NEWS FROM ACADEMIC COMMUNITY
Association for Slavic, East European, & Eurasian Studies
57th Annual Convention
Washington DC • November 20 - 23, 2025
NASSS Events, Panels and Roundtables
Event 1—Truth in Heat: A Conversation with Milena Markovic (Roundtable)
Saturday Nov. 22st 4:00-5:45, Lincoln West, Concourse
This is a conversation with one of the most prominent Serbian authors: an award-winning poet, playwright, screenplay writer, and professor, Milena Marković. Conceptualized as a round table, apart from Milena Marković herself, this conversation will involve two literary critics, as well as translators of her poetry into English language. The conversation will, among other themes, include aspects of her poetics, her attitudes towards Serbian politics of the past few decades, her personal experiences as a woman writer, the sources of her inspiration, the place of her oeuvre within Serbian and European canon. In addition to the dialogue about her prolific and widely acclaimed work, Milena Marković agreed to share some of her current manuscripts in progress.
Organizer: Dijana Mitrović, Independent Scholar
Participants:
Milena Marković, Fakultet Dramskih umetnosti i SANU
Dijana Mitrović, Independent Scholar
Nikola Marinković, Faculty of Philology, Belgrade; Editor-in-chief of Srpska Književna Zadruga
Event 2—Friday 1:30-3:15 p. m. U Street 1st Floor
(Post)Yugoslav Cinema: “Prague School” and Its Legacy (Sponsored by NASSS)
The panel (Post)Yugoslav Cinema: “Prague School” and Its Legacy explores the poetics of so-called Prague School (most prolific during the 1970s and 1980s) and its resonance in the former Yugoslavia cinematic production. The panel opens with a paper that broadly introduces subversive elements of the Prague School films, thus outlining the dominant characteristics of the most prominent Yugoslav filmmakers. It is followed by a paper on a recent documentary made by Tanja Brzaković, a student of the Prague School representatives who explores new social realities of globally hybridized identities that fall through the cracks of Serbian daily politics. The panel closes with the current work of one of the most relevant Prague School authors, Goran Marković, exploring the poetics of his screenplays, which have not been produced to date because of their subversivness.
Organizer: Dijana Mitrović, Independent Scholar
Chair: Zuko Garagić, University of Chicago
Panelists:
Sunnie Rucker-Cheng, Ohio State University
Marija Grujić, Institut za književnost, Beograd
Nevena Daković, Fakultet dramskih umetnosti, Beograd
Dijana Mitrović, Independent Scholar
Event 3—Saturday Nov. 22, 12:00 - 1:45 Columbia 12, Terrace
Serbian Modernism and Poetic Memory: Rastko Petrović’s Medievel Serbian Myths,
The trauma of WWI and European Aesthetic Forms
The panel features research into the poetic and novelistic work of the Serbian Modernist writer, Rastko Petrovic (1898-1947), who started his literary career as a 17-year-old schoolboy and who followed the retreat of the Serbian army in WWI; he died in Washington DC as a refugee from post-war Communist Yugoslavia. Petrovic introduced a new poetic style into Serbian literature which was Proustian in expression and Dostoevskian in psychological force. The panel will examine his poetic work Veliki drug, which is a foundational text for his future writing, as well as his poems dealing with Kososvo motifs (which could be collectively called Kosovski soneti - 1917), using Serbian medieval cultural motifs in a Modernist stylization. Finally, the panel will focus on a comparative literature theme, namely the relation of Petrvoic’s poetic procedure to the work of the Norwegian novelist, Knut Hamsun, whose novel Hunger (1890) can be seen as a precedent for Petrovic’s poetics, which is overcome in substantial ways. A major accompanying theme of the panel will be to explore the public memory of the Albanian retreat of the Serbian Army in 1915 as it played out during the interwar period and in Petrović’s interpretation of it, showing how his solution aligns with a Modernist approach to writing about war trauma and mourning.
