On 8-10 April 2022, the NTUS project took part in the annual conference of the British Association for Slavonic and Eastern European Studies (BASEES), taking place at the Robinson College in Cambridge. Ionut Chiruta, Lani Hartikainen and Sabine Volk presented onsite, while Emilia Palonen and Marina Vulovic joined the NTUS-panel on “Hegemonic Mobilisations through the Politics of Time and Space in Central and Eastern Europe”, chaired by Lani Hartikainen, via Zoom.
Over the three conference days including several fascinating keynotes and numerous panel sessions, NTUS researchers got new insights into some of the most recent trends in Central and Eastern European politics and societies and discussed various theoretical and methodological approaches to studying populist mobilisations in the region. Undisputed highlight: the keynote speech by Olesya Khromeychuk (Ukrainian Institute London) on the question of “Where is Ukraine on the mental map of the academic community?” HEPPsters enjoyed it so much that she was invited to keynote at HEPP3 in June.
After the conference was also before the conference: Only a few hours after the last panel session at BASEES, the NTUS team continued their trip by train some three hours north to York, where this year’s Political Science Association (PSA) conference took place on 11-13 April. NTUS researchers Lani Hartikainen and Sabine Volk were joined onsite by principal investigator Emilia Palonen as well as online by Anniina Hyttinen in a panel on “Cultural Populism and Polarisation: Humour, the Past and Mobilisation”. Chaired by Thomas Zicman de Barros and Theo Aiolfi, the NTUS-panel was part of the eight total panels put together by the lively PSA Populism Specialist Group. Let’s not forget Ionut Chiruta, who also presented his NTUS work in a different panel entitled “Ethnic Politics across the World.”
Onsite conferencing was a crucial opportunity for NTUS researchers to (re-)connect with long-term colleagues and friends, and to make new acquaintances from across Europe. Not least, the trip allowed NTUS members to continue developing their common approach to studying populist mobilisations in Central and Eastern Europe from a cultural perspective, and to further integrate as a research team – also facilitated by culinary events such as a Scottish-inspired conference dinner and Yorkshire-style Cream Tea.