Memory and South East Europe: Global currents of activism and contestation–Debate

Debate on memory in South East Europe in a global context, hosted by BISA on Thursday, September 24, 2020

The speakers are interpreting contemporary memory-related events and their impact on current South East Europe memory politics, but also their global interconnections. They are trying to answer the questions:

– In what ways have silence, denial and its contestation been manifest?

– How and why have particular actors shaped and influenced memory politics?

– In what ways are memories contested? And by whom?

– What global and/or transnational connections can we draw between memory politics and activism in the region?

Ana Milošević’s presentation is focusing on emphasizing the relationship between official and unofficial memory. Mentioning three different cases of bottom-up memory practices in three European countries within different political contexts, she is noticing the difference between the purposes of spontaneous, democratic memorials and those that are reflecting the official politics of memorialization.

Jelena Đureinović is presenting the topic of her ongoing research: memory politics created by state institutions and right-wing illiberal civil society memory activism. Recognizing anticommunism and ethnicization as the two dominant forms of historical interpretation of 20th century in Serbia, she is contextualizing Serbian memory politics withing global nationalism rising tendencies.

Jasmin Mujanović is talking about the issue of growing negationist and revisionist tendencies in the political West, at the example of Bosnian genocide. He recognizes these tendencies in both left and right-wing oriented political groups and intellectual circles, while warning about the intertwining between anti-imperialist and far-right narratives in the West and local nationalist revisionist narratives.

Speakers:

Ana Milošević, KU Leuven
Jelena Đureinović, Humanitarian Law Center (Belgrade)/University of Vienna
Jasmin Mujanović, Friedrich Ebert Stiftung and co-host of Sarajevo Calling podcast