Dubravka Stojanović ( sr-cyr, Дубравка Стојановић; born February 15, 1963) is a former Yugoslav and Serbian historian, and professor at

University of Belgrade Faculty of Philosophy The University of Belgrade Faculty of Philosophy (), established in 1838 within the Belgrade Higher School, is the oldest Faculty at the University of Belgrade. The Faculty building is located at the meeting point of the Čika-Ljubina with the ...

. She is a vice-president of the

Thessaloniki Thessaloniki (; ), also known as Thessalonica (), Saloniki, Salonika, or Salonica (), is the second-largest city in Greece (with slightly over one million inhabitants in its Thessaloniki metropolitan area, metropolitan area) and the capital cit ...

based History Education Committee organized by the Center for Democracy and Reconciliation in South Eastern Europe as well as a consultant of the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is the Earth, global intergovernmental organization established by the signing of the Charter of the United Nations, UN Charter on 26 June 1945 with the stated purpose of maintaining international peace and internationa ...

on the issues of misuses of history in education. Her primary fields of interest are processes of modernization in

Southeast Europe Southeast Europe or Southeastern Europe is a geographical sub-region of Europe, consisting primarily of the region of the Balkans, as well as adjacent regions and Archipelago, archipelagos. There are overlapping and conflicting definitions of t ...

democratization Democratization, or democratisation, is the structural government transition from an democratic transition, authoritarian government to a more democratic political regime, including substantive political changes moving in a democratic direction ...

Serbia , image_flag = Flag of Serbia.svg , national_motto = , image_coat = Coat of arms of Serbia.svg , national_anthem = () , image_map = , map_caption = Location of Serbia (gree ...

, history of

Belgrade Belgrade is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Serbia, largest city of Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers and at the crossroads of the Pannonian Basin, Pannonian Plain and the Balkan Peninsula. T ...

, historical memory and presentations of history in history textbooks. In 2015, Dubravka Stojanović received French

Ordre national du Mérite The (; ) is a French order of merit with membership awarded by the President of the French Republic, founded on 3 December 1963 by President Charles de Gaulle. The reason for the order's establishment was twofold: to replace the large number of ...

Early life and education

Dubravka Stojanović was born in Belgrade in 1963 where she completed

high school A secondary school, high school, or senior school, is an institution that provides secondary education. Some secondary schools provide both ''lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper secondary education'' (ages 14 to 18), i.e., ...

. She spent her childhood in

Šibenik Šibenik (), historically known as Sebenico (), is a historic town in Croatia, located in central Dalmatia, where the river Krka (Croatia), Krka flows into the Adriatic Sea. Šibenik is one of the oldest Croatia, Croatian self-governing cities ...

Croatia Croatia, officially the Republic of Croatia, is a country in Central Europe, Central and Southeast Europe, on the coast of the Adriatic Sea. It borders Slovenia to the northwest, Hungary to the northeast, Serbia to the east, Bosnia and Herze ...

where her

Croat The Croats (; , ) are a South Slavs, South Slavic ethnic group native to Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and other neighboring countries in Central Europe, Central and Southeastern Europe who share a common Croatian Cultural heritage, ancest ...

maternal family Barbača lived. She enrolled into

History program in 1981 where she graduated in 1987, earned her master's degree in 1992 and PhD in 2002. Her educational and professional maturation and development happened in the context of deep socioeconomic crisis and epochal political changes of the

breakup of Yugoslavia After a period of political and economic crisis in the 1980s, the constituent republics of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia split apart in the early 1990s. Unresolved issues from the breakup caused a series of inter-ethnic Yugoslav ...

and

Yugoslav Wars The Yugoslav Wars were a series of separate but related#Naimark, Naimark (2003), p. xvii. ethnic conflicts, wars of independence, and Insurgency, insurgencies that took place from 1991 to 2001 in what had been the Socialist Federal Republic of ...

. Because her work focused on the 20th-century history of Serbia she was faced with the issue of historian's neutrality and distance from the topic of her work. In this dilemma she was influenced by the

Annales school The ''Annales'' school () is a group of historians associated with a style of historiography developed by French historians in the 20th century to stress long-term social history. It is named after its scholarly journal '' Annales. Histoire, S ...

and

Lucien Febvre Lucien Paul Victor Febvre ( ; ; 22 July 1878 – 11 September 1956) was a French historian best known for the role he played in establishing the Annales School of history. He was the initial editor of the ''Encyclopédie française'' together wit ...

's work in particular.

