Doctoral Dissertation Research: The Performance and Transformation of Citizenship in Bosnia

博士生Natasa Garic-Humphrey在Esra Ozyurek博士的指导下，将研究在社会转型时刻如何出现替代形式的公民身份和政治主体性。这项研究将调查年轻的波斯尼亚活动家如何采用、拒绝和/或重新解释由当地和国际精英创造的未来意识形态和模式，并将研究他们在此过程中发展出什么样的战略、主观性和替代公民身份形式。具体目标是：(1)查明青年活动家如何参与弥漫在波斯尼亚社会的政治辩论；(2)记录波斯尼亚活动家反抗该国当前社会政治局势的方式，并确定他们可能对国家采取的立场；(3)评估以积极分子的表现为指标的道德取向和世界观的形式，以了解他们对什么是“好公民”的看法。研究人员将利用参与观察和非正式、半结构化和以人为中心的访谈等社会科学研究方法，了解年轻积极分子在民族主义、公民身份和新兴的政治主体性方面的经历。公众话语和积极分子表演的录像也将是一种重要的数据收集方法，以增强研究的主观性和经验性。这项研究很重要，因为它的研究结果将有助于关于冲突后和过渡社会的辩论，并将进一步阐述对后社会主义的更广泛理解。对个人经历和行动战略的关注将增加关于公民身份、民族主义、民族关系和国家建设的更大讨论。此外，该项目将表明，青年的经历是建设和平和国家的结构性问题所不可或缺的。除了对研究生的培训做出贡献外，这项研究还将向政策制定者、国际干预项目和非政府组织通报波斯尼亚人的日常生活经历，从而进一步阐明甚至可能解决该地区的种族冲突。

Doctoral student Natasa Garic-Humphrey, supervised by Dr. Esra Ozyurek, will research how alternative forms of citizenship and political subjectivities emerge in moments of societal transition. This research will investigate how young Bosnian activists adopt, reject, and/or re-interpret ideologies and models of the future created by local and international elites, and will study what kinds of strategies, subjectivities, and forms of alternative citizenship they develop in the process. Specific objectives are: (1) to identify how young activists engage in political debates permeating Bosnian society; (2) to document the ways Bosnian activists perform resistance against the current socio-political situation in the country, and to identify the stances they may take vis-à-vis the state; and (3) to evaluate forms of moral alignments and worldviews that are indexed by activists' performances in order to understand their ideas of what constitutes a "good citizen."The researchers will utilize social science research methods such as participant observation and informal, semi-structured, and person-centered interviews in order to gain an understanding of young activists' experiences of nationalism, citizenship, and emerging political subjectivities. Video recording of public discourse and activists' performances will be an important data collection method as well, in order to enhance the study with subjective and experiential depth. This research is important, as its findings will contribute to debates on post-conflict and transitional societies, and will further elaborate the broader understandings of postsocialism. The focus on individual experiences and performative strategies will add to larger discussions about citizenship, nationalism, ethnic relations, and state-building. Furthermore, this project will show that young people's experiences are integral to the structural issues of peace- and state-building. In addition to contributing to the training of a graduate student, the research will also inform policymakers, international intervention programs, and NGOs about everyday Bosnians' lived experiences, thereby further illuminating and perhaps resolving region's the ethnic conflict.