This project investigates cemeteries as sites of national identity in the former Yugoslavia from the Communist takeover of power in October 1944 through the Yugoslav wars of secession in a variety of multiethnic communities. Through this project I will investigate 1) the policies and propaganda of the Communist party of Yugoslavia designed to secularize and create unified all-Yugoslav cemeteries; 2) how national or religious identity appeared on the gravestones of individual Yugoslav citizens from 1945-1995; and 3) the desecration of graves in the 1980s -90s and its symbolic significance. Ultimately, I hope to show how gravestones and cemeteries became a repository for national identity and ethnic conflict in the former Yugoslavia.
Download the pdf at the top of this page for the full brief.
Carol Lilly, of the University of Nebraska, Kearney,was a 2011-12 Short-Term Travel Grants (STG) [9] fellow.
