9 July 2026

Open Call:
Sustaining Ukrainian Scholarship (SUS) Annual Conference, 20 – 24 June 2027, Bulgaria

The Centre for Advanced Study (CAS) Sofia, in partnership with the New Europe College (NEC) in Bucharest and with the support of the Volkswagen Foundation, Germany, announces an open call for papers for the upcoming SUS Annual Conference in June 2027. The event will be held in Bulgaria, with the specific venue to be confirmed. This conference is part of the Sustaining Ukrainian Scholarship program at CAS Sofia and NEC Bucharest. Since 2023, the program has supported postdoctoral Ukrainian researchers and their projects. Now extended until 2029, SUS offers both in-residence and remote monthly grants and helps fellows connect and build sustainable networks in support of Ukraine’s academic community during the ongoing war.

Conference Theme:
Journeys Across the Black Sea: Mobility, Conflict, and Culture (from Antiquity to the 21st Century)

Location: to be specified in the upcoming weeks
Dates: 20 – 24 June 2027

The conference will explore the multidimensional meanings of journeys undertaken by groups and individuals across the Black Sea. A site of continuous human movement since prehistory, the Black Sea has served as an arena for exploration, armed conflict, trade, and human mobility. By looking at the region through the lens of travel, we seek to understand how the shifting tides of history—spanning from antiquity to the present day—have shaped both the region’s physical landscape and its cultural imagination. Simultaneously, we aim to unravel the complex human experiences bound to this maritime space. Thus, the scope of the conference encompasses not only the legal, political, and social implications of cross-shore journeys but also the literary and artistic representations of travel by intellectuals and artists from the Black Sea region.

We welcome papers focusing on journeys from antiquity to the contemporary era, capturing a dynamic political climate that witnessed the rise and fall of ancient, medieval, and imperial regimes, as well as the emergence of modern nation-states. We invite proposals on topics including, but not limited to:

• Forced vs. Voluntary Migration: The natural and human-driven stimuli—from natural disasters to political cataclysms—that led to the displacement of people.
• Discovery and conquest, seasonal and local migration across borders: from fishermen to smugglers to pirates …
• Human Agency: Techniques for controlling and utilising the sea, fortifications and port facilities, surveying and cartography, international agreements and alliances.
• Port Cities and Maritime Spaces: The ethnic and religious spectrum of life in port cities, and the class and gender stratification of space on ship decks.
• The Ship as a Heterotopic Space: The distinct onboard atmosphere, rhythms, and etiquette of maritime travel.
• Cultural and Artistic Representations: The depiction of sea journeys across various artistic mediums, including folklore, music, fine arts, literature, architecture, exhibitions, and curatorial projects.
• Sea Travels as Leisure Time and Exploration in organized frameworks, or as personal endeavors: traveling for business, scholarship, private matters, or adventure, alongside scientific exploration of wildlife, diving, environmental issues, Eco-tourism, and culinary traveling.
• Maritime entanglements at times of war: raids and naval conflicts, techniques of warfare on sea, development and management of fleet bases, ecological issues.
• Imaginary travels: perceptions of Otherness and Exoticism.

Please submit an abstract of no more than 300 words along with a brief biographical note (150 words) to: mihaylova@cas.bg by 31 October 2026. Notification of acceptance will be sent by mid-January 2027.