Shifting Powers: Political, Urban, and Demographic Changes in Late Antique Balkan Provinces

10-12 September 2021, Silistra

The Late Antique Balkans saw major changes in political, urban, demographic, and religious aspect that are still yet not quite studied due to various reasons. It is for this reason that we organize a conference in Silistra where we would like to explore these problems through a creative dialogue between scholars from various fields in the science. We are therefore interested in papers that address the following but not limited to:

1. In political aspect: provincial administration and structure, changes in settlements statute, church organization, emperors Balkan policy;
2. In urban and demographic aspect: new and old settlements, new city topography, architectural changes, everyday life in settlements and Christianization of city topography;
3. In religious aspect: church organization in Southeastern Europe, Christian topography, Christian art and architecture, everyday life in Christian communities, monasticism and monastic communities, Arianism and other heresies, Christian liturgy and religious practices.

The conference will take place between 10-12 September 2021 in Silistra, Bulgaria (virtual or face-to-face). This is the second international conference part of the three-year project LABedia: encyclopedia of Late Antique Balkans funded by the National Scientific Fund of Bulgaria and will be held with the partnership of the Regional History Museum – Silistra, under the patronage of the Silistra Municipality. There is no conference fee.

Papers that present new methods for analyzing these problems, encouraging the interdisciplinary and providing new information are particularly welcome. Each presentation should not exceed 15 minutes in length and can be given in one of the four usual languages of the conference: English, German, French and Bulgarian.

We invite postgraduate students, early career researchers, and established academics to submit abstract of no more than 350 words (including your name and affiliation) before June 30, 2021 to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. The full slate of selected presentations will be announced within two weeks after the submission deadline.

As the conference will be hybrid, those who are interested in attending are kindly invited to contact the organizers in advance.

Selected presentations will be published in 2022 issue of Annales Balcanici.