Research
Dissertations:
An overview of the dissertation projects (as main supervisor H. Grandits) currently conducted at the Professorship can be found here.
Book Series: Balkanologische Veröffentlichungen
The “Balkanologische Veröffentlichungen” series was established in 1979 by Norbert Reiter as a forum for the wide spectrum of research on the Balkans with particular consideration for works devoted to linguistic and literary studies. With volume 39 (2003) the profile of the series was changed. Abandoning the linguistic and literary research topics, the series has since then featured monographs and edited books about history, society and culture in the Balkans. The focus lies on historical, cultural, ethnological as well as social and cultural anthropological research. The series also has an international profile that allows authors to publish their work in German, English and French. The scope of the subjects covered ranges from political and social history on nationalism and research on ethnicity, minorities, gender, memory and commemoration to popular culture and everyday life, religion and educational history. (Details)
Book Series: Phantomgrenzen im östlichem Europa
The book series “Phantomgrenzen im östlichen Europa” publishes monographs and edited volumes which relate to the research network “Phantomgrenzen in Ostmitteleuropa”. The series focuses is the no-longer existing borders that once again are being structured in different forms and with different intensities in the East European space. (Details)
Online Journal: Südosteuropäische Hefte
The Online Journal Südosteuropäische Hefte represents a forum forum for young scholars which do research on Southeastern Europe. The journal therefore publishes new results and informs about new projects primarily, but not exclusively of the German speaking Southeastern European Studies. At the same time, it offers a place for intellectual exchange and cooperative networking. Especially young scholars are invited to use the journal as a publishing opportunity. The exchange within the Südosteuropäische Hefte is a twofold. On the one hand, the journal explores the current research developments and tendencies on the southeastern European region, reflects upon research results, concepts and methods, and, having in mind the new generation of scholars, critically evaluates them. On the other hand, the journal offers the possibility to create new impulses, set new accents and shift existing perspectives in terms of contents and methods, which may be discussed in this journal. (Details)
Visiting Fellows:
An overview of our visiting fellows, who are associated with the Professorship since the summer semester of 2010, can be found here.
Current Externally Funded Project:
- Prof Dr Hannes Grandits is co-spokesperson for the project Reordering Yugoslavia, Rethinking Europe: A Transregional History of the Yugoslav Wars and the Post-Cold War Order (1991-1995) (2023/24-2026/27).
The collaborative project is funded by the Leibniz Association. The project brings together historians and regional experts from the Leibniz Institute for Contemporary History (IfZ), the Leibniz Institute for East and Southeast European Studies (IOS), and the Humboldt University of Berlin, exploring how the Yugoslav Wars reshaped international norms, borders, and the post-Cold War European order. Part of this is the research project The Rise of Assertive Peacebuildung in Bosnia-Herzegovina (1992-2002), Contestation, Learning, and Adaption in a Shifting Political Arena, led by Kristóf David Gosztonyi (Website).
Background
From the outset, the Bosnian War was strongly shaped—though not determined—by international engagement. Early efforts were feeble: lightly armed peacekeepers were deployed into a situation of intense violence with no peace to keep, while humanitarian responses often merely alleviated suffering without preventing it.
Over time, however, international intervention became increasingly assertive. First, in March 1994, U.S.-led pressure helped end the “war within the war” between Bosnian Croats and Bosniaks, resulting in the Washington Agreement.
From then on, the international community’s role intensified. By arming and training the Croatian Army and launching a sustained NATO air campaign against Bosnian Serb positions, international actors played a decisive role in ending the war. These efforts culminated in the Dayton Peace Agreement (DPA), signed in November 1995, which formally ended hostilities.
As the implementation of the DPA’s civilian provisions faltered, the Peace Implementation Council expanded the authority of the High Representative. This included powers to impose binding decisions (decrees) when local parties failed to agree, and to remove public officials who obstructed implementation. Initially, these increasingly intrusive measures were met with massive resistance—particularly from nationalist actors seeking to undermine the unified Dayton framework, however weak it may have been. However, by 2002, these extraordinary powers were regularly used—and, crucially, largely respected—despite the Office of the High Representative lacking direct executive authority.
Research Aims
This research project investigates the gradual rise of assertiveness in the international intervention in Bosnia-Herzegovina as the result of complex interactions within a contested and shifting political arena. It addresses the following interrelated questions and analytical puzzle:
- Why did the international intervention become assertive only gradually and hesitantly?
- How did local Bosnian actors assess, negotiate, and adapt to growing international pressure—whether by resisting, yielding, cooperating, or manipulating it?
- In what ways did these local-international interactions shape both the evolving nature of the intervention and the political structure of post-war Bosnia-Herzegovina?
By exploring these questions, the project aims to shed light on the long-term impact of international intervention, the processes of institutional learning, and the contested emergence of the political order that defines Bosnia-Herzegovina after 1992.
The scope of the research
Given the project's interest in institutional learning at both higher and lower levels of intervening international organisations (IOs), the research will examine two interrelated scales:
- The headquarters level, including Sarajevo-based missions and BiH/Federation-wide structures; and
- The field level, where implementation dynamics and adaptations often differed significantly.
The primary field-level case study will focus on Southern Bosnia-Herzegovina, centring on the city of Mostar, where I began field research for my dissertation in August 1995. I subsequently worked there intermittently for international organisations — first for the European Union Administration of Mostar (EUAM) in 1996, and later for the Office of the High Representative (OHR) between 1997 and 2002.
This region was a focal point of the conflict between Bosniaks and Bosnian Croats, the latter aiming to establish the separatist entity of Herceg-Bosna along the southwestern corridor of Herzegovina bordering Croatia. As such, the area represents a critical site in the post-war contest over the unity of Bosnia-Herzegovina — making it a particularly revealing case for analysing how international assertiveness and local responses evolved over time.
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Dr. Marija Vulesica is a member of the first cohort of Lecturers funded by the Alfred Landecker Foundation.
“We call it personality, but it´s actually a multi-layered figure. Hinko Gottlieb, Aleksandar Licht, Lavoslav Schick, Aleksa Klein. A Jewish-Croatian Collective Biography.”
In this project, Dr Marija Vulesica is dedicated to collective biographical research into the Holocaust, its pre- and post-history in the Independent State of Croatia.
You can find more information about the project here.
Here you can find a list of completed externally funded projects at the Professorship of Southeast European History.