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This course examines the enduring impacts and reverberations of the Yugoslav wars across post-conflict societies in the Western Balkans. Through thirteen seminars, the principal aim is to provide students with an overview of the significant political, economic, and social impacts of the Yugoslav wars during the 1990s. The core focus centres primarily on those former Yugoslav republics whose populations have contended most directly with surmounting the lingering aftermath of warfare and violence, namely Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Kosovo. Additionally, the seminars explore political and socio-economic developments unfolding in other post-Yugoslav republics, especially Serbia and Montenegro, alongside Albanian-speaking regions. This course investigates various warfare, violence, and suffering phenomena that have impacted post-conflict, post-socialist, and post-Yugoslav societies in the Western Balkan republics. Poslední úprava: Žíla Ondřej, PhDr., Ph.D. (07.01.2025)
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This course aims to give students an overview of the significant political, economic, and social impacts of the Yugoslav wars during the 1990s. The introductory lecture summarizes the three ‘posts’ – post-conflict, post-socialist, and post-Yugoslav – that characterize societies across the Western Balkans at the end of the 20th and the beginning of the 21st centuries. This course is then organized into four thematic units. The first unit focuses on collective memory, politics of memory, and symbols in the Western Balkans. Discussing collective and individual memories in the Western Balkans summarizes the hegemonic memory discourses and narratives, as well as individuals’ fragmented testimonies, reflections, and interpretations. The second unit analyzes how post-Yugoslav societies have grappled with the violent legacy of Yugoslav wars, incorporating top-down and bottom-up perspectives. The top-down approach scrutinizes transitional justice mechanisms and their implications for post-war reconciliation. The bottom-up approach explores individual experiences of victimization and personal quests for reconciliation alongside the prevalence of post-traumatic stress disorder. The third thematic unit examines several phenomena that have emerged in post-Yugoslav societies after post-socialist neo-liberalization. These include the phenomenon of ‘Yugonostalgia’ and its significance and social unrest that has arisen due to post-socialist neo-liberalization. Additionally, we will explore social unrest in the Western Balkan societies in the aftermath of post-socialist neoliberalisation. In the final section of this course, we will provide a comprehensive overview of the diverse outcomes of the post-war, post-socialist, and post-Yugoslav transitions. Through an in-depth examination of selected cases, we will focus on the societies of Croatia, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro and Northern Macedonia at the start of the 21st century. This unit will combine the various themes and concepts explored in the previous units, offering a synthesized understanding of the complex impacts of these transitions. Poslední úprava: Žíla Ondřej, PhDr., Ph.D. (07.01.2025)
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Grading is based on the Dean's Measure no. 20/2019: https://fsv.cuni.cz/deans-measure-no-20/2019
Poslední úprava: Šmidrkal Václav, PhDr., Ph.D. (09.03.2025)
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Required reading: See the reader of selected required reading for each seminar. Poslední úprava: Šmidrkal Václav, PhDr., Ph.D. (27.03.2025)
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Regular reading of the required texts for every single class is obligatory for all participants without exception.
Poslední úprava: Žíla Ondřej, PhDr., Ph.D. (07.01.2025)
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Requirements:
The course requires the attendance of at least 70% (i.e. 9 seminars). Regular reading of the required texts for every single class is obligatory for all participants, without exception. Students have to write a final seminar paper, an analysis of a chosen topic. The text written in the academic style includes footnotes and references (please use at least 10 independent academic sources). The final paper is supposed to be submitted to my e-mail address ondrej.zila@fsv.cuni.cz and uploaded to Moodle (https://dl2.cuni.cz/course/view.php?id=5515) no later than May 31th, 2025.
Instructions for seminar thesis · Papers must be typed. · You must footnote or in-text cite all references (quotes, use of evidence, etc). · References and quotations must be in accordance with the Chicago Manual Style and must be consistent (do not mix various formats). · You must include a final bibliography (at least 10 references). · Length: Up to 6.000 words (minimum 5.000), excluding bibliography. · There are no specific criteria for margins, font, or spacing. · Electronic format
Assessment In terms of assessment, this is how you will be assessed in this course:
20% - activity in the class (class reading) - ability to answer the questions and formulate own view, based on readings.
80% - final paper based on readings and classes. Poslední úprava: Žíla Ondřej, PhDr., Ph.D. (15.05.2025)
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Syllabus:
Introduction 1) ‘Post-Conflict, Post-Socialist, and Post-Yugoslav’: the introductory characteristics of the Western Balkans in the 21. Century
Collective Memory in the Western Balkans 2) Politics of Memory: cycles of Yugoslav memory 3) Politics of Symbols: Fragmented memory: testimonies, reflections, and interpretations
Coping with the Violent Legacy of Yugoslav Wars in Post-Yugoslav Societies 4) Transitional justice – Coping with the past, war crimes, and their denial 5) Reconciliation After Violent Conflict: Situation from the ground 6) Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
Legacy of Post-Socialist Transformation in Post-Yugoslav Societies 7) ‘Yugonostalgy’ in post-conflict, post-socialist, and post-Yugoslav society 8) Social Unrest in the Western Balkan countries – the aftermath of post-socialist neoliberalisation
Case studies 9) Post-Tudjman Croatia 10) Post-Milošević Serbia 11) The International Community and its Role in Kosovo 12) ‘Dayton’ Bosnia and Herzegovina 13) Montenegro + Northern Macedonia
Poslední úprava: Šmidrkal Václav, PhDr., Ph.D. (09.03.2025)
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