The course is organized around different themes dealing with South-Eastern Europe/the Balkans from an <br>
anthropological perspective. We will consecutively address these themes during class sessions and also <br>
observe their interlinkages: What and where are the Balkans and how have they been impacted upon by different <br>
empires, nationalisms, and religions? How is the everyday in the Balkans changing, how do people work, and <br>
what food do they produce and eat? How do people do religion and gender and what does their engagement with <br>
their environments look like? What is the changing role of the state in providing (or not providing) for security and <br>
trust, infrastructures and social welfare? The Anthropology of the Balkans and Southeastern Europe has dealt with <br>
these and related questions in recent decades. The classes include lectures, presentations by students, group <br>
work, and intermittently short film screenings. An integral part is made up of group discussions. <br>
Course format<br>
This course combines lectures, student presentations, seminar discussions, and short analyses of different <br>
materials. I expect your full, active, and professional participation in class. This means showing up on time <br>
(persistently showing up late will negatively affect your participation grade). Respectfully engaging with the course <br>
instructor, lecturers, and your peers. Being responsible for the assigned reading and materials: if you miss a <br>
class, it is your responsibility to do the reading and get class notes from one of your peers.<br>
Poslední úprava: Thiemann André, Dr. phil. (26.09.2025)
Cíl předmětu
At the end of the course, students will be able to identify contributions, ideas, and concepts in the Anthropology of the Balkans. They can use analytic tools in socio-cultural anthropology to pursue independent inquiry into regional ethnography and explain different scientific perspectives on society and space. They will be able to engage with local and global transformations in informed and inquisitive ways.
Poslední úprava: Jiroušková Jana, Mgr., CSc. (31.08.2025)
Podmínky zakončení předmětu
The following is a rough overview of how I will evaluate your performance in class. More in-depth descriptions, rubrics, and prompts will be provided with each assignment.
Class preparation for every week by reading, plus active listening and participation: 20 %
1 essay preparation: 15 %
1 presentation: 25 %
Final examination (hand-written test, followed by oral examination): 40 %
Poslední úprava: Jiroušková Jana, Mgr., CSc. (31.08.2025)
Poslední úprava: Jiroušková Jana, Mgr., CSc. (31.08.2025)
Sylabus
Date
Topic; Description
Readings (2)
7.10.
Introduction: Different Approaches, Perspectives and Topics in the Anthropology of Southeastern Europe and the Bakans; learning goals and student requirements
Parvulescu, Anca, and Manuela Boatcă. 2022. “Introduction,” in Creolizing the Modern: Transylvania across Empires. Cornell University Press, 1–23.
14.10.
The Invention of the Balkans
… discusses the emergence of the “Balkans” between the 18th and 20th century as a “space-in-between” the West and the Rest, in the periphery of multiple Empires.
Todorova, Maria. 2009 [1997]. “Introduction. Balkanism and Orientalism: Are They Different Categories?” in Imagining the Balkans. New York: Oxford University Press, 3–20.
21.10.
Nationalism, Ethnicity, Everyday Life
The falling apart of the Eastern Bloc and socialist Yugoslavia lead to a resurgence of Nationalism, racism and ethnicity in the region and to the affective, sometimes violent and even genocidal restructurings of everyday space.
Jansen, Stef. 2025. “Horizons of Practice: The Localization and Globalization of Everyday Lives in Bosnia and Herzegovina (1992–2022).” Southeastern Europe 48 (2): 245–68.
Resnick, Elana. 2025. “Collectively Cultivating the Pleasures of ‘Something Else’: Waste Labor, Nuclearity, and River Love in Bulgaria.” Social Science & Medicine, 118084.
28.10.
Czechoslovak Independence Day
Public Holiday, no class or readings
4.11.
Work, and (Un)employment
The breakup of socialism had multiple consequences: in this session we discuss changes around work and the workplace
Kofti, Dimitra. 2023. “Smoking and Idle Chimneys: (In)Visible Labour and Workers’ Identifications in Dilapidating Industrial Spaces,” in Broken Glass, Broken Class: Transformations of Work in Bulgaria. Berghahn, 168–93.
Kojanić, Ognjen. 2024. “3. Countering Post-Industrial Capitalism in the Former Yugoslavia through Art.” In Visual Culture of Post-Industrial Europe, edited by Frances Guerin and Magda Szcześniak. Amsterdam University Press, 101–21.
11.11.
Religion
Rexhepi, Piro. 2022. “Nonaligned Muslims in the Margins of Socialism,” White Enclosures: Racial Capitalism and Coloniality along the Balkan Route. Duke University Press, 44–69.
