Dejan Djokic is lecturer in history at Goldsmiths College, London. He was formerly lecturer in Serbian and Croatian studies at the University of Nottingham. He is the editor of Yugoslavism: Histories of a Failed Idea (C Hurst, 2003 and University of Wisconsin Press, 2003), and author of Elusive Compromise: A History of Interwar Yugoslavia (C Hurst, 2007)

Recent articles

A venerable Serbian politician and historian embodied the best of his country, writes Dejan Djokic.

The murder of Serbia’s prime minister has created a dangerous political vacuum in a country still trying to recover from a decade of war, poverty, and unrest. Dejan Djokic laments a tragedy, puts it in historical context, and assesses the likelihood of Serbian democracy coming together to challenge the gangsters threatening it.

When Nato bombed Yugoslavia in 1999, professional responsibility and a need for inner freedom prevented Dejan Djokic from protesting the assault on his homeland. Four years on, the creative dialogue between head and heart has a different result. 

For the first time since the fall of Slobodan Milosevic, Serbs will vote, in presidential elections on 29 September. The two main candidates represent the full integration into international institutions and radical economic reforms, proposed by Miroljub Labus and the prime minister Djindjic; or a more cautious transition favoured by Vojislav Kostunica.

Rock music remained a vibrant and pan-Yugoslav force even up to the country’s fragmentation in the 1990s. To remember the idols and trends of those decades is not just an act of affection, but a reminder of the bonding and healing power of music.