Sylabus
1) Introduction - Kateřina Králová / Jiří Kocián (9.10.2018)
Course description and assessmentIntroduction to readings and course activitiesSelection of presentations
Presentation of the online platform Encyclopedia of Migration - http://encyklopedie.org/ 2) Two centuries of Balkan History - Jiří Kocián (16.10.2018)
This class will offer a basic overview of the historical and political development in the Balkan peninsula during the 19th and 20th century. Acquirement of such a knowledge background offers a perspective to understand long term processes of the (re-)formation of South-East European states as well as historically entrenched principles of nation- and identity building.
Presentation topics: a) The "Catastrophic" consequence - population exchange between Turkey and Greece in 1923 b) Post-Holocaust Jewish emigration from the Balkans c) "De-Germanization" of the Balkans after WWII (oral presentation) - Laurence Collien
The student without presentation (two entries) - Adéla Krausová
Reading:
Maria Todorova, Imagining the Balkans, pp. 4-20. 3) Migration in Greece after 1989 - Nikola Karasová (23.10.2018)
The lecture is going to map migration trends in Greece after 1989. During the 1990s the prevailing migration flow constituted of mostly economic and clandestine migrants arriving to Greece from post-communist countries (Albania, former Yugoslavia, Eastern bloc). Following the 2000s, the countries of migrants' origin started changing. The number of migrants and refugees from Asian and African countries (both economic and political ones, legal and illegal), had been on the rise peaking in 2015 when almost one million of immigrants entered the country. As a result of the 2009 economic crisis we could observe decreasing ability of the Greek state to challenge these immigration flows. At the same time there was a steep increase in economically motivated emigration of young educated Greeks to Western countries (brain-drain). In all cases, migration resonated among political parties and their voters and had a significant impact on Greek politics (far-right, anti-immigration policies etc.).
Reading:
Alexandros Sakellariou (2017) Fear of Islam in Greece: migration, terrorism, and “ghosts” from the past, Nationalities Papers, 45:4, 511-523, DOI: 10.1080/00905992.2017.1294561
Presentation topics a) Migration crisis in Greece (For example: When? Which migrants and from where? What migration routes? What migration policies implemented by the government?) b) Brain-drain of young educated Greeks – Result of the economic crisis? - (oral presentation) - Elisa Aubin
The student without presentation (two entries) - David José Scheidl 4) Greece as a safeguard of Europe - Kateřina Králová (30.10.2018)
In 2015, armed conflict in Syria as well as unsettled situation in Afghanistan, Iraq and elsewhere triggered what has been since described in public discourse as “migration crisis”. In our class we will first elaborate on the terminology being used in this context and then focus on the impact of this population inflow in Europe and particularly in Greece, how they responded to it, how they deal with it ad hoc and what are the prospects.
Presentation topic:
Refugee Facilities in Greece: From Idomeni to Kara Tepe - (oral presentation) - Nina Skoupilová
The student without presentation (two entries) - Joshua Nathan Williams
Reading:
Zara Steiner (2017) "Refugees: The Timeless Problem", in Frank, Matthew James, and Jessica Reinisch. Refugees in Europe, 1919-1959: a forty years' crisis?, p. 21-31.
Dan Stone (2017) Concentration Camps, p. 109-17.
For presentation follow current reports in news. 5) Post-conflict development in BiH after 1995 - Veronika Grossová (6.11.2018)
The war in Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1992-1995 has left tens of thousands of lives lost, driven hundreds of thousands of people from their homes and destroyed the country’s economy. The Dayton Peace Agreement, which was signed under the supervision of the international community, terminated the war and set the basic framework for the post-war political functioning of the country. In this lesson, we will examine the main points of post-conflict reconstruction, discuss the idea of reconciliation and talk about the long-term consequences of the war.
Presentation topics: a) Postwar majority and minority returns b) „Hidden“ consequences of the war - PTSD, war babies - Adalberto Luna Rodriguez Bueno
The student without presentation (two entries) - Marius Kürzel
Reading:
Keil, Soeren and Anastasiia Kudlenko. "Bosnia and Herzegovina Twenty Years after Dayton: Complexity Born of Paradoxes". International Peacekeeping 22, No. 5 (2015).
(optional) Eastmond, Maria. "INTRODUCTION: Reconciliation, reconstruction, and everyday life in war-torn societies". Journal of Global and Historical Anthropology 57 (2010). 6) The Politics of Memory in the Balkans - Barbora Chrzová (13.11.2018)
History and memory serve as bases on which national and ethnic identities are built because they tell us where we have come from, who we are and where we are heading. Yet history is not stored in the past but it is always closely linked to the political context which gives history its meaning and links it to the present. History and a collective memory are powerful tools of social mobilization, they are sources of legitimacy for the ruling class and they are deeply embedded in conflicts. The sudden collapse of communist regimes in the Balkans saw memory landscapes violently transformed. The lecture deals with the politics of history in the Balkans after 1989. More specifically, it will examine how history had been used to fuel conflicts during the violent break-up of Yugoslavia and the role of history in the process of post-war reconciliation.
Presentation topics: a) Competing narratives of the Operation Storm (1995) b) The memory of those who perished in the transformed memory landscapes in the aftermath of war - struggles for remembering Srebrenica - Serine Linde Helland
The student without presentation (two entries) - Thomas Alleaume
Reading:
Moll, Nicolas. "Fragmented memories in a fragmented country: memory competition and political identity-building in today's Bosnia and Herzegovina." Nationalities Papers 41, no. 6 (2013): 910-935.
(optional) Banjeglav, Tamara. "Conflicting memories, competing narratives and contested histories in Croatia’s post-war commemorative practices." Politička misao: časopis za politologiju 49, no. 5 (2013): 7-31.
(optional) Cohen, Laura Beth. “Contesting Memories of Genocide: The Memorialization of Srebrenica, Bosnia i Herzegovina.” ECPR General Conference 2014, Glasgow.
Further reading:
Ramet, Sabrina. “The Dissolution of Yugoslavia: Competing Narratives of Resentment and Blame.” Southeast Europe Journal of Politics and Society 1 (2007): 26-69.
Miller, Paul B. "Contested memories: the Bosnian genocide in Serb and Muslim minds." Journal of Genocide Research 8, no. 3 (2006): 311-324. 7) Religion and Churches in the (Western) Balkans - Karin Hofmeisterová (