Postwar Identities
The war in Bosnia-Herzegovina (1992–1995) had left enduring impacts on the social identities of people in and from the region. Drawing on central insights from the sociology of knowledge, my talk will first present the most significant findings from my research on identity-transformations in postwar Bosnia-Herzegovina. It will show that the creation of a positive self-image in this postwar society is strongly connected with the collective self-victimisation of one’s own ethnic in-group and, subsequently, how self-victimisation is maintained over time. The results from this research will, secondly, be discussed within the context of the findings from my work on diasporic post-war identities. By focusing on people with Bosnian origins who live in Austria, this research uncovers how their self-images and collective identifications are influenced not only by the experience of (post)war, but also by the experiences of (forced) migration and life in minority settings.
Ana Mijić is a post-doctoral fellow at the Department of Sociology at the University of Vienna. She studied sociology and political sciences (international relations/peace and conflict studies) at the University of Tübingen (Germany) and worked as research assistant at the Berghof Foundation’s Institute for Peace Education, Tübingen, and at the University of Vienna (Sociology Department), where she completed her doctorate studies. She was a fellow at the IFK International Research Center for Cultural Studies (Vienna) and the Trinity Long Room Hub Arts & Humanities Research Institute at the Trinity College Dublin. Ana Mijić is author of “Verletzte Identitäten” (2014, Campus) as well as of several articles published in international journals (e.g. Human Studies, Ethnicities, Identities. Global Studies in Culture and Power) and edited volumes. Her previous research project on “Postwar Diaspora(s)” have been funded by the FWF – Austrian Science Fund (Hertha Firnberg Programme), as is the project she is currently working on (“The Art of Arriving. Reframing Refugee ‘Integration’” (1000 Ideas Programme)).
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