Submit your paper for the jointly organised EUI Widening Europe Programme - Central European Political Science Association (CEPSA) conference.
Conference Scope
We invite scholars, researchers, and practitioners from diverse disciplines to participate in the conference 'Central and Eastern Europe in times of global geopolitical uncertainty', jointly convened by the EUI’s Widening Europe Programme and the Central European Political Science Association (CEPSA).
The conference will bring insight from a variety of disciplinary, methodological and empirical perspectives to promote a synergetic reflection on key issues in the area study of political, social and economic transformations in Central and Eastern Europe and the Western Balkans, including the key intellectual, analytical, and methodological challenges that cut across the different fields of research. We especially encourage early-career researchers from Central and Eastern Europe and the Western Balkans to submit their paper proposals.
Since the Russian full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the global geopolitical landscape has become unstable and unpredictable. The multilateralism that was the driving force of the post-World War Two international system has been substantively weakened by the return of power politics. Historically, the region of Central and Eastern Europe and the Western Balkans has always been substantively affected by the shifts in the global geopolitical landscape. The region’s simultaneous centrality to the idea of Europe, and the peripherality in building it, opens a number of research avenues on Central and Eastern Europe and the Western Balkans in times when the European project faces a myriad of challenges. These questions include: (1) the role of Central and Eastern Europe and the Western Balkans in European security, (2) geo-economic interests that drive the region’s development, (3) the crisis of values amidst the wave of illiberalism, and (4) the ideational and institutional reconfiguration of the East-West divide in Europe.
This EUI-CEPSA conference is dedicated to the exploration of these questions through contributions that reflect methodological breadth and engagement across disciplines. While we welcome case study contributions, we strongly encourage papers that adopt a comparative or global perspective, as well as contributions that propose methodological or conceptual innovations.
Timeline
Deadline for paper proposals: 15 May 2026, 23:59 CEST
Communication of accepted papers: mid-June 2026
Deadline for submission of papers: 15 October 2026, 23:59 CEST
Conference dates: 2-3 November 2026
Fees and funding
There is no conference registration fee. Participants will be expected to fund their own travel and stay in Florence. A small number of bursaries are available to support attendance for early-career scholars from Central and Eastern European countries, and accession states from Eastern Partnership countries and the Western Balkans. Please indicate in your registration form if you would require support to attend the conference and provide a short justification.
This conference is funded by the EUI Widening Europe Programme. The EUI Widening Europe Programme initiative, backed by contributions from the European Union and EUI Contracting States, is designed to strengthen internationalisation, competitiveness, and quality in research in Widening countries, and thus foster a more cohesive European Higher Education and Research area.