Call for Papers: Alternative National Movements for the Southern Slavs
While myths of a primordial nation and its “thousand-year dream” of statehood still dominate political rhetoric and state-sponsored textbooks, serious scholars of nationalism have grown weary with teleological narratives of “national awakening.” Constructing non-teleological narratives, however, has proved difficult even for scholars who have transcended crude primordialism. Miroslav Hroch (1985: 11-13), for example, acknowledged in theory that “members of the oppressed nationalities were bombarded by at least two national ideologies” and had to “decide between two different available nationalities.” For his actual analysis, however, he chose to “concentrate … on success stories,” where “success” was defined by the establishment of national state.
Some scholars have contested teleology by focusing on non-national narratives. Loring Danforth’s study of Macedonia (1995), for example, considered “ethnic nationalism in a Transnational world,” while Mario Maritan Bonifazio (2025) placed Trieste within a “supranational world.” Similarly, Dominique Kirchner Reill (2012) examined “Adriatic Multi-Nationalism,” Pavel Domonji (2007) discussed “Vojvodina’s Multiethnic identity,” Dejan Stjepanović (2018) “Multiethnic Regionalisms.” While studies of multi-ethnic coexistence, whether regional, multinational, transnational, or international, have furthered scholarly understanding, they have in effect abandoned nationalist narratives to popular primordialism.
What would a non-teleological narrative of nationalism look like? Starting from the observation that many national concepts attracted both “scholarly interest” and “patriotic agitation” without becoming “mass national movements,” this project seeks to restore contingency to narratives of national awakening. It specifically focuses on national movements that were unsuccessful, or alternatively on movements that have not yet been successful.
We suspect that evidence for multi-lingual and multi-ethnic (“civic”) nationalism has been forgotten. Surely, the Napoleonic intervention in the Balkans inspired some nationalism for the French province of Illyria? Surely, Slavic loyalty to Austria, to Hungary, or to Ottoman Turkey sometimes took a national form? Surely, Habsburg crownlands generated nationalism for Carniola, Dalmatia, Istria, the Littoral, Slavonia, Styria, or Vojvodina? Surely, some national sentiment affixed itself to local administrative units within the Ottoman state, such as East Rumelia or the Sanjak of Novi Pazar? The Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes failed, as did the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, to say nothing of the abortive Yugoslav–Bulgarian federation, but all three attracted some supporters. And even ethnolinguistic nationalism, which Thomasz Kamusella memorably defined through “the normative isomorphism of nation, language, and state,” has taken many diverse forms, since the flexible magic of the language/dialect dichotomy lets patriots and philologists alike imagine the “national language” in many different ways.
We are therefore calling for case studies examining alternate national concepts and failed national movements from the nineteenth century to the present. We are planning a zoom conference jointly organized by Victoria University in Wellington, New Zealand, and the University of Zagreb (FFZG). Talks will take place 12-14 March 2027, depending on the time zone, with panels in the morning and the evening designed to accommodate the time zone difference between Central Europe and the Pacific. We also intend to publish either a special issue or an edited volume, though the details depend on participant interest.
Interested scholars should submit a three-sentence biography and an abstract of c. 100 words (one paragraph only) by 1 December 2026. Let us know your time zone. If you are only interested in the publication project, let us know if you have a journal preference. Send abstracts or informal inquiries to the conference organizers:
Alexander Maxwell (alexander.maxwell@vuw.ac.nz)
Nikola Tomašegović (ntomaseg@ffzg.unizg.hr).
Contact Information
Alexander Maxwell, Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand
Nikola Tomašegović, University of Zagreb Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Croatia
Contact Email
alexander.maxwell@vuw.ac.nz