As part of the capacity-building activities within the RETLAMI-SEE project, researchers from the Department of Sociology at the Faculty of Political Sciences University of Banja Luka, conducted a study visit to the Leibniz Institute for East and Southeast European Studies (IOS Regensburg) from 1 to 3 July 2025.
This visit represents an important part of RETLAMI-SEE’s efforts to strengthen the research capacities of early-career researchers and academic staff through structured knowledge exchange with institutions that have long-standing experience in interdisciplinary research on transformations, labour, and migration in Southeast Europe.
The research team — Prof. Dr. Dalibor Savić, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Anđela Pepić, and Dr. Bojana Vukojević — participated in a rich programme organised by IOS, which enabled dialogue across disciplines and institutional roles. The agenda included presentations of the projects Transforming Anxieties of Ageing in Southeastern Europe and Leibniz Science Campus “Europe and America in the Modern World”, followed by meetings with colleagues from the Seeffield Programme, the Graduate School for East and Southeast European Studies, and the departments of History, Politics, and Economics.
A special segment of the visit was the Advanced Workshop on “Political Anthropology of Postsocialist Transformations”, led by Dr. Nino Aivazishvili Gehne, as well as the presentation of the book In the Storms of Transformation: Two Shipyards between Socialism and the EU by Prof. Dr. Ulf Brunnbauer, which offered valuable insights into labour history and social change in the region.
The study visit served as a meaningful opportunity for academic dialogue, exchange of good practices, and identification of potential for future research cooperation. These experiences directly contribute to the RETLAMI-SEE project’s objectives of fostering international networking and increasing the visibility of researchers from Southeast-European countries.
After their stay in Regensburg, the University of Banja Luka research team continued with fieldwork activities in Germany and Austria, within the framework of the Exploratory Research on Labour Migration in Southeast Europe.
