Annual Presidents' Note
Dear ACS members and friends,
We are happy to report a wide range of activities and contributions by the Association for Croatian Studies (ACS) at the 56th Annual ASEEES Convention in Boston (Marriott Copley Place) from November 21-24, 2024. The ACS held its annual business meeting on November 21, at which it discussed its members’ participation at the current convention and also planned activities and panels for next year’s convention which is to take place in Washington DC (Hilton) from November 20-23, 2025. This year’s meeting gathered a considerable number of scholars who joined from Croatia and presented at a cohort of panels, and in this sense, it is great to witness this level of representation as well as the wealth of themes that were included. We would like to alert all who gave their paper at the convention as well as other scholars who may have relevant contributions to consider submitting to The Journal of Croatian Studies published by the Croatian Academy of America, our sister organization with which we share many members.
The theme for next year’s convention is “Memory," defined by ASEEES in the following terms:
“Memory is both personal and collective, and shared ways of remembering help to define human communities. In Eastern Europe and Eurasia, individual and “unofficial” memories have often been seen as more trustworthy than the history recounted in official sources. Yet individual memory is inevitably affected and shaped by public memory, which some states and political elites try to manipulate for their own gain.” ASEEES empathizes the need for an interdisciplinary approach, inclusion of critical theory, but also archival and curatorial work. Above all, it strives to reexamine long-standing assumptions and bring to the fore marginalized or silenced perspectives, in particular at the time when truth is constantly destabilized by digital machinations. You can read more details here. The deadline for proposal submissions is March 1, 2025.
In addition to thought-provoking panels at which our members and colleagues gave papers (abstracts included below), the ACS and the Croatian Academy of America organized and co-sponsored the live concert Winds and Tides: Music from Southeastern Europe and Beyond as a part of the convention on Saturday on November 23 (poster below). The performers are members of The Berklee Middle Eastern Fusion Ensemble and The Pletenitsa Balkan Choir known for talented musicians hailing from all over the world. The large audience was impressed by the rich program which included virtuosic improvisations rooted in a great variety of folkloric melodies. The co-sponsors of this concert include Association for Slavic, East European & Eurasian Studies, Berklee College of Music, Harvard’s Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies and Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures, Tufts’ Department of International Literary and Cultural Studies and Film and Media Studies, Princeton’s Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures, and Encore Global. We are grateful to these institutions for their support of this wonderful event and to the musicians for their creativity and a message of peace.
We hope you celebrate the holidays with your loved ones and wish you all a merry Christmas and a wonderful New Year,
On behalf of the ACS Board,
Aida Vidan and John Kraljic
ABSTRACTS OF PRESENTATIONS PERTAINING TO CROATIAN CULTURE AT ASEEES 2024
Panel: Rethinking Yugoslav Revolution II: The Politics of Narratives and Images of Yugoslav People’s Liberation Struggle: Past for Future
“Images of Impossible, Poetics of Revolutionary: Vladimir Nazor’s Partisan Poems and Imagination of Yugoslav People’s Liberation Struggle”
Maša Kolanović, University of Zagreb
The paper analyzes Partizan Poems (Pjesme partizanke) by Croatian poet Vladimir Nazor, published in 1944 and written during Nazor’s participation in Yugoslav People’s Liberation Struggle during World War II. Nazor’s Partizan Poems are contextualized in art and culture reflecting Yugoslav People’s Liberation Struggle which was a constant from the very beginning of the struggle to the very end of the county’s dissolution in various genres and forms. What makes this book of poems special in that context is the poetic reflection of immediate experience in writer’s participation in People’s Liberation Struggle which resulted in specific poetic images, politics and affections connected to it. As stressed out in new approaches on partisan art and culture (Močnik, 2016; Kirn, 2016), especially in new readings of partisan poetry done by Miklavž Komelj (2009), partisan art holds an important poetical and political quality of the impossible on what I rely in retracing poetical imagery of Nazor’s book. The paper dominantly focuses on discussing quality of poetic language and images of struggle, resistance and unity with the political effect of hope and strength. The analysis retraces such poetic imagery, showing how quality of impossible is being sustained in between representative struggle of fascist violence and utopian antifascism which both had symbolic and concrete manifestation of the writer’s immediate present.
Panel: The Process of the Liberation of Croatia since 1945
Chair/Discussant: John Peter Kraljic, Croatian Academy of America
“The Statehood of Croatia as a Basis for Its Liberation and Independence”
Željko Bartulović, University of Rijeka
While Croatia continued to have sovereignty after it came under the rule of Hungarian Kings and later Austrian Emperors, it was only in the 20th century that it was able to achieve independence. This panel examines some of the constitutional and cultural issues involved in Croatia's liberation as an independent state.
