In an era of multiple ongoing globalized crises, it is crucial to examine how systems of oppression and extractivism intersect with different manifestations of (neo-)colonial dynamics, as many of those systems are rooted in “modernity/ coloniality” and capitalism (Mignolo 2007). For this two-day conference event, we wish to focus our attention on colonial dynamics developed in the Balkan region and in Post-Socialist societies. In recent years, scholarship engaging with the particularities of colonialism in the above-mentioned areas has been expanding, but to speak about colonial dynamics in these areas still remains a highly contested topic due to the divergent ways in which colonial power has been exercised in those regions, which often do not include practices traditionally associated with colonialism, such as land occupation.

Sharad Chari and Katherine Verdery (2009) have traced similarities between postsocialist and postcolonial societies in aspects like control over “sovereign states”, organization of empires, racism and classification processes. Following their approach, such comparisons can play a pivotal role in enriching the ways in which we rethink and find alternatives to current struggles that result from capitalism, (neo-)colonialism and their intersections (Chari and Verdery 2009).

Another perspective that places Greece and, more generally, the Balkan region in dialogue with decolonial approaches comes from Dušan I. Bjelić. According to Calotychos, Bjelić follows the Black Marxist tradition, in order to argue for the birth of colonial projects, enslavement and racialization processes in the Balkans and Eastern Mediterranean already in medieval times (Bjelić 2021; 2023; 2025, Calotychos 2023). At the same time, Greece's complex, “crypto-colonial” relationship with the West, which was exemplified during the so-called “Greek crisis” (2009-2018), provokes us to further investigate forms of colonialities in the case of Greece in relation to other countries, which in some cases have experienced non-traditional colonial forms of control (Herzfeld 2002; Bjelić 2025; dëcoloиıze hellάş 2023). While considering the unique cases and characteristics of colonial manifestations in the Balkans and Post-Socialist societies, the conference aims to facilitate transcolonial dialogues. At the same time, the conference can contribute to the development of theoretical frameworks, practices and vocabularies that forge alliances and encourage productive conversations from North to South, from West to East, as well as beyond these binary conceptualizations.

The two-day conference will take shape through an open call for papers, encouraging especially the participation of early-career researchers. We welcome proposals particularly by researchers from the disciplines of Art History, Cultural Analysis, Cultural Studies, Film Studies, Literary Studies, Anthropology, as well as from any other discipline in the humanities and social sciences.