Media: Professor Denisa Kostovicova contributed expert comment to Balkan Insight on 27 August 2024. She commented on the plans to launch the ‘Presidential Commission for Truth and Reconciliation’ in Kosovo. Stating that truth commissions can fail even before they are formally established, she highlighted the importance of obtaining support for the initiative from all ethnic communities in Kosovo.
Media: Dr Denisa Kostovicova gave an extensive interview to Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty on 24 May 2024. She commented on the adoption of the UN General Assembly's adoption of the resolution on commemoration of Srebrenica genocide. Dr Kostovicova spoke about the use and abuse of the concept of collective responsibility and the roles of elites and liberal civil society in relation to wartime legacy in Serbia.
Policy Paper: Dr Sanja Vico publishes a policy paper "Polarization and Dialogue on Social Media" in the Aspen Institute Germany's publication "Digitalization and Democracy in the Western Balkans"
Dr Sanja Vico contributed to the Aspen Institute Germany publication "Digitalization and Democracy in the Western Balkans" with a paper on . The paper is based on her JUSTINT research and participation in the high-level conference "Digitalization and Democracy in the Western Balkans," organised by the Aspen Institute Germany in collaboration with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Montenegro in Podgorica in December 2023. Her research explored and
Lecture: Dr Denisa Kostovicova gave a lecture titled “Opening up
‘citizen social science’” as a part of the CIVICA Open Social Science Handbook seminar series on 7 November 2023. Joining Professor Patrick Dunleavy, Dr Kostovicova discussed theoretical, practical, and ethical aspects of open citizen social science and its challenges referring to the JUSTINT research, including sharing findings with the practitioners. The lecture is available .
Policy Paper: JUSTINT research team organised a one-day knowledge exchange workshop with members of civil society organisations from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Serbia, and Kosovo on 6 June 2023. The JUSTINT Policy Paper ‘Inter- and intra-ethnic dialogues on war-time violence and its legacies’ presenting recommendations for practitioners is available here.
Video: A short summary video of Denisa Kostovicova and Vesna Popovski’s article entitled ‘Women’s discursive agency in transitional justice policy-making: A feminist institutionalist approach’ was featured by the British International Studies Association and is . The article is available Open Access .
Blog: Kostovicova, Denisa (7 March 2023): “Brothers no more: What the EU’s diplomatic breakthrough on Kosovo means for Serbia-Russia relations.” Blog post for the London School of Economics and Political Science blog EUROPP – European Politics and Policy. .
Public debate: Denisa Kostovicova chaired and Ivor Sokolic contributed along with Iva Vukusic (University of Utrecht) and Prof Jasna Dragovic-Soso (Goldsmiths College) to the public debate at the London School of Economics and Political Science on 9 November 2022 titled Archives of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia: Addressing Impunity, Creating History. The panel addressed the use of the ICTY archive by social science researchers, the challenge and opportunity presented by the large volume of data, the methods and considerations of research ethics. Click here for podcast and recording.
Blog: Sokolić, Ivor (8 November 2022). “Assessing Bosnia and Herzegovina’s future following the 2022 election”. Blog post for the London School of Economics and Political Science blog EUROPP – European Politics and Policy. Available .
Media: On 2 October 2022, Dr Ivor Sokolić was interviewed by the Al Jazeera Balkans about the current political situation in the Western Balkans regarding EU relations and post-conflict processes. Available .
Media: In September 2022, Dr Sanja Vico was interviewed about Western Balkans politics for Al Jazeera Balkans. She discussed the issues of democracy, identity, transitional justice, and talked about her research on the role social media in transitional justice process, part of JUSTINT project. .
Media: On 4 August 2022, Dr Denisa Kostovicova was interviewed by BBC Serbian service about the anniversary of Croatia’s Operation ‘Storm.’ Commenting on the contested national narratives of the military operation in Croatia and Serbia, she attributed them to the flattening out of the complexity of the conflict in the 1990s. This has resulted in myopic and strategic focus on the suffering of one’s own side only, especially by political elites. Dr Kostovicova concluded that the persistence of such exclusive narratives is a form of a frozen symbolic war over memorialization spearheaded by political elites. .
