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Panel “Plurality of Identities: Institutions and Social Dynamics in Serbia” Held at SASA
A panel titled “Plurality of Identities: Institutions and Social Dynamics in Serbia” was held on 18 March 2026 in the Ceremonial Hall of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts (SASA), within the framework of the project “Ethno-Confessional Minorities in Serbia: Challenges and Perspectives of Human Rights.” The panel was organized by Dr. Aleksandra Djurić Milovanović, Principal Research Fellow at the Institute for Balkan Studies SASA, in cooperation with Academician Alpar Lošonc, Full Member of SASA and project leader, and in partnership with the Ethnographic Institute SASA.
In the opening session, Academician Alpar Lošonc and Dr. Branko Banović, Director of the Ethnographic Institute SASA, addressed the audience, emphasizing the importance of an interdisciplinary approach to the study of identity and cultural processes in contemporary society.
The panel discussion, moderated by Dr. Aleksandra Djurić Milovanović, featured contributions by Prof. Milica Bakić-Hayden (University of Pittsburgh), Prof. Slobodan G. Marković (Faculty of Political Sciences, University of Belgrade), Prof. Miloš Milenković (Faculty of Philosophy, University of Belgrade), Dr. Aleksandra Pavićević (Ethnographic Institute SASA), and Dr. Jadranka Đorđević Crnobrnja (Ethnographic Institute SASA).
The presentations addressed various dimensions of identity plurality, including the relationship between local and global processes, European cultural transfer, the role of institutions in shaping identities, as well as the plurality of religious practices and situational identity strategies in contemporary societies. The discussion that followed opened important questions regarding the complexity and multilayered nature of identities, as well as the relationship between institutional frameworks and the everyday practices of ethno-confessional communities. Particular emphasis was placed on understanding identity as a dynamic and context-dependent phenomenon.
The papers presented at the panel will be published in an edited volume.
