Azra Hromadzic
Assistant Professor, Anthropology
Degree
Ph.D., University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, 2009
Specialties
Political anthropology; ethno-political violence and post-conflict reconciliation; socialism and post-socialism; gender; youth cultural practices; social policy and welfare; aging, care, and responsibility; and the Balkans.
Biography
I am a cultural anthropologist with research interests in the anthropology of international policy in the context of state-making in postwar Bosnia and Herzegovina. My book Citizens of an Empty Nation: Youth and State-making in postwar Bosnia and Herzegovina (University of Pennsylvania Press) is an ethnographic investigation of the internationally directed postwar intervention policies in Bosnia and Herzegovina and the response of local people, especially youth, to these policy efforts. My research documents how the ethnic emphasis of the international integration policies and programs is working in practice to undermine the possibility for the emergence of common, cross-ethnic association in the Bosnian state. Instead, the internationally-designed state-making and peace-building project has perpetuated the materialization of what I call an "empty nation" in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Recently I initiated a new project which ethnographically researches aging in the context of postwar and postsocialist Bosnia and Herzegovina. By focusing on aging as an analytic with which to capture the altering circumstances surrounding post-Yugoslav responsibility, social policy, and care, I portray the unique role that aging plays in shaping the fields of labor, hope, desire, and expectations about postsocialist, postwar and European subjectivities, citizenship regimes, identifications and futures.
Publications
Books
Hromadzic, A. 2015. Citizens of an Empty Nation: Youth and State-making in Postwar Bosnia-Herzegovina. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press (The Ethnography of Political Violence Series). http://www.upenn.edu/pennpress/book/15365.html
Articles, Book Chapters and Book Reviews
Hromadzic, A. Forthcoming 2015. "Dissatisfied Citizens: Ethnonational Governance, Teachers' Strike and Professional Solidarity in Mostar, Bosnia-Herzegovina." Perspectives on European Politics and Society 16(3), Special Issue Europeanizing the spaces for lived citizenship in the post-Yugoslav states.
Hromadzic, A. Forthcoming 2015. "Where were they until now?" Aging, Care and Abandonment in a Bosnian Town." Invited Lead Article for a Special Issue of Etnološka Tribina: The Journal of Croatian Ethnological Society.
Hromadzic, A. Forthcoming 2015. "Affective Labour: Work, Love and Care for the Elderly in Bihać." In Stef Jansen, Čarna Brković and Vanja Čelebičić (Eds.) Negotiating Socialities in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Ashgate Publishers: Southeast European Studies.
Hromadzic, A. Forthcoming 2015. Review of Innocence and Victimhood: Gender, Nation, and Women's Activism in Postwar Bosnia-Herzegovina. (Elissa Helms, University of Wisconsin Press, 2013). Slavonica 20:1.
Hromadzic, A. Forthcoming 2015. Review of Critical Thinking in Slovakia After Socialism. (Jonathan L. Larson, University of Rochester Press 2013). PoLAR: Political and Legal Anthropology Review 34.
Hromadzic, A. Forthcoming 2016. “If you write this tačno, it will be točno! Performing Linguistic Difference in Postwar Bosnia and Herzegovina.” Book chapter under review for an edited volume Shared Spaces and their Dissolution: Practices of Coexistence in the Post-Ottoman Sphere, Rebecca Bryant (Ed.). Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. (Updated version of Chapter 1 of Hromadzic, A. 2015. Citizens of an Empty Nation: Youth and State-making in Postwar Bosnia-Herzegovina. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press).
Hromadzic, A. In Press. "On Not Dating Just Anybody: Politics and Poetics of Flirting in a Postwar City." Anthropological Quarterly.
Hromadzic, A. 2014. "'Only When the Spider Web Becomes Too Heavy': Youth, Unemployment and the Social Life of Waiting in Postwar and Postsocialist Bosnia-Herzegovina." The Journal of Social Policy (Revija za Socijalna Politika) 11:45-87.