Transitional Justice Workshop
Inside the Local Turn in Transitional Justice: Local Actors in Micro-Level Interactions.
Dr Denisa Kostovicova and Dr Sanja Vico organised, within the framework of the JUSTINT project, a workshop gathering emerging, mid-career and senior scholars working on transitional justice on a range of case-studies globally, on 2 July 2022. The aim of the workshop, titled Inside the Local Turn in Transitional Justice: Local Actors in Micro-Level Interactions. The participants examined interactions involving local actors, such as ordinary people, parliamentarians, local human rights activists, artists, victims, and others. They evaluated how their engagement with issues related to transitional justice and its different forms and practices promotes or hinders peacebuilding, while presenting novel methodologies and sources of data in transitional justice research.
Click here for the workshop programme.
PhD Workshop on Transitional Justice in the Western Balkans
Venera Cocaj and Dr Denisa Kostovicova under the auspices of the JUSTINT project and in collaboration with the European Institute’s Centre for Research on South Eastern Europe (ÐÓ°ÉÂÛ̳E), organised a PhD workshop Transitional Justice in the Western Balkans: Emerging Research and Theory Building, on 27 May 2022. The workshop gathered together emerging scholars working on transitional justice issues in relation to the Balkans. It provided an opportunity for an exchange of ideas and led to establishment of new professional connections.
Click here for the workshop programme.
Blog: Kostovicova, Denisa and Kerr, Rachel (12 May 2022): “Lessons from the Balkans: How justice can be achieved for the victims of war crimes in Ukraine.” Blog post for the London School of Economics and Political Science blog EUROPP – European Politics and Policy. .
Media: In January 2022, Dr Sanja Vico was interviewed about her research on factors that lead to attitude change and acknowledgement of war crimes committed by members of one's own ethnicity for Oslobođenje newspaper. She particularly discussed the role of digital media and diaspora in this respect. .
Media: In October 2021, Dr Ivor Sokolić was interviewed about his book International Courts and Mass Atrocity: Narratives of War and Justice in Croatia (Palgrave Macmillan) for the New Books Network. He discussed the effects of international and national transitional justice in Croatia, as well as the future direction of transitional justice research in the region. .
Call for papers: PhD students researching transitional justice issues are invited to submit a paper for a PhD Workshop on Transitional Justice in the Western Balkans.
We welcome papers and work-in-progress from researchers doing their doctoral dissertations on any aspect of transitional justice in the region and in any stage of doctoral research.
Click here to find out more about the workshop and how to submit your abstract (deadline: December 1 2021).
Call for papers: participate in the upcoming workshop, Inside the Local Turn in Transitional Justice: Local Actors in Micro-Level Interactions.
The aim of the workshop, taking place in 2022, is to examine micro-level interactions involving local actors, such as ordinary people, parliamentarians, local human rights activists, artists, victims, and others. It will evaluate comparatively how their engagement with issues related to transitional justice and its different forms and practices promotes or hinders peacebuilding.
Click here to find out more about the abstract submission process (deadline: December 1 2021).
Blog post: Sokolić, Ivor (2020). “The Croatian presidency of the EU.” The UK in a Changing Europe..
Media: In July 2020, Dr Ivor Sokolic was interviewed by Croatian investigative journalism and news website Telegram.hr on the status of Croatian politics and on the Croatian elections. .
Media: In July 2020, Dr Ivor Sokolic was interviewed by the Financial Times about nationalism in Croatia and its role in the upcoming parliamentary elections. .
Blog post: Sokolić, Ivor (2018). “Legacies of mass atrocity and the rejection of human rights.” ÐÓ°ÉÂÛ̳ Government Blog. .
Media: In January 2020, Dr Ivor Sokolic was interviewed on Euronews’ Good Morning Europe programme to discuss the upcoming Croatian EU presidency.
Award: Dr Sanja Vico received the Honorable Mention Best Paper Senior Scholar Award, 2019, by ECREA (European Communication and Education Association), for her article ''.
Award: Venera Cocaj, with Matko Bulent, won first prize in the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network Kosovo's 2018 . They were awarded for the documentary "The Sky is Turning", produced by Kosovo 2.0, which dealt with one of the most marginalised groups in the country, the LGBT community.