Conflict, Memory, and Identity in the Yugoslav Successor States

Session Submission Type: Panel

Brief Description

This panel examines issues of conflict, memory, and identity in the Yugoslav successor states. Politics and national narratives in the region largely reflect the legacies of violence in both World War II and the breakup of Yugoslavia, which both polarized society along ethnic lines. While the socialist state managed to create a sense of unity among the varied ethnic groups of the region, the violent conflicts of the 1990s have hardened the barriers between them. Through four distinct but interconnected papers, this panel analyzes the ways in which war has shaped the post-conflict politics and identities of the region.

Blaze Joel’s paper takes a micro-historical approach to understand how the breakup of Yugoslavia impacted Sarajevo’s multiethnic identity and how Sarajevans navigated a world in which ethnicity was now the most important marker of identity. Jelena Subotić examines the differences between how the Serbian and Croatian states have approached art restitution in the post-war era, combining the legacies of WWII with the polarized identities of the post-1990s period. Daniel Rhea analyzes how the Republika Srpska and Serbia have employed historical revisionism about the War in Bosnia to suit their current political and ontological needs. Finally, Ivana Polić’s paper uses the state-sponsored school visits to Vukovar to scrutinize the ways in which the Croatian national narrative is portrayed by the program and understood by the students.

Sub Unit

• History: Since 1990

Chair

• Vjeran Ivan Pavlakovic, U of Rijeka (Croatia)

Papers

• Sarajevstvo Under Siege: How the War in Bosnia Impacted Sarajevan Identity - Blaze Joel, U of Texas at Austin

• Historical Trauma and Cultural Resentment: The Problems of Nazi-Looted Art Restitution in Serbia and Croatia - Jelena Subotic, Georgia State U

• Memory Erased: Historical Revisionism in Bosnia and Herzegovina's Republika Srpska Entity and Serbia - Daniel Michael Rhea, Independent Scholar

• Identity in Excursion: State-sponsored Trips to Vukovar in Croatian Schools - Ivana Polic, Florida State U

Discussant

• Vjeran Ivan Pavlakovic, U of Rijeka (Croatia)