Riada talks to Catherine Baker, Azra Hromadzic on Politics, Race, Migration, Environment in Balkans

It was an incredible privilege for me to host two experts like Catherine Baker and Azra Hromadzic for such an intellectually stimulating exchange! We had a great conversation that addressed topics like race, racism, migration, nationalism, environment, positionality, identification in research, and connected them in a way that I hope would be interesting beyond the geographical context of Southeast Europe as well. Azra and Catherine’s scholarship have inspired me to think about these topics and many other important issues in new ways, so maybe you too will decide to explore more of the same after listening to this conversation. I for sure know that I will go back to it many more times in the future. Enjoy! Catherine Baker is a lecturer in 20th Century History at the University of Hull, a scholar whose research includes topics related to nationalism, ethnicity and identity, connections with popular culture and the entertainment industry, travel, migration, mobility and other interesting ties in the former Yugoslavia and Southeast Europe. She brought that expertise to our conversation today, including her scholarly and theoretical work that offer a distinctive insight into how the region is configured by, and through, race. Catherine is also an author of numerous academic papers and book “Race in the Yugoslav region.” Azra Hromadzic is a cultural anthropologist based in Syracuse University in the U.S., at the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs - and her research interests are in the anthropology of international policy in the context of state-making in postwar Bosnia and Herzegovina. Her book ”Citizens of an Empty Nation: Youth and State-making in Postwar Bosnia and Herzegovina” 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. Several years ago, Azra initiated a new project that ethnographically researches aging, care and social services in the context of postwar and postsocialist Bosnia and Herzegovina. She is currently working on what she calls “riverine citizenship” in Bihac (focused on the Una river). Photo credit: Azra Hromadzic, American Anthropological Association website, and for Catherine Baker, University of Hull website.