Ninety years of the Institute for Balkan Studies Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts

Abstract

To reach its ninetieth anniversary is no small feat for any institution. The Institute for Balkan Studies of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts has achieved this notable milestone despite the numerous challenges it has had to overcome. The Institute for Balkan Studies (Balkanski institut) was established in 1934 by two prominent men of letters, Ratko Parežanin and Svetislav Spanaćević, under the patronage of King Alexander of Yugoslavia. After the capitulation of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, the German occupation authorities decided to close the Institute in August 1941. The Institute resumed its work in July 1969, headed by the academician Vasa Čubrilović, who had been associated with the former Institute for Balkan Studies and had served as the inaugural director of the newly established Institute for Balkan Studies of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts (Balkanološki institut Srpske akademije nauka i umetnosti). Because the two Institutes’ names are identical in English, one may be led to think that the rebirth of the Institute had been foretold.