Name of the project: Shared Future: Youth for Inclusive and Dialogic Remembrance
Project duration: december 2025 – june 2026
Donor: The British Council, UK International Development, Shared Memories, Shared Future: Inclusive Memorialization in the Western Balkans
Lead Partner: Institute for Philosophy and Social Theory (IFDT) University of Belgrade
Partner: NGO Svetionik, Novi Pazar
Coordinator: Marija Mandić
Mentors: Milivoj Bešlin, Ivan Ejub Kostić
Project Assistant: Ivana Milićević
Project Administrator: Bojana Stojković
Designer: Marko Ristić
Media communication: Igor Išpanović
Societies in Southeast Europe remain divided by conflicting narratives about the past, perpetrators, and victims, especially since the wars of the 1990s, which are reproduced in schools, politics, and the media and used to strengthen nationalism rather than foster understanding of others and the creation of a shared future. The program “Shared Future: Youth for Dialogic and Inclusive Memory”, implemented by the Institute for Philosophy and Social Theory, University of Belgrade (IFDT), with the support of the British Council, aims to encourage dialogue about the past from different perspectives and thereby help reduce divisions.
The project includes a collection of personal stories and visual materials focusing on:
- Experience of women during the war;
- Positive stories about interethnic and interreligious cooperation and solidarity during and after the conflict;
- Marginalised communities and victims of under-researched crimes, whose stories and sufferings have not been visible to the public.
Participants will complete an educational program in memory studies and field research methodology. They will receive mentorship support for their research, development of papers for a joint monograph, and preparation of materials for a final exhibition. In addition, participants will help develop the Digital Archive “Memory through Inclusion and Dialogue” (SID-ARH IFDT) and present their work at the Summer School in Novi Pazar, as part of a regional network of cooperation in cultural memory.