Location
Northeastern University London
Workshop | 1 – 3 April 2026 (TBD) | Northeastern University London
‘Cold War Borderlands: Empire, Space, and Conflict in Thessaloniki and Northern Greece (1946-49)’
Call for Papers, deadline – 30 September 2025
This international one-day workshop, co-organized by Northeastern University London and the American College of Thessaloniki, is part of the British Academy/Leverhulme Trust-funded project “Imperial Transitions in the Early Cold War: The UK and the USA in Thessaloniki (Greece), 1946–49”. It aims to reassess Cold War borderlands by prioritizing the urban and regional transformations in Northern Greece, particularly in Thessaloniki, during and after the Greek Civil War.
Moving beyond national histories, the workshop brings together perspectives from borderland studies, spatial humanities, post-imperial and decolonization studies, and urban history to explore how global power shifts affected everyday life in this strategic frontier. In this context, Thessaloniki emerges not only as a decisive site of Cold War confrontation, but also as a city where imperial legacies, transnational flows, and ideological clashes took spatial form. While centered on the Civil War years, the workshop also welcomes papers addressing developments from 1944 to the early 1960s, with a primary focus on Thessaloniki and its surrounding borderland regions. The workshop also aims to adopt a multi-scale analysis from regional to global layers, being especially concerned with how the transition from UK to US influence in Civil War Greece affected Thessaloniki and its proxime territories.
We welcome contributions from historians, political scientists, geographers, anthropologists, and digital humanists engaging with the region and its broader Cold War entanglements. We also encourage a mixture of methodologies including spatial analysis, GIS mapping, archival research, oral history, and more widely interdisciplinary approaches. The use of digital mapping tools and engagement with “spatial humanities” will be especially appreciated. We particularly encourage proposals from early-career researchers and scholars based in Southeastern Europe.
We welcome topics that include but are not limited to the following ones:
- Security and surveillance policies in Thessaloniki and Northern Greece during and after the Greek civil war (1944-ca.1960)
- Experiences of minority and refugee communities (Jewish, Slavic-speaking, Asia Minor refugees) in Thessaloniki during the Civil War
- Urban economy and reconstruction: aid and trade in Cold War Thessaloniki
- British and American military, intelligence, and development interventions in Macedonia (including but not limited to the Polk affair)
- Cultural diplomacy, education, and soft power during the UK-US transition
- International organizations and/or private humanitarian initiatives
- Communist imaginaries of Thessaloniki, including Greek communists (KKE/DSE) and eastern bloc Balkan countries
- Comparative perspectives on Cold War urban borderlands (e.g. Trieste, Istanbul, Skopje)
- Everyday life and gender roles in Thessaloniki and Northern Greece
- Digital humanities and spatial methods for studying Cold War frontiers
Submission Deadline: 30 September 2025
Notification of Acceptance: by 15 October 2025
Workshop Date: 1-3 April 2026 (exact date TBA)
Venue: Northeastern University London (Devon House, 58 St Katharine’s Way, London E1W 1LP)
Financial Support: Limited funding may be available to cover UK-based travel.
Publication: A peer-reviewed special journal issue is planned following the workshop.
Image: Wiki Commons – CC 2.0