research project: experiences of home amongst displaced Bosnians

In the early 2000s I carried out a research project on experiences of home amongst displaced Bosnians. Through a focus on refugee (non-)return this research drew together an interest in place and nationality with broader and less well-documented processes of postsocialist transformation, generational and urban-rural differentiation. Financial support for this project was secured from the Toyota Foundation and the Leverhulme Trust (with A Dawson). The centrepiece of this project was a year long ethnographic research period on two sides of the Inter-Entity Boundary Line in the North-East of Bosnia and Herzegovina, as well as shorter periods of a few months each amongst refugees from that area in Serbia, The Netherlands and Australia (2000-2001). In addition to a series of articles and chapters (see publications list) this inspired the edited volume Struggles for Home, on home-making after violent transformation (Berghahn, 2008 HB and 2011 PB, with Staffan Löfving). A collection of previously published articles and chapters on home-making has been translated in Croatian as Razlog za dom (IEF, 2020). [photo creative commons pixabay]