Master Thesis by Christian K. Vinther, Charles University, Prague (77110981) 21/05/2015 Between Liberal Policies and Conservative Values: The Role of the EU in Improving Sexual Minority Rights in Albania Abstract In 2009 the People's Advocate in Albania announced their suggestion that Albania should become the first Balkan country to legalize gay marriage, a suggestion backed by the country's Prime Minister Sali Berisha. The odd thing is that this suggestion was presented in the same country voted the "most homophobic in Europe" according to a recent study, and simultaneously the suggestion came at a time when Albania did not even have an anti-discrimination law, and, assumingly, at a time when LGBT activist groups seemed more or less nonexistent. Since 2009, Albania has progressed severely in relation to LGBT matters, and the small Balkan country has adopted noteworthy liberal sexual minority policies. Yet, as stated above, this appears as a rather paradoxical fact, since homophobia in Albania appears widespread, and since it could be questioned why a country would even need to legalize gay marriage, since the gay population are unlikely to benefit from this kind of legislation, due to the harassment and marginalization of this particular minority group. The mismatch between the conservative values in...

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This thesis explores the work of historians, history teachers, and NGO employees engaged in regional initiatives to mitigate the influence of enduring ethnocentric national histories in the Balkans. In conducting an ethnography of the development and dissemination of such initiatives, I queried how conflict and controversy are negotiated in developing alternative educational materials, how “multiperspectivity” is understood as a pedagogical approach and a tool of reconciliation, and how the interests of civil society intersect with those of the state and supranational actors. My research sought to interrogate the field of power in which such attempts to innovate history education occur, with attention trained on the values encoded and deployed in this work.

European Politics and Society Erasmus Mundus Joint Master Programme MA Thesis Attitudes towards European Integration in the Western Balkans: Euroscepticism and Europhilia in North Macedonia Maria Paschalina Dimopoulou Abstract The progress in the integration of EU candidate member states is determined by the level of democratization they have achieved, the level of success in the transition to market economy, the rule of law development and the ability to fulfill the conditions obligatory for member states. The attitudes towards the prospect of membership range from fervent enthusiasm to severe skepticism, depending on the length of the process, the success or lack thereof in the institutional transformation, the compatibility of the European values with traditional norms and region-specific reasons. There have been many studies focusing on the Central and East European former candidate states, while contemporary research on the Western Balkan region is rather focused on the EU's enlargement fatigue and conditionality failure. This thesis attempts to examine the role of domestic media of a candidate state in shaping the public opinion and the possible role of the political parties using the media to project their agendas on integration. The case study of North Macedonia proves the positive connection...

Master thesis examines comics that reflect the break-up of Yugoslavia. The theoretical part describes the main discourses that aim to explain the dissolution of Yugoslavia as well as the essential theoretical background of comics studies. The analytical part examines the ways in which comics mediate the break-up of Yugoslavia and, in particular the trauma associated with it. Authors of the comics most often work with a discourse that argues ethnic hatred, but they view it critically and point out its falsity. The analysis further revealed that comics provide a vast space for empathizing with victims of war trauma. Getting to know the survivors of traumatic events closely, as well as the concept of false memories that develop during reading of comics, facilitates empathetic reading. All the authors refuse to glorify war, focusing instead on the fatal effects that war has on the lives of ordinary people.

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This thesis is a case study of interreligious communication between Muslims and Orthodox Christians in the border municipalities between Serbia and Montenegro (Sandzak). A mixed, quantitative and qualitative approach was taken to study interreligious relations, among ordinary people and religious leaders. Through a combination of online questionnaires and face-to-face structured interviews, the study covers both groups’ perspectives on interfaith interactions, views and opinions. The findings showed support for the hypothesis, that the lack of knowledge about other religious affiliation results in prejudices and potential conflicts.

Yes / The Iron Age in Europe was a period of tremendous cultural dynamism, during which the values and constructs of urbanised Mediterranean civilisations clashed with alternative webs of identity in ‘barbarian’ temperate Europe. Until recently archaeologists and ancient historians have tended to view the cultural identities of Iron Age Europeans as essentially monolithic (Romans, Greeks, Celts, Illyrians etc). Dominant narratives have been concerned with the supposed origins and spread of peoples, like ‘the Celts’ (e.g. COLLIS 2003), and their subsequent ‘Hellenisation’ or ‘Romanisation’ through encounters with neighbouring societies. Yet there is little to suggest that collective identity in this period was exclusively or predominantly ethnic, national or even tribal. Instead we need to examine the impact of cultural encounters at the more local level of the individual, kin-group or lineage, exploring identity as a more dynamic, layered construct. / HERA, European Commission

