SCIENTIFIC COMMITTEE:
• Dr Stephen Elliot, Executive Secretary of the ABS, Member and ABS leadership representative;
• Dr Duska Knezevic Hocevar, Scientific Research Centre of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Art, Ljubljana, Slovenia, Member;
• Dr Mirko Polzer, Austrian institute for Eastern and Southeastern Europe, the Ljubljana office;
• Dr Hannah Starman, Insitutum studiorum humanitatis – the Ljubljana graduate school of the humanities, Slovenia, conference Academic Coordinator;
• Dr Irena Sumi, Institute of Ethnic Studies, Ljubljana, Slovenia, Member;
• Prof. Dr Friedrich Zmmermann, Karl Franzens University of Graz, Austria, President.

OBJECTIVES. The year 2004 marks off the hitherto unprecedented changes on the political map of Europe: the eight accession states: Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia are joining the European Union by 1 May 2004. Bulgaria and Romania are joining the EU in the year 2007.
The EU enlargement can be seen as yet another step in a global political process that dates back to the year 1989 and the then spectacular fall of socialist regimes throughout Europe. The then renewed focus on Border studies in the European context can be said to have largely sprung from these political turbulences and their consequences.
The processes of borders formation in Europe during the past century can be, perhaps now more than ever, contextualised with the developments following WWI and WWII and analytically inspected. Yet there are much older political borders in Europe, dating back to medieval times, that will now have assumed a completely new significance (e.g. some sections of the outer border of the European Union after 1 May 2004), or those that have already, or will have soon, lost their function as political delineators, but may in turn persist in terms of ‘mental maps’ and cultural or ethnic division lines.
Other challenges in the new situation are European demography given the processes of immigration; the problems of xenophobia, racism, anti-Semitism, and cultural and ethnic differentiations in general; the economic aspects of the enlarged Union; the legal and political solutions in the process of unification/federalisation; the security regimens at the outer border of the Union.
These and other pertinent aspects of the new European political divisions and unification will be addressed both in terms of qualitative and quantitative research done and data obtained, and both from local and general publics' perspective and the perspective of elitist discourse.

THEMES OF THE CONFERENCE. The themes are systematised into six general groups:
• Theorising borders: concepts, methodologies and models
• History of borders in Europe: from medieval to present
• Economy and political unifications / divisions in the new Europe
• From international to internal EU border: policies, regulation and security
• Communication within and across borders: language, people, cultural practices, everyday life
• New European reality in terms of demography and social relations: immigration, ethnic and cultural difference, racism, xenophobia, anti-Semitism

FORMAT OF THE CONFERENCE. Prior to the beginning of the conference on the afternoon of Wednesday, September 15, a tour of Vienna, the city of Graz, and the triple border region between Austria, Hungary and Slovenia will be offered. The following is the tentative format of the whole event:
One invited speaker will open the thematic sessions within each of the above themes. Up to forty (40) papers will be selected for presentation. If necessary, groups will hold parallel session during the three and a half days in session.

ESTIMATED COSTS. For those wishing to participate in the field trip, the cost is estimated at 170€ per person including transport, meals and accommodation.
Conference fee is set at 100€ per professionals and 70€ per students. The conference fee covers all conference materials, coffee break refreshments, the opening reception, and conference dinner.

DEADLINES. The deadline for the first call for papers is Monday, 15 March 2004, 12.00 hours CET. For submission, please use the form attached at the end of this call. Please indicate the general theme (above) where you think your contribution belongs. Further specification of these themes will be made with the formation of the Scientific Committee.
The selected presenters will be notified by Thursday, 1 April 2004. The final programme of the conference will be distributed and published on the conference website (www address to be reported) by Monday, 5 April 2004 together with the abstracts of the accepted papers.
The integral texts of the selected papers are due on Wednesday, 1 September 2004, 12.00 CET in electronic form. A CD-rom with all contributions in pdf format will be added to the conference materials and available on-line at the conference website 14 days prior to the conference in password-protected pdf format files.

APPLICATION FORM (below). Please fill out the form, copy it and paste it into a new Word Document page, save it as a separate document (surname_ABSabstr.doc) and send as attachment to the conference Academic Coordinator (please direct also all enquiries to):

Dr Hannah Starman
ISH – the Ljubljana graduate school of the humanities
Breg 12, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia
Phone: + 386 1 425 18 45
Fax: + 386 1 425 18 46
E-mail: hannah.starman@guest.arnes.si

(Call for papers, Word, 70kB)
(Call for papers, Pdf, 123kB)