East Central European Center

Academics: Regional Studies

Serbian Studies

 

Serbian President Boris Tadic has agreed to lead a multi-year fundraising effort in support of the Njegos Endowment for Serbian Language and Culture at Columbia University. In announcing his decision to support this effort, President Tadic cited “the long and deep ties” between Columbia University and the people of Serbia. For more information

 

The Njegos Endowment for Serbian Language and Culture

 

The Njegos Endowment for Serbian Language and Culture at Columbia University, named after the great 19th Century Serbian-Montenegrin prince and bishop-poet, Petar Petrovic-Njegos, was founded in 1997 with the goal of supporting instruction in Serbian language, literature and culture at Columbia University.  As part of its overall fundraising effort, the Njegos Endowment sponsors a wide range of lectures and cultural events related to Serbia, the Serbian People, and the Serbian population in the United States.

             

Columbia University has a long history with Serbian studies. Serbian has been taught at Columbia since 1918, and the Harriman Institute in the School of Public and International Affairs continues to provide courses and cultural events that bring Serbian studies to both the University community and the general public. Notable among the University’s Serbian connections have been Nikola Tesla and Mihajlo Idvorski Pupin. Tesla’s lecture on the rotating magnetic field as a means for the electrical distribution of energy and discoveries in the realm of high frequency engineering and coupled tuning were invaluable to the growth of modern electrical engineering, and he was awarded an honorary LL.D. from Columbia in 1894. Pupin graduated from the college in 1883, and after obtaining his Ph.D. at the University of Berlin, he returned to Columbia in 1889 as a lecturer of mathematical physics in the newly formed Department of Electrical Engineering, where he became a professor in 1901 and a professor emeritus in 1931. Pupin's research pioneered carrier wave detection and current analysis, and his accomplishments included invention of the Pupin coil and replication of Roentgen's production of x-rays. He was also a consul of the Kingdom of Serbia in New York. Pupin Hall has been named a National Historic Landmark for its association with experiments relating to the splitting of the atom and the Manhattan Project.

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SPRING 2012 Events

Friday, May 18, 2012

6 pm

1219 International Affairs Building

A Correspondent Reflects on Serbia 1963 - 1990 

David Binder

Former New York Times Journalist

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Fall 2011 Events

Friday, October 21, 2011

12-2pm

1219 International Affairs Building

“Kosovo Serbs and their Participation in Kosovo Institutions”

Slobodan Petrovic

Deputy Prime-Minister, Kosovo

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Thursday, November 3, 2011

12—1:30pm

1219 IAB 

“The Work of the Carnegie Endowment in the Balkans after World War I: The University Library of Belgrade, 1919-1926”  

Nadine Akhund, Ph.D.

Sorbonne University 

Among the significant features of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (CEIP), was not only the study of the causes but also of the impacts of the wars on civilian populations. Following World War One, the Carnegie Endowment revitalized its effort to promote international conciliation and undertook major works of reconstruction throughout Europe. Starting in 1919, the Endowment financed the construction of several university and public libraries in Belgium, France and Yugoslavia. In Belgrade, the project was supervised by Leo Capser, a former lieutenant in the US Navy nominated as the head of the Carnegie Committee in Belgrade. Drawing from Capser’s CEIP reports, the paper follows the various stages of the project starting with the formation of the Committee, the relationship between its seven members (US and Serbs/Yugoslav), their opinions and the unfolding of the construction-work. The paper also examines the triangular relationship among three sharply contrasted actors during the complex immediate post-war period: one relatively new non-profit organization (CEIP) and the two states, Yugoslavia and USA, the former newly created, barely internationally recognized and the later a new comer on the international stage. Despite obstacles, the library with room for 200,000 books, was inaugurated in May 1926.

According to Nicholas Butler, later president of the Endowment, education was a major objective of the Carnegie Endowment and public opinion was appreciated as a potential force that needed to be informed and educated in order to contribute preventing further conflicts.

 

Fall 2009 Schedule of Events

Tuesday, September 15, 2009, 12-1:30 pm

1510 International Affairs Building  

Complicity and Community: Preserving Multiculturalism in World War II Sarajevo

With Emily Greble Balic, Assistant Professor of History at The City College of New York. A specialist on the modern Balkans, particularly the countries of the former Yugoslavia, her research and teaching focus on questions of nationalism, civil war and genocide, social transformation in twentieth century Europe, and Islam and the West.

 

Thursday, September 24, 2009, 12-1:30pm

1219 International Affairs Building

Update from Pristina: Kosovo after Independence

With Engjellushe Morina, Executive Director of the Kosovar Stability Initiative (IKS) in Pristina. Prior to her joining IKS she was responsible for the Higher Education portfolio at the Public Diplomacy Section, U.S. Embassy, Prishtina. During the Kosovo final status negotiating process, Ms. Morina served as expert and consultant in the Cultural Heritage group within the Unity Team. Her input focused in particular on the protection of Cultural and Religious Heritage in Kosovo.

