We are pleased to share that Rodoljub Jovanović, a MEMPOP team member based at the University of Rijeka, has recently co-authored a scholarly contribution to the Palgrave Encyclopedia of Cultural Heritage and Conflict (Springer Nature, 2024), a major international reference work on cultural heritage and memory in post-conflict contexts.

His chapter, written together with dr. sc. Tamara Banjeglav, entitled “Museumization of the 1992–1995 War in Sarajevo: Exhibiting Violent Past in a Post-Conflict Memory Landscape,” examines the growing number of memorial museums and exhibitions about the Bosnian War in Sarajevo. Most of these are privately initiated and located in the city center, attracting visitors eager to learn about the war that ended nearly thirty years ago.

Through the lens of narrative (de)normalization of violence, the authors investigate whether these spaces foster critical engagement with the legacies of violence. While these spaces often succeed in eliciting empathy, the analysis shows they may also lack historical depth, providing limited insight into the broader social and political context of the war.

The Palgrave Encyclopedia of Cultural Heritage and Conflict offers a critical and interdisciplinary analysis of the relationship between cultural heritage and conflict, examining both tangible and intangible remnants of contested memories in the present. It brings together leading scholars from across the humanities and social sciences to explore how heritage practices and discourses shape understandings of identity, space, and history at local, national, and transnational levels.

📘 Read more about the encyclopedia here
📍 Chapter available via institutional access through Palgrave Macmillan here