1 October 2026

We are pleased to announce and kindly invite you to the following conference, organized by the ERC-TransCorr team in Istanbul:

Historicizing “Corruption” in Central-South-East Europe: Phanariot and Post-Phanariot Networks and Regional Power Reconfigurations (1750s-1900s)
ANAMED, the Koç University Research Center for Anatolian Civilizations
on Monday and Tuesday, 26-27 October 2026, Istanbul

Participants:
Boriana ANTONOVA-GOLEVA, Constantin ARDELEANU, Gențiana AVRIGEANU, Augusta DIMOU, Lucien FRARY, Silvia MARTON, Mária PAKUCS, Oana SORESCU-IUDEAN, Constanța VINTILĂ, Michał WASIUCIONEK

PROGRAM

Monday, 26 October 2026
17:00 – 19:00
Keynote lecture by Constanța VINTILĂ, “Nicolae Iorga” Institute of History, Bucharest / New Europe College
Women and the Making of Phanariot Power: Networks, Material Culture, and Influence,
followed by discussions

Tuesday, 27 October 2026
Conference presentations held by TransCorr team

10:00 – 10:15
Opening Remarks:
Namık Günay ERKAL, curator of the exhibition “All Phanar Is Here: Household, Neighborhood, Court, and the City”
Silvia MARTON, University of Bucharest/ New Europe College

10:15 – 11:35
Session 1:
The Phanariots and Their Legacies: Imperial Entanglements and State Formation
Chair: Oana SORESCU-IUDEAN, Centre for Population Studies, Babeș-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca/ New Europe College

Mária PAKUCS, “Nicolae Iorga” Institute of History, Bucharest / New Europe College
The consular agents in Bucharest and their views on the Phanariot princes at the turn of the 19th century

Lucien FRARY, Rider University / New Europe College
The Traveling Balkan Orthodox Middlemen: Russian Impressions of the Phanariots (1701 – 1821)

Michał WASIUCIONEK, “Nicolae Iorga” Institute of History, Bucharest / New Europe College
Between Phanariot Legacy and Serbian State Formation: The Political and Ecclesiastic Dynamic at the Margin of the Phanariot World

Q&A – discussions

11:35 – 11:50
Coffee break

11:50 – 13:10
Session 2:
Phanariot Past and Post-Phanariot Present: Corruption, Political Polemics, and Nation-Building
Chair: Silvia MARTON, University of Bucharest/ New Europe College

Constantin ARDELEANU, New Europe College / Institute for South-East European Studies, Bucharest
A Neo-Phanariot Fixer in Ottoman Istanbul: Kapıkahya Nicholas Aristarchi and the Wallachian Princes

Boriana ANTONOVA-GOLEVA, Institute for Historical Studies, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences/ New Europe College
The “Phanariotism” in the Bulgarian Public Discourse after the Crimean War: Texts, Contexts, and Concepts

Augusta DIMOU, Institute of Cultural Studies, Chair of Comparative European History, University of Leipzig/ New Europe College
Competing Allegiances: Identities, Politics and Positionalities in the Autonomy Movements of Bosnia and Herzegovina during the Transition from Ottoman to Habsburg Rule

Q&A – discussions

This research is conducted within “Transnational histories of ‘corruption’ in Central-South-East Europe (1750-1850) (TransCorr)”, funded by the European Union (ERC-2022-ADG no. 101098095) and hosted by the New Europe College, Bucharest.
Co-organized and hosted by ANAMED, with our sincere appreciation for their generous hospitality and support.
www.transcorr.eu