Lackenby, Nicholas. 2024. “You Are What You Don’t Eat – Fasting, Ethics, and Ethnography, in Serbia and Beyond,” Balcanica - Annual of the Institute for Balkan Studies LV, 263–74.
18.11.
Gender Trouble
Mikuš, Marek. 2015. “‘Faggots Won’t Walk through the City’: Religious Nationalism and LGBT Pride Parades in Serbia.” In Religious and Sexual Nationalisms in Central and Eastern Europe. Brill, 15–32.
Brković, Čarna. 2021. “In the Name of the Daughter – Anthropology of Gender in Montenegro. An Introduction.” Comparative Southeast European Studies 69 (1): 5–18.
25.11.
Food, Agriculture and the Environment
Slavková, Markéta. 2020. “The Burek as a Meal and Metaphor: Food, Migration and Identity between" Orient" and" Occident".” Porta Balkanica 11 (1–2): 62–75.
Rajković, Ivan. 2023. “Whose Death, Whose Eco-Revival? Filling in While Emptying out the Depopulated Balkan Mountains.” Focaal 96: 71–87.
2.12.
The (post-)socialist State: Attempts to control and manipulate space-time
Verdery, Katherine. 2012. “Observers Observed: An Anthropologist under Surveillance.” Anthropology Now 4 (2): 14–23.
Holleran, Max, and Fabio Mattioli. 2022. “From Modernism to Kitsch: The Aesthetics of Corruption and Nationalism in Bulgaria and Macedonia.” Urban Geography 43 (1): 81–100.
9.12.
Infrastructures, more specifically roads
Dalakoglou, Dimitris. 2017. “The States of the Road,” in The Road: An Ethnography of (Im)Mobility, Space, and Cross-Border Infrastructures in the Balkans. Oxford University Press, 33–52.
Sedlenieks, Klāvs. 2020. “Liquid Crystal and the A1: Densities of State from the Perspective of a Montenegrin Village.” Social Anthropology 28 (2): 496–511.
16.12.
Care and Social Policy at the crossroads
El-Shaarawi, Nadia and Maple Razsa. 2019. “Movements upon Movements: Refugee and Activist Struggles to Open the Balkan Route to Europe,” in History and Anthropology 30 (1): 91–112.
Pantovic, Ljiljana. 2022. “Baby (Not So) Friendly: Implementation of the Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative in Serbia,” in Anthropologies of Global Maternal and Reproductive Health: From Policy Spaces to Sites of Practice, edited by Lauren J. Wallace, Margaret E. MacDonald, and Katerini T. Storeng. Springer, 17–35.
6.1.
Lessons learned and open questions
13.1.ff.
Final examination (written and oral)
Poslední úprava: Thiemann André, Dr. phil. (26.09.2025)
Vstupní požadavky
Course readings and syllabus I believe that a course and its instructor should be adaptable. This means that readings and course activities may change to suite course developments, forward fruitful discussions, or to address student interests. For this reason, the readings in this syllabus should be regarded as provisional. For any given week, the readings will be available on Canvas. While readings may, from time-to-time change, the course policies and procedures listed in this syllabus will not. It is your responsibility to know them.
Reading Policy All of the course readings for this class can be found on Canvas. In some classes, we will spend significant time discussing particular readings. In others, we will treat them as background. In all cases, if there is something you don’t understand in the material, it is your responsibility to make sure that you gain an understanding of it by asking questions and raising issues. You are expected to arrive at class ready to discuss any and all of the required course readings.
1 Essay (400 words) 15% The essays have to be prepared in the following format: Concisely summarise the main arguments of the reading. Analyse the significance of given texts to the anthropology of the Balkans and Southeastern Europe. Compare and contrast the readings with other texts on the same topic that you are familiar with. Draw parallels from your own experience or from a society that you are familiar with regarding the topic of the presentation. Raise questions related to the topic that can be discussed in class. Share the essays with me one day before class until 23.59 pm.
1 Presentation (15 minutes) 25% The presentation has to be prepared in the following format: use a power point or similar program and share it with me on the day before class 23.59 pm. In your presentation, concisely summarise the main arguments of the readings for the week. Analyse the significance of the given texts to the anthropology of the Balkans and Southeastern Europe. Compare and contrast the readings with other texts on the same topic that you are familiar with. Draw parallels from your own experience or from a society that you are familiar with regarding the topic of the presentation. Raise questions related to the topic that can be discussed in class. If there are enough students, the presentation can be prepared as a group work.