Work

Between 1988 and 1996, Stojanović worked at the

Institute for Recent History of Serbia An institute is an organizational body created for a certain purpose. They are often research organisations (research institutes) created to do research on specific topics, or can also be a professional body. In some countries, institutes ca ...

after which she moved to the University of Belgrade Faculty of Philosophy in 1996 where she became

docent The term "docent" is derived from the Latin word , which is the third-person plural present active indicative of ('to teach, to lecture'). Becoming a docent is often referred to as habilitation or doctor of science and is an academic qualifi ...

in 2001 and full time professor in 2016. She worked on issues of democracy in Serbia and in the Balkans in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, interpretations of history in new Serbian textbooks, social history, the process of modernization, and the history of women in Serbia. She also consults the United Nations on the misuses of history in education. In 2017, she has signed the

Declaration on the Common Language The Declaration on the Common Language ( sh-Latn-Cyrl, Deklaracija o zajedničkom jeziku, Декларација о заједничком језику, separator=" / ") was issued in 2017 by a group of intellectuals and NGOs from Bosnia and He ...

of the

Croats The Croats (; , ) are a South Slavs, South Slavic ethnic group native to Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and other neighboring countries in Central Europe, Central and Southeastern Europe who share a common Croatian Cultural heritage, ancest ...

Serbs The Serbs ( sr-Cyr, Срби, Srbi, ) are a South Slavs, South Slavic ethnic group native to Southeastern Europe who share a common Serbian Cultural heritage, ancestry, Culture of Serbia, culture, History of Serbia, history, and Serbian lan ...

Bosniaks The Bosniaks (, Cyrillic script, Cyrillic: Бошњаци, ; , ) are a South Slavs, South Slavic ethnic group native to the Southeast European historical region of Bosnia (region), Bosnia, today part of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and who sha ...

and

Montenegrins Montenegrins (, or ) are a South Slavic ethnic group that share a common ancestry, culture, history, and language, identified with the country of Montenegro. Montenegrins are mostly Orthodox Christians; however, the population also includes ...

Slobodan Antonić Slobodan Antonić (; born 19 May 1959) is a Serbian political scientist, sociologist and university professor. Biography Antonić was born in 1959 in Belgrade which at that time was a part of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. He ...

criticised her scientific conclusions about the role of the Serbian quisling forces in

The Holocaust in German-occupied Serbia During the Holocaust in the Territory of the Military Commander in Serbia, the military administration of Nazi Germany established after the April 1941 invasion of Yugoslavia, Jewish and Romani people were subjected to genocidal acts. The cri ...

and considered her work on the subject to be meet the criteria of

historical revisionism In historiography, historical revisionism is the reinterpretation of a historical account. It usually involves challenging the orthodox (established, accepted or traditional) scholarly views or narratives regarding a historical event, timespa ...

. Antonić criticized Stojanović's claim about prominent role local Serbian collaborationists played in Holocaust in Serbia accusing her of "revisionist" transfer of responsibility from Nazi German occupiers to the local Serbian forces. The criticism of Stojanović's and Nikola Samardžić work resulted in initiation of the "''petition against persecution and calls for the lynching of critical historians''" by the "''pro-regime media, government officials and a group of ultra-right-wing intellectuals''" which was signed by over 520 historians, representatives of all academic professions, artists and cultural workers from

Serbia , image_flag = Flag of Serbia.svg , national_motto = , image_coat = Coat of arms of Serbia.svg , national_anthem = () , image_map = , map_caption = Location of Serbia (gree ...

, other countries in the region, Europe and the world.

Awards

Stojanović won the Belgrade City Award for Social Sciences in 2004, the Peace Prize from the Belgrade Center for Peace and Democracy in 2011, and the French national order of merit in 2015. She received the "''Conquering Freedom''" award for women who fought for

human rights Human rights are universally recognized Morality, moral principles or Social norm, norms that establish standards of human behavior and are often protected by both Municipal law, national and international laws. These rights are considered ...

democracy Democracy (from , ''dēmos'' 'people' and ''kratos'' 'rule') is a form of government in which political power is vested in the people or the population of a state. Under a minimalist definition of democracy, rulers are elected through competitiv ...

and the

rule of law The essence of the rule of law is that all people and institutions within a Body politic, political body are subject to the same laws. This concept is sometimes stated simply as "no one is above the law" or "all are equal before the law". Acco ...

in 2012.

Bibliography

Books

*''Искушавање начела. Српска социјалдемократска партија и ратни програм Србије 1912–1918'', Belgrade, 1994 *''Србија и демократија: 1903–1914'', Belgrade, 2003 *''Калдрма и асфалт: Урбанизација и европеизација Београда 1890–1914'', Belgrade, 2008 *''Уље на води: Огледи из историје садашњости Србије'', Belgrade, 2010 *''Нога у вратима: Прилози за политичку биографију Библиотеке XX век'', Belgrade, 2011 *''Иза завесе: Огледи из друштвене историје Србије 1890–1914'', Belgrade, 2013 * ''Рађање глобалног света 1880–2015'', Belgrade, 2015 * ''Populism the Serbian Way'', Belgrade, 2017

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Stojanovic, Dubravka 1963 births Living people Yugoslav historians University of Belgrade alumni Academic staff of the University of Belgrade 21st-century Serbian historians Serbian women historians Recipients of the Ordre national du Mérite Signatories of the Declaration on the Common Language Serbian people of Croatian descent