8th Konitsa International Summer School
in Anthropology, Ethnography and Comparative Folklore of the Balkans
Konitsa, Greece 24/7-9/8 2013
Courses offered
(Course director: Prof. Vassilis Nitsiakos)
1st group
Thu 25/7 – Su 28/7
National ethnology and the making of the Romanian peasant
National movements and the invention of the national continuity in the Ottoman Balkans (19th and 20th c.)
Doing Fieldwork: Theory, Method and the Production of Anthropological Knowledge
Ethnographic Research in Border Areas
(fieldwork exercise in Albania and Greece for all participants)
Mo 29/7 – Fri 2/8
2nd group
Sat 3/8 – Tue 6/8
Islam in the Balkans: Historical
and contemporary anthropological approaches
The Anthropology of Disability
News from the Albanian-Kosovo border: Kinship ideology, property issues, millennial nationalism and the neo-liberal State
1st group of courses (25/7 – 28/7)
- “National ethnology and the making of the Romanian peasant”
Prof. Vintila Mihailescu, National School of Political Studies and Administration, Bucharest
Dr. Mihai Andrei Leaha, Cluj Napoca
Dr. Bogdan Iancu, National School of Political Studies and Administration, Bucharest
Dr. Monica Stroe, National School of Political Studies and Public Administration, Bucharest
- “National movements and the invention of the national continuity in the Ottoman Balkans (19th and 20th c.)”
Dr. Dimitris Stamatopoulos, Department of Balkan, Slavic and Oriental Studies, University of Macedonia, Thessaloniki
- “Doing Fieldwork: Theory,Method and the Production of Anthropological Knowledge”
Dr. Vassilis Dalkavoukis, Dep. of History and Ethnology, Democritus Univ. of Thrace, Komotini
Dr. Karolina Bielenin-Lenczowska, Institute of Ethnology and Cultural Anthropology, University of Warsaw
Dr. Vassiliki Kravva, Dep. of History and Ethnology, Democritus Univ. of Thrace, Komotini
Dr. Paraskevas Potiropoulos, Hellenic Folklore Research Centre of the Academy of Athens
Dr. Ioannis Manos, Dep. of Balkan Studies, Univ. of Western Macedonia, Florina
Ethnographic Research in Border Areas:
Course and Fieldwork Practice for All Participants (29/7-2/8)
“Fieldwork Practice on both Sides of the Greek-Albanian Border”
Prof. Vassilis Nitsiakos, Dep. of History and Archaeology, University of Ioannina
Dr. Vassilis Dalkavoukis, Dep. of History and Ethnology, Democritus Univ. of Thrace. Komotini
Dr. Marilena Papachristophorou, Dep. of History and Archaeology, University of Ioannina
Dr. Karolina Bielenin-Lenczowska, Institute of Ethnology and Cultural Anthropology, University of Warsaw
Dr. Vassiliki Kravva, Dep. of History and Ethnology, Democritus Univ. of Thrace. Komotini and Technological Institute of Thessaloniki
Dr. Paraskevas Potiropoulos, Hellenic Folklore Research Centre of the Academy of Athens
Dr. Ioannis Manos, Department of Balkan Studies, Univ. of Western Macedonia, Florina
2nd group of courses (3–6/8)
- “Islam in the Balkans: Historical and contemporary anthropological approaches”
Dr Fotini Tsibiridou, Department of Balkan, Slavic and Oriental Studies, Univ. of Macedonia, Thessaloniki
Dr. Ger Duijzings, School of Slavonic and East European Studies (SSEES), University College London (UCL)
Dr. Giorgos Mavrommatis, Faculty of Education Sciences, Democritus University, Alexandroupolis
- “The Anthropology of Disability”
Dr. Slobodan Naumovic, Dep. of Ethnology and Anthropology, Faculty of Philosophy, University of Belgrade
- “News from the Albanian-Kosovo border: Kinship ideology, property issues, millennial nationalism and the neo-liberal State”
Prof. Dr. Nebi Bardhoshi, Institute of Cultural Anthropology and Arts Studies, Center for Albanian Studies, Tirana
Mr. Olsi Lelaj (Phd Canditate), Institute of Cultural Anthropology and Arts Studies, Center for Albanian Studies, Tirana
Guest lectures and workshops by invited speakers
Professor of Anthropology and Director of International Studies at Central Connecticut State University, USA
Lecture:
"Economic Crisis in Europe and the US: What We Can Learn (and avoid learning) from Development Practices in Kerala State, Southwest India"
Workshop:
“Using Field Schools like Konitsa for Addressing Crisis”
Lecture Abstract:
Erosion of the social contract between states and citizens has produced vast political agitation. Marching Greek taxpayers, the Arab Spring, Occupy, and now protests in Turkey and Brazil, show citizens fighting back against global finance and corrupted states. Though states everywhere have reduced commitments to their citizens, Kerala state, southwest India offers a model enabling citizen employment, health care, educational support, etc. For fifty years, from the 1950s, Kerala responded to a century of popular protest with a top-down development strategy where state provided citizen a “basket” of essential needs and services. This has lately shifted to state support for local self-help groups, micro-finance schemes, and small-scale cooperative ventures. This bottom-up development movement, known as Kudumbashree (Family-wealth), both facilitates participants’ improved economic circumstances and empowers their organization for political action. European, American, and Indian conditions greatly differ. Still, Kerala’s experience with Kudumbashree offers three lessons to us in the developed West. State responsiveness to citizens is only assured by persistent political action. The state must take (or be made to take) a meaningful role to enable citizen economic activity. And in the midst of economic crises, citizens banding together in self-help and cooperative ventures offers a path to political and economic success. I conclude by attempting to apply these prescriptions in cross-border situations.
David A. Kideckel ( This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.) is professor of Anthropology and Director of International Studies at Central Connecticut State University. He has researched questions of political economy, labor, social identity in East-Central from the Cold War to the present. His books include, The Solitude of Collectivism (1993), East European Communities (ed, 1995), and Neighbors at War (2001, w Joel Halpern). His last book, “Getting By in Post-Socialist Romania: Labor, the Body, and Working Class Culture” (2008) concerned change in the lives of Romanian workers after socialism as reflected in their physical perceptions and practices. For the last five years Kideckel has mainly worked in Kerala, south India where he has considered political agitation as a response to economic liberalization, changing conceptions of citizenship and of development. Kideckel has served as a Fulbright Senior Specialist in both Poland and Romania, has consulted with diverse institutions on labor and community relations, and is past president of the Society for the Anthropology of Europe.