Organizer: Slobodanka Vladiv-Glover, Monash University
Chair: Nada Petković, University of Chicago
Panelists:
Slobodanka Vladiv-Glover, Monash University
“The Poetics of Hunger as Trauma in The Sixth Day”
Milan Gromović, University of Novi Sad
“Early Poetry of Rastko Petrović in the Context of The Poetics Space of Gaston Bachelard”
Dunja Dušanić, University of Belgrade
”Memory and Mourning in Rastko Petrović's Poetry”
Discussant: Nada Petković, University of Chicago
Event 4—Friday, Nov. 21st, 10-11:45, Tenleyton East 1st Floor
Nesting Orientalisms 30 Years Later (roundatable)
In 1978 Edward Said transformed Orientalism from a seemingly innocent term for a fascination with the cultures of the East into a critical category to evaluate systematic essentializing of the cultures of the Middle East. His intervention provoked a number of critical responses but also inspired application of this concept to other “Orients,” notably South Asia, and even lands and peoples within those parts of Europe that had been under “Oriental” Ottoman rule—The Balkans. Thus, during the disintegration of Yugoslavia in the 1990s the concept of Orientalism was used by Milica Bakić-Hayden in Slavic Review (1995) to explain the logic of disparaging discourses that developed regarding and also among the nations of the “European” and “Oriental” parts of the country. This form of analysis is known as Nesting Orientalisms and referred at that time to hierarchical valorizations of Yugoslav peoples’ cultures in regard to “belonging to Europe” – or, supposedly, not. Thirty years after the publication of this highly cited article we are revisiting the legacy of this concept, which has influenced generations of young scholars in America and Europe. We will reflect on the crucial question of how such rhetoric continues to influence political reality, focusing on the relevance that Orientalist discourse may still have in representations of today’s Europe and of the world in general.
Organizer: Nada Petković, The University of Chicago, Slavic Languages and Literatures
Participants:
Milica Bakić-Hayden, University of Pittsburgh, Religious Studies
Dušan Bjelic, University of Southern Maine
Marija Grujić, Institute for Literature and Arts, Belgrade
Angelina Ilieva, The University of Chicago Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures
Tomislav Longinović, Comparative Literature and Visual Culture, University of Wisconsin
Event 5—Thursday Nov. 20th, 5-6:45 U Street First floor
History and Politics in the Balkans: From Yugoslavia’s Regime-Change to the Early Cold War
This panel will offer interdisciplinary insights into how historical events, political decisions, and personal memories have shaped the legacy of Cold War politics in the Balkans, with an emphasis on Yugoslavia's unique position between East and West during this formative period. The geopolitical context of the Cold War, often characterized as a struggle between East and West, had significant implications for the Balkan region, particularly in Yugoslavia. This panel explores the intersection of memory, politics, and historical events during and after WWII, focusing on the changing allegiances and shifting political landscapes that shaped Yugoslavia's role in the emerging Cold War. Central to this discussion are the moments of conflict and cooperation, such as the withdrawal of Western support from the Yugoslav government-in-exile, the early engagement between the West and Tito’s Communist regime, and the role of key individuals like Reuben Markham and Colonel William Bailey in shaping diplomatic narratives. By examining these moments of memory and their political ramifications, the panel seeks to understand how the Balkan region became a contested space in the broader Cold War geopolitics. Additionally, the panel will consider the ways in which these historical events have been remembered and reframed over time, particularly in the context of post-socialist memory politics and contemporary debates on authoritarianism, nationalism, and state power. Through a combination of historical analysis and the study of memory, the panel will explore how the Cold War era continues to influence the political and cultural narratives of the Balkans today.
Organizer: Nina Markovic Khaze, Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia
Chair: Nina Markovic Khaze, Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia
Discussant: Robert Hayden, University of Pittsburgh
Panelists:
Ratomir Mikilic, Principal Research Fellow, Institute for Contemporary History, Belgrade
“Anglo-American Allies and the Serbs in the Closing Stages of WWII – A Varied Perspective”
Ted Van Dyke, Independent Scholar, Washington, DC
“O.W.I. Official Reuben Markham’s Opposition to U.S. Support for Tito Over Mihailovich and his 1944 Resignation”
Vladimir Petrovic, University of Amsterdam
“Communists Mingling with Royalties: Tito in London 1953”
Nina Markovic, Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia
"Socialist Yugoslavia's Foreign Policy: Continuity and Change, 1945–1957"
Event 6—Thursday Nov. 20th 3-4:45, Georgetown East Concourse (Category: International Relations, Security Studies, Foreign Policy)
Novel Forms of Civic Resistance to Hybrid Regimes at the European Outskirt: From Ukraine and Bosnia to Georgia and Serbia
Democratic backsliding is a global phenomenon, which has hit countries of Western Balkans and Eastern Neighborhood quite hard. Unprotected by a wider European structure and absent from NATO, they were more vulnerable both to external pressures and internal power grab. That was especially the case since the EU experienced expansion fatigue. Not only indexes of political and media freedom, but also economic and even demographic indicators were (and still are) reflecting the crisis of significant proportion, adding to the sentiment of despair. In such circumstances, it came as a surprise that quite unique forms of civic resistance to hybridization evolved in these countries. Their "trademark" was a grassroot element, which brought back the citizens as active actors to the political field, basically sidetracking the existing, thoroughly delegitimized institutions.
