Syllabus
1. Course Introduction
Course description and assesmentIntroduction to readings and course activitiesSelection of presentationsIntroduction to Balkan contemporary affairs 2) Introduction into the Balkan History 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. Following this introduction, the course will further deal in depth with specific contemporary issues which nevertheless find referential points in the historical setting.
Presentation topics: 1) Hitler's complicit allies? Romania and Bulgaria in World War II 2) The first breakup of Yugoslavia
Reading:
Maria Todorova, Imagining the Balkans, pp. 4-20. 3. Myths and stereotypes in the Balkans
The aim of the lecture is to define terms myth and stereotype and to classify main categories of myths and stereotype that we can find in the Balkans while focusing on these which have fully (re)emerged after 1989, e.g . national and religious myths and stereotypes and stereotypical picture of the Balkans in the West. Which role did myths and stereotypes play in the process of (re)creating national identities in postcommunist era. How did they influence the conflicts in the Western Balkans in the 1990’s? Which were the triggering mechanisms and mobilizing agents that extensively contributed to their activation after the collapse of communism? These questions will be discussed during this lecture.
Presentation topics:
Myths and stereotypes in Bosnian war
Dichotomy West/East, Balkanism and their projection in the former Yugoslavia
Reading:
Hayden Bakić, Milica. "Nesting Orientalisms: The Case of Former Yugoslavia". Slavic Review 54, No. 4 (Winter, 1995), 917-931.
(Optional) Gerrits, André a Nanci Adler, eds. Vampires Unstaked, National Images, Stereotypes and Myths in East Central Europe. Amsterdam: Verhandelingen der Koninklijke Nederlandse Akademie van Wetenschappen. Afd. Letterkunde. Nieuwe Reeks; Deel 163, 1995. 4. Politics of memory
The seminar will deal with how representation of history and collective memory are molded into tools of social mobilization, sources of legitimacy for the ruling elites and drain their power from past and existing conflicts. Finding different forms, political use/shaping of commemoration penetrates officially sanctioned and institutionalized platforms as well as pop-culture and different subcultures.
Presentation topics:
Commemoration of the Holocaust in SEE
World War II memory in Greece
Reading:
Droumpouki, Anna-Maria. 2016. "Shaping Holocaust memory in Greece: memorials and their public history". National Identities. 18, no. 2: 199-216. 5. Democratic Transition in the Balkans
Transition to democracy has been approached by many theories and concepts. With their basic understanding we may reveal the aims of the Balkan politicians during the different phases of transformation and their specifics to applying democratic standards. The aim is to closely analyse the process of transition to democracy in the former Yugoslavia, Romania and Bulgaria, that has started in the late 1980‘s and fully progressed into the beginning of 1990‘s.
Presentation topic:Example of a "democratic transition" in practice (choose one Balkan country)
Reading:
Crawford Beverly. Lijphart Arend. (eds.) Liberalization and Leninist Legacies: Comparative Perspectives on Democratic Transitions (Berkeley: University of California at Berkeley, 1997): 1-39. 6. Guest Lecture I - TBA
In collaboration with the University of Sarajevo, our colleagues from among their academic ranks will join our course with their lectures. 7. Policy briefs: International, Regional and Internal Affairs of the Balkan countries
Students' working groups will present their analyses of selected issues. The format will be defined and discussed in advance (see Policy Brief Guide and examples in the Syllabus). 8. EU and the Balkans
Countries of the Balkans have constituted a specific group in the process of European association compared to other post-socialist states. Deriving from the experience of more complicated transitional period and wars in the western part of the peninsula, the European association process and relations to the EU have played an important role in their internal policies and constructing regional cooperation with varied success. This session aims at analyzing past experiences with these as a whole and their current implications.
Presentation topics:
Romania and Bulgaria: Premature accessions?
EU with a "stick": Serbian accession policy after 2008
Reading:
Aneta Spendzarova, Milada Vachudova. "Catching up? Consolidating Liberal Democracy in Bulgaria and Romania after EU Accession". West European Politics 35 (2012), pp. 39-58.
(Optional) Timo Summa, The European Union’s 5th Enlargement - Lesson Learned (Fellowship report, Harvard University, 2008), 5-34. 9. Contested Statehood: “The competing narratives and the implications on Kosovo – Serbia relations in the 90s”
The lecture on “The competing narratives and the implications on the Kosovo – Serbia relations in the 90s”, is a general reflection on the actions taken by the Serbian and the Kosovar actors to create (invent and reinvent) the narrative about Kosovo after the fall of Yugoslavia. These efforts on both sides were intended to claim the right to Kosovo’s past and certainly the right to decide about its future. The “engineers” of such attempts were not only official state institutions but also cultural institutions, religious institutions, the media, and the international actors. The second part of the lecture deals with the impact these competing narratives had on the relations between Kosovo and Serbia in the 90s and today.
Presentations topics:
The Kosovar Diaspora as an actor in the struggle for independence in the 1990s
The Kosovar Diaspora role in supporting Parallel structures (especially Education)
Reading:
Clark, Howard. Civil Resistance in Kosovo. London: Pluto Press, 2000. pp. 15 – 20; pp. 39 – 41; pp. 66 – 69.
Judah, Tim. Kosovo. What everyone needs to know. New York: Oxford University Press, 2008. pp. 64-74
(optional) Malcolm, Noel. Kosovo. A Short History. London: Macmillan, 1998.
(optional) Said, Edward. Culture and Imperialism. London: Vintage, 1994. Introduction xii – xiii. 10. Guest Lecture II - “Remembering Srebrenica: Comparing US Congress and European parliament Commemorations”
In collaboration with the University of Sarajevo, our colleagues from among their academic ranks will join our course with their lectures. 11. Religion, churches and the breakup of Yugoslavia
The breakup of Yugoslavia accompanied by the greatest military conflict in Europe since the Second World War has been often interpreted in a simplified way as inevitable because of the extreme ethnic and religious heterogeneity of th
Annotation
Contact person for the course: Arban Mehmeti, MA (arban.mehmeti@gmail.com)
The aim of this course is to closely follow the often turbulent development of the Balkan region from the year 1989 until present days. The essence is to tackle various stereotypes and misinterpretations that are still hunting the
Balkan region. Chronologically, the course will follow the fall of communist regimes in the region, Yugoslav wars, political transformations, the commencement and progress of the integration process into the EU and also current political hindrances in the region.
Apart from observing the political and international context of the last 20 years in the Balkans, it is necessary to understand the theoretical approaches and general context in which the region develops. Individual lectures will thus combine factual approach with theoretical one - political transformation, EU integration, theories of international relations, securitization, civic and national states, national "great ideas" or national and territorial sovereignty etc.