WHO WE ARE
About us
Geo-philosophy of the Balkans – GEOBALKANS – is an ERASMUS Strategic Partnership initiated in 2020, including diverse researchers and institutions from North Macedonia, Greece, Serbia, and Italy, with the aim to develop inter-disciplinary and critical study programs in Balkans Studies. Based on the main premises of critical thinking, regional cooperation and reconciliation, GEOBALKANS stands for bringing into dialogue not only diverse research disciplines but also cultural, political and social practices that elaborate the hegemonic and counter-hegemonic phenomena that affect the Balkans region. By introducing the Balkans region as laboratory of modernity (I. Chambers), GEOBALKANS deals with critical analysis of the ongoing political challenges, and tries to compose emancipatory exits towards more just worlds.
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The partnership coordinated by AUE FON University in Skopje, in collaboration with the partner institutions Singidunum University in Belgrade, L’Orientale University in Naples, Panteion University in Athens, and University of Verona is devoted to sharing knowledge, academic and civic practices that will improve the regional and wider cooperation, especially with emphasis on the establishment of the academic axis between Athens, Skopje and Belgrade, supported by the expertise and supervision of relevant sources of knowledge and research that regard the Italian partners, their universities and renowned research centres. With geo-philosophy as the framework of the integrated MA and PhD programs in critical inter-disciplinary Balkans Studies, we would like to emphasise, on the one hand, the geopolitical specificity of the knowledge and research production of the proposed program, which is to say production and distribution of transdisciplinary knowledge regarding human geography, philosophy, international law, critical political theory about the Balkans and the hegemonic and counter-hegemonic (emancipatory, progressive and resistant) discourses and material practices of production and mobilization of political subjectivities in the Balkans.
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Viki Mladenova
Coordinator of Geo-philosophy of the Balkans
Affiliation: PhD student at L’Orientale University in Naples
Research fields: Critical legal studies, political philosophy
Ljubomir Frckoski
Member of the Steering group
Affiliation: Ambassador of North Macedonia at the United Nations
Research fields: Negotiation, international law
Biljana Puleska
Member of the Steering group
Affiliation: Tenure professor at AUE FON University
Research fields: International law and human rights
Slavco Dimitrov
Member of Bodies Politics working group (IO1)
Affiliation: PhD student at Singidunum University in Belgrade
Research fields: Queer and feminist studies, critical theory
Gordan Georgiev
Member of Critique of Illiberal Ideologies working group (IO1)
Affiliation: Independent researcher
Research fields: Political philosophy
Žarko Cvejić
Project Coordinator for Singidunum University (Faculty of Media and Communication)
Affiliation: Faculty of Media and Communication, Singidunum University, Belgrade, Serbia
Research fields: Historical musicology
Alexandra Perišić
Coordinator of IO2
Affiliation: Faculty of Media and Communication, Singidunum University, Belgrade, Serbia
Research fields: Postcolonial studies, comparative literature, cultural studies
Rade Pantić
Co-coordinator of IO1 (pillar Critique of illiberal ideologies)
Affiliation: Associate professor at the Faculty of Media and Communications, Singidunum University, Belgrade
Research fields: Theory of arts and media, historical materialism, theory of ideology, world systems analysis
Igor Štiks
Member of IO1 (pillar Borders, Immigration, Communities)
Affiliation: Professor at the Faculty of Media and Communications, Singidunum University, Belgrade
Research fields: Citizenship studies, Critical Theory, Social Movements, Political Art
Dimitris Christopoulos
Member of the Steering Committee for Panteion University
Affiliation: Professor of Politology, Dean of the Political Sciences Faculty of Pantion University
Research fields: Citizenship, minorities, migration, censorship, human rights, legal and state theory, Balkan studies
Georgia Spyropoulou
Project Coordinator for Panteion University
Affiliation: Panteion University of Social and Political Sciences, Athens, Greece
Research fields: Migration, asylum, citizenship, human rights
Christina Koulouri
Researcher of Memory Studies
Affiliation: Panteion University of Social and Political Sciences, Athens, Greece
Research fields: Modern and Contemporary History, Memory Studies, Nationalism Studies, History of Education, History of Sport
Eirini Avramopoulou
Researcher of Bodies Politics
Affiliation: Panteion University of Social and Political Sciences, Athens, Greece
Research fields: Political and Legal Anthropology, Gender/Queer studies, Postcolonial studies, Critical legal theory and, human rights and social movements
Kostis Karpozilos
Coordinator of Memory Studies
Affiliation: Panteion University of Social and Political Sciences, Athens, Greece
Research fields: History; diaspora studies; social movements; transnational history; memory studies
Lambros Baltsiotis
Researcher of Memory Studies and Migration, Politics and Borders
Affiliation: Panteion University of Social and Political Sciences, Athens, Greece
Research fields: History of minorities, linguistic and religious groups in the Balkans; Migration, Asylum and Citizenship
panteion.academia.edu
Elena Tavani
Project Coordinator for L’Orientale University
Affiliation: Full Professor of Aesthetics
Research fields: Aesthetics, critical theory, aesthetics and politics, image theories, contemporary visual media and installation art
Iain Chambers
Researcher (pillar Borders, Immigration, Communities)
Affiliation: University of Naples L’Orientale
Research fields: Cultural, postcolonial and decolonial studies. Histories of the Mediterranean basin
Stamatia Portanova
Project Coordinator for University of Naples ‘L’Orientale’
Coordinator of the pillar ‘Politics of Borders, Migration, Communities’
Affiliation: University of Naples L’Orientale
Research fields: Digital Cultures, Digital Philosophy, Sociology of Culture and Communication, Critical Theory of Automation Processes
Member of the TRU (Technocultures Research Unit) and of the CPGS (Centre for Postcolonial and Gender Studies) at the ‘Orientale’
Annalisa Piccirillo
Project Coordinator I03
Researcher (pillar Borders, Immigration, Communities)
Affiliation: University of Naples L’Orientale
Research fields: Choreography and Corporeality, Dance and Performance based practices; Gender Studies, Archival Studies, Mediterranean Studies.
Co-curator of the project: M.A.M – Matri-Archive of the Mediterranean, member of the Centre for Postcolonial and Gender Studies (UniOr)
Lorenzo Bernini
Project Coordinator for the University of Verona and member of the Steering Group
Affiliation: Associate Professor at the University of Verona
Research fields: Political Philosophy, Critical Theory, Queer Theories, Psychoanalysis
Massimo Prearo
Project Coordinator for University of Verona
Affiliation: Researcher at the University of Verona
Research fields: Political Sciences, Social Movements, Gender and Queer Studies, Critical Theory
Irene Villa
Member of IO4 (Pillar Body politics)’
Affiliation: PhD Student at the University of Verona
Research fields: Critical Theory, Gender and Queer Studies, Feminist and Lesbian Theories, Trans* History