Rewriting the Balkans: Memory, Historiography, and the Making of a European Citizenry (Research Brief)
October 25, 2011
This research explored the work of historians, history teachers, and NGO employees engaged in regional initiatives to mitigate the influence of enduring ethnocentric national histories in the Balkans. In conducting an ethnography of the development and dissemination of such initiatives in Serbia, I queried how “multiperspectivity” is understood as a pedagogical approach and a tool of reconciliation, how conflict and controversy are negotiated in developing alternative educational materials, and how the interests of civil society intersect with those of the state and supranational actors. My research sought to interrogate the field of power in which such attempts to innovate history education occur, and the values by which these efforts seek and gain acceptance or are marginalized.
Dana Johnson, of the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, was a 2011-12 Individual Advanced Research Opportunities (IARO) fellow.