A l’échelle de l’Histoire des Balkans du XXème siècle, la percée des femmes dans l’économie rémunérée, dans l’enseignement supérieur et l’activisme féministe se sera concrétisée de manière toute aussi remarquable qu’ailleurs en Europe. Cependant, dans le contexte des Balkans slavophones en général et en Bulgarie en particulier, les conditions concrètes de cette évolution se négocient selon les critères inéluctables d’un rapport singulier à la tradition. Nous proposons, tout d’abord, de situer ce contexte (rarement abordé à travers l’histoire des femmes et encore moins dans une perspective féministe) à partir d’un regard ethnographique sur la culture traditionnelle et la spécificité des interdits pesant sur le corps et la parole des femmes. Nous prolongerons notre observation à travers la modernité balkanique qui induit de profondes transformations des notions de culture, de nation et de minorités ethniques. Nous les mettrons en perspective avec la réponse de l’État-nation moderne à la « question féminine » [Zenski vapros / Женски въпрос] qui, de fait, valida constitutionnellement nombre de logiques d’exclusion. Il s’agira également de resituer les mouvements féministes de la première heure en mettant l’accent sur ceux s’étant associés aux luttes ouvrières et la difficulté du mouvement socialiste féminin [zhensko sotsialistichesko dvizhenie / женско социалистическо движение] de résister à l’assimilation. Dans la continuité de notre réflexion, nous interrogerons le discours égalitariste de l’époque communiste, en privilégiant un cadrage sur les années 1970-1980. Afin de mettre en lumière les conditions concrètes de l’émancipation dans la vie privée (avortement, divorce, rapports de sexe), nous explorons un corpus homogène articulé autour de l’unique revue féministe éditée par les successeurs du mouvement socialiste féminin du début du siècle. Ce retour sur l’histoire mouvementée de la seconde moitié du XXème siècle, effectué sous le prisme du genre, évoque ce qui dérange le plus dans l’idéologie des régimes communistes, mais aussi dans le discours marxiste, tel qu’interprété localement. Cette thèse révèle les mécanismes à l’œuvre lors de la réception et l’appropriation de la réponse marxiste à la « question féminine » sur le terrain, en insistant sur les résonances singulières avec le discours traditionaliste d’époques antérieures; tel que nous le retraçons dans le folklore, dans la littérature classique de la Renaissance balkanique à la croisée d'influences européennes et orientales, mais aussi dans le sillage du processus d’européanisation à relier, notamment, aux circulations éditoriales. Tout au long de cette recherche, nous plaçons au centre l’analyse générale de la « question féminine » comme discours, tout en questionnant la longévité des résistances face à ses ambitions émancipatrices et ceci jusqu’à l’époque contemporaine de transition néolibérale. En effet, aborder les remaniements des discours d’émancipation revient à poser la question du renouvellement des modèles de féminité, à (re)penser leur réception et à réfléchir au rôle des femmes dans ces processus et ceci dans une investigation de vaste chronologie, de temps long, sans aucunement prétendre à l’exhaustivité. / Over the course of 20th century Balkan history, the advancement of women in the paid economy, education, and female activism had concretized itself as prominently as throughout Europe. Within the context of Balkan Slavic culture in general, and its translation within the national domain of Bulgaria in particular, the precise conditions of this evolution resulted from a compromise of the inevitable criteria of a distinct relationship to tradition. We intend to illuminate and situate this context, rarely approached in the discourse of women’s studies, and even less from a feminist perspective. This examination aims to undertake two challenges: A general analysis of “The woman question” as discourse, and further, a more critical observation on the nature of resistance against ambitions of emancipation. While not claiming to be exhaustive, the objective is to put into perspective the theoretical contributions of reflection on hierarchical representations of gender diversity, and the territorial nuances that we explore. Addressing revisions of “The woman question” is to invite the notion of renewing models of femininity, to rethink the effects of discourse, and to reflect on the role of women in the process. Finally, a second glance at the eventful history of the second half of the 20th century, executed under the prism of gender, explores the most distorted in the aesthetic of communist regimes. The purpose of this study is to shed light on the social realities of women in the socialist era in parallel with traditionalist discourse as we retrace the cross of European, Oriental, orthodox, folklore, and modern influences in Slavic literature. Thus, from this approach emerge new prospects for understanding Women’s Studies in the Slavic Balkans in general, and Bulgaria in particular.