BASEES Annual Conference 2026

The British Association for Slavonic and East European Studies (BASEES) is hosting this year’s annual conference from 10 to 12 April 2026 at the University of Birmingham (Centre for Russian, European and Eurasian Studies, CREES). The conference is one of the leading international forums for research on Eastern Europe, Russia and Eurasia.

Our team is represented this year with several presentations:

Panel 1: Russian Nationalism at Home and Abroad

Date: 10 April, 12:45 pm
Venue: Teaching and Learning M208
Chair: Félix Krawatzek
Panellists:
- Sophia Winkler: “Being ‘Russian’ abroad: Comparing senses of belonging among migrant generations”
- further presentations by Marlene Mußotter, Mikhail Novoselov and Paul Goode

This panel studies the articulation and the practice of Russian national identity in the Russian Federation but also outside of it. Papers use quantitative and qualitative methods to unravel social dynamics and also employ text analysis for the ways in which national identity is discursively constructed.

Panel 2: National Security in the Baltics – Historical and Contemporary Perspectives

Date: 10 April, 14:45
Venue: Teaching and Learning M218
Chair: Félix Krawatzek
Panellists:
- Félix Krawatzek: “Extinguished Fire? Estonia's fractured mnemonic landscape”
- Hakob Matevosyan: “Who’s Welcome? Security, Soviet Memories, and the Estonian Refugee Dilemma”
- further contributions by Kristiana Belska and Kristjan Silm

This panel engages with contemporary political and social questions in the Baltics. It pays particular attention to questions of security and securitisation drawing on fresh and original data. Insights from survey, sometimes longitudinal, allow to detect developments in society that are of significance for understanding dynamics in the region in a moment of profound existential insecurity.

BASEES–ZOiS Roundtable “Opening the Black Box of Authoritarianism: Dealing with Empirical, Methodological and Ethical Challenges”

Date: 10 April, 4.45 pm
Venue: Teaching and Learning Auditorium LT1
Panellists:
- Félix Krawatzek
- Gwendolyn Sasse
- Jody LaPorte
- Lika Tsuladze
​​​​​​​- Nebojsa Vladisavljevic

Further information on the conference can be found here.