Episode 2: Hannes Grandits on Maria Todorova
In today's episode we are talking to Hannes Grandits, Professor for Southeastern European History at the Humboldt Universität zu Berlin. His research on the history of the former Yugoslav-countries spans from the early 19th to the late 20th century. A recurrent theme in his research are different forms of power structures in the region, such as family networks or systems of social security, which he addresses with methods of historical anthropology. Recently, he published the edited volume "Local Dimensions of the Second World War in Southeastern Europe". The book's focus is on the reshaping of ethnic and religious groups in wartime, on the "top-down" and "bottom-up" dynamics of mass violence, and on the local dimensions of the Holocaust, trying to break with national narratives and "top-down" political and military histories. We talked to him about Maria Todorova's concept of "Balkanism, first outlined in "Imagining the Balkans", famous for applying Edward Said's concept of "Orientalism" to the "Balkans", as well as how students and academics can use this concept in historical practice. Grandits has visited Todorova's seminar during his time at the university of Graz, and is known for having used and praised Todorova's approach.
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