Bojan Bilić
University of California, Berkeley, The Institute of Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies, Visiting Scholar
Akademie der bildenden Künste Wien, Institut für Naturwissenschaften und Technologie in der Kunst, Lecturer
University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam Institute for Social Science Research, Marie Curie Intra-European Fellow - Post-Doc
I am a political sociologist doing research on a range of grassroots responses to nationalism, patriarchy, and authoritarianism in Yugoslavia and the post-Yugoslav space. So far I have written about the history and politics of Yugoslav feminism, anti-war activism, LGBTQ engagement, the anthropology of non-heterosexuality and gender variance, LGBTQ-affirmative psychotherapy, and the initiatives for democratising psychiatry.
Between 2021 and 2024, I was a Lise Meitner Fellow and lecturer at the Research Unit Gender Studies, Faculty of Philosophy and Education, University of Vienna, funded by the Austrian Science Fund (FWF). Between 2016 and 2024 I was an adjunct professor of Gender and Social Movements in Central and Eastern Europe and Eurasia at the School of Political Sciences, University of Bologna (Forlì Campus). Over the last few years I taught as a visiting lecturer at the University of Sarajevo Center for Interdisciplinary Studies, the University of Graz Department of Sociology and the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna.
Before moving to Vienna I was a Marie Curie Intra-European Fellow at the Amsterdam Institute for Social Science Research, Centre for Gender and Sexuality Studies, University of Amsterdam, an EntE Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Study - New Europe College in Bucharest, a Volkswagen New Dem Junior Fellow at the Central European University Institute for Advanced Study in Budapest, an FCT Fellow at the Institute of Social Sciences, University of Lisbon, and a fellow at the Centre for Advanced Study of Southeastern Europe at the University of Rijeka.
In the Autumn of 2022, I was a visiting scholar at the Institute of Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies at UC Berkeley. In the Autumn of 2023 I was a visiting scholar (University Guest) at the University of Melbourne Department of Social and Political Sciences.
I hold a PhD in Slavonic and East European Studies (Political Sociology) from University College London where I studied under Professor Eric Gordy.
I am the founder of the Queering YU Network, an informal collective of scholars and activists which explores the history and politics of (post-)Yugoslav queer initiatives.
I was a member of the editorial team of Interface: A Journal For and About Social Movements and Open Gender Journal, an open access, peer-reviewed journal which publishes scholarly contributions from the field of intersectional gender studies. I currently serve as a member of the international editorial board of the Sociological Annual of the Faculty of Philosophy, University of Niš, Serbia.
Along with my academic interests, I completed the Propedeutic Programme in Psychotherapy at the University of Vienna Postgraduate Center in November 2024. In the framework of this programme, I worked as an intern at the Centre for Psycho-Social Support Regenbogenhaus as well as at the Association for Mental and Social Health - pro mente, both in Vienna.
Since June 2024 I am a candidate in psychoanalysis at the Vienna Circle for Psychoanalysis and Self Psychology and a master's student (Fachspezifikum) of self psychology and individual psychology at the University of Vienna.
Address:
Universität Wien
Institut für Bildungswissenschaft
Sensengasse 3a, 2.09
1090 Wien/Vienna
Austria
https://bildungswissenschaft.univie.ac.at/gender-studies/personal/bojan-bilic/
Email: [email protected]
Between 2021 and 2024, I was a Lise Meitner Fellow and lecturer at the Research Unit Gender Studies, Faculty of Philosophy and Education, University of Vienna, funded by the Austrian Science Fund (FWF). Between 2016 and 2024 I was an adjunct professor of Gender and Social Movements in Central and Eastern Europe and Eurasia at the School of Political Sciences, University of Bologna (Forlì Campus). Over the last few years I taught as a visiting lecturer at the University of Sarajevo Center for Interdisciplinary Studies, the University of Graz Department of Sociology and the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna.
Before moving to Vienna I was a Marie Curie Intra-European Fellow at the Amsterdam Institute for Social Science Research, Centre for Gender and Sexuality Studies, University of Amsterdam, an EntE Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Study - New Europe College in Bucharest, a Volkswagen New Dem Junior Fellow at the Central European University Institute for Advanced Study in Budapest, an FCT Fellow at the Institute of Social Sciences, University of Lisbon, and a fellow at the Centre for Advanced Study of Southeastern Europe at the University of Rijeka.
In the Autumn of 2022, I was a visiting scholar at the Institute of Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies at UC Berkeley. In the Autumn of 2023 I was a visiting scholar (University Guest) at the University of Melbourne Department of Social and Political Sciences.
I hold a PhD in Slavonic and East European Studies (Political Sociology) from University College London where I studied under Professor Eric Gordy.
I am the founder of the Queering YU Network, an informal collective of scholars and activists which explores the history and politics of (post-)Yugoslav queer initiatives.
I was a member of the editorial team of Interface: A Journal For and About Social Movements and Open Gender Journal, an open access, peer-reviewed journal which publishes scholarly contributions from the field of intersectional gender studies. I currently serve as a member of the international editorial board of the Sociological Annual of the Faculty of Philosophy, University of Niš, Serbia.
Along with my academic interests, I completed the Propedeutic Programme in Psychotherapy at the University of Vienna Postgraduate Center in November 2024. In the framework of this programme, I worked as an intern at the Centre for Psycho-Social Support Regenbogenhaus as well as at the Association for Mental and Social Health - pro mente, both in Vienna.
