Languages in a post-conflict multiethnic society: The interplay of official and unofficial policies in Bosnia and Herzegovina

Research area 1 – Displacements, “Dépaysement” and Discrepencies: People, Knowledge and Practices.

Research Area 2 – Norms and Transgressions.

My research studies the interplay between official and unofficial language policies in post-war Bosnia and Herzegovina. I explore how language policies after the dissolution of the former state and the transition from the formerly shared standard language to distinct national languages have been interpreted and enacted by various categories of actors. In order to address this topic, I specifically focus on the question of boundaries, both those that follow the standard language norms and those built around contrasts which are based on symbolic meanings, cultural beliefs, ideologies, and lived experiences.

My research thus aims to understand how these boundaries are discursively constructed and managed by social actors and how they are shaped by power relations. I further examine how linguistic practices derived from these boundary processes either reinforce or challenge the norms and conventions inscribed in the official language policy. In terms of theory and methodology, my research is an ethnographic study which draws on approaches and conceptualizations elaborated within the fields of linguistic anthropology, sociolinguistics, and applied linguistics.

The question of sociolinguistic differentiation and boundaries is an important one as it may reveal much about and serve as a reflection of social boundary processes in general, especially in contexts which are strongly shaped by broader societal and political conflicts.

CV

Education

from 2019 : Ph.D. studies in Linguistics, Charles University, Faculty of Arts

2014 : M.A. in Intercultural Cooperation and Development, University of Trieste

2006 : B.A. in Italian Language and Literature, University of Belgrade