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13th International Congress of South-East European Studies
The 13th International Congress of South-East European Studies, organized by the Macedonian National Committee of the Association Internationale d’Études du Sud-Est Européen (AIESEE), took place in Skopje, at the Macedonian Academy of Sciences and Arts, between 15 and 19 September 2025. The theme of this year’s congress was “Communication and Exchange: South-Eastern Europe within Global Social, Political and Cultural Processes” and it gathered more than 120 researchers from around the world interested in South-East European studies. A large delegation of the Institute for Balkan Studies SASA, led by director Vojislav G. Pavlović, who is a member of the board of the International Committee of AIESEE, took part in the congress and presented their broad research to a wide audience.
Topics belonging to the modern and contemporary history of the Balkans were the best represented. Dragan Bakić, senior research associate, presented “Narodna Odbrana: A Radical Right-Wing Integral-Yugoslav Organization, 1921–1941”, Dušan Fundić, senior research associate, explained how “To Reforge a Nation: Yugoslav Nationalism and its Historians (1929–1935)”, while Igor Vukadinović, senior research associate, explained the “Censorship and Repression as Means of Constitutional Changes in Yugoslavia, 1968–1974”. Bogdan Živković, research associate, gave the speech entitled “Yugoslav Communism and National Identity in Montenegro: The Role of People’s Front of Montenegro/Socialist Alliance of Working People of Montenegro 1945–1966”, Konstantin Dragaš, research associate, talked about “Anti-Yugoslavism in the ‘Adriatic’ Ideology and Propaganda of Italian Politicians and Publicists 1914–1921”, and Anja Nikolić, research associate, detailed on “Wissenschaftliche Mittheilungen aus Bosnien und der Hercegovina and the Shaping of Scholarly Knowledge About Bosnia and Herzegovina (1893–1916)”.
Topics from the early modern period of Balkan history were also covered. Marija Vasiljević, research associate, spoke about “Reconsidering Identity Formations: 17th Century Hagiographies in the Patriarchate of Peć”, while Ognjen Kresić, research associate, explained the difference “Between Cenobitic and Idiorrhythmic monasticism: Monks’ Self-Identification and their Relations with the Coreligionists in the Early Modern Ottoman Balkans”.
The researchers of our institute also delivered two lectures on linguistics topics. Annemarie Sorescu-Marinković, principal research investigator, talked about “How bilingual speakers define ‘mother tongue’: the case of the Vlachs of Eastern Serbia”, while Svetlana Ćirković, principal research investigator, explained the “Dative of personal and reflexive pronouns in Gurbet Romani in Eastern Serbia: argumental and non-argumental use”.