Since June 2024 I am a candidate in psychoanalysis at the Vienna Circle for Psychoanalysis and Self Psychology and a master's student (Fachspezifikum) of self psychology and individual psychology at the University of Vienna.
Address:
Universität Wien
Institut für Bildungswissenschaft
Sensengasse 3a, 2.09
1090 Wien/Vienna
Austria
https://bildungswissenschaft.univie.ac.at/gender-studies/personal/bojan-bilic/
Email: [email protected]
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MONOGRAPHS (ENGLISH) by Bojan Bilić
The position of the author of this book is intellectually unique: he learned to love from women, from lesbians and feminists, and he is writing about us and our struggles with a voice that comes from an exceptionally personal and subjective dis/stance. Not all of us will agree with him, but “our” important work has most likely never before been touched upon with such respect and serenity. Having international audience in mind, I wish Bojan’s book could help us, feminist lesbians and queer feminists, to look into our activist political selves deeper, again and again.
Maja Pan, lesbian feminist activist and independent scholar, Maribor, Slovenia
Such an excellently written view on how the ExYU politics and attitudes on queer women (and women in general) have moved and shifted from the late 70s to today. It gives an easily understandable and still very substantial overview of queer feminist political action in Serbia and Croatia and makes some really, really good points on the patriarchal culture of the region, patriarchal culture in queer communities, ever present nationalism in the region, and the huge issue of classism as well as the divide between the city dwelling higher educated and "more cultured" activists and often rural and working class people who have rarely been allowed into the activist circles and who the activism rarely reaches or works for. I think it's an excellent jumping off point, and it certainly has an extensive bibliography to facilitate further research.
Sara G (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/58834806-trauma-violence-and-lesbian-agency-in-croatia-and-serbia)
By examining anti-war activism in Serbia and Croatia, We Were Gasping for Air is a welcome contribution to the story of Yugoslavia’s violent dissolution. Its focus on civic forms of mobilisation, rooted in the experience of socialist Yugoslavia, complements the many studies of elite-led nationalism and fills an important gap in the literature. Theoretically informed and empirically rich, Bilic’s study helps us to understand the sources and complexities of political contention in a wartime context.
Jasna Dragovic-Soso, Goldsmiths, University of London
This study is the first to trace the origins and development of the anti-war movement in the former Yugoslavia, from its prehistory in the alternative engagement of the socialist period to its post-history in the professionalised NGO sector. Bojan Bilic uses insights from political sociology to explain why anti-war activists mobilised, the forces that encouraged, divided and demoralised them, the successes and failures of the movement, and the legacy it leaves in the long post-war. This book is essential for understanding politics and intellectual life in the former Yugoslav states in the 1990s and afterwards.
Eric Gordy, School of Slavonic and East European Studies, University College London
Bojan Bilic’s book provides a comprehensive analysis of anti-war contention in the post-Yugoslav space. A tour de force of historical sociology, the book, based on rich interview material and thorough archival research, explores the dynamics of activism in ways which challenge existing explanations framed in the context of methodological nationalism and/or idealist conception of civil society. Bilic reconnects the activisms of the 1990s with earlier civic engagements in Yugoslavia, notably student, feminist, and ecological initiatives. Written in an accessible style, Bilic's book confronts key questions regarding the meanings of the movements for the main protagonists and their implications for the wider public sphere and for social and political change. It is a “must read” for anyone interested in the region and in activism and social movements more generally.
Paul Stubbs, The Institute of Economics, Zagreb
MONOGRAPHS (SERBO-CROATIAN) by Bojan Bilić
Maja Pan, lezbejska feministička aktivistkinja i teoretičarka, Maribor, Slovenija
Prevod s engleskog: Slobodanka Glišić, Irina Vujičić, Nataša Lambić, Bojan Bilić
Redaktura: Slobodanka Glišić
Korektura: Irina Vujičić, Igor Marković
Prevod s engleskog: Bojan Bilić
Ovo je prva sociološka studija koja prati razvoj antiratnog pokreta u bivšoj Jugoslaviji, od njegovih početaka u alternativnom angažmanu socijalističkog perioda sve do pojave profesionalizovanog NGO sektora. Bilićeva knjiga je ključna za razumevanje politike i intelektualnog života u zemljama bivše Jugoslavije u 1990-im i kasnije.
Eric Gordy, Škola slovenskih i istočnoevropskih studija,
Univerzitetski koledž London
Knjiga Borile smo se za vazduh – tour de force istorijske sociologije – ispituje dinamiku antiratnog aktivizma na postjugoslovenskom prostoru problematizujući postojeća objašnjenja formulisana u okviru metodološkog nacionalizma i/ili idealističke koncepcije civilnog društva. Ova studija je obavezna literatura za svakog ko je zainteresovan za postjugoslovensku regiju, ali i za one koji se bave pitanjima aktivizma i društvenih pokreta uopšte.
Paul Stubbs, Ekonomski institut, Zagreb
TEN YEARS OF COLLABORATIVE WORK (2012-2022) by Bojan Bilić
"they are our everything, our pillars, our palace, our garden, and our pride".
Maja Pan,
philosopher and feminist lesbian activist, Maribor, Slovenia
"...to je sve naše, naši stubovi, naša palata, naš vrt i naš ponos".
Maja Pan,
filozofkinja i feministička lezbejska aktivistkinja, Maribor, Slovenija
EDITED VOLUMES (ENGLISH) by Bojan Bilić
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This path-breaking collection of post-Yugoslavian transgender scholarship provides vital insight into critical refigurations of trans discourse on Europe’s eastern periphery that we in the West would do well to heed.