 

Friday, October 2, 2009, 6:30-8:30pm 

1219 International Affairs Building

 

The Imidgology and Ideology of 'Humanitarian Interventions' in Yugoslavia and Serbia

With Svetozar Stojanovic (Center for National Strategy, Belgrade).

 

Tuesday, October 6, 2009, 12-1:30pm 

1219 International Affairs Building

Beyond Dayton in Bosnia: Challenges of International Withdrawal

With Sophia Sebastian, a non-resident Associate Fellow at the Madrid-based think tank FRIDE. She has recently received her doctorate from the London School of Economics with a dissertation entitled, State Building in Deeply Divided Societies: Beyond Dayton in Bosnia.

 

Thursday, October 15, 2009, 12-1:30pm

1302 International Affairs Building

Expert Witnesses at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia

With Richard A. Wilson, Gladstein Distinguished Chair of Human Rights, Professor of Anthropology and Director of the Human Rights Institute at the University of Connecticut. He has written on human rights, truth commissions and international criminal tribunals. His authored or edited books include The Politics of Truth and Reconciliation in South Africa (2001), Human Rights and the ‘War on Terror’ (2005) and Humanitarianism and Suffering: the mobilization of empathy (2008). Presently, he holds a Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Humanities and is writing a book on ‘Judging History: the use of historical and social science evidence in international criminal trials’. He serves as the Chair of the Connecticut State Advisory Committee of the US Civil Rights Commission.

 

Monday, October 26, 2009, time to be announced

Kellogg Conference Center, International Affairs Building

Brussels and the Western Balkans: Next Steps for the EU Integration Process

Participants: Marie-Janine Calic; Ludwig-Maximilians University, Munich; Milica Delevic, Director, European Union Integration Office, Belgrade; Vladmir Drobnjak, Chief Negotiator for Accession Negotiations with the EU, Zagreb; Venelin Ganev, Miami University of Ohio; Nida Gelazis, Wilson Center, Washington, DC; Tim Judah, Balkans correspondent, The Economist; Erion Veliaj, Mjaft, Tirana.

Sponsored by The Harriman Institute/ East Central European Center and The Wilson Center in Washington DC

 

Wednesday, November 4, 2009, 12-1:30pm

1219 International Affairs Building

Memories of a Balkan Childhood:  Wayne Vucinich in Hercegovina in the 1920s

With Larry Wolff, professor of history at NYU and director of the NYU Center for European and Mediterranean Studies.  His books include "Inventing Eastern Europe" (1994), "Venice and the Slavs: The Discovery of Dalmatia in the Age of Enlightenment" (2001), and the forthcoming "The Idea of Galicia: History and Fantasy in Habsburg Political Culture" (2010). Professor Wolff is also the editor of the Vucinich memoirs:  "Memoirs of My Childhood in Yugoslavia" (2007).

Wednesday, December 9, 2009, 6:30-8:00 pm

Contemporary Balkan Cinema

A roundtable discussion on contemporary Balkan Cinema

Participants: Martichka Bojilova (Bulgaria) , AGIRPROP Films

Corina Suteu (Romania), Director Romanian Cultural Institute

Mihai Kirilov (Romania), Director NY-Romanian Film Festival and Transylvania IFF

Mevlud Akaya (Turkey), Director NY-Turkish Film Festival, Producer Akaya Films NY

H.E. Raiko Raichev, Permanent Representative of Bulgaria to the United Nations

Jana Karaivanova, Founder/CEO Bulgaria America Cultural Exchange Inc., Director NY-Bulgarian Film Festival

Moderator: James Jermanock, producer/director

Garden Room 1, Faculty House, Columbia University

Spring 2009 Events

March 5-8, 2009

New Balkan Film—A Festival and Multidisciplinary Conference Examining New Directions in Balkan Cinema 

 Participants: Thanos Anastopoulos (Greece; director, “Correction,” 2007); Aida Begic (Bosnia-Herzegovina; director, “Snow,” 2008), Srdjan Golubovic (Serbia; director, “The Trap,” 2007); Metod Pevec (Slovenia; director, “Estrellita,” 2007); and Ognjen Svilicic (Croatia; director, “Armin,” 2007).    

 The festival and conference is being generously supported by the Romanian Cultural Institute and the Consulate-General of Serbia.

  

Cosponsored by the Harriman Institute, the East Central European Center, the East European, Russian and Eurasian National Resource Center, the Film Department, the Hellenic Studies Program, and the Slavic Department

 

Friday, 30 January 2009, 6:30pm

1219 International Affairs Building

Has 'Greater' Vanished From the Balkan Vocabulary? Fragmentation and Cohesion in Southeast Europe

David Binder, former Balkan correspondent for The New York Times.

