On 21 November 2017, the CEU Center for European Neighborhood Studies (CENS) and Andrássy University (AUB) jointly hosted an international conference entitled “The Western Balkan’s Diversity of Identities: Religion, Language, and Education”. 

This conference focused on the multiple identities, which define the people of the Western Balkan region and explore how religion, language and education are impacting on peoples’ identities. What role does religion play in the societies of the Western Balkan states? Is the mother-tongue a more powerful identity-marker than nationality or ethnicity? Does education create a new identity, which overlaps and sometimes replace the more traditional elements of identities, such as religion and culture? Hence, the aim of this conference was to discuss how elements of language, religion and education define people’s identity and how they influence the people living in the Western Balkans. 

Please find a detailed event report here.