Divided Past – Divided Future? History Teaching as a Continuation of War by Other Means

Did an army liberate or occupy a territory? Was a certain war just or unjust? Was a particular historical event a freedom loving act or a terrorist act? Who were the perpetrators and who were the victims?  All these questions constantly surround us, and the answers define our relationship with contemporary phenomena, influence our political, social, everyday, private, and even economic decisions. This is why we are facing massive abuses of history. This lecture will show how education, and especially history teaching, became a crucial agent in the construction of memory. Instrumentalizations of history are a mandatory accompaniment of every conflict, but after a conflict has ended, its interpretation remains a source of future conflicts. History teaching, to paraphrase Clausewitz, serves as an extension of war by other means. Examples of the Holocaust and Yugoslav wars will be used as case studies in this lecture.

Dubravka Stojanović was born in Belgrade in 1963. She graduated in History from the Faculty of Philosophy, Belgrade, in 1987. Employed as an assistant researcher at the Institute for Modern Serbian History between 1988 and 1996. In 1996 she was appointed to the post of the assistant lecturer at the Faculty of Philosophy, Chair of Contemporary General History. She got her MA degree in 1992 and PhD in 2001. Now she works as associated professor. 

She is a vice-president of the History Education Committee, organized by the Center for Democracy and Reconciliation in South Eastern Europe based in Thessaloniki. She is a consultant of the United Nations, working on the issues of history and memory and misuses of history in education. She is a member of the Management Committee of COST action ”In Search of Transcultural Memory in Europe”.