Published On: November 7, 20253 min read

Program for Workshop: Textbooks, Identity, and Conflict: Narrating the Nation in Divided Societies

Exploring how school textbooks shape narratives of conflict, identity, and reconciliation

  • Dates: 12–13 November 2025

  • Location: Hotel Holiday, Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina

  • Organizers: ETHNICGOODS (IBEI) and Post-Conflict Research Center (PCRC)

Workshop Overview

School textbooks are powerful political instruments. They not only convey knowledge but also construct collective memory, define belonging, and delineate the moral boundaries of communities. In divided or post-conflict societies, they may entrench antagonism or offer pathways toward reconciliation.

This interdisciplinary workshop brings together scholars, practitioners, and policymakers to examine how textbooks shape understandings of nationhood, conflict, and peace. Set in Sarajevo—a city emblematic of both the violence and possibilities of coexistence—the workshop provides a unique context for comparative reflection on how educational content can reproduce or transcend division.

Schedule

Wednesday, November 12, 2025

09:00 – 10:30 | Welcome and Opening Keynote

  • Speaker: Maya Tudor, Professor of Politics and Public Policy at Blavatnik School of Government, University of Oxford

10:30 – 11:00 | Official Photo & Coffee Break

11:00 – 13:30 | Session A: Historical Perspectives on Post-Yugoslav Identity in Textbooks

  • Textbook Nationhood: Thirty Years of Identity Politics in Post-Yugoslav Schools

    • Tamara Trošt, Associate Professor, University of Ljubljana

    • Examines the evolution of identity politics in textbooks across five countries (Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, Montenegro, Serbia, and Slovenia), exploring how they serve as tools for nation-building and memory politics.

  • Peace Education as Intercultural Responsibility

    • Duldina Kurtović, Independent Researcher

    • Analyzes how Bosnia and Herzegovina’s divided education system impedes reconciliation and argues for the institutional recognition of peace education as a pedagogical duty.

13:30 – 14:30 | Lunch

14:30 – 17:00 | Session B: Nation-Building in Bosnian Textbooks

  • Emergence of Civic Identity Amid Post-Dayton Textbooks: A Literature Review

    • Angelina Maria Ferreira Martins Cheang, PhD Student, University of Oxford

    • Argues that excessive emphasis on ethnic belonging within parallel education systems can paradoxically provoke the rise of civic identity, as students negotiate imposed categories.

  • Out with the New, In with the Old: How Lingering Narratives Shape Education, Nation-Building and Conflict

    • Emelin Macić, Student, Sarajevo

    • Explores the endurance of 19th-century nation-building narratives and how early ideological blueprints continue to define state-sanctioned understandings of the nation.

20:00 | Dinner for invited guests

Thursday, November 13, 2025

09:00 – 11:30 | Session C: War and Identity Narratives in Turkish Textbooks

  • Nationalist Discourse in Turkish History Textbooks: A Computational Text Analysis

    • Emre Amasyali, Post-Doctoral Researcher, Institut Barcelona d’Estudis Internacionals

    • Uses natural language processing (NLP) to analyze Turkey’s 2024-25 high school history textbooks, revealing an ethno-cultural conception of nationhood centered on Turkish and Islamic identities.

  • The Past, Present, and Future of a “Nation in Arms”

    • Deniz Kılınçoğlu, Post-Doctoral Researcher, Leibniz-Zentrum Moderner Orient

    • Examines how the concept of the “nation in arms” frames defense as a patriotic obligation, embedding militarism into civic education from the late Ottoman era to the present.

11:30 – 12:00 | Coffee Break

12:00 – 13:15 | Session D: Narratives of the 1990s in Bosnian Textbooks

  • Narratives About the 1990s in History Textbooks of Bosnia and Herzegovina

    • Melisa Forić Plasto, Assistant Professor, University of Sarajevo

    • Analyzes how divergent historical interpretations in Bosniak, Croat, and Serb curricula frame each community as a victim while omitting responsibility for violence, obstructing reconciliation.

13:15 – 14:15 | Lunch

14:15 – 15:45 | Session E: Comparative Perspectives: The Lies that Bind Us

  • The Lies That Bind Us: Nationalism and History Textbooks

    • Ahsan Butt, Associate Professor, George Mason University (Remote)

    • Draws on comparative research across North America, Latin America, and South Asia to investigate how textbook narratives define boundaries of membership and reflect dominant forms of nationalism.

15:45 – 16:15 | Coffee Break

16:15 – 17:30 | Closing Discussion on Outputs and Next Steps

Friday, November 14, 2025 (Optional)

Site Visit | War Childhood Museum

  • Website: https://warchildhood.org/

  • Unlike other museums on Sarajevo’s siege, this one centers on children’s experiences, featuring personal objects paired with recorded memories.