This wave of unrest started with Euromaidan in Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities in late 2013, culminating in a revolution of dignity next spring. Around this time, social and political discontent turned into an outrage in Bosnia, expressed through protests and unrest in 2014. More recently, Georgia was rocked by the protests, both in Spring 2023 and 2024, regarding resistance to the passing of the law on foreign agents. More recently, in late 2024, the protests widened over the electoral fraud, and the demands for systemic changes are still ongoing. Meanwhile in Serbia there were several attempts to challenge the growingly authoritarian nature of the regime. A protracted protest called 1 out of 5 million was dragging between 2018 and 2020, followed by the protests called Serbia against violence in late 2023 in the wake of mass shootings. As the coalition of the parties which had the same name was defeated in the elections by Aleksandar Vucic's ruling party in December 2023, there seemed to be neither internal energy nor external support for challenging hybridity in Serbia. However, a collapse of the railway station canopy in Novi Sad triggered mass protests in November 2024 which have spread to the entire country, galvanized by the general strike in higher education, organized by student plenums, which has spread to secondary and elementary schools, small towns and various segments of society which were previously absent from political life.
Our panelists will reflect on those events, raising additional questions: What is the meaning of these protests, what are their causes and consequences? Are they interrelated, or should they be? How successful is their challenge to the regime and what are their capacities to reclaim the hijacked institutions? All the panelists are a part of a Horizon project Reengage which aims to scrutinize the situation, chances and challenges in the immediate European neighborhood neighbors in a state of war and geopolitical tensions. It is of particular significance that these attempts from the sidetracked part of our continent come exactly at the time when electoral results and other indicators show significant shift toward authoritarian style of governance in the West and an ever increasing pressure from the East, making the situation in the peripheral countries evert more volatile, but also highly interesting, especially in regard to novel forms citizens participation in political processes they display
Organizer: Luka Filipovic; filipovic.luka95@gmail.com
Chair: Predrag Markovic; pejamarkovic@hotmail.com
Discussant: Vladimir Petrovic; vladimir.lj.petrovic@gmail.com
Panelists:
Luka Filipovic
Forms of Civic Resistance in Bosnia since 2014: Manifestations and Limitations
Valida Repovac Nikšić; valida.repovac.niksic@fpn.unsa.ba
“Political Opposition Reimagined: Civic Activism in Georgia’s Democratic Struggle”
Maia Machavariani; mmachavariani@eecmd.org
“The Festival of Belgrade”: From the Novi Sad Tragedy to Mass Uprisings against the Hybrid Regime of Vucic/SNS
Morten Bøås; mbo@nupi.no Luka Filipovic; filipovic.luka95@gmail.com
Kristian Lefdal; kristian.lefdal@nupi.no
“Survival and civicness traversing militarised borders: the networks conducting evacuations from occupied territory in the shadows of Russian power” Sophie Gueudet; sophie.gueudet@santannapisa.it
Luke Cooper; l.w.cooper@lse.ac.uk
NASSS Annual Meeting and Fundraising Dinner — Washington, D.C.
Friday, November 21, 2025, at 7:00 p.m.
The North American Society for Serbian Studies (NASSS) cordially invites all participants, friends, and members of the community to join us for our Annual Meeting and Fundraising Dinner on Friday, November 21st, 2025, in Washington, D.C., during the ASEEES Annual Convention. The evening will begin with a brief informational meeting from 6:00 to 6:45 p.m. in the hotel near Dupont Circle, followed by a three-course sit-down dinner with wine at 7:15 p.m. at a nearby restaurant—just a pleasant fifteen-minute walk from the hotel. This cherished annual event is both a festive reunion and the Society’s primary fundraiser, celebrating our shared mission to promote Serbian studies and foster collaboration among scholars across North America and beyond. If you wish to attend, please RSVP by November 10th by sending an email to serbianstudies.org@gmail.com
Warm regards,
The Executive Board
2024-25
CURRENT EVENTS IN SERBIA
As an academic organization devoted to the promotion of Serbian culture, NASSS is following with interest and concern the current student protests in Serbia. NASSS is proud of the Serbian youth for their insightful and courageous stance in the face of perceived corruption and injustices in various sectors of Serbian society and public life. NASSS commends the Edict delivered by students of Niš University, which is a concrete and considered proposal for reforms showing statesmanlike qualities and embodying a new Serbian national spirit supported by various segments of Serbian society, from teachers and artists to lawyers and farmers. NASSS will continue to follow the highest and best examples of this spirit by showcasing Serbian culture at the highest level of academic excellence in its journal Serbian Studies.
STUDENT EDICT
A document of a specific nature, created by the students at the University of Niš
PROVISIONS OF THE DOCUMENT
Done in Niš, 1 March 2025. We, students and free citizens of Serbia, gathered in the city of Niš, a city that has witnessed new ideas and changes, a city which has been the crossroads of history for centuries, and where freedom has always found a home, present this edict in which we proclaim the values for which we are fighting, as a pledge for the future and the state in which we desire to live:
I. ON FREEDOM: Serbia is a country of free people. Freedom is not a gift bestowed by a ruler, but rather a fundamental right indivisible from the dignity of every citizen. Freedom is the foundation of our democratic society, of our laws, our words and our thoughts.