Sponsored by The Harriman Institute and the Njegos Endowment for Serbian Language and Culture at Columbia University.

Fall 2008 Events

 

Food and Culture

Wednesday, November 19, 2008, 6:30 -8:30 p.m.
1219 IAB

Professor Vladimir Zoric of the University of Nottingham will present the book "Tastes of Belgrade"  by Branka Todorovic and Krsnija Rakic.

Co-sponsored by the Harriman Institute and the Njegos Endowment for Serbian Language and Culture at Columbia University.

Letter in a Bottle: Writing in a Transcultural Space

Thursday, October 9, 2008, 6-8p.m.
1512 IAB

With Dubravka Ugresi, best known in the former Yugoslavia for her fiction, novels and short stories: Poza za prozu, 1978; Stefica Cvek u raljama zivota, 1981; Zivot je bajka, 1983; Forsiranje romana reke, 1988. Her novel Forsiranje romana reke was given the coveted NIN-award for the best novel of the year: Ugresic was the first woman to receive this honor. Dubravka Ugresic has also received several major European literary awards.

Co-sponsored by the Harriman Institute and the Njegos Endowment for Serbian Language and Culture at Columbia University.

Charting Serbia's European Future

Friday, October 31, 2008, 3 p.m.
1512 IAB

With H. E. Vuk Jeremic, Foreign Minister of the Republic of Serbia. Minister Jeremic was an adviser to the Minister of Telecommunications of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia from 2000 until 2003, when he was appointed Special Envoy for Euro-Atlantic Affairs at the Ministry of Defense of the State Union of Serbia and Montenegro. From July 2004 to May 2007, he served as Senior Foreign Policy Adviser to Boris Tadic, President of the Republic of Serbia. In February 2004, he was appointed Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee, and in February 2006 elected to the Main Board of the Democratic Party.

Co-sponsored by the Harriman Institute

Spring 2008 Highlights

The New Political Dynamics of Southeastern Europe.

Wednesday, January 23, 2008, 12-1.30p.m.
1219 IAB

With Gordon N. Bardos (Assistant Director, Harriman Institute at Columbia University) and Alex N. Grigor'ev (Executive Director, Project on Ethnic Relations, Princeton University, New Jersey)

Independent Kosova: Regional Implications.

Monday, January 28, 2008, 12-1.30p.m.
1219 IAB

With Elez Biberaj (Director, Voice of America Eurasia Division)

Peacebuilding in the Balkans: The View from the Ground floor.

Monday, February 18, 2008, 12-1.30p.m.
1219 IAB

With Paula M. Pickering (Assistant Professor of Government, College of William & Mary, Williamsburg, Virginia)

Post-war Perspectives of Youth across the Former-Yugoslavia.

Tuesday, March 4, 2008, 12-1.30p.m.
1219 IAB

With Colette Daiute (The Graduate Center, City University of New York)

The Balkan Region and the Role of Greece.

Wednesday, April 2, 2008, 12-1.30p.m.
1219 IAB

With Dusan Sidjanski (President of the European Cultural Center, University of  Geneva & Special Advisor to the President of the European Commission).
Co-sponsored by the Alexander S. Onassis Public Benefit Foundation, USA

The Thirteenth Annual World Convention of the Association for the Study of Nationalities (ASN)  presents "Nation,  Identity, Conflict and the State". The Balkan Region and the Role of Greece.

April 10-12, 2008
International Affairs Building

This year's convention features over a dozen panels focusing on southeastern European history and politics. For more information, please visit www.nationalities.org

Party Transformation in the Western Balkans: From Fragmentation to Europeanization.

Monday, May 5, 2008, 12-1.30p.m.
1219 IAB

With Leonard J. Cohen (Professor, School for International Studies, Simon Fraser University)

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2007 Highlights

Titostalgia: The Socio-Cultural Aspects of Nostalgia for Tito.

October 1, 2007, 12-1.30p.m.
1219 IAB

With Mitja Velikonja (Department of Cultural Studies, School of Social Sciences, University of Ljubljana)

Bosnia and Sandzak - In The Shadow of Islam?

October 5, 2007, 6.30-8.30p.m.
1219 IAB

With LTC Steve Oluic, PhD (United States Military Academy, West Point)

Kosovo and Literature

November 12, 2007, 12-1.30p.m.
1510 IAB

With Milisav Savic, writer and literary critic and moderated by Professor Radmila Gorup

Kosovo's Final Status in Historical Context

December 3, 2007, 6-7p.m.
The New School, Orozco Room 66 W12th St, 7th Floor

A panel discussion with Professors Ivo Banac, Larry Wolff and Susan Woodward. Moderated by Anna Di Lellio

 

 

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