Hromadzic, A. 2014. Review of Places of Pain: Forced Displacement, Popular Memory and Trans-Local Identities in Bosnian War-Torn Communities. (Hariz Halilovich, Berghahn Books, 2013). American Ethnologist 41(3): 595-6
Hromadzic, A. 2013. "Discourses of Trans-ethnic Narod in Postwar Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina." Nationalities Papers: The Journal of Nationalism and Ethnicity 41(2): 259-275.
Hromadzic, A. 2012. "Once We had a House; Invisible Citizens and Consociational Democracy in Postwar Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina." Social Analysis 56(3):30-48.
Hromadzic, A. 2012. "Miješanje u školskim toaletima: Mladi i politika povjeranje u poslijeratnoj Bosni i Hercegovini," in Danijela Majstorović (Ed.) Critical Cultural Studies in the Post-Yugoslav Space. University of Banja Luka. (Translation of Hromadzic, A. 2011. "Bathroom Mixing: Youth Negotiate Democracy in Postconflict Bosnia and Herzegovina," PoLAR: Political and Legal Anthropology Review 34(2):268-289.)
Hromadzic, A. 2012. Review of Three Lights on the Queen's Face: On Mixing, Muddle, and Mêlée (Larisa Jasarevic, Religion and Culture Web Forum, University of Chicago DivinitySchool).
Hromadzic, A. 2012. Review of Peacebuilding in the Balkans: The View from the Ground Floor (Paula M. Pickering, Cornell University Press, 2007). PoLAR 35(1):137-139.
Hromadzic, A. 2011. "Bathroom Mixing: Youth Negotiate Democracy in Postconflict Bosnia and Herzegovina," PoLAR: Political and Legal Anthropology Review 34(2):268-289.)
Hromadzic, A. 2011. Review of Sarajevo Under Siege: Anthropology in Wartime (Ivana Maček UPenn Press, 2009) Ethnopolitics 10 (3-4):474-5.
Hromadzic, A. 2009. "Smoking doesn't kill, it unites! Cultural Meanings and Practices of 'Mixing' in Post-conflict Bosnia and Herzegovina," in Claire McGlynn, Michalinos Zembylas, Zvi Bekerman, and Tony Gallagher (Eds.), Peace Education in Conflict and Post-conflict Societies: Comparative Perspectives. Palgrave Macmillan. This book won the CIES Jackie Kirk Outstanding Book Award in 2011.
Hromadzic, A. 2008. "Discourses of Integration and Practices of Reunification at the Mostar Gymnasium," Comparative Education Review, Special Issue Education and Conflict/Postconflict Societies 52 (4): 541-63.
Hromadzic, A. 2008. "Discourses of Integration and Politics of Reunification in Post-conflict Bosnia-Herzegovina: Case Study of the Gymnasium Mostar." New Europe College Regional Program Year Book, Bucharest, Romania.
Hromadzic, A. 2006. "Challenging the Discourse of the Bosnian War Rapes" in Janet E. Johnson and Jean C. Robinson (Eds.), Living with Gender after Communism. University of Indiana Press, pp. 169-184.
Hromadzic, A. 2004. "Kriegsvergewaltigungen in Bosnien: Alte und neue Erklaerungsansaetze" (War Rapes in Bosnia: Old and New Approaches) in Ruth Seifert (Ed.), Gender, Identitaet und kriegerischer Konflikt. Das Beispiel des ehemaligen Jugoslawien, (Gender, Identity and Armed Conflict. The Example of the Former Yugoslavia), bi-lingual English-German volume, Lit Publishers Muenster, Germany.
Publications in Preparation
Hromadzic, A. (Revise and Resubmit.). "Cheating Citizens and Their Democratic Predicament in Bosnia and Herzegovina." American Ethnologist.
