Call for Papers

East Central Europe: Between the Baltic and the Adriatic

Special Issue:

Waterscapes of East Central Europe: Rivers, Lakes, Seas, and the Historical Shaping of the Region

The journal East Central Europe: Between the Baltic and the Adriatic invites submissions for a special issue devoted to the historical interactions between water and society in East Central Europe. This thematic issue aims to explore the multifaceted roles of rivers, lakes, wetlands, and maritime zones in shaping the political, economic, social, cultural, and environmental trajectories of the region from the Middle Ages to the twentieth century, while also welcoming contributions addressing contemporary perspectives.

Water has long functioned as a crucial natural resource, transportation corridor, economic asset, political boundary, cultural symbol, and environmental challenge in East Central Europe. By focusing on the region’s diverse waterscapes, this special issue seeks to deepen our understanding of how aquatic environments influenced settlement patterns, commercial networks, state formation, imperial strategies, social practices, cultural imaginaries, and environmental transformations.

Possible Topics Include (but are not limited to):

• Rivers and waterways as arteries of trade, communication, and military strategy
• Hydrological conditions and settlement structures: urban development, ports, and crossing points
• The history of water management: flood control, river regulation, drainage of wetlands, irrigation systems
• Waters as political, imperial, and cultural boundaries
• Environmental history perspectives: climate, hydrology, and ecological change
• Economic uses of water: fishing, milling, industrial applications
• Water, law, and society: regulation, conflicts, and communal practices
• Symbolic, representational, and cultural meanings of waterscapes
• The history of tourism, spas, and bathing culture
• Interdisciplinary approaches: historical geography, environmental history, social and economic history, cultural studies

Submission Guidelines:

The editors invite original, previously unpublished scholarly articles in English on German. Manuscripts should normally range between 6,000 and 9,000 words (including references). Submissions should be made via the journal’s online platform:

https://ojs.lib.unideb.hu/eastcentraleurope/about/submissions

All submissions will undergo blind peer review.

Important Dates:

• Abstract submission (200–300 words): 31 July 2026
• Full manuscript submission: 31 December 2026
• Expected publication: 2027

The editors particularly welcome comparative, transnational, and interdisciplinary contributions, as well as studies focusing on under-researched regions, periods, and sources.