Contemporary research suggests that economic marginalization of ethnic minorities remains a persistent trait in Central, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe. From a historical perspective, economic advantages and disadvantages were often determined along ethnic lines. This changed with the onset of nationalism and the formation of nation-states, where access to power and economic resources started to be reserved for ethnic majorities, crucially changing the status many ethnic economic elites had previously enjoyed. By integrating historical research, this conference aims to shed light on how identification and differentiation based on ethnicity have shaped economic experiences and outcomes in the region. The conference will address topics such as the unequal concentration of wealth across ethnic lines, the economic and social marginalization of certain ethnic groups, and the correlation between social and economic inequalities with ethnicity and majority-minority relations. Key themes discussed at the conference include the relationship between ethnicity and entrepreneurship, the economic advantages of common ethnicity, and the impact of ethnic (as well as racial) discrimination, as well as the overall role of ethnicity in economic development.
Programme
Thursday, 10 September 2026
9.00–9.30: Welcome & Introduction
Iryna Klymenko (Lviv), Olena Palko (Basel), Olena Petrentko (Bochum), Katja Wezel (Göttingen)
10.00–12.00: Panel 1 – Minorities, Economy, Elections and the Empire
Volodymyr Kulikov (London): Ethnic Entrepreneurship and Value Chains in Ukraine under Imperial Rule
Darius Staliūnas (Vilius): The Influence of Social and Economic Factors on Coalition Formation During Elections to the Russian State Dumas in Lithuania
Andrea Gritti (Paris): The Destruction of Ottomanist Reason. Economic Critique and Sectarian Spirit in Late Ottoman Salonica
14.00–16.30 Panel 2: Industrial Development, Economic Empowerment and Imperial Legacies
Ségolène Plyer (Strasbourg): Shaping an innovative competition: The ethnic factor among textile manufacturers in north-eastern Bohemia
Olena Petrenko (Bochum): Ethnicity and Economic (Dis)Advantages in the Sugar Industry of 19th-Century Ukraine
Vladyslava Moskalets (Lviv): Jews and Others in the Galician Countryside
Samuel Foster (Norwich): A “Vast Armed Camp”: Economic Militarism as State Minority Policy in Ango-French Balkan Discourses, 1880-1914
17.00–18.30: Keynote
Klaus Richter (University of Birmingham): Economic Nationalism or Empowerment of the Nation? East Central Europe in the Interwar Period
Friday, 11 September 2026
9.00–11.00: Panel 3 – Inclusion and Exclusion in the Interwar Era
Maria Kavala (Thessaloniki): The Importance of the 1922 Refugees to the New Greek State
Petre Matei (Bukarest): Criminalized Poverty: The Socioeconomic Marginalization of the Roma in Interwar Romania and its Impact on War Deportations
Max Trecker (Göttingen): The Donbas as a Region of Economic Imagination, 1920s-1940s
11.30–13.30: Panel 4 – Entrepreneurs, Nationalism and Minority Agency after WWI
Heidi Rifk (Tallinn): Baltic German Entrepreneurs in Estonia’s Nation-State Economy
Katja Wezel (Göttingen): Between Economic (Dis)Empowerment and Nationalization: German and Jewish Businesses in Interwar Latvia
Olena Palko (Basel): Soviet Land Reform, National Resistance and Minority Agency in Interwar Ukraine
13.30–14.00: Concluding Discussion
End of the Conference: c. 14.00
Katja Wezel: katja.wezel@uni-goettingen.de