The origin of the Institute goes back to the Institut des Études balkaniques founded in Belgrade in 1934 as the only of its kind in the Balkans. The initiative came from King Alexander I Kargeorgevic, while the Institute’s scholarly profile was created by Ratko Parezanin and Svetozar Spanacevic. It published Revue internationale des Etudes balkaniques, which assembled most prominent European experts on the Balkans. Its work was banned by the occupation authorities in 1941.
The institute was restarted only in 1969 under its present-day name and under the auspices of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts. It assembled a team of scholars to cover the Balkans from prehistory to the modern age and in a range of different fields of study such as archaeology, ethnography, anthropology, history, culture, art, literature, law. This multidisciplinary approach has remained its long-term orientation.
The Institute has established international cooperation with a number of institutions in Europe. It has organized several dozen international conferences, publishes its annual Balcanica and its Special editions covering all fields of Balkan studies.
More on the history of the Institute:
The eightieth anniversary of the Institute for Balkan Studies (1934-2014)
Mission
as a unique research institution in Serbia in terms of the subject of research, Institute for Balkan Studies SASA engages in the study of processes of longue durée observable in the Balkans from prehistory to modern times. The Balkan Peninsula as a crossroads of civilizations (Vinca, Rome), a birthplace of cultures (Greece, Hellenism, Byzantium), a space where three monotheistic religions meet and influences of great powers were reflected (Ottoman Empire, Russia, Austria) and an authentic process of nation state building developed in the 19th and 20th centuries, where social, cultural and linguistic factors have intertwined and transformed in the contemporary period, is the subject of study through a multidisciplinary approach based on combined insights of history, art history, archaeology, ethnology, anthropology, literary history and linguistics.
develops, improves and encourages multidisciplinary humanities research on:
the common heritage in the Balkans;
relations between Balkan nations;
European influences on the development of Balkan societies
defines directions for multidisciplinary research on the Balkans in the Republic of Serbia, builds a cadre of scholars in the field and provides opportunities for their further specialization
through its publications (monographs, edited volumes) and organization of international scholarly conferences and lectures contributes to Serbia’s cultural and social development by conducting research on relevant topics in humanities in the Balkans.
initiates and actively participates in establishing regional networks of scholarly institutions concerned with Balkan studies through collaborative initiatives, programs and projects, information and publication exchange.
Primary research areas: history, art history, literary history, archaeology, anthropology, ethnology, and linguistics.
Vision
Institute for Balkan Studies SASA as a leading scholarly institution in Serbia and the region for the multidisciplinary humanities study of the Balkans and a host institution of European and international research projects. Institute for Balkan Studies SASA as a central institution in the future regional network of institutes engaged in multidisciplinary research on their common heritage and promotion of inherent values of the Balkans as a European region.
About the library
The library of the Institute for Balkan Studies of SASA, as a special library, has 17.444 cataloged publications, 7.145 volumes of periodicals and 10.299 monographic publications, that are mostly related to Balkan Studies in the field of humanities. Since 2016, the library has become part of the Cooperative Online Bibliographic System and the COBISS service, in which 6.204 publications have been processed. The work on processing publications from the library fund in the COBISS system continues.
By analyzing the needs of employed researchers, every year, in accordance with the possibilities, the library’s fund is enriched with the latest scientific literature from various fields of humanities. The publications of the Institute for Balkan Studies of SASA are deposited in the Digital Archive of SANU – DAIS.
DAIS is a joint digital repository of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts (SASA) and the SASA Institute. The goal of the Repository is to enable open access to the publications of SASA and its institutes, as well as the scientific papers of associates employed at SASA institutes published by other publishers, contributing to greater visibility. DAIS contains 2,188 works by researchers of the Institute, publications of the Institute and external collaborators of the institute.
In addition to the library and three legacies, the associates of the institute can also use the JSTOR platform, a digital library of scientific journals, books and primary sources.
