White, Not Quite: Decolonising Balkans, Debalkanising Europe:

Contemporary discourse on (de)colonial issues often overlooks one of the (de)colonial peripheries: the Balkans. Trapped in the 'white, but not quite' racial dialectic and antagonism, this region seems too white to be an agent of decolonization yet not white enough to act as an agent of colonization-turned-decolonization. Consequently, it seems to be trapped in the political narrative and paradigm of 'catching up' with the West, the North, socialism, communism, democracy, and capitalism - or is it capitalism and democracy? This 'catching up' paradigm risks dismissing the region's history of (anti)colonialism and (anti)racism. Moreover, it appears to generate a unique form of (self)colonization and (self)racializing, intensified by the concept and process of 'European integration.' How does this process interact with the ‘quite not white' racial profiling of the region and its ongoing enactment of (structural) racism? Confronting these complexities and contradictions requires a cross-disciplinary approach, inviting dancers, artists, curators, genders, researchers, communities, activists, and other diasporic subjects from both (de)colonial centers and peripheries to the conversation. Join curators/moderators Biljana Tanurovska Kjulavkovski and Dražen Dragojević for a discursive sharing and reflective communion among Summer School & Summit participants, as well as speakers from various disciplines, communities, institutions, and diasporas.