Registration REQUIRED by 12pm on April 24, 2026 in order to attend this event.
Please join the Njegoš Endowment for Serbian Language and Culture, the East Central European Center, and the Harriman Institute for a lecture by Katja Kobolt. Moderated by Aleksandar Bošković.
After the devastation of the Second World War and the sustained struggle for freedom during the National Liberation War in Yugoslavia (1941–45), the concept of childhood as a distinct stage of life assumed a decisive role in the reconstruction and development of postwar society, both domestically and internationally. The “century of the child” coincided with the “century of the book”: books, magazines, newspapers, and their illustrations accompanied children—who constituted nearly half of the population—as they grew up. Through words, sound, image, puppetry, and movement, creative practices for (and with) children opened the doors of the art world to those previously largely excluded, particularly women and children from the broader population.
This lecture reflects on the feminized practice of art for children through the lens of social reproduction. Focusing primarily on socialist Yugoslavia, it examines the interrelations among key dimensions of social reproduction—care, gender, class, upbringing, education, and the formation of new productive and reproductive conditions, institutions, and social relations—and explores how these processes intersected with artistic production.
Please email [email protected] to request disability accommodations. Advance notice is necessary to arrange for some accessibility needs.
