Imagination: New Visions and Connections 

The RUTA Association for Central, South-Eastern, and Eastern European, Baltic, Caucasus, Central and Northern Asia Studies in Global Conversation invites proposals for research paper presentations, panels, roundtable discussions, and other forms of knowledge exchange for its annual conference, to be held in Ukraine, 26–29 June 2025. 

The reclaiming of knowledge opens up a wide range of new possibilities, opportunities and creative visions. For many years, the RUTA region(s) has been theorised and described from the outside, often from positions of power and domination. In consequence, the region(s) have been described in predominantly negative terms: socio-political backwardness, under-development, corruption, illiberalism, authoritarianism, nationalism, xenophobia, deficiency, inferiority, dependency on saviourism. These stereotypical, hierarchical and essentializing tropes and framings have fitted into the dominant ways of looking at the region(s) and societies through external perspectives of othering, civilizational and development discourses as problems to be diagnosed, analysed and advised on. In particular, the perception of the region(s) as lagging behind and needing to catch up with the West is still persistent to this day, together with the notion of the peripheralized space as a source of ‘cheap’ labour and resources for imperial centers. These troubling approaches continue to impact the economic and environmental conditions of the RUTA region(s) and their (migrant) populations, which warrants reassessment.  

The persistence of various forms of imperiality and colonial violence requires powerful countering visions, solutions and collaborations. What happens when we step outside of tendentious and extractivist narratives and intensify the reimagining of the region(s)? Which new directions and visions can be brought forward when we re-envision the region(s), societies and their futures from within the region(s) and through relations of utmost care and appreciation for the peoples and landscapes, inspired by their rich and diverse cultures and crafts, hospitality, social justice movements, creativity and humour, intellectual heritage, art, solidarity and resistance? What kind of possibilities and futures will open up and how can we interconnect them across and beyond the RUTA region(s)? Which traditional and new communities and friendships can we find and strengthen along the way? The need to undertake collective paths calls for the building of new alliances that will foster not only inter-, but also intra-regional collaborations and exchanges. 

Many of our academic, artistic and social justice communities have come together in response to Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine to (re)connect and build broader transnational and global solidarities. Out of these connections, new visions, knowledges and imaginations have been growing. How can we collectively foster these bonds and dialogues to build sustainable and supportive communities? Especially, given the legacies of trauma and hardship faced by many societies in and beyond the RUTA region(s)? The envisioning of better futures also goes hand in hand with accounting for our own past and present, including persistent inequalities across and within the RUTA region(s). What can we learn from our antiracist and decolonial movements that shall also be applied within our own work, socio-political contexts and everyday life? This journey will require finding out how to best navigate socially responsible research while stepping out into the unknown and opening up spaces for unsettling dialogues in previously unfamiliar contexts. In other words, exploring ways to more systematically nurture constructive criticism in case of shortcomings and support each other in unlearning unequal ways of relating to one another on a path towards reflective curiosity, collective growth and multi-directional learning and envisioning.

With the aim of upholding the RUTA Association and its annual conference as a space, which will continue the transformation of the RUTA region(s) from the object of study to an active and visible epistemic agent, this year’s conference is entitled Imagination: New Visions and Connections. The event strives to reimagine the process of knowledge-making, by exploring novel approaches to RUTA region(s), while centering and building on the region(s)’ rich academic, cultural and artistic traditions and liberation movements and seeking global connections and conversations. 

Our conference welcomes proposals from diverse academic, artistic, and community practice backgrounds. We invite researchers from the humanities, social sciences, area studies, and interdisciplinary fields, as well as practitioners in community organizing, media, journalism, environment, national and international law, museums and other memory institutions, archives, the performing and visual arts. Exhibitions, film screenings, talks, plays, and other contributions to the conference are welcome. 

We strongly encourage and prioritise transregional panels that will foster conversations on particular themes among scholars working from/on various parts of the RUTA region(s) as well as comparative approaches that situate the region(s) in global conversations. Those who will submit individual presentations will be clustered into transregional panels formed from various individual submissions. 