“Political Liberation: The Creation of the 1990 Croatian Constitution and Croatian Symbolic Identity” Tomislav Galović, University of Zagreb
This paper focuses on the importance of the “Draft” of the first Croatian democratic Constitution, which was drawn up in Malinska on the island of Krk from August 1 to 15, 1990. It analyzes those provisions dealing with the Republic of Croatia’s coat of arms, flag and anthem and the flag and sash of the President of the Republic of Croatia which, shorn of their communist symbolism, represented an expression of the liberation of Croatian symbolic identity.
“The Border between the Republics of Croatia and Slovenia on the Dragonja River”
Tatjana Tomaić, Institute of Social Sciences Ivo Pilar
Integrally connected with the concept of the liberation of a country and its independence is the question of what comprises the territory of the state. In this paper we examine the continued dispute between Slovenia and Croatia over the proper placement of the border between them in Istria and the Dragonja River and how its ultimate resolution will be necessary for each state to feel liberated and to strengthen regional security.
“Architecture as Liberation: The Nationalization of Architecture in Late Habsburg Croatia”
Dragan Damjanović, University of Zagreb
The political liberation of a country is often preceded by its cultural independence. In this paper, we look at the adoption of local nationalist elements in architecture in 19th and early 20th century Croatia, reviewing the role played by local Croatian authorities, associations and individuals in this process. The paper compares these trends in northern Croatia and Slavonia with Dalmatia and Istria with the goal to provide an insight into the broader Central European context.
Panel: Habsburg-Pop: Musical Markets and Multiculturalism in the Late Habsburg Empire
“Out of the Theatre: Popular Faces of a Military Band in Croatia”
Vjera Katalinić, Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts
Military musical ensembles in the past performed on various occasions, from private to public, from military to civilian. In the late 19th century, regimental ensembles primarily had to be in the service of their regiment, but playing music outside it represented additional income for their musicians, as well as for the regiment itself. On the example of the 79th regiment, which was stationed in the Austro-Hungarian port of Rijeka / Fiume at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, its popular side will be presented. Their military orchestra performed in nearby towns for civilian purposes. In fact, in neighboring Opatija / Abbazia, an eminent imperial summer resort, they even competed with two other local civilian ensembles in entertaining prominent tourists. The paper investigates their operating conditions, locations and, according to preserved sources, a specific repertoire.
Roundtable: EEPS Roundtable: Dancing in Chains: Translation and/as Research
Chair: Andrzej W. Tymowski, American Council of Learned Societies
Wendy Bracewell, University College London
Sibelan E. S. Forrester, Swarthmore College
James Krapfl, McGill University
Madalina Meirosu, Arizona State University
Antonija Primorac, University of Rijeka
Despite considerable discussion of the intellectual, critical and creative demands made on practitioners by translation, the academic world still tends to regard the practice as something other (and less) than scholarship. In this way our professional field can discourage and marginalize the work of making translations, particularly by those for whom it is not their main discipline. Yet translation is both exacting as a scholarly endeavor and crucial for the circulation of ideas. This roundtable explores the relationship between translation and research by exchanging the experiences and experiments of participants who have approached translation from a variety of disciplinary perspectives and languages (Croatian, Czech, English, German, Romanian, Russian, Serbian, Slovak, and Ukrainian), highlighting translation as a process of investigation and interpretation that articulates questions, produces concepts and generates new knowledge – as well as being a creative practice in itself. The panel thus argues for the liberation of translators of all stripes from the oppression of academic convention, and in so doing supports the efforts of the journal EEPS (East European Politics and Societies & Cultures), which has awarded the Michael Henry Heim Prize in Collegial Translation since 2014 to promote translations of scholarship by colleagues in the discipline.
Panel: Rethinking Yugoslav Art III: Charting Emancipatory Spaces: Insights on Art from Yugoslav Socialism and Post-Socialism II
“Rethinking Structure—New Forms: Movement Spaces at the Workers and People’s University Moša Pijade in Zagreb”
Marjana Krajač, Ohio State University
This paper explores spaces at the former Workers and People's University Moša Pijade in Zagreb that served as dance studios or movement sites during the building's socialist and post-socialist periods. Tracing the institution's ideals, frameworks, and progressive structures alongside its modernist architectural ethos, the paper argues that there is a continuum of Yugoslav concepts in the discursive and experimental contributions of contemporary dance artists who precariously occupied some of its spaces in the early 2000s. Drawing on Derrida's notion of buildings as fluid conduits rather than static structures, the argument emphasizes the multiplicity of narratives in architectural layers, inviting dynamic engagement with space. Mobilizing the building's spatial, historical, and political sequence, the paper brings forward the possibilities of Yugoslav spatial and architectural politics, the educational horizons of the Workers and People’s University, and its movement-concept and space-concept interventions as powerful tools for the emancipation of art, practice, process, and space.
