Fellows are expected to conduct research that resonates with the project’s intellectual profile, particularly developing comparative and trans-regional research perspectives.

The deadline for the application is 30 September 2026.

The call is open, especially to early-career scholars (with PhD) from South-Eastern Europe, historians, anthropologists, linguists, and scholars of cognate disciplines. Fellows are expected to conduct research that resonates with the project’s intellectual profile, particularly developing comparat...

30/07/2026

Who actually speaks when we speak about the Roma? Who chooses the word, the moment it appears in the media, who decides whether a story is told or passed over in silence?

Dr. Nataša Simeunović Bajić (University of Niš) offers an overview on the practice of Roma naming in our latest blogpost!

Check it out on our website 🔗

27/07/2026

📢 Call for Applications: Pre-Doctoral Fellowship in Regensburg 2027

We're delighted to announce our 2027 pre-doctoral fellowship, starting 1 May 2027, with a maximum duration of 6 months.
📌 This fellowship supports the transition from Master's to PhD, helping candidates develop a doctoral project ahead of formal enrolment. It is not intended for those already enrolled in a PhD programme.

🔍 Key disciplines: History, Social Anthropology, Linguistics, and cognate disciplines.
🗓️ Deadline: 30 September 2026

Full Call for Applications in the link below. 👇

We are pleased to announce a call for applications for our 2027 pre-doctoral fellowship to start on 1 May 2027, with maximum duration of 6 months.

23/07/2026

‼️New Blog Post - On the Representation of Romani People in Film ‼️

Film and series tell stories like no other art form can. According to Dr. Andra Drăghiciu (Critical Film & Image Hub) reductive and stereotypical representations of Romani people are a cornerstone of "Western" cinema, fostering a "ban on emphaty" (Mladenova) toward real Romani people.

🔗Read the full text at the link in our bio 🙌🏻

Want to know why and how this manifests? Do you want to discover breaches in the system?

🔗 Read the full text at the link in our bio 🙌🏻