Studio Central and Eastern Europe

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In our podcast series, produced by the Forum on Central and Eastern Europe at KU Leuven, we explore the latest academic research on the region. Through 20-minute conversations, researchers share their personal experiences from fieldwork, along with their latest findings and ideas. Tune in to hear captivating stories about politics, history, anthropology, sociology, literature, music, visual arts, and architecture.

  1. Julija Sardelić on Transit Europe and the Politics of Refugee Protection

    4 days ago

    Julija Sardelić on Transit Europe and the Politics of Refugee Protection

    What does it mean for a country to become “transit”? Is this a matter of geography, or a political choice? And how do such choices reshape the rights and lived realities of those seeking refuge? In this episode of Studio Central and Eastern Europe, Denitsa Marchevska speaks with Dr Julija Sardelić, Senior Lecturer in Political Science and International Relations at Te Herenga Waka – Victoria University of Wellington. The conversation grows out of Sardelić’s recent book, Refugee Protection Crises and Transit Europe (Springer, 2025). She advances a compelling argument: so-called “transit countries” do not merely find themselves in that position—they actively fashion themselves as such, precisely to circumscribe their obligations towards those in search of protection. Tracing four key moments in post-war European history—from the displacement following the 1956 Hungarian Revolution, through the Yugoslav wars, to the movements of 2015–2016 and the flight from Ukraine after Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022—Sardelić shows how states in Central and South-East Europe have recurrently cast themselves as temporary waypoints. This self-positioning, she argues, enables them to withhold full refugee status and the rights it entails, transforming what are commonly termed “refugee crises” into, more accurately, “refugee protection crises”. The episode situates these insights within the wider architecture of the international refugee regime, which Sardelić characterises as both hierarchical and racialised. It considers how selective forms of diversity politics sustain uneven systems of protection, while leaving all refugees in conditions of precarity. Denitsa Marchevska brings to the discussion her expertise as a postdoctoral researcher at KU Leuven, where she studies public policy-making and administrative processes in hybrid regimes and weak democracies. Together, they offer a reflection on borders, belonging, and the political production of mobility—and its suspension—in contemporary Europe.

    16 min
  2. Antoine Bailleux on the ECJ, Hungary, and the Legal Power of Values

    15 Apr

    Antoine Bailleux on the ECJ, Hungary, and the Legal Power of Values

    On 21 April 2026, the European Court of Justice will deliver its long-awaited judgement in an historical case where the European Commission, for the first time ever, took Hungary to Europe’s highest court for a violation of “European Values” because of its anti-LGBT laws. Why could this judgement be a game-changer for European law? Why were European values not invoked before in courts? What are the risks when judges start using values? And more broadly: is it a coincidence that Central European Countries such as Poland and Hungary are, once more, accused of disrespecting Europe’s values and principles? And how do these countries defend themselves before the court in Luxembourg? In this episode of Studio Central and Eastern Europe these and other questions are discussed by Antoine Bailleux, who is a professor in European Law at UCLouvain, in a conversation with Wim Weymans, who, until recently, held the Chair in European Values at UCLouvain and who is also a Research Affiliate at LINES (KU Leuven).

    25 min
  3. Vjosa Musliu on Lived Experience as Knowledge in International Relations

    12 Mar

    Vjosa Musliu on Lived Experience as Knowledge in International Relations

    From a distance, objectivity looks almost effortless—one of the presumed privileges of studying war. But what if the scholar has survived the very conflict they seek to analyse?   In this episode of Studio Central and Eastern Europe, Kosovo-born and Belgium-based scholar Vjosa Musliu joins PhD researcher at KU Leuven Njomëza Mulhaxha Musliu to discuss her book Girlhood at War. Blending personal narrative with political reflection, Musliu probes how lived experience can inform, unsettle, and deepen academic inquiry into conflict and its aftermath.   Can the researcher’s own memories—intellectual, emotional, even bodily—become a legitimate source of knowledge in the study of international relations? And might embracing subjectivity, rather than expunging it, bring greater humanity to the discipline? Girlhood at War offers a vivid account of growing up during the Kosovo war and its aftermath, tracing how a young girl’s initially clear-cut moral map fractures as displacement, class, and the ambiguities of “liberation” take hold. The book evokes the intimate textures of wartime life that rarely enter official histories, including Musliu’s unexpected role as a thirteen‑year‑old interpreter for NATO troops, while also illuminating the broader stakes of writing scholarship from a life shaped by conflict. In this conversation, Vjosa Musliu reflects on how these formative experiences inform her teaching and thinking as a scholar—shaping her work as Professor of International Relations at the VUB, her research on statebuilding and liberal interventions in the Balkans, and her engagement in regional scholarly and human‑rights initiatives.

