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. Vjosa Musliu on Lived Experience as Knowledge in International Relations

    2D AGO

    Vjosa Musliu on Lived Experience as Knowledge in International Relations

    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? 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. 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
  2. Elisabed Gedevanishvili on Unravelling Democracy and Opposition Energy in Georgia

    JAN 29

    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

  3. JAN 14

    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

  4. 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
  5. Emil Edenborg on Why Gender and Sexuality Become Political Battlegrounds

    11/19/2025

    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

  6. 11/04/2025

    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
  7. Lessons in Peacebuilding: What Colombia Can Teach Ukraine

    09/23/2025

    Lessons in Peacebuilding: What Colombia Can Teach Ukraine

    This is the first episode of our third season. It feels as if we only started yesterday, yet this is already the third academic year that our Studio on Central and Eastern Europe brings you conversations on the latest research about the region.  In this episode, we draw connections that may surprise many listeners: What can Colombia’s experience with conflict teach Ukraine? And what does transitional justice in Latin America share with the post-conflict processes of Central and Eastern Europe?  Stephan Parmentier, professor of criminology and human rights at KU Leuven, speaks with Fernando Serrano-Amaya, a Colombian scholar whose work bridges peacebuilding, social policy, and the politics of reconciliation. Serrano-Amaya holds a PhD from the University of Sydney and has taught and conducted research in Australia, Colombia, and beyond. His work examines youth and gender-based violence, masculinities, and queer peacebuilding, and he recently co-edited a special issue on the subject in the Revista de Estudios Sociales.  Together, Stephan Parmentier and Jose Fernando Serrano-Amaya discuss the main pillars of transitional justice, while tracing how violence and justice shift and take new forms during and after violent conflict.

    24 min
  8. Peter Vermeersch on the creative fight for freedom in Belarus and beyond

    07/01/2025

    Peter Vermeersch on the creative fight for freedom in Belarus and beyond

    The final episode of this academic year revolves around the story of a group of Belarusian musicians caught in the violent crackdown on dissent. Slavic studies scholar Hanna Stähle speaks with political scientist Peter Vermeersch about his new book Pulse (Polsslag), a compelling chronicle (and musical history) of the 2020 Belarusian pro-democracy protests. Set to the soundtrack of Peremen! — a Soviet-era rock anthem that became the heartbeat of a modern uprising — Pulse traces the stories of artists, musicians, and ordinary citizens who transformed creativity into resistance against the regime of Alexander Lukashenko. Moving from the Belarusian capital Minsk to exiled communities in Warsaw, Riga, Brussels, and Berlin, Pulse captures a moment of history when art refuses to be apolitical. This episode is a conversation about courage, music, and the enduring pulse of dissent.

    23 min
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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.

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