For the 2023 annual convention of ASEEES (Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies), in Philadelphia, Jelena Đureinović and Goran Musić (University of Vienna), and the project team collaborated with a number of other researchers to form a series of four well-attended panels on the theme of Yugoslav Non-Aligned Encounters in the Global South.
The first panel, Yugoslav Non-Aligned Encounters in the Global South I: Actors, examined Yugoslavia’s repositioning in the global cold war context and featured papers by Jelena Đureinović, University of Vienna (“Yugoslav War Veterans as Agents of Decolonisation and Non-Alignment”), Goran Musić, University of Vienna (“Doing Socialist Business in the Global South: Energoprojekt Managers in Zambia and Peru”) and Damir Vučićević, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (“Mobilization of NAM in the Aftermath of the Six-Day War: Yugoslavia’s Mass Organizations in the Arab World”)
The second panel, Yugoslav Non-Aligned Encounters in the Global South II: Networks and Institutions, featured papers by Milorad Lazić, George Washington University (“Belgrade, Another Hub of Decolonization?), Paul Stubbs , Institute of Economics, Zagreb and Tvrtko Jakovina, University of Zagreb (“Rejuvenating Non-Alignment: The 1970 Lusaka Summit”) and Immanuel Harisch, University of Vienna (“Trade Union Contacts, Works Councils, and Self-Management: Tracing Non-Aligned (Dis)connections between Yugoslavia, Zambia, and Tanzania during the 1960s and 1970s”).
The third panel of the series examined development policies and was made up of presentations by Chiara Bonfiglioli, Ca’ Foscari University of Venice (“’Updating Malthus’ Population Theory Is Out of the Question Today’: Nevenka Petrić and Non-Aligned Alliances against Neo-Malthusianism”), Jure Ramšak, Science and Research Centre of Koper (“Working Out an Alternative without Alternative Means: Yugoslavia and the Unlikely Success of the New International Financial Order”) and Anna Calori, University of Glasgow (“Cultivating Development: Tracing the Yugoslav Roots of Non-Aligned Agro-Industrial Programmes”).
The final panel, Yugoslav Non-Aligned Encounters in the Global South IV: Subjectivities and Imaginaries, focused on Yugoslav entanglements and exchanges with the postcolonial world and the consequent long-term imprints on all societies involved. Papers were presented by Rory Archer, University of Vienna (“Sex, Health, and Modes of Masculinities among Yugoslav Workforce in Post-Colonial Africa”), Tanja Petrović, Scientific Research Centre SAZU, Ljubljana (“Postsocialist Aphasia: How (Can) We Talk about Yugoslav Internationalism in the Aftermath of Yugoslavia and its Socialist Project”) and Dora Tot, University of Florence (“Branding the Non-Aligned Expert: Socialist Yugoslavia’s Citizen Diplomacy in the Global South”). For further details on these and other ASEEES panels, see: https://www.aseees.org/sites/default/files/downloads/2023%20Convention%20Program%20PUBLIC.pdf