Susan Stryker, Executive Editor, TSQ: Transgender Studies Quarterly
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A thematic series of studies on the post-Yugoslav LGBTQ existence and activist engagement, written and edited by regional LGBTQ activists and scholars, has been steadily growing over the last decade. The chief editor of the series, Bojan Bilić, invited respective fellow editors to help him coordinate three groups of thematic specialists: in 2016, Sanja Kajinić for the volume about intersectionality and LGBTQ activism in Croatia and Serbia; in 2019, Marija Radoman for the book on the history and politics of lesbian activism, and in 2022, Aleksa Milanović and Iwo Nord for a collection about trans lives, activisms, and culture.
Like the preceding ones, the latest, trans-related, volume not only collects and interweaves some ‘still rather dispersed threads’ of our lives and experiences, but it affords them political relevance and provides a platform upon which we can acknowledge each other in feminist, activist solidarity. In such a way, this unusual research initiative inspires further exploration and makes our community stronger, more resilient, and politically more self-reflexive. We need all of that if we are to respond to the conservative encroachments upon democracy which have been taking place throughout the post-Yugoslav region and beyond.
Maja Pan, lesbian feminist activist and independent scholar, Maribor, Slovenia
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This precious volume combines empathy with knowledge and by doing so promises to augment our possibilities to freely experience and express ourselves in our region that has gone through such harsh times… We need books like this to empower us to live a life without aggression, violence, pathologisation… to encourage us to go beyond those suffocating frames that want to determine who we are and what it is that we can be.
Agatha Milan Đurić, Geten, Center for LGBTIQA People's Rights, Belgrade, Serbia
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This richly textured and important book could not have come at a more welcome time... We have been long aware of the questions we would need to ask to understand the conditions for trans experiences and activism in the post-Yugoslav space, but unable to answer them without recourse to a work of this sensitivity and depth. That work has now arrived.
Catherine Baker, University of Hall
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I know this book, like the edited volumes that preceded it, to be a labour of love, a sign of commitment to the cause, and a tangible expression of a deep desire to hear a wider range of voices than is usual in mainstream (and even so-called alternative) academic publishing.
Paul Stubbs, Institute of Economics, Zagreb
Contemporary women's history and global queer studies are both the richer for this exceptional example of lesbian-led activism and scholarship. Bilić, Radoman and their contributors are equally driven by a resolve for lesbians' courage and friendship in the face of patriarchal nationalism not to be forgotten, and an urge to resist their struggles being co-opted by neoliberal and conservative forces. Thinking transnationally and acting locally, their activist-academic insight and their collective ways of writing and knowing resonate well beyond, yet always also address, the (post-)Yugoslav semi-periphery from which they speak.
Catherine Baker, University of Hull, UK
An exciting volume that fills a significant gap in the literature, which all too often fails to examine the important role of lesbians and lesbian activism in the political culture of the region.
Janice Irvine, University of Massachusetts Amherst, USA
This book is an invaluable repository of reflections on lesbian activist movements and initiatives, documenting them on their own terms and in their own words. Skillfully negotiating between academic and activist practices, temporalities, styles and concerns, its intellectual, activist and – for some – therapeutic interventions will shape this field over the coming years.
Andrew Hodges, Leibniz-Institute for East and Southeast European Studies, Germany
Contributors to this book show how the long EU accession process disseminates discursive tools employed in LGBT activist struggles for human rights and equality. This creates a linkage between “Europeanness” and “gay emancipation” which elevates certain forms of gay activist engagement and perhaps also non-heterosexuality, more generally, to a measure of democracy, progress and modernity. At the same time, it relegates practices of intolerance to the LGBT community to the status of non-European primitivist Other who is inevitably positioned in the patriarchal past that should be left behind.
This meticulously-researched, edited volume offers a brilliant analysis of the complex linkages between LBGT rights and European integration, and their implications for activists, citizens, and officials alike. It is a major contribution to the literature on activism in the post-Yugoslav space as well as LGBT activism more broadly. A must read for students and scholars of gender studies, European studies, and social movements.
Professor Jill A. Irvine, University of Oklahoma
This strikingly original collection represents not only a pioneering work in LGBT studies, but also offers a powerful case for engaging the study of post-conflict Southeastern Europe with enhanced theoretical depth and wider social engagement. The result is an impressive and useful volume both in terms of the scope of its coverage and the scholarly rigour of the individual texts.
Professor Eric Gordy, School of Slavonic and East European Studies
University College London
This book will be of interest to scholars and students in the areas of history and politics of Yugoslavia and the post-Yugoslav states, as well as to those working in the fields of political sociology, European studies, social movements, gay and lesbian studies, gender studies, and queer theory and activism.
This is a brilliant, timely and engaged book, making an original contribution to the growing field of LGBTQ studies. It is extremely rare for a book to address intersecting oppressions so explicitly, focus so strongly on a particularly important geographical space or offer such a rich mix of standpoints, voices and writing styles. The explicit concern with combining academic, research and activist endeavours is carried off with aplomb. This volume is likely to leave a lasting impression on all who read it.
Paul Stubbs, Institute of Economics, Zagreb, Croatia
EDITED VOLUMES (SERBO-CROATIAN) by Bojan Bilić
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Ova bogata i važna knjiga nije se mogla pojaviti u boljem trenutku... Iako smo dugo svesni pitanja koja moramo da postavimo ako želimo da razumemo uslove u kojima se razvijaju trans iskustvo i aktivizam na postjugoslovenskom prostoru, nismo na njih mogli da odgovorimo, a da ne pribegnemo delu ovakve osetljivosti i dubine. To delo je sad tu!
