An important element of social cohesion and contact between majorities and sub-state ethnic minorities are intermarriages, which are either welcomed as vehicles easing the tensions between nations and sub-state minorities or criticized as important drivers of assimilation and the ‘destroyers’ of ethnic minority communities. The social aspects, family dynamics and identity construction of family members in intermarriages were not studied methodically in CEE and the WB. Therefore, the goal of the Intermarriage and Ethnic Identity (IMEI) project is to analyse the social implications of intermarriages between members of ethnic minority communities and the majority nations in Vojvodina, the multi-ethnic region of Serbia. The IMEI project will contribute to the state-of-the-art by analysing the social impacts of intermarriages on three levels, namely the individual (micro), the family (meso) and the societal (macro) in a significantly multi-ethnic geographic region. On the individual level the project will examine ethnic and cultural identity transformations undergone by partners in intermarriages. On the family level we will explore the processes of intergenerational transfer of ethnic, religious, and cultural markers. On the societal level the project will investigate the workings of the relevant and quite modern ethnic minority policies and legal framework of Serbia and their impact on intermarriages. This research is relevant in the wider European context as well, as we will specifically target the Hungarian, Slovak and Romanian ethnic minorities living in Vojvodina, whose kin-states (Hungary, Slovakia, Romania) are members of the European Union, whose members often have dual Serbian and EU citizenship and are therefore subject to the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities and European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages, the European Union’s key policies for the protection of (its) minorities.
Intermarriage and Ethnic Identity logo design: Attila Kapitány, Associate Professor, University of Novi Sad, Serbia
Events related to the Project
• Graduation Ceremony with students
• Karolina Lendák-Kabók's presentation at the Seminar of the Institute for Sociology of the Slovak Academy of Sciences // Downloadable Abstract // Downloadable PPT
• Karolina Lendák-Kabók's presentation at the "Történelem innen és túl" conference (ELTE ÁJK) // Program
• ASN World Convention Participation // Downloadable Abstract
• MSCA IMEI workshop (2nd day) and TraFaDy Working Group 3. meeting in Budapest
• MSCA IMEI workshop (1st day)
• MSCA Intermarriage and Ethnic Identity (IMEI) Workshop Program
• Project presentation and guest lecture
• Martin Klatt's (European Centre for Minority Issues) guest lecture
• Presentation in the New York Convention of the Association of the Nationalities Studies (ASN)
○ The program of the convention can be found here
○ The program of the conference can be found here
○ Brownbag Seminare – Aktuelle Forschung zu Südosteuropa
• Mixed Marriages and Identity Choices in the German-Danish Border Region – international workshop
○ The programme of the workshop
○ You can access the edited video recording here