We particularly invite engagement with, yet not only, the following themes and questions in relation to the conference theme:

• Decolonizing of the RUTA region(s): which traditions of thought and praxis are relevant and/or can be learned from? Different lineages of and approaches to de/anti-coloniality in the RUTA region(s) and beyond, how they can be interconnected with global debates and movements, and how can we acknowledge, work with and bridge divides and tensions
• Legacies of imperial resources,  extractivism and exploitation that have shaped the RUTA region(s): countering peripheralization, postcolonial conditions, and (neo)colonialism 
• Intersections between academia, arts and activism 
• What is Indigeneity in the context of the RUTA region(s) and why does it matter, including how can we better understand, solidarize with and support Indigenous struggles for liberation? 
• Roma rights and liberation movements in the region(s) and globally
• Critical perspectives on imperial conceptualisations of nationalism, economic development, environmental sustainability, and their imposition on de/anticolonial liberation struggles, including disinformation, social polarization, ethno-nationalism and homo-nationalism, absence of accountability of government officials, while remaining critical of the global rise of the far right and authoritarian politics
• Lineages, traditions, histories and specific aspects of antiracist, antifascist, feminist and LGBTQ+ scholarship and movements in the region(s) and beyond: how to approach the limitations of Western- and Russia-centric and various fellow imperial theories and frameworks in scholarship and debates? How to adapt, transform or refuse various concepts, while centering direct and embodied knowledges? 
• New connections: how can we conduct research in socio-cultural contexts that are not our own? Methodologies of de/anticolonial, non-extractivist and antiracist research, including debates on how to foster difficult discussion and navigate tensions 
• Epistemic reparations, transitional justice, transnational solidarities: fostering socially responsible, non-extractivist and epistemically reparative research methodologies and praxis
• Socio-economic inequalities, security threats and restrictions of topics in most countries, unequal distribution of research funding within European and global research infrastructure, the impact of funding inequities across the RUTA region(s): countering precarity, neoliberalism, discrimination and brain drain and strengthening liveable and sustainable conditions for the production of knowledge
• Interdisciplinary, transnational and global dialogues: challenges and good practice  
• Global climate emergency; environmental politics and action; sustainability; and degrowth: how and what can we learn from each other? What kind of mindset and tools we need to adopt to address predicaments of our unsustainable modernity
• Renewable energy games, nuclear terrorism and strategies of resistance of various authoritarian and capitalist private interests
• Health and wellbeing: mitigating inequalities, healing from trauma and burnout, surviving and thriving, navigating expectations of emotional and other labour of educating those unburdened by de/anticolonial work and resistance, trauma-informed practices and research
• Disinformation and propaganda: how can we counter their impact across the world?
• Artistic imaginations on all of the above and the future 

The conference will take place in Ukraine in the Carpathian Mountains, in a location with on-site air raid shelters. The Carpathians are recognised as a Green All state and local guidelines regarding safety and security will be strictly adhered to throughout the conference. For safety and security reasons, the venue and logistics pertaining to the conference will be disclosed to registered participants close to the conference date. 

Proposals of panels and roundtables must be submitted by Fri, Nov 1, 2024. Confirmations of acceptance will be communicated no later than the end of Dec 2024

Preference will be given to transregional panels that bring region(s) into conversation (ideally, perspectives on an umbrella topic by scholars from multiple RUTA region(s), tracing how particular concerns manifest in similar / different ways across the region)

Submissions that discuss the RUTA region(s) in the global context are highly encouraged. 

Individual Papers

Paper abstract (300 words max.)

Biography (100 words max.)

Individual submissions will be clustered into trans-regionally conceptualised panels, that will involve experts working from/on different parts of the RUTA region(s) and beyond. 

Panels and Roundtables 

Panels (consisting of three papers; or held e.g. as a discussion on a particular concept or text, in which case please propose a suitable format under the panel description in the submission form) and roundtables (with a maximum of five participants) 

Panel and roundtable abstract (300 words max.)

List of participants with presentation titles and paper abstracts (each 300 words max.)

Biography of each participant (100 words max. per participant)

We strongly encourage and prioritise trans-regional panels, involving researchers working from/on various parts of the RUTA region(s) and globally. In regards to the format of the debates, we welcome panels and roundtables discussing particular topics, but also e.g. different ways that particular concepts or theories have been worked with or critiqued in various parts of the RUTA region(s) and globally. We also welcome panels and roundtables that will focus on discussing the significance of a specific core text and its links or importance to the RUTA region(s) and beyond; and those that will explore how to conduct socially responsible, ethically sound, non-extractivist and anti-colonial forms of research and fieldwork in the RUTA region(s) and globally. 

Artistic Engagements

Project description (500 words max.). Please include information about the necessary equipment and setting requirements. Priority will be given to projects that meet the criteria of feasibility.

Biography of each participant (100 words max. per participant)

Conference registration fee: the conference will have sliding scale fees. As the RUTA Association, we are committed to making our conferences affordable for scholars from the RUTA region(s).

There will be a limited number of travel grants that participants in need of financial assistance and without institutional funding can apply for.

Please send your enquiries to: conference@ruta-association.org