Can a law designed to safeguard local identity end up eroding fundamental rights? In this episode of Studio Central and Eastern Europe at KU Leuven, sociologist Vera Messing (Center for Social Sciences, Budapest) speaks with political scientist Peter Vermeersch about Hungary’s Law on Protecting Local Community Identity, in force since July 2025. The legislation gives municipalities the power to restrict new residents and property buyers, granting local councils authority to regulate settlement and property acquisition. While presented as a measure to preserve cultural identity and support small communities, human rights organisations and the EU warn of serious risks to equality and freedom of movement. Messing examines how local authorities apply—or ignore—these powers, and what this means for Hungary’s citizens, particularly the Roma minority.

Vera Messing is a research fellow at the Center for Policy Studies and a senior research associate of the Institute of Sociology at the Hungarian Academy of Sciences in Budapest. Peter Vermeersch is Professor of Political Science at KU Leuven. Their current work forms part of the project RAISE, Recognition and Acknowledgement of Injustice to Strengthen Equality.

Join us for a conversation that exposes the tension between local autonomy, national politics, and fundamental rights in Hungary.

This episode explores the enigmatic world of Sergej Parajanov, the cult film director whose visionary work defied conventions and censorship in the second half of the 20th century. Tatiana Klepikova—UR’s Freigeist Fellow at the University of Regensburg, currently writing a book on Parajanov—joins Maryna Shevtsova, senior FWO researcher at KU Leuven, for a conversation about his contested heritage. Why do so many post-Soviet nations claim him as their own? And how did his unconventional art and persona navigate the cultural politics of an era defined by rigid norms? Together, they unravel the intersections of cinema, identity, and cultural memory in a turbulent era.

In this episode of Studio Central and Eastern Europe, Maryna Shevtsova engages Emil Edenborg in a thought-provoking conversation on why gender and sexuality become such potent political tools, what drives the international rise in homophobia, and how scholarly work might help counter these trends. Their discussion unpacks global dynamics, power struggles, and the role of knowledge in shaping social change. Maryna is a Senior FWO Researcher at LINES, KU Leuven, and Emil is an Associate Professor of Gender Studies at Stockholm University.

In this episode of Studio Central and Eastern Europe, political scientist Jeroen Van den Bosch, co-author of the newly published Encyclopedia Tyrannica, joins Ria Laenen, lecturer in Russian and International Politics at KU Leuven, for a conversation that spans both the conceptual and the geopolitical.

Together, they explore how the idea for this ambitious encyclopaedia—a research guide to totalitarianism—took shape, and what it finds in common between authoritarianisms across the globe. Why do the Asian republics—once integral to the Soviet Union and still of strategic global importance—remain a blind spot in Belgium, even among political science students?

Encyclopedia Tyrannica is available free of charge: Read it here: https://www.ibidem.eu/out/media/vlb_9783838278827_2.pdf

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This is the first episode of our third season. It feels as if we only started yesterday, yet this is already the third academic year that our Studio on Central and Eastern Europe brings you conversations on the latest research about the region. 

In this episode, we draw connections that may surprise many listeners: What can Colombia’s experience with conflict teach Ukraine? And what does transitional justice in Latin America share with the post-conflict processes of Central and Eastern Europe? 

Stephan Parmentier, professor of criminology and human rights at KU Leuven, speaks with Fernando Serrano-Amaya, a Colombian scholar whose work bridges peacebuilding, social policy, and the politics of reconciliation. Serrano-Amaya holds a PhD from the University of Sydney and has taught and conducted research in Australia, Colombia, and beyond. His work examines youth and gender-based violence, masculinities, and queer peacebuilding, and he recently co-edited a special issue on the subject in the Revista de Estudios Sociales. 

Together, Stephan Parmentier and Jose Fernando Serrano-Amaya discuss the main pillars of transitional justice, while tracing how violence and justice shift and take new forms during and after violent conflict. 

The final episode of this academic year revolves around the story of a group of Belarusian musicians caught in the violent crackdown on dissent. Slavic studies scholar Hanna Stähle speaks with political scientist Peter Vermeersch about his new book Pulse (Polsslag), a compelling chronicle (and musical history) of the 2020 Belarusian pro-democracy protests.

Set to the soundtrack of Peremen! — a Soviet-era rock anthem that became the heartbeat of a modern uprising — Pulse traces the stories of artists, musicians, and ordinary citizens who transformed creativity into resistance against the regime of Alexander Lukashenko.

Moving from the Belarusian capital Minsk to exiled communities in Warsaw, Riga, Brussels, and Berlin, Pulse captures a moment of history when art refuses to be apolitical. This episode is a conversation about courage, music, and the enduring pulse of dissent.

In this episode of Studio Central and Eastern Europe, Oksana Dudko discusses how Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine has broadened the field of Ukrainian studies in the West. In conversation with Maryna Shevtsova, a senior FWO postdoctoral researcher in political studies at KU Leuven, they explore how the war has deepened scholarly engagement and encouraged East European Studies to move beyond its long-standing Russia-centric lens.

Oksana Dudko is a historian of 20th-century Europe, specializing in violence, gender, and cultural history in Ukraine and the Soviet Union. She is currently a PhD candidate at the University of Toronto and has taught in both Canada and Ukraine. Beyond academia, she is an active curator and founder of several theatre festivals in Ukraine, and a participant in KU Leuven’s project HER-UKR: Challenges and Opportunities for EU Heritage Diplomacy in Ukraine, which explores the role of cultural heritage in the EU’s external action. The project brings together a consortium of 15 universities to examine EU foreign policy, heritage diplomacy, and Eastern European memory politics.

Uniting Europe or dividing it? A celebration of LGBTQ+ identity or a stage for homophobia? A voice for peace or a platform for political contestations? In the wake of the latest Eurovision edition, KU Leuven academics Maryna Shevtsova (political science) and Jonas Vanderschueren (cultural studies) reflect on the deepening cracks in Eurovision’s identity. They discuss how the song contest came dangerously close to imploding this year—and how its political values remain strikingly inconsistent and unresolved.

Each May, the dazzling and often divisive Eurovision song contest stirs up a whirlwind of fans, deep emotions, and fierce debates. Ahead of this year’s edition, political scientists Maryna Shevtsova and Peter Vermeersch delve into the social and political undercurrents of Eurovision — and its future.

A lifelong fan with a sharp analytical lens, Maryna reflects on how Eurovision became important to her personally and why it resonates powerfully in Ukraine today, especially in light of the Russian invasion. In a conversation with political scientist Peter Vermeersch, she unpacks the passions the contest evokes, the challenges its fans face, and its rising significance for the LGBTQ+ community and soft diplomacy.

Don’t miss this compelling conversation — and subscribe to our podcast series from the Forum on Central and Eastern Europe at KU Leuven!