Ketrin Bejker,
Univerzitet u Halu
Ova bogata i važna knjiga nije se mogla pojaviti u boljem trenutku... Iako smo dugo svjesni pitanja koja moramo postaviti ako želimo razumjeti uvjete u kojima se razvijaju trans iskustvo i aktivizam na postjugoslavenskom prostoru, nismo na njih mogli odgovoriti, a da ne pribjegnemo djelu ovakve osjetljivosti i dubine. To djelo je sad tu!
Catherine Baker,
Sveučilište u Hullu
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Ova pionirska riznica postjugoslovenskog trans znanja pruža ključne uvide u način na koji se trans diskurs preobražava u istočnoj Evropi. Trebalo bi da mi na Zapadu na to obratimo pažnju.
Susan Stryker,
izvršna urednica TSQ: Transgender Studies Quarterly
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Tematska serija studija o postjugoslovenskom LGBTQ postojanju i aktivističkom angažmanu, koju pišu i uređuju regionalni LGBTQ aktivisti/kinje i naučnici/e, konstantno raste tokom poslednje decenije. Glavni urednik serije, Bojan Bilić, pozvao je kolege/inice da mu pomognu u koordinaciji tri grupe tematskih stručnjaka/inja: 2016. Sanju Kajinić za knjigu o intersekcionalnosti i LGBTQ aktivizmu u Hrvatskoj i Srbiji; 2019. Mariju Radoman za knjigu o istoriji i politici lezbejskog aktivizma, a 2022. Aleksu Milanovića za zbirku o trans životima, aktivizmu i kulturi.
Kao i prethodni, i najnoviji zbornik, posvećen trans pitanjima, ne samo da prikuplja i prepliće neke „još uvek prilično rasute niti“ naših života i iskustva, već im daje političku relevantnost i pruža nam platformu na kojoj možemo da prepoznamo jedni druge u feminističkoj, aktivističkoj solidarnosti. Na taj način, ova retka inicijativa podstiče dalja istraživanja i čini našu zajednicu jačom, otpornijom i politički samorefleksivnijom. Sve to nam je potrebno ako želimo da konstruktivno odgovorimo na konzervativne napade na demokratiju kojima svedočimo na postjugoslovenskom prostoru i šire.
Maja Pan,
lezbejska feministička aktivistkinja i nezavisna naučnica, Maribor, Slovenija
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Ovaj dragoceni zbornik uspeva da spoji empatiju sa znanjem i na taj način uveća naše mogućnosti da slobodno doživimo i izrazimo sebe u svom regionu koji je prošao kroz mnoge nedaće... Potrebne su nam ovakve knjige da nas osnaže da živimo život bez agresije, nasilja, patologizacije... Da nas podstaknu da izađemo iz tih zagušljivih okvira koji žele da odrede ko smo i šta možemo biti...
Agata Milan Đurić,
Geten, Beograd
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Kao i zbornici koji su joj prethodili, i ova knjiga je rezultat ljubavi, znak predanosti feminističkoj borbi i opipljiv izraz duboke želje da se čuje širi raspon glasova od onoga koji je uobičajen u regionalnom i globalnom akademskom izdavaštvu.
Paul Stubbs,
Ekonomski institut, Zagreb
Paul Stubbs
Ekonomski institut, Zagreb
... uzbudljiva knjiga koja kroz lezbejske i feminističke priče upotpunjuje i široko polje kulture sjećanja, pokazujući nam kako naše sestre žive, pamte i tumače šta nam se desilo...
Jasmina Čaušević, Sarajevski otvoreni centar
Savremena ženska istorija i globalne kvir studije bogatije su za ovaj izuzetan primer lezbejskog aktivizma i lezbejske sociologije.
Catherine Baker, Univerzitet u Hallu, Velika Britanija
Sestrinstvo i jedinstvo je dragocena riznica promišljanja lezbejskih aktivističkih inicijativa koje dokumentuje pod njihovim uslovima i njihovim sopstvenim rečima. Vešto meandrirajući između akademskih i aktivističkih praksi, temporalnosti, stilova i pitanja, intelektualne, aktivističke, pa i terapeutske intervencije sadržane u ovom zborniku oblikovaće polje lezbejskih studija u godinama koje dolaze.
Andrew Hodges, Leibniz institut za studije istočne i jugoistočne Evrope, Regensburg, Nemačka
Ovaj zbornik, zasnovan na opsežnim etnografskim istraživanjima, nudi briljantnu analizu kompleksnog odnosa između LGBT prava i evropskih integracija, i predstavlja značajan doprinos ne samo literaturi o aktivizmu na prostoru bivše Jugoslavije, već i sociološkoj građi o LGBT aktivističkom delovanju uopšte. U tom smislu, Preko duge u Evropu će biti korisna referenca svima koji se bave studijama roda i društvenih pokreta.
Džil A. Irvin
Univerzitet Oklahome
Ovaj izrazito originalan zbornik ne predstavlja samo pionirski doprinos istraživanjima LGBT aktivizma, nego nudi i odličan primer kako se političkim i društvenim konfliktima u jugoistočnoj Evropi može pristupiti na teorijski utemeljen i angažovan način. Rezultat takvog pristupa je knjiga koja je impresivna i po širini empirijskog zahvata i po akademskoj rigoroznosti individualnih priloga.
