The Department of Balkan, Slavic and Oriental Studies of the University of Macedonia, seeking the economic and social consequences of the Coronavirus crisis in Greece and the Balkans, is organizing a two-day conference on  January the 23-24 2021, entitled: “2020 an extraordinary year in pandemic times: Academic experiences and research practices from the Balkans”.

The pandemic that broke out in the winter of 2020 and affected the whole world brought major changes in all areas of human activitylong, had so many victims and radically change people’s relationships and lives. Documenting the pandemic and its impact is still a work in progress.Thereofore, there is a need to capture the methodology and ethics associated with issues of research, teaching and everyday survival in the time of the pandemic. A comparative assessment by the Balkan countries is considered useful and necessary one year after the first confinement. We are looking to assess in a comparative way, theimportance of social science research, as it took place in the neighboring Balkan countries and the wider region. Did the pandemic contribute to the development of more networks and partnerships or not? Are there scientific fields favoured by  the conditions of the pandemic? What are the financial and communication tools developed? Does it have a more aggravating effect on other fields? How  did COVID-19 shape  the academic space and the universities themselves within the conditions of in tele-working? What the impact on the relationships within the university community, between students and professors or within each category? What are the implications for students and their studies, research interests, employment and daily survival?

The purpose of this conference is to fill this gap, i.e. to make a description and assessment of the pandemic in academia and social research (political science, sociology, economics, social anthropology, communication, psychology, cultural studies, new technologies and News Inside.) Through a comparative look of the Area studies in Eastern and Southeastern Europe as well as their neighborhoods, the conference is particularly interested in the participation of young scientists and research teams. Selected conference papers, after evaluation, will be published online.

Those interested in participating should send a presentation title, contact details and a brief description of the topic to emails vvlasidis@uom.gr, elasideri@uom.edu.gr until October 15, 2020. Researchers whose topics will be accepted will be notified by mail on October 30, 2020.

The conference will be held on 23-24 January 2021 with a physical presence at the University of Macedonia (but there will be the possibility of hybrid participation) unless the health protocols prohibit physical presence, at which time it will be held online.

INDICATIVE  THEMES 
-Digital university, the new university
-Financing under the shadow of COVID-19
– Transnational collaborations, networks, research and pandemic
-Methods and methodology of social sciences in the pandemic
-Teaching and electronic platforms
-Beyond COVID research 
-Study education at the time of COVID
-Post-COVID university
-Universitas, educational institution and academic communities
-Gender discrimination and equality practices during the pandemic
-University and society: strengthening or reducing the links between them