Bosnian Studies

Perspectives from an Emerging Field

Dzeneta Karabegovic, Adna Karamehic-Oates, Dzeneta Karabegovic, Adna Karamehic-Oates

• Publisher: University of Missouri
• Year: 2023
• Print ISBN: 9780826222732, 9780826222671
• eBook ISBN: 9780826274793
• Topic: Storia
• Subtopic: Storia dell'Europa orientale

It has been 27 years since the end of the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and the history of the conflict, its consequences, and long-term implications for the politics and lives of its citizens has remained a source of interest for scholars across the globe and across disciplines. This scholarship has included works by historians and political scientists seeking to explain the war's origins with a view to Bosnia's traditional multi-ethnic character and background. The country has been used as a case study in state- and peace-building, as well as to study the implications of ongoing transitional justice processes. Other scholars within the fields of human rights and genocide studies have focused on documenting the war crimes committed against the people of Bosnia and Herzegovina during the conflict and the mass-scale displacement of people, mostly Bosnian Muslims, from their homes and homelands. International law scholars have carried this work further, tracing the development of courts created in response to war crimes in Bosnia and their effectiveness in generating justice for victims.

Diaspora communities have formed in North America (especially in St. Louis), Europe, and Australia because of war and displacement, and have themselves become a considerable topic of study spanning the disciplines of anthropology, migration studies, political science, memory studies, conflict and security studies, psychology, and geography.

This volume seeks to illuminate how Bosnian migrant and diaspora scholars are contributing to the development of Bosnian Studies. The authors included in this volume are either writing from their (new) home bases in Australia, Austria, Canada, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United States, among others, or they have returned to Bosnia after a period of migration. Their chapters have distinct entry points of inquiry, demonstrating how scholars have integrated Bosnia as a theme across the range of disciplines in which they are situated. The selections included in the volume range from literary analysis to personal memoirs of the conflict, from studies of heritage and identity to political science analysis of diaspora voting, to genocide studies and questions of (or lack of) ethics in the growing field of Bosnian Studies.

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Half Title Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Contents
• Acknowledgments
• List of Contributors
• 1. Introduction
• 2. The Bosnian Genocide as the Cornerstone for Bosnian Studies
• 3. Fieldwork in No-Man’s Land? Ethical Standards and International Research in Bosnia and Herzegovina
• 4. Neither Bosnian nor American: Parents’ Perceptions of Children’s Adaptation Experiences in the United States
• 5. Beyond Borders: Heritage Practices among Sarajevans and Sarajevan Diaspora
• 6. Ending Educational Displacement: Storytelling as a Method for Transformative Learning, Healing, Recognition, Inclusion, and Empowerment
• 7. Translocal Bosnian Communities and Their Influence on Current Emigration Trends
• 8. The Diaspora Vote in Bosnia and Herzegovina: Caught between Efforts to Reverse the Political Effects of Ethnic Cleansing and Voter Suppression through Procedural Disenfranchisement
• 9. Writing Home: Bosnian Writers in Diaspora
• 10. Nowhere in Bosnia: Language, Time, and Memory in the Work of Aleksandar Hemon
• 11. Who is “Bosnian Studies” For? Alternative Futures for Diasporic Scholarship
• 12. Bosnian Studies and Migration Research—Where Do We Go from Here?
• Index
• About the Editors