Hromadzic, A. and L. Kurtovic (Under Review). "Cannibal States, Empty Bellies: Protest, History and Political Imagination in Post-Dayton Bosnia." Critique of Anthropology.
Hromadzic, A. (In preparation.) “Streets, Scum and People: Discourses of (In)Civility in Postwar Bihać, Bosnia and Herzegovina.”
Reports, Blogs, and Media Appearances
Feature Interview, 037 Television Bihac's Prvi Sat, hosted by Ljubisa Markovic, Bihac, August 16, 2012.
Feature Interview, Una-Sana Canton Television, hosted by Emina Ramic, Bihac August 15,2012. Hromadzic, A. 2012. "Political Subjectivities and Local Nationalisms in Postwar Bosnia and Herzegovina." PARCC. Syracuse University. May 2011. Blog.
http://conflictandcollaboration.wordpress.com/2012/06/05/political-subjectivities-and-local-nationalisms-in-postwar-bosnia-and-herzegovina/
Trutkowski, C. and Hromadzic, A. 2006. "Civil Service Training Project: Mid-term Evaluation." UNDP Sarajevo. Report.
Hromadzic, A. 2002. "The Evaluation of the Re-connect Program." CoB. Report.
Feature Interview, WYBE Television's Philly Live, Hosted by Ashok Gangadean, "Bosnia: The Current Situation," with Michael Sells, Philadelphia, 9 April 2001
Research Grants and Awards
GRANTS AND FELLOWSHIPS
- Appleby-Mosher Fund from Maxwell School, Syracuse University, 2014-2016.
- Core Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program, Bosnia-Herzegovina, 2014-15 (alternate).
- Aging Studies Institute Start-up Grant, Syracuse University 2013-14.
- Appleby-Mosher Fund from Maxwell School, Syracuse University, 2012-2014.
- National Council for Eurasian and East European Research, Short-term Travel Grant 2012.
- International Research and Exchange Board (IREX), Short-Term Travel Grants Program, 2012 (declined).
- PARCC (Program for the Advancement of Research on Conflict and Celebration), Mini-grant, 2012.
- Appleby-Mosher Fund from Maxwell School, Syracuse University, 2010-2012.
- Social Science Research Council Book Fellowship, 2011.
- Dissertation Fellowship in Southeast European Studies, American Council of Learned Societies, 2008-2009.
- Josephine de Karman Dissertation Fellowship, 2008-2009.
- Dissertation Fellowship for Research Related to Education, Spencer Foundation, 2007-2008.
- Peace Scholar Dissertation Fellowship, US Institute of Peace, 2006-2007.
- Dissertation Writing Fellowship, University of Pennsylvania, 2006-2007.
- International Dissertation Field Research Fellowship, Social Science Research Council, 2005-2006.
- International Fellowship, American Association of the University Women, 2005-2006.
- Regional Fellowship Program, New Europe College, Romania, 2005-2006.
- Penfield Scholarship in Diplomacy, International Affairs, and Belles Lettres, University of Pennsylvania, 2005-2006.
- Research Fellowship for the Study of the ex-Yugoslav Refugees in New York City, Center for the Advanced Studies of Sofia, 2004-2005.
- William Penn Fellowship of Support to Outstanding Incoming Graduate Students, University of Pennsylvania, September 2002-May 2005.
- Summer Field Research Fellowship for the Study of Study of Women's Identity in Relation to Rape and Ethnic Conflict in Bosnia, Anthropology Department, University of Pennsylvania, June -August 2002.
- Research Fellowship for the Study of Women's Identity in Relation to Rape and Ethnic Conflict Solomon Asch Center for Study of Ethnopolitical Conflict, University of Pennsylvania, September 2001-June 2002.
HONORS AND AWARDS
- Meredith Teaching Recognition Award, Syracuse Univeristy, Spring 2014
- Penn Prize for Excellence in Teaching by Graduate Students, Spring 2004
- Phi Beta Kappa
- Summa Cum Laude graduate of University of Pennsylvania