Coffee With Professor Dejan Đokić: A Historian and an Author

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During our latest “Coffee With” episode, Serbian City Club had the pleasure of hosting Professor Dejan Đokić, a historian and an author. Dejan has been teaching comparative European History at the National University of Ireland, Maynooth since 2003. Before that Dejan was a professor of modern and contemporary history at Goldsmiths, University of London where, in 2009, he founded and was the first director of the Centre for the Study of the Balkans.
We discussed Dejan’s book “A Concise History of Serbia” – the first single volume history of Serbia and Serbs from the Middle Ages to the present day in any language. We explored what and where is Serbia, how has the perception of the country changed, in particular in the last 50 or so years, and whether it is possible to distinguish the history of Serbia from the history of the Serbian people.
We further reflected on the student protests in Serbia, the inaction of the EU when it comes to recent events in Serbia, the role and impact of the Serbian Orthodox Church, and what is the future for Serbia.

What you will hear in this episode:

(00:02:46) Where and what is Serbia?
(00:10:31) Perception of Serbia
(00:16:40) Surprising discoveries about Serbia and challenges during the research
(00:24:49) The reception of the book in Serbia and in the region
(00:29:37) Is the history of Serbia the history of Serbian people?
(00:37:23) Emergence of pseudo-history and its significance
(00:42:27) Student protests in Serbia and their significance
(00:52:36) The role of the Serbian Orthodox Church
(00:59:36) EU’s view of the situation in Serbia
(01:04:27) The role of diaspora and its impact on Serbian politics
(01:11:07) What is the future for Serbia?

Podcast by: Natasha Kocsis
Organisation: Serbian City Club
Production: YourPodcast
Illustration: Nemanja Ristic, email: nemanjaristic@yahoo.com
Animation of the intro/outro: Chike J.