Project Duration: 2023-2025
Donor: Ministry of Science, Technological Development and Innovation
Lead Partner: Institute for Philosophy and Social Theory of the University of Belgrade
Partners: Center for Southeast European Studies, University of Graz, Austria
IFDT Research Team: Krisztina Rácz, Aleksandar Pavlović, Ljiljana Pantović, Milivoj Bešlin
This scientific cooperation project gathers a cohort of young Austrian and Serbian based researchers who shall collaborate in their respective fields and disciplines to map out the state-of-the-art related to the modern social and political history of Vojvodina, the autonomous region of Northern Serbia, from its incorporation into the Habsburg Monarchy until the collapse of the federative Yugoslav state.
Despite the wealth of historical and contemporary themes of research which relate to Vojvodina, the region remains relatively marginal among historians and other scholars who work on the Ottoman period, the Habsburg Empire, Yugoslavia and its successor states, and also those area studies scholars who study Central and Eastern Europe. For example, there is no comprehensive ‘history of Vojvodina’ in English and the number of studies focused on the autonomous province pale in comparison to other regions of Central and Eastern Europe (e.g. Galicia or Transylvania, which have been well researched in Austria and beyond). The study of Vojvodina might remain elusive for a number of reasons. First, the region falls between fields of language-based area studies (Central Europe/Balkans). Historical study of the region demands competency in multiple languages (Serbian, Hungarian, German), a task that is difficult to accomplish by a single researcher or a national team of scholars. Second, given the turbulent history, frequent border changes and various power constellations it was part of, compiling a comprehensive history of Vojvodina requires expertise in various regional and historical spheres (Hapsburg, Ottoman, Yugoslav). As a compact but ethnically diverse region, the study of Vojvodina requires a transnational focus but is hindered by methodological nationalism and approaches which focus on either nationally bounded communities of ethnic majorities and minorities (categories that often changed throughout the past three centuries in Vojvodina) and spaces, or alternatively, on either idealized representations of multiculturalism. Third, as it is often the case with other historical studies of a specific region, especially those that have frequently changed borders and have been part of different systems over a relatively short period, the comprehensive study of the social and political history of Vojvodina requires a team that has expertise in issues that are not strictly in the domain of history but also fall under other disciplinary traditions that are not necessarily in dialogue with each other (such as the contemporary treatment of language, education, health, political systems).