Erik D. Gordi
Univerzitetski koledž London
Čini se da su antiratne inicijative marginalizirane u dosad objavljenim historijama jugoslavenskih ratova, u sociološkim studijama društvenih pokreta u centralnoj i istočnoj Europi, kao i u globalnim naporima da se razumiju kompleksne epizode političkog sukobljavanja. Imajući to u vidu, Opiranje zlu se pojavljuje kao važan korektiv i nudi izvanrednu, višeslojnu analizu povezanih oblika aktivističkog organiziranja i njihovih odnosa s politikom, kulturom i društvom u (post)jugoslavenskom kontekstu.
Paul Stubbs, Refleksije o značenjima antiratnog aktivizma
CHAPTERS by Bojan Bilić
The position of the author of this book is intellectually unique: he learned to love from women, from lesbians and feminists, and he is writing about us and our struggles with a voice that comes from an exceptionally personal and subjective dis/stance. Not all of us will agree with him, but “our” important work has most likely never before been touched upon with such respect and serenity. Having international audience in mind, I wish Bojan’s book could help us, feminist lesbians and queer feminists, to look into our activist political selves deeper, again and again.
Maja Pan, lesbian feminist activist and independent scholar, Maribor, Slovenia
Such an excellently written view on how the ExYU politics and attitudes on queer women (and women in general) have moved and shifted from the late 70s to today. It gives an easily understandable and still very substantial overview of queer feminist political action in Serbia and Croatia and makes some really, really good points on the patriarchal culture of the region, patriarchal culture in queer communities, ever present nationalism in the region, and the huge issue of classism as well as the divide between the city dwelling higher educated and "more cultured" activists and often rural and working class people who have rarely been allowed into the activist circles and who the activism rarely reaches or works for. I think it's an excellent jumping off point, and it certainly has an extensive bibliography to facilitate further research.
Sara G (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/58834806-trauma-violence-and-lesbian-agency-in-croatia-and-serbia)
By examining anti-war activism in Serbia and Croatia, We Were Gasping for Air is a welcome contribution to the story of Yugoslavia’s violent dissolution. Its focus on civic forms of mobilisation, rooted in the experience of socialist Yugoslavia, complements the many studies of elite-led nationalism and fills an important gap in the literature. Theoretically informed and empirically rich, Bilic’s study helps us to understand the sources and complexities of political contention in a wartime context.
Jasna Dragovic-Soso, Goldsmiths, University of London
This study is the first to trace the origins and development of the anti-war movement in the former Yugoslavia, from its prehistory in the alternative engagement of the socialist period to its post-history in the professionalised NGO sector. Bojan Bilic uses insights from political sociology to explain why anti-war activists mobilised, the forces that encouraged, divided and demoralised them, the successes and failures of the movement, and the legacy it leaves in the long post-war. This book is essential for understanding politics and intellectual life in the former Yugoslav states in the 1990s and afterwards.
Eric Gordy, School of Slavonic and East European Studies, University College London
Bojan Bilic’s book provides a comprehensive analysis of anti-war contention in the post-Yugoslav space. A tour de force of historical sociology, the book, based on rich interview material and thorough archival research, explores the dynamics of activism in ways which challenge existing explanations framed in the context of methodological nationalism and/or idealist conception of civil society. Bilic reconnects the activisms of the 1990s with earlier civic engagements in Yugoslavia, notably student, feminist, and ecological initiatives. Written in an accessible style, Bilic's book confronts key questions regarding the meanings of the movements for the main protagonists and their implications for the wider public sphere and for social and political change. It is a “must read” for anyone interested in the region and in activism and social movements more generally.
Paul Stubbs, The Institute of Economics, Zagreb
Maja Pan, lezbejska feministička aktivistkinja i teoretičarka, Maribor, Slovenija
Prevod s engleskog: Slobodanka Glišić, Irina Vujičić, Nataša Lambić, Bojan Bilić
Redaktura: Slobodanka Glišić
Korektura: Irina Vujičić, Igor Marković
Prevod s engleskog: Bojan Bilić
Ovo je prva sociološka studija koja prati razvoj antiratnog pokreta u bivšoj Jugoslaviji, od njegovih početaka u alternativnom angažmanu socijalističkog perioda sve do pojave profesionalizovanog NGO sektora. Bilićeva knjiga je ključna za razumevanje politike i intelektualnog života u zemljama bivše Jugoslavije u 1990-im i kasnije.
Eric Gordy, Škola slovenskih i istočnoevropskih studija,
Univerzitetski koledž London
Knjiga Borile smo se za vazduh – tour de force istorijske sociologije – ispituje dinamiku antiratnog aktivizma na postjugoslovenskom prostoru problematizujući postojeća objašnjenja formulisana u okviru metodološkog nacionalizma i/ili idealističke koncepcije civilnog društva. Ova studija je obavezna literatura za svakog ko je zainteresovan za postjugoslovensku regiju, ali i za one koji se bave pitanjima aktivizma i društvenih pokreta uopšte.
Paul Stubbs, Ekonomski institut, Zagreb
"they are our everything, our pillars, our palace, our garden, and our pride".
Maja Pan,
philosopher and feminist lesbian activist, Maribor, Slovenia
"...to je sve naše, naši stubovi, naša palata, naš vrt i naš ponos".