    21 min
  4. Elisabed Gedevanishvili on Unravelling Democracy and Opposition Energy in Georgia

    29 Jan

    Elisabed Gedevanishvili on Unravelling Democracy and Opposition Energy in Georgia

    Researcher and activist Elisabed Gedevanishvili speaks about the political situation in Georgia. In conversation with political scientist Peter Vermeersch, she reflects on how the continued unravelling of Georgia’s democracy affects the opposition, fuels the energy of the protests, and shapes the ways in which protesters find the courage to stand their ground and demand democracy.

    19 min

  5. 14 Jan

    Vera Messing on Hungary’s ‘Community Identity’ Law—and Its Impact on the Roma Minority

    Can a law designed to safeguard local identity end up eroding fundamental rights? In this episode of Studio Central and Eastern Europe at KU Leuven, sociologist Vera Messing (Center for Social Sciences, Budapest) speaks with political scientist Peter Vermeersch about Hungary’s Law on Protecting Local Community Identity, in force since July 2025. The legislation gives municipalities the power to restrict new residents and property buyers, granting local councils authority to regulate settlement and property acquisition. While presented as a measure to preserve cultural identity and support small communities, human rights organisations and the EU warn of serious risks to equality and freedom of movement. Messing examines how local authorities apply—or ignore—these powers, and what this means for Hungary’s citizens, particularly the Roma minority. Vera Messing is a research fellow at the Center for Policy Studies and a senior research associate of the Institute of Sociology at the Hungarian Academy of Sciences in Budapest. Peter Vermeersch is Professor of Political Science at KU Leuven. Their current work forms part of the project RAISE, Recognition and Acknowledgement of Injustice to Strengthen Equality. Join us for a conversation that exposes the tension between local autonomy, national politics, and fundamental rights in Hungary.

    16 min

  6. 12/12/2025

    Tatiana Klepikova on the Contested Legacy of Sergej Parajanov

    This episode explores the enigmatic world of Sergej Parajanov, the cult film director whose visionary work defied conventions and censorship in the second half of the 20th century. Tatiana Klepikova—UR’s Freigeist Fellow at the University of Regensburg, currently writing a book on Parajanov—joins Maryna Shevtsova, senior FWO researcher at KU Leuven, for a conversation about his contested heritage. Why do so many post-Soviet nations claim him as their own? And how did his unconventional art and persona navigate the cultural politics of an era defined by rigid norms? Together, they unravel the intersections of cinema, identity, and cultural memory in a turbulent era.

    18 min
  7. Emil Edenborg on Why Gender and Sexuality Become Political Battlegrounds

    19/11/2025

    Emil Edenborg on Why Gender and Sexuality Become Political Battlegrounds

    In this episode of Studio Central and Eastern Europe, Maryna Shevtsova engages Emil Edenborg in a thought-provoking conversation on why gender and sexuality become such potent political tools, what drives the international rise in homophobia, and how scholarly work might help counter these trends. Their discussion unpacks global dynamics, power struggles, and the role of knowledge in shaping social change. Maryna is a Senior FWO Researcher at LINES, KU Leuven, and Emil is an Associate Professor of Gender Studies at Stockholm University.

    16 min

  8. 04/11/2025

    Jeroen Van den Bosch on Encyclopedia Tyrannica

    In this episode of Studio Central and Eastern Europe, political scientist Jeroen Van den Bosch, co-author of the newly published Encyclopedia Tyrannica, joins Ria Laenen, lecturer in Russian and International Politics at KU Leuven, for a conversation that spans both the conceptual and the geopolitical. Together, they explore how the idea for this ambitious encyclopaedia—a research guide to totalitarianism—took shape, and what it finds in common between authoritarianisms across the globe. Why do the Asian republics—once integral to the Soviet Union and still of strategic global importance—remain a blind spot in Belgium, even among political science students? Encyclopedia Tyrannica is available free of charge: Read it here: https://www.ibidem.eu/out/media/vlb_9783838278827_2.pdf #EncyclopediaTyrannica #PostSovietSpace #CentralAsia #PoliticalScience #KULeuven #JeroenVandenBosch #RiaLaenen #StudioCEE #AcademicPodcast #Geopolitics #EasternEurope

    16 min
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About

In our podcast series, produced by the Forum on Central and Eastern Europe at KU Leuven, we explore the latest academic research on the region. Through 20-minute conversations, researchers share their personal experiences from fieldwork, along with their latest findings and ideas. Tune in to hear captivating stories about politics, history, anthropology, sociology, literature, music, visual arts, and architecture.

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