Policy on Plagiarism I strongly believe that learning is a collaborative venture. I encourage you to study with your peers, meet to discuss readings with them, and, on assignments, to work together with them. That said, the work that you produce for this course must be your own. There are no exceptions to this rule and no legitimate excuses for violating it. If you fail to acknowledge others’ work or that you are caught overtly plagiarizing from online or written sources, you will receive zero percentage points on the assignment and may be subject to disciplinary procedures.
Office Hours Please, feel free to contact me via email. I prefer that you contact me directly rather than through Canvas. Please also keep in mind that I am as busy as you. Make sure you consult the course syllabus, other handouts, your peers and the course Canvas site before sending an e-mail. Note that e-mail should not be seen as an alternative to meeting with me during office hours. Nor should e-mail be used as a mechanism to receive private tutorials or to explain material that was covered in classes you missed (those are your responsibility to obtain from your peers). I will endeavor to respond within 24 hours, though I do not respond to email on the weekends or after 5pm, so plan ahead. Contacting me the night before an assignment is due is, by definition, too late. My office hours are your time, and you are welcome to drop by at any time during them. Because, at particular times in the semester, many of you will want to see me, I do recommend setting up an appointment ahead of time. Also, if you have a regular class conflict during my office hours, I am more than happy to set up an appointment with you at another time, however, I ask that you do not just drop by my office outside of office hours without checking first. I may be there but will be working on other things with pressing deadlines.
Attendance Attendance at all course and section meetings is required. You are permitted two unexplained course absences per semester. After that, each absence will reduce your overall participation grade by 1/3 of a grade. If you have a legitimate reason to miss class, it is your responsibility to let me know by email before class.
Statement on Learning Success Your success in this class is important to me. We will all need accommodations because we all learn differently. If there are aspects of this course that prevent you from learning or exclude you, please let me know as soon as possible. We will develop strategies to meet both your needs and the requirements of the course. I also encourage you to reach out to the student resources available through Charles University.
Student Rights & Responsibilities You have a right to a learning environment that supports mental and physical wellness. You have a right to respect. You have a right to be assessed and graded fairly. You have a right to freedom of opinion and expression. You have a right to privacy and confidentiality. You have a right to meaningful and equal participation, to self-organize groups to improve your learning environment. You have a right to learn in an environment that is welcoming to all people. No student shall be isolated, excluded or diminished in any way. With these rights come responsibilities: You are responsible for taking care of yourself, managing your time, and communicating with the teacher, guest lecturers and with others if things start to feel out of control or overwhelming. You are responsible for acting in a way that is worthy of respect and always respectful of others. Your experience with this course is directly related to the quality of the energy that you bring to it, and your energy shapes the quality of your peers’ experiences. You are responsible for creating an inclusive environment and for speaking up when someone is excluded. You are responsible for holding yourself accountable to these standards, holding each other to these standards, and holding the teacher accountable as well.
Personal Pronoun Preference Professional courtesy and sensitivity are especially important with respect to individuals and topics dealing with differences of race, culture, religion, politics, sexual orientation, gender, gender variance, and nationalities. Class rosters are provided to the instructor with the student’s legal name. I will gladly honor your request to address you by a name different than what appears on the roster, and by the gender pronouns you use. Please advise me of this preference early in the semester so that I may make appropriate changes to my records.
Note on academic dishonesty Plagiarism is a severe crime. In my experience, it mostly comes from students’ insecurity with academic writing that they are relatively new to. Rather than copying someone else’s text and helping AI rephrase it (which makes it much less easily detectable than it was a couple of years ago), I suggest to write your own thoughts in simple words and it will get easier over time.
Note on using AI tools If you are using AI tools, highlight the part of the text where you have used AI and add a footnote explaining which AI tool and which query you used. You are still required to read, understand, critique and interpret ethnographic texts on your own and form coherent arguments based on your readings. At the same time, I see no issues asking AI tools to help you rephrase your thought. You should still have a go at trying to rephrase the ideas in the text we read in your own words. It can be challenging, especially if you are not a native speaker, but for the next few years, it is still considered a useful skill to have. Free grammar tools such as Grammarly are recommended for use to improve the legibility of your work.
Technology Laptops and tablets are allowed for the purposes of viewing course materials and for taking notes during discussion sections. I strongly prefer that you write your notes by hand. Research shows that writing notes by hand improves your understanding of the material and helps you remember it better, since writing it down involves deeper cognitive processing of the material than typing it. I recognize that not all students can or wish to use handwritten notes. If you do use laptops, do turn off your wi-fi during class time to resist the temptation of email, social media, etc. Cell phones should be silenced and should not be used during class.
Poslední úprava: Thiemann André, Dr. phil. (26.09.2025)