“Transforming the Adriatic Coast during and after the Yugoslav Period: Artistic and Architectural Reflections”
Anamarija Batista, Academy of Fine Arts Vienna
During its modernist period, the Adriatic coast of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia underwent a massive transformation. The rise of (mass) tourism exerted a particular impact, which still marks the region. It is less known that the country established its most essential defense lines in this area during the same period. Thus, the unproductive time of vacations and rest and relaxation meets the strategic military planning. Considering the two concepts side by side in their spatial and temporal structures, a particular paradox emerges, which today's transformations appear to reverse. While the former military areas are freely accessible, the tourism infrastructure is falling prey to the idea of exclusivity for their guests. The sharing of the infrastructure with the local population seems to vanish. The idea that these areas could be put to a different use is struggling to take hold. I discuss these implications by utilizing my artistic-academic research and including the current artistic and architectural practices engaged in Yugoslav heritage on the Adriatic and its transformation (Ana Dana Beroš, Lana Stojićević, Sandro Ðukić, Motel Trogir, Melik Ohanian, Dan Oki, among others). What utopian, collective ideas moved the Yugoslav society? How has this perspective changed, and how do current developments on the Adriatic Coast lead to new/old forms of inequality and consumerist elitism?
“The Emancipatory Potential of Exhibiting Croatia’s Architectural Pasts”
Ana Martina Bakić, University of Zagreb
In the aftermath of Yugoslavia’s dissolution, Croatia began to participate in the Venice Architecture Biennale under its own national presentation in 1991. This paper focuses on the 2010 presentation. Designed and produced by a group of fifteen Croatian architects, the project included a floating barge that was to travel from Rijeka to Venice for the opening. It was a multi-coded, layered, and transformative architectural object rich in material and phenomenal effects that invited relationality with its changing context. I argue that we ought to read its making, floating, and collapse as a form of architectural performance, made possible by its historical moment, described by some theoreticians as a period particularly fit for experimenting. It was also a project that drew on references to collective work and art practices of these architects' own (previous) Yugoslav experiences. Imagined as a participatory project with a series of interventions (dockings) in public space, the floating pavilion was in dialogue with the local experimental heritage in architecture as well as happenings and the ‘new art practices’ that sought to activate public space with critical dialogue, humor, and art. The collective dimension of the project included, it is interesting to think of it as a form of re-enactment or as a “retro-utopian” impulse of the generation of architects who were straddling two systems and different formations of the country.
Panel: Rethinking Yugoslav Culture III: Formal Concerns and Documentary Claims in (Post) Yugoslav Film
“Factuality and Fictionality in Current Croatian Feature Film”
Aida Vidan, Tufts U
Since the mid-2000s the range of topics and critical voices in the Croatian film industry have gradually increased, but particularly interesting are recent feature films rooted in real-life events, combining factuality and fictionality in powerful, even testimonial narratives. This phenomenon was marked by These are the Rules (Takva su pravila, 2014) by Ognjen Sviličić loosely based on a real event that took place in Zagreb in 2008, when a high school senior Luka Ritz was brutally beaten and killed by a group of hooligans. More recently Safe Place (Sigurno mjesto, 2022) by Juraj Lerotić plunges deeply into a personal realm sharing a heartbreaking suicide of his own brother, while Only When I Laugh (Samo kad se smijem, 2023) by Vanja Juranić deals with family violence and is loosely based on the murder case of Ana Magaš, a young woman from Zadar who in 2005 in self-defense killed her violent husband. The three films, even though rooted in real events, reveal different directorial strategies in terms of their narrative treatment of the material, their dissimilar visual strategies as well as in their choices to privilege an external objective vs. internal psychological perspective. However, they all share a stark criticism of Croatian public service offices and highlight alarming conditions in public institutions involving health care, police, social services, education and judicial system where negligence, abuse of power, and a lack of empathy result in various tragedies. This paper situates the three films in the social context from which they emerged, with a particular focus on Lerotić’s Safe Place.