II. ON THE STATE: The state is the collective good of all of its citizens. The institutions of Serbia must serve the people and be the basis of trust, and not an instrument of power of an individual. We stand for a state in which law represents the highest authority and where holding a political function means service to the citizens, and not a privilege.
III. ON JUSTICE: Justice is the foundation of a stable society. The independent judiciary, the free press and institutions must act according to the law, and not according to political pressure. Equality of rights must be the reality for every citizen of Serbia.
IV. ON YOUTH: The youth have shown that they are not only the heirs of Serbia, but the defenders of its constitution. Students, as the ones carrying out the struggle, are peserving the values on which our society should be based. The youth of Serbia seek a system based on labor and knowledge.
V. ON DIGNITY: We seek a society in which the dignity of each individual is respected. Dignity presupposes that no person is put into an inferior position because of their positions and thoughts. A Serbia in which experts are not devalued and where knowledge is more
VI. ON KNOWLEDGE: Knowledge is the basis for the advancement of any society. We seek a Serbia which invests in science, research, education and culture as priorities for its development. Universities must be independent centers of excellence, and not places for buying diplomas and political influence.
VII. ON SOLIDARITY: The roads of our cities, from Niš to Novi Sad, from Belgrade to Kragujevac, have witnessed the power of national solidarity. This solidarity, unknown until now in systems based on division, manifests our pledge and our strength, that we are going to defend and nurture. Turning individual voices into a power for change we have demonstrated that Serbia is not a collection of particular interests, but rather a collectivity of citizens who
VIII. ON THE FUTURE: Let this Edict be our duty, our pledge to each other – that we will build a state that belongs to all, in which every child can hope to achieve their greatest dreams. A state in which justice and freedom will be stronger than any individual, in which the government will not make servants of the people, but will instead serve the people.
2024
December 2024
Dijana Mitrović with DAH Theater
One. Ispred svog vremena (see more https://en.dahteatarcentar.com/december-2/)
Within multimedia event, SHE. Ahead of Her Time produced by DAH Theatre (Belgrade) and performed on several occasions in 2024, Serbian Studies Associate Editor, Dijana Mitrović has presented her sound installation Wave (Val). This interactive installation invites the audience to “step into the shoes” of prominent women of Serbian past and, in relative isolation from the environment, hear their thoughts and “get into their heads.” The work questions the stereotypes that underlie common cultural patterns of what it means to be a woman, outlining the split between what we see and what a person really is.
Although the position of women in Serbian society has been significantly improved, many of the patterns that hindered heroines of this work are still ubiquitous and prevent today’s women from fully realizing their potential. That is why the Wave invites audience to remember the women who defied social pressures and in doing so indelibly wove their image and work into collective memory and social progress of Serbian society. Through that memory, this work wants to inspire new generations of women to dare to swim upstream, to embrace themselves in all their complexity and wholeness, to stir the stagnant waters of patriarchy, creating a new wave from which future generations will better see the world around them.NASSS is devoted to enhancing visibility of Serbian and Southeast European academic production in the area of humanities and social sciences. To that end it cooperates with Innovation Center (www.cisi.rs) in utilizing digital technologies to foster cooperation between regional and global production of knowledge.
Vice President of NASSS Dr. Vladimir Petrović has been appointed Head of the Innovation Center (https://cisi.rs/) aimed at facilitating international scholarly exchange between Serbian, Southeast European and global academia in the area of humanities and social sciences. In June 2024, Petrovic took part in an annual Scholars at Risk Conference, held at the European Humanities University in Vilnius, where he presented the activity of the Invisible University for Ukraine and its emerging Balkan component.
NASSS is devoted to enhancing visibility of Serbian and Southeast European academic production in the area of humanities and social sciences. To that end it cooperates with Innovation Center (www.cisi.rs) in utilizing digital technologies to foster cooperation between regional and global production of knowledge. Vice President of NASSS Dr. Vladimir Petrović has been appointed Head of the Innovation Center (https://cisi.rs/) aimed at facilitating international scholarly exchange between Serbian, Southeast European and global academia in the area of humanities and social sciences. In June 2024, Petrovic took part in an annual Scholars at Risk Conference, held at the European Humanities University in Vilnius, where he presented the activity of the Invisible University for Ukraine and its emerging Balkan component.
2021
We are proud to announce that on February 11, 2021, Tomislav Z. Longinović, Professor of Slavic, Comparative Literature and Visual Culture, at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, was named winner of the prestigious Jovan Skerlić Award for 2020, for his novel entitled Fetiš Nulo (Belgrade: Dereta). Congratulations to Professor Longinović, our longtime member.