Maja Pan,
filozofkinja i feministička lezbejska aktivistkinja, Maribor, Slovenija
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This path-breaking collection of post-Yugoslavian transgender scholarship provides vital insight into critical refigurations of trans discourse on Europe’s eastern periphery that we in the West would do well to heed.
Susan Stryker, Executive Editor, TSQ: Transgender Studies Quarterly
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A thematic series of studies on the post-Yugoslav LGBTQ existence and activist engagement, written and edited by regional LGBTQ activists and scholars, has been steadily growing over the last decade. The chief editor of the series, Bojan Bilić, invited respective fellow editors to help him coordinate three groups of thematic specialists: in 2016, Sanja Kajinić for the volume about intersectionality and LGBTQ activism in Croatia and Serbia; in 2019, Marija Radoman for the book on the history and politics of lesbian activism, and in 2022, Aleksa Milanović and Iwo Nord for a collection about trans lives, activisms, and culture.
Like the preceding ones, the latest, trans-related, volume not only collects and interweaves some ‘still rather dispersed threads’ of our lives and experiences, but it affords them political relevance and provides a platform upon which we can acknowledge each other in feminist, activist solidarity. In such a way, this unusual research initiative inspires further exploration and makes our community stronger, more resilient, and politically more self-reflexive. We need all of that if we are to respond to the conservative encroachments upon democracy which have been taking place throughout the post-Yugoslav region and beyond.
Maja Pan, lesbian feminist activist and independent scholar, Maribor, Slovenia
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This precious volume combines empathy with knowledge and by doing so promises to augment our possibilities to freely experience and express ourselves in our region that has gone through such harsh times… We need books like this to empower us to live a life without aggression, violence, pathologisation… to encourage us to go beyond those suffocating frames that want to determine who we are and what it is that we can be.
Agatha Milan Đurić, Geten, Center for LGBTIQA People's Rights, Belgrade, Serbia
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This richly textured and important book could not have come at a more welcome time... We have been long aware of the questions we would need to ask to understand the conditions for trans experiences and activism in the post-Yugoslav space, but unable to answer them without recourse to a work of this sensitivity and depth. That work has now arrived.
Catherine Baker, University of Hall
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I know this book, like the edited volumes that preceded it, to be a labour of love, a sign of commitment to the cause, and a tangible expression of a deep desire to hear a wider range of voices than is usual in mainstream (and even so-called alternative) academic publishing.
Paul Stubbs, Institute of Economics, Zagreb
Contemporary women's history and global queer studies are both the richer for this exceptional example of lesbian-led activism and scholarship. Bilić, Radoman and their contributors are equally driven by a resolve for lesbians' courage and friendship in the face of patriarchal nationalism not to be forgotten, and an urge to resist their struggles being co-opted by neoliberal and conservative forces. Thinking transnationally and acting locally, their activist-academic insight and their collective ways of writing and knowing resonate well beyond, yet always also address, the (post-)Yugoslav semi-periphery from which they speak.
Catherine Baker, University of Hull, UK
An exciting volume that fills a significant gap in the literature, which all too often fails to examine the important role of lesbians and lesbian activism in the political culture of the region.
Janice Irvine, University of Massachusetts Amherst, USA
This book is an invaluable repository of reflections on lesbian activist movements and initiatives, documenting them on their own terms and in their own words. Skillfully negotiating between academic and activist practices, temporalities, styles and concerns, its intellectual, activist and – for some – therapeutic interventions will shape this field over the coming years.
Andrew Hodges, Leibniz-Institute for East and Southeast European Studies, Germany
Contributors to this book show how the long EU accession process disseminates discursive tools employed in LGBT activist struggles for human rights and equality. This creates a linkage between “Europeanness” and “gay emancipation” which elevates certain forms of gay activist engagement and perhaps also non-heterosexuality, more generally, to a measure of democracy, progress and modernity. At the same time, it relegates practices of intolerance to the LGBT community to the status of non-European primitivist Other who is inevitably positioned in the patriarchal past that should be left behind.
This meticulously-researched, edited volume offers a brilliant analysis of the complex linkages between LBGT rights and European integration, and their implications for activists, citizens, and officials alike. It is a major contribution to the literature on activism in the post-Yugoslav space as well as LGBT activism more broadly. A must read for students and scholars of gender studies, European studies, and social movements.
Professor Jill A. Irvine, University of Oklahoma
This strikingly original collection represents not only a pioneering work in LGBT studies, but also offers a powerful case for engaging the study of post-conflict Southeastern Europe with enhanced theoretical depth and wider social engagement. The result is an impressive and useful volume both in terms of the scope of its coverage and the scholarly rigour of the individual texts.
Professor Eric Gordy, School of Slavonic and East European Studies
University College London
This book will be of interest to scholars and students in the areas of history and politics of Yugoslavia and the post-Yugoslav states, as well as to those working in the fields of political sociology, European studies, social movements, gay and lesbian studies, gender studies, and queer theory and activism.
This is a brilliant, timely and engaged book, making an original contribution to the growing field of LGBTQ studies. It is extremely rare for a book to address intersecting oppressions so explicitly, focus so strongly on a particularly important geographical space or offer such a rich mix of standpoints, voices and writing styles. The explicit concern with combining academic, research and activist endeavours is carried off with aplomb. This volume is likely to leave a lasting impression on all who read it.
