Youth Perceptions of the 1990s Wars: Violence and Their Aftermath in Post-War Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina

Session Submission Type: Panel

Brief Description

The panel examines views, attitudes and knowledge of the young people, those born after the 1990s wars in former Yugoslavia, on the wartime past of their countries. We are interested in how the post-war generation today thinks, feels and how much it knows about the 1990s wars and the post-war transformations in Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina. The panel discusses how politics of remembrance and public history of the recent past intersect with youth perceptions and their future orientations.
The panel attempts to answer the following questions: Does the war play an important role in how the young perceive their local communities, the wider society and their future in the society? How does the memory of the war, both private (narrated within families) and public (learned through state memorialisation practices and history education), affect their daily lives and everyday experiences? What does the (recent) violent past mean for the young today and do they even care about it?

Sub Unit

• Anthropology, Cultural Studies

Chair

• Tatjana Aleksic, U of Michigan

Papers

• Croatian Youth Perspectives on the Dark Side of the 1990s: Between Official Narrative and Ignorance - Anja Gvozdanovic, Inst for Social Research (Croatia)

• Give Peace a Chance: Youth Perceptions and Public Memory of Croatia’s Peace Process - Tamara Banjeglav, Scientific Research Centre SAZU (Slovenia)

• Youth, Politics, and Memory: Perspectives of the Post-War Generation on the Politics of Remembrance in Tuzla - Mila Dragojevic, Sewanee: The U of the South; Valentina Otmacic, U of Rijeka (Croatia)

Discussant

• Tatjana Aleksic, U of Michigan