Taking place at Goldsmiths, University of London on the afternoon of 28th November (programme available here), this conference brings together nine academics at different career stages working on the history of Yugoslavia and the post-Yugoslav region. All the papers have been written specially for the event and will benefit from, and contribute to, a range of methodological and disciplinary approaches: transnational, global, social, intellectual, political and oral history, as well as related disciplines such as memory studies and transitional justice.
More specifically, the conference aims to contribute to the scholarship in four main ways: first, each paper is based on latest, original and methodologically innovative research which goes beyond national narratives and frameworks; second, the conference situates the Yugoslav region in a wider context, sensitive to transnational, comparative and global dynamics; third, and following on from this, the papers point out some directions in which scholars of Yugoslavia can contribute to broader discussions within the fields of modern and contemporary history and related disciplines; and fourth, the event should facilitate a dialogue and closer collaboration between early career researchers and established scholars.
Key research questions underpinning the conference include: can we understand the history of Yugoslavia and the post-Yugoslav region without situating it in a wider, transnational and perhaps even global context? Yugoslavia is usually perceived as unique (or perhaps uniquely unstable) case, an exception that confirms the rule, but does the latest research confirm or challenge such assumptions? What are the current main trends in the historiography of former-Yugoslavia and how do they relate to broader historiographical debates? In other words, how effectively do historians of Yugoslavia speak to scholars working in fields such as global history, transnational history, modern European history, history of the empire, the Holocaust, Cold War, communist and post-communist studies, race and ethnicity, and transitional justice?
The conference is free to attend and those interested in doing so are asked to register via Eventbrite. It is being convened by Prof. Dejan Djokić and queries can be directed to Daniel Fraser in the History Department Office.