Panel: Rethinking Yugoslav Revolution I: Remembering Liberation: Socialist Yugoslavia’s Memorial Complexes and Their Social Roles
“Realms of Liberation: Monument-Making and Socialization of Revolutionary Heritage in Socialist Yugoslavia”
Sanja Horvatinčić, Institut za povijest umjetnosti
The paper analyzes monument-making as the socialization of revolutionary heritage in socialist Yugoslavia. In the focus are “memorial areas” (spomen-područja), a new model of the production of revolutionary heritage based on the protection of the “authentic” historical territories and natural environments where the People’s Liberation Struggle and the Socialist Revolution took place 1941-1945. The elaborate spatial plans for mountain areas encompassing “liberated partisan territories” (e.g. Petrova Gora, Partizanska Drežnica, Šamarica) aimed at becoming “social monuments” in which original wartime structures and postwar monuments formed unique memorial landscapes, serving as the backbone of memorial practices and tourism development.
Roundtable: Rethinking Yugoslav Revolution IV: Book Discussion: Utopia of the Uniform: Affective Afterlives of the Yugoslav People's Army
Tanja Petrović, Scientific Research Centre SAZU (Slovenia)
Maša Kolanović, University of Zagreb
Johanna K. Bockman, George Mason University
Marko Dumančić, Western Kentucky University
Kristen R. Ghodsee, University of Pennsylvania
The compulsory service for young men in the Yugoslav People’s Army (JNA) created bonds across ethnic, religious, and social lines. These bonds persisted even after the horrific violence of the 1990s, in which many of these men found themselves on opposite sides of the front lines. In Utopia of the Uniform, Tanja Petrović draws on memories and material effects of dozens of JNA conscripts to show how their experience of military service points to futures, forms of collectivity, and relations between the state and the individual different from those that prevailed in the post-Yugoslav reality. Petrović argues that the power of repetitive, ritualized, and performative practices that constituted military service in the JNA provided a framework for drastically different men to live together and befriend each other. While Petrović and her interlocutors do not idealize the JNA, they acknowledge its capacity to create interpersonal relationships and affective bonds that brought the key political ideas of collectivity, solidarity, egalitarianism, education, and comradeship into being.
Panel: Post-Yugoslav Literature(s) in Transnational Perspective
Chair/Discussant: Ellen Elias-Bursac, American Literary Translators Association
“Reading Transnationally: Away from Constraints of National Canons”
Jasmina Lukić, Central European University (Austria)
The paper explores the liberatory potential a transnational feminist reading of exiled or migrant post-Yugoslav and CEE woman writers holds. With transnationalism, transculturalism, border thinking, critical cosmopolitanism, and gender as its key concepts, the paper offers an alternative theoretical framework to predominant nationalist exclusionary paradigms of new/old national literatures and their new/old literary canons. At the same time, it positions post-Yugoslav and CEE woman writers in the larger context of transnational European women’s literature.
“Between Hope and Despair: Daša Drndić’s Literary Memory Narratives”
Dara Sljukic, Central European University (Austria)
This paper will start from positioning Daša Drndić as a transnational post-Yugoslav woman writer. Inspired by Azade Seyhan’s conceptualization of “writing outside the nation,“ the paper identifies cultural memory mediation as a key aspect of Drndić’s writing. In the next step, it explores whether Drndić’s critical literary memory narratives, which have been largely interpreted in a ’trauma’ key, have future-oriented characteristics, aiming to open the broader question of futurity in the first generation of post-Yugoslav writers. In particular, I am interested if the concept of “memory of hope,” as developed by Ann Rigney, can be applied in this context.
Roundtable: Sites of Atrocity: Comparative Analysis of Bosnia, Croatia, and Slovenia
Damir Kovačević, University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire
Marko Dumančić, Western Kentucky University
James Gow, King's College London
Blaze Joel, UC Berkeley
Zala Pochat Križaj, King's College London
The scholars on this roundtable seek to examine how and why atrocities are committed in connection with warfare, what impact hyper-localized violence has on a community, and how these atrocities are remembered and interpreted, seen and unseen. By focusing on examples of the Croatian Krajina, Kočevje, and Prijedor, in particular (though not exclusively), the discussion will focus on three interrelated issues: the role of perpetrators, particularly the relationship between elites at different levels of the state, the micro-level dynamics of genocide and other crimes against humanity, and the way sites atrocity are commemorated (including non-commemoration) in relation to issues of identity and division.
Panel: Rethinking Yugoslav Culture IV: What is Yugoslav Literature Today?
“In Search of the Lost Futures”
Gordana Crnković, U of Washington
This contribution foregrounds several literary works created in the Yugoslav period whose aesthetics and, arguably, a distinctly Yugoslav utopian aspect make them “news that stays news” (Ezra Pound), or Yugoslav literature alive and living today in the global literary sphere.
Live Concert: Winds and Tides: Music from Southeastern Europe and Beyond
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