From September 25 to 27, 2025, Orianne Crouteix and François Lerin participated in the fifth Balkan Studies Encounter, held at the MUCEM (Museum of European and Mediterranean Civilisations) in Marseille, France. The theme of this conference was “Balkan Matters – subtitled: Material Cultures in the Balkans” (see the link to the program below).

Our Association has attended these conferences, organized by the French Association for Balkan Studies, since the third conference (on cities, in 2019). The fourth conference was dedicated to “Connected Balkans”. It brings together the leading figures in Balkan studies, primarily academics – French, of course, but also from all kinds of institutions in the region. It is therefore a place for meeting, for scholarly (and non-scientific) discussions, for networking, and for listening.

This year Orianne & François in collaboration with Sylvain Guyot from the University of Bordeaux Montaigne organized a panel on the theme “Heritage and Environmental Protection: The Challenges of Tangible and Intangible Legacies”. See the presentation in the folowing diaporama.

This panel included four presentations:

• The work of S. Guyot and V. André-Lamat reflecting on the heritage status of a river in Greece,

• D. Dimitrova’s study examining geographical indications as tools for biodiversity conservation, with case studies mainly from Bulgaria,

• T. Ivanova’s work on plants, understanding the naturalistic and cultural issues involved, using Bulgarian examples,

• D. Soleil and T. Matijevic’s study of literary and artistic works from antiquity and the contemporary Yugoslav period to highlight the importance of plants, orchards and flowers.

Photo (banner) : MUCEM (Marseille), 2025 / François Lerin.