Vjekoslav Perica, born in Split, Croatia, in 1955. Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis. Professor of History at the University of Rijeka.
Fellow (1 February 2012 – 30 June 2012)
THE CIVIL RELIGION OF TITOISM IN HISTORY AND CULTURES OF REMEMBRANCE
During my research fellowship at NIAS from February 1 to June 30, 2012, my priority was to participate in the Theme Group “The Real and the Imagined in the Contemporary Balkans” of which I was a member. This scholarly venture has begun with my project outline under the above-quoted title back in 2010. I conceptualized the main topic, research questions and methodological approach, took part in recruiting the group’s members and carrying out the preparatory workshop. I contributed a chapter tentatively entitled “Symbolic Discourses of Heroism in Post-Yugoslav States” to an integrated outcome of our theme group research – an edited volume with the provisional title The Real and the Imagined in the Contemporary Balkans. Social, Political and Symbolic Struggles. Furthermore, I have significantly expanded my own theme on the “civil religion of titoism in history and cultures of remembrance” (which is part of the Theme Group plan). Thanks to the research carried out at NIAS, consultations with colleagues and the overall favourable setting for academic work, my initial plan to produce a book chapter or journal article has been expanded and upgraded. Now it will be a book-length monograph that I will co-author with the group member M. Velikonja. The publication will be in Serbo-Croatian with a possibility for an ensuing English-language edition. Last but no less important, I have had productive consultations, exchanges of new project ideas and “brainstorming”, with a number of NIAS Fellows (not just members of this Theme Group). As the result, so far there has been one new interdisciplinary project developing in cooperation with colleagues who have been fellows in this cohort.