Paul Stubbs, Institute of Economics, Zagreb, Croatia
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Ova bogata i važna knjiga nije se mogla pojaviti u boljem trenutku... Iako smo dugo svesni pitanja koja moramo da postavimo ako želimo da razumemo uslove u kojima se razvijaju trans iskustvo i aktivizam na postjugoslovenskom prostoru, nismo na njih mogli da odgovorimo, a da ne pribegnemo delu ovakve osetljivosti i dubine. To delo je sad tu!
Ketrin Bejker,
Univerzitet u Halu
Ova bogata i važna knjiga nije se mogla pojaviti u boljem trenutku... Iako smo dugo svjesni pitanja koja moramo postaviti ako želimo razumjeti uvjete u kojima se razvijaju trans iskustvo i aktivizam na postjugoslavenskom prostoru, nismo na njih mogli odgovoriti, a da ne pribjegnemo djelu ovakve osjetljivosti i dubine. To djelo je sad tu!
Catherine Baker,
Sveučilište u Hullu
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Ova pionirska riznica postjugoslovenskog trans znanja pruža ključne uvide u način na koji se trans diskurs preobražava u istočnoj Evropi. Trebalo bi da mi na Zapadu na to obratimo pažnju.
Susan Stryker,
izvršna urednica TSQ: Transgender Studies Quarterly
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Tematska serija studija o postjugoslovenskom LGBTQ postojanju i aktivističkom angažmanu, koju pišu i uređuju regionalni LGBTQ aktivisti/kinje i naučnici/e, konstantno raste tokom poslednje decenije. Glavni urednik serije, Bojan Bilić, pozvao je kolege/inice da mu pomognu u koordinaciji tri grupe tematskih stručnjaka/inja: 2016. Sanju Kajinić za knjigu o intersekcionalnosti i LGBTQ aktivizmu u Hrvatskoj i Srbiji; 2019. Mariju Radoman za knjigu o istoriji i politici lezbejskog aktivizma, a 2022. Aleksu Milanovića za zbirku o trans životima, aktivizmu i kulturi.
Kao i prethodni, i najnoviji zbornik, posvećen trans pitanjima, ne samo da prikuplja i prepliće neke „još uvek prilično rasute niti“ naših života i iskustva, već im daje političku relevantnost i pruža nam platformu na kojoj možemo da prepoznamo jedni druge u feminističkoj, aktivističkoj solidarnosti. Na taj način, ova retka inicijativa podstiče dalja istraživanja i čini našu zajednicu jačom, otpornijom i politički samorefleksivnijom. Sve to nam je potrebno ako želimo da konstruktivno odgovorimo na konzervativne napade na demokratiju kojima svedočimo na postjugoslovenskom prostoru i šire.
Maja Pan,
lezbejska feministička aktivistkinja i nezavisna naučnica, Maribor, Slovenija
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Ovaj dragoceni zbornik uspeva da spoji empatiju sa znanjem i na taj način uveća naše mogućnosti da slobodno doživimo i izrazimo sebe u svom regionu koji je prošao kroz mnoge nedaće... Potrebne su nam ovakve knjige da nas osnaže da živimo život bez agresije, nasilja, patologizacije... Da nas podstaknu da izađemo iz tih zagušljivih okvira koji žele da odrede ko smo i šta možemo biti...
Agata Milan Đurić,
Geten, Beograd
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Kao i zbornici koji su joj prethodili, i ova knjiga je rezultat ljubavi, znak predanosti feminističkoj borbi i opipljiv izraz duboke želje da se čuje širi raspon glasova od onoga koji je uobičajen u regionalnom i globalnom akademskom izdavaštvu.
Paul Stubbs,
Ekonomski institut, Zagreb
Paul Stubbs
Ekonomski institut, Zagreb
... uzbudljiva knjiga koja kroz lezbejske i feminističke priče upotpunjuje i široko polje kulture sjećanja, pokazujući nam kako naše sestre žive, pamte i tumače šta nam se desilo...
Jasmina Čaušević, Sarajevski otvoreni centar
Savremena ženska istorija i globalne kvir studije bogatije su za ovaj izuzetan primer lezbejskog aktivizma i lezbejske sociologije.
Catherine Baker, Univerzitet u Hallu, Velika Britanija
Sestrinstvo i jedinstvo je dragocena riznica promišljanja lezbejskih aktivističkih inicijativa koje dokumentuje pod njihovim uslovima i njihovim sopstvenim rečima. Vešto meandrirajući između akademskih i aktivističkih praksi, temporalnosti, stilova i pitanja, intelektualne, aktivističke, pa i terapeutske intervencije sadržane u ovom zborniku oblikovaće polje lezbejskih studija u godinama koje dolaze.
Andrew Hodges, Leibniz institut za studije istočne i jugoistočne Evrope, Regensburg, Nemačka
Ovaj zbornik, zasnovan na opsežnim etnografskim istraživanjima, nudi briljantnu analizu kompleksnog odnosa između LGBT prava i evropskih integracija, i predstavlja značajan doprinos ne samo literaturi o aktivizmu na prostoru bivše Jugoslavije, već i sociološkoj građi o LGBT aktivističkom delovanju uopšte. U tom smislu, Preko duge u Evropu će biti korisna referenca svima koji se bave studijama roda i društvenih pokreta.
Džil A. Irvin
Univerzitet Oklahome
Ovaj izrazito originalan zbornik ne predstavlja samo pionirski doprinos istraživanjima LGBT aktivizma, nego nudi i odličan primer kako se političkim i društvenim konfliktima u jugoistočnoj Evropi može pristupiti na teorijski utemeljen i angažovan način. Rezultat takvog pristupa je knjiga koja je impresivna i po širini empirijskog zahvata i po akademskoj rigoroznosti individualnih priloga.
