58th Annual ASEEES Convention
Convention Theme
Theme: States and Empires
2026 ASEEES President: Oxana Shevel, Tufts University
In our region, political power, collective identities, and cultural expressions have long been profoundly affected by states and empires, while these forces in turn shaped and reshaped the fates of states and empires. With key institutions of the democratic state under assault in our region and beyond, and with Russia’s war against Ukraine ongoing, this is a critical time to take stock of what our scholarly community has learned, what it continues to debate, and what lessons our collective scholarship offers when it comes to thinking about states and empires historically and comparatively.
What political forms and agendas count as empire and imperialism has long been contested in scholarship on our region and more globally. Similarly debated are the legacies of their rule. How have the legacies of the Austro-Hungarian and Ottoman empires shaped the modern-day states of East-Central Europe? Was the USSR an empire, perpetuating many tsarist legacies? What about Russia today? Are there ways in which the supranational reach of the European Union invites comparisons with imperial formations? If imperialism can come in multiple forms, what are the core differences, and how should these differences inform our analytical frameworks for describing and explaining “imperial” and “anti-imperial” projects, as well as our normative designations of them?
Debates about the state are likewise enduring. In our region, people have fought and died for sovereign statehood, and stateless nations have viewed the state as the ultimate guarantor of survival. Yet critical voices describe the state as an instrument of oppression and exclusion, and even as an outdated institution that ought to give way to new political and social arrangements. How should we assess the possibilities, limitations, and prospects of the state in light of these divergent perspectives? What insights do the historical and contemporary experiences from our region offer for understanding both the sources of democratic backsliding in modern states and the forms of resistance to assaults on democracy?
The 2026 ASEEES Convention invites scholars working in all disciplines and historical periods to reflect on how states and empires have been constructed, contested, and defined in our region and beyond. The convention especially welcomes proposals reexamining long-held assumptions, incorporating comparative perspectives, and amplifying voices marginalized in dominant narratives.
Spotlight on Balkan Studies: We encourage proposals on Balkan Studies in all disciplines.