NEWS FROM ACADEMIC COMMUNITY

CURRENT EVENTS

As an academic organization devoted to the promotion of Serbian culture, NASSS is following with interest and concern the current student protests in Serbia. NASSS is proud of the Serbian youth for their insightful and courageous stance in the face of perceived corruption and injustices in various sectors of Serbian society and public life. NASSS commends the Edict delivered by students of Niš University, which is a concrete and considered proposal for reforms showing statesmanlike qualities and embodying a new Serbian national spirit supported by various segments of Serbian society, from teachers and artists to lawyers and farmers. NASSS will continue to follow the highest and best examples of this spirit by showcasing Serbian culture at the highest level of academic excellence in its journal Serbian Studies.

STUDENT EDICT

A document of a specific nature, created by the students at the University of Niš

PROVISIONS OF THE DOCUMENT
Done in Niš, 1 March 2025.  We, students and free citizens of Serbia, gathered in the city of Niš, a city that has witnessed new ideas and changes, a city which has been the crossroads of  history for centuries, and where freedom has always found a home, present this edict in which we proclaim the values for which we are fighting, as a pledge for the future and the state in which we desire to live:

I. ON FREEDOM: Serbia is a country of free people.  Freedom is not a gift bestowed by a ruler, but rather a fundamental right indivisible from the dignity of every citizen.  Freedom is the foundation of our democratic society, of our laws, our words and our thoughts.

II.  ON THE STATE: The state is the collective good of all of its citizens. The institutions of Serbia must serve the people and be the basis of trust, and not an instrument of power of an individual.  We stand for a state in which law represents the highest authority and where holding a political function means service to the citizens, and not a privilege.

III. ON JUSTICE: Justice is the foundation of a stable society.  The independent judiciary, the free press and institutions must act according to the law, and not according to political pressure.  Equality of rights must be the reality for every citizen of Serbia.

IV. ON YOUTH:  The youth have shown that they are not only the heirs of Serbia, but the defenders of its constitution.  Students, as the ones carrying out the struggle, are peserving the values on which our society should be based.  The youth of Serbia seek a system based on labor and knowledge.

V. ON DIGNITY: We seek a society in which the dignity of each individual is respected.  Dignity presupposes that no person is put into an inferior position because of their positions and thoughts.  A Serbia in which experts are not devalued and where knowledge is more

VI. ON KNOWLEDGE: Knowledge is the basis for the advancement of any society.   We seek a Serbia which invests in science, research, education and culture as priorities for its development.  Universities must be independent centers of excellence, and not places for buying diplomas and political influence.

VII. ON SOLIDARITY: The roads of our cities, from Niš to Novi Sad, from Belgrade to Kragujevac, have witnessed the power of national solidarity.  This solidarity, unknown until now in systems based on division, manifests our pledge and our strength, that we are going to defend and nurture. Turning individual voices into a power for change we have demonstrated that Serbia is not a collection of particular interests, but rather a collectivity of citizens who

VIII. ON THE FUTURE: Let this Edict be our duty, our pledge to each other – that we will build a state that belongs to all, in which every child can hope to achieve their greatest dreams.  A state in which justice and freedom will be stronger than any individual, in which the government will not make servants of the people, but will instead serve the people.

2024
December 2024
Dijana Mitrović with DAH Theater
One. Ispred svog vremena (see more https://en.dahteatarcentar.com/december-2/)

Within multimedia event, SHE. Ahead of Her Time produced by DAH Theatre (Belgrade) and performed on several occasions in 2024, Serbian Studies Associate Editor, Dijana Mitrović has presented her sound installation Wave (Val). This interactive installation invites the audience to “step into the shoes” of prominent women of Serbian past and, in relative isolation from the environment, hear their thoughts and “get into their heads.” The work questions the stereotypes that underlie common cultural patterns of what it means to be a woman, outlining the split between what we see and what a person really is.

Although the position of women in Serbian society has been significantly improved, many of the patterns that hindered heroines of this work are still ubiquitous and prevent today’s women from fully realizing their potential. That is why the Wave invites audience to remember the women who defied social pressures and in doing so indelibly wove their image and work into collective memory and social progress of Serbian society. Through that memory, this work wants to inspire new generations of women to dare to swim upstream, to embrace themselves in all their complexity and wholeness, to stir the stagnant waters of patriarchy, creating a new wave from which future generations will better see the world around them.NASSS is devoted to enhancing visibility of Serbian and Southeast European academic production in the area of humanities and social sciences. To that end it cooperates with Innovation Center (www.cisi.rs) in utilizing digital technologies to foster cooperation between regional and global production of knowledge. 

Vice President of NASSS Dr. Vladimir Petrović has been appointed Head of the Innovation Center (https://cisi.rs/) aimed at facilitating international scholarly exchange between Serbian, Southeast European and global academia in the area of humanities and social sciences. In June 2024, Petrovic took part in an annual Scholars at Risk Conference, held at the European Humanities University in Vilnius, where he presented the activity of the Invisible University for Ukraine and its emerging Balkan component.

NASSS is devoted to enhancing visibility of Serbian and Southeast European academic production in the area of humanities and social sciences. To that end it cooperates with Innovation Center (www.cisi.rs) in utilizing digital technologies to foster cooperation between regional and global production of knowledge. Vice President of NASSS Dr. Vladimir Petrović has been appointed Head of the Innovation Center (https://cisi.rs/) aimed at facilitating international scholarly exchange between Serbian, Southeast European and global academia in the area of humanities and social sciences. In June 2024, Petrovic took part in an annual Scholars at Risk Conference, held at the European Humanities University in Vilnius, where he presented the activity of the Invisible University for Ukraine and its emerging Balkan component.

2021
We are proud to announce that on February 11, 2021, Tomislav Z. Longinović, Professor of Slavic, Comparative Literature and Visual Culture, at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, was named winner of the prestigious Jovan Skerlić Award for 2020, for his novel entitled Fetiš Nulo (Belgrade: Dereta). Congratulations to Professor Longinović, our longtime member.