Erik D. Gordi
Univerzitetski koledž London
Čini se da su antiratne inicijative marginalizirane u dosad objavljenim historijama jugoslavenskih ratova, u sociološkim studijama društvenih pokreta u centralnoj i istočnoj Europi, kao i u globalnim naporima da se razumiju kompleksne epizode političkog sukobljavanja. Imajući to u vidu, Opiranje zlu se pojavljuje kao važan korektiv i nudi izvanrednu, višeslojnu analizu povezanih oblika aktivističkog organiziranja i njihovih odnosa s politikom, kulturom i društvom u (post)jugoslavenskom kontekstu.
Paul Stubbs, Refleksije o značenjima antiratnog aktivizma
This is a polyvocal paper exploring some of the debates which have shaped gender-queer scholarship and activism in Southeast Europe (SEE). Discussing four key themes-authors' backgrounds, situatedness in theory, understandings of Europe and notions of belonging (›we-ness‹)-the authors paint a picture of gender-queer scholarship and activism in SEE as a fragmented intellectual landscape fraught with multiple struggles and points of contention. The paper offers an overview of two key axes of contention. One has been the differential and racialized distribution of claims to progress, civilization or Europeanness within the SEE region. Another point of contention is the question of whether it is possible to articulate a joint struggle for social justice which would bring together the concern for the problems caused by unjust economic redistribution with those induced by unjust patterns of cultural recognition. With its theoretically nuanced reflections regionally situated within SEE, the paper also raises the question of what gender-queer scholars and activists in SEE are revealing about progressive politics beyond the Area Studies framework.
ABSTRACT: This paper employs the notion of abjection to explore how debates surrounding Ana Brnabić, the first openly lesbian prime minister in Serbia and Eastern Europe, stir affectively lined layers of prejudice across the political spectrum. Drawing upon a range of empirical sources, I argue that the actors engaging in debates about Brnabić's both private and public life are entangled in a loop of abjection which, while comprising gender, sexuality, 'race', and the body, reflects strong patriarchal undercurrents as structural features of Serbian politics.
has been for twenty years now articulating a feminist anti-war stance in an inimical socio-political climate. The operation of this anti-patriarchal and anti-militarist organization, which has resisted numerous instances of repression, has not been until now systematically approached from a social movement perspective. This paper draws upon a range of empirical methods, comprising life-story interviews, documentary analysis and participant observation, to address the question as to how it was possible for this small circle of activists to remain on the Serbian/post-Yugoslav civic scene for the last two decades.My central argument is that a consistent collective identity, which informs the group’s resource mobilization and strategic options, holds the key to the surprising survival of this activist organization. I apply recent theoretical advances on collective identity to the case of the Belgrade Women in Black
with the view of promoting a potentially fruitful cross-fertilization between non-Western activism and the Western conceptual apparatus for studying civic engagement.
Keywords:
Women in Black; Serbia; collective identity; anti-war activism
Keywords: Antiwar Campaign of Croatia; Center for Antiwar Action; Croatia; Serbia; scale shift
Anti-War Campaign were already involved in an extensive network of activist ties. The anti-war engagement was closely related to prior civil rights activity as well as to biographical availability. The Croatian anti-war activists in the early 1990s were predominantly urban university students or recent graduates occupying the narrow niche between freedom from parental supervision and the absence of adult responsibilities.
Keywords: discourse analysis; “mental illness”; newspapers; Serbia; socio-political transition
including topics such as (de-)institutionalization, mental health and (de-)stigmatization. The event will begin with a keynote by Bojan Bilic, a scholar of gender studies at the University of Vienna, on the impact of Basaglia's ideas on Yugoslav feminism and psychiatry. The keynote
will be followed by a roundtable with historian Vinzia Fiorino, literary scholar Marina Guglielmi, psychologist Patrizia Meringolo and sociologist Mariella Orsi, in which we will further expand on Franca Ongaro Basaglia’s work, the position and role of women in asylums, and narratives
and images created inside and outside the asylum.
This actually represents the notion of ‘emplotment’ that was propounded by Hayden White and that refers to the selectivity with which a historian chooses to organize and recount historical events. It is at the discretion of historians to focus on specific events and decide what is and what is not to be included in their historical account. By doing this, historians inevitably shape the ‘meaning’ of history. However, historical evidence do set limits to emplotment - historical events are intrinsically constrained in their capacity to be narrativised.
Moreover, there is another concept related to the narrativisations of history that seems to be particularly relevant to the topic of this conference. It is Ricoeur’s idea of a narrative’s intelligibility, that is, its capacity to encompass and at the same time simplify a large amount of historical data. The potential of history to be manipulated resides exactly in the oversimplified and readily understandable recounts of historical narratives which thus become potent historical/cultural myths that tend to be employed in everyday political discourse as well as to stimulate a creative response that only perpetuates them further.
More specifically, I would like to focus on two events (from Serbian history) that have been, according to my opinion, the ones most frequently put under the process of mythologization and therefore most politically manipulated. The first among these is the famous battle of Kosovo (that took place in 1389 when the Serbs were defeated by the Turks), and the other is the Second World War (National Liberation Struggle [NOB]). These two events, although very different in their ideological content (the second actually repressed the first only to encourage its subsequent tragic outburst), were both for a long period of time the focal points around which people conceptualised their (supra)national identity.