Course co-directors: Marija Mandić (University of Belgrade) and Olesia Marković (Kyiv- Mohyla Academy)
The course focuses on protests and social transformations in the Balkans, drawing parallels with Ukraine. It highlights different dimensions of past and present civil, intellectual, labor, academic, student, feminist, and environmental resistances aimed at political and social change in the Balkans. The specificities of different resistances will be discussed, along with their regional and transnational connections. Issues of identity, including language, belonging, and religion in the Balkans, as well as the dealing with the past, will be explored through a series of lectures, along with their connections to social movements and protests. The relationships between protests and social transformations, particularly in the context of the rise of authoritarian regimes and populism, on the one hand, and EU integration, on the other, will be explored.