This publication, edited by Bardhyl Demiray, includes the proceedings of the 7th German-Albanian Cultural Studies Conference, which took place on April 21–22, 2023 in Hubmersberg near Pommelsbrunn (Bavaria). It was very well received thanks to the participation of top-class researchers from 22 teaching and research centers from Western and Eastern Europe. The conference continued the successful series of conferences that the Institute for Comparative and Indo-European Linguistics and Albanian Studies (LMU Munich) has been organizing every three years since 2003.
The conference was dedicated to the general topic of The Albanian Language Area and its Surroundings from Late Antiquity to the High Middle Ages and focused on the latest developments that are currently shaping Albanian Studies as a regional and interdisciplinary research discipline, as well as on the discussion and exchange of opinions in the empirically and theoretically identification of separate research areas, such as the language, culture and history of the Albanians and their neighbors. Despite the colorful and multi-layered nature of the topic and the interdisciplinary approaches to analysis, the 20 contributions to the conference proceedings cover all the pillars of this complex discipline. Among others, the following research areas are specifically addressed: Archeology and Medieval Studies, Historical Linguistics and Philology, Language Contact and Areal Typology, Cultural Studies and Ethnolinguistics, Population Genetics and Historical Anthropology.