Past CBSE Conferences

CBSE 2023 IN KAUNAS: TURNING POINTS: VALUES AND CONFLICTING FUTURES IN THE BALTICS

Vytautas Magnus University, in cooperation with the Association for the Advancement of Baltic Studies (AABS), organized the conference “Turning Points: Values and Conflicting Futures in the Baltics,” which was held on 15-17 June 2023 in Kaunas, Lithuania. As in previous years, CBSE 2023 covered a diversity of themes and disciplines while demonstrating and promoting the achievements of Baltic studies in various areas. Time and again, CBSE has brought together scholars from all disciplines and stages in their careers worldwide who share an interest in exploring the Baltic region from multiple perspectives and fields of research. CBSE 2023 continued this tradition.

CBSE 2021 in UPPSALA: RIGHTS AND RECOGNITION IN THE BALTIC CONTEXT

In 2021, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania marked 100 years of international recognition de jure as modern independent states, and 30 years of recognition of their reestablishment as independent democracies following a half century of Soviet domination. At the same time, it was 300 years since the Treaty of Nystad ended Swedish rule in the Baltic territories, resulting in the creation of provinces of the Russian Empire with their own particular system of rights and regulations. Similar to today, however, these rights were not applied evenly across society. Then as now, some voices are suppressed, and some groups struggle for recognition. Thus, the main theme of the CBSE Uppsala in 2021 was to look at aspects of rights and recognition in their broader meanings, as they pertain to the societies of the eastern Baltic littoral.

CBSE 2019 in GDANSK: BALTIC SOLIDARITY

Solidarność is the Polish word for solidarity and evokes the movement that decisively contributed to the collapse of the socialist regimes and to the unification of Europe in the peaceful revolutions of 1989-1991. Solidarność stands for the empowerment of the powerless, a peaceful struggle for freedom and democracy, and for a civil society connected by the principles of solidarity and truth. The objectives of Solidarity, however, are not past perfect. The challenges of social and political cohesion, democratic values and regional security, but also of collective memory and identity shape political and scholarly discourses today in the Baltic Sea region and beyond.

In 2019 the Conference on Baltic Studies in Europe (CBSE) was held for the first time in Poland. It was hosted by the University of Gdańsk, which celebrated its fiftieth anniversary, and the European Solidarity Centre situated on the site of the Lenin shipyard in Gdańsk, where the Solidarność movement began. CBSE 2019 promoted the achievements of Baltic studies thirty years after the fall of the Iron Curtain and fifteen years after the EU enlargement to East Central Europe.

CBSE 2017 IN RIGA: THE BALTIC STATES AT 99: PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE

The 12th Conference on Baltic Studies in Europe (CBSE) reflected on the past, present and future of the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania 99 years after their declarations of independence.

The conference discussed achievements such as the battles for independence, the reconstruction of war-torn economies, the flourishing of cultural life and the swift ‘return to Europe’ as well as low points, for example, the dislocations caused by the two world wars, German and Soviet occupations as well contemporary economic development, innovation systems, social inequality and a pervading disenchantment with political life.

All Past CBSE Conferences

2021 – Uppsala, Uppsala University
2019 – Gdansk, European Solidarity Centre and University of Gdansk
2017 – Riga, University of Latvia
2015 – Marburg, Herder Institute
2013 – Tallinn, Tallinn University
2011 – Södertörn, Södertörn University
2009 – Kaunas, Vytautas Magnus University

2007 – Lüneburg, Northeast Institute
2005 – Valmiera, Vidzeme University of Applied Sciences
2001 – Tartu, Tartu University
1999 – Stockholm, Stockholm University
1997 – Vilnius, Vilnius University
1995 – Riga, University of Latvia