We are pleased to announce the publication of a new thematic issue of the scholarly journal Retrospektive (Volume IX, Issue 1), dedicated to borders as historical practices in Southeast Europe.
The issue was edited by Dr Kornelija Ajlec and Dr Božo Repe. It brings together selected contributions from the international conference Borders in Southeast Europe: Geography or Imagination?, held in Podgorica from 16 to 18 May 2025 within the framework of the Joint History Project (JHP 2.0).
The contributions in this issue approach borders not merely as lines on maps, but as historically constructed and politically meaningful practices. Borders are examined as spaces of separation, belonging, violence, memory, cartographic representation, political discourse, and history education. The issue therefore asks how borders are produced, justified, naturalized, contested, and transmitted through institutions, maps, textbooks, public discourse, and everyday life.
Contents of the Issue:
– Zvezdana Kovač, Foreword
The foreword presents the broader framework of the Joint History Project and the importance of rethinking borders in Southeast Europe. Borders are understood as both material and symbolic constructs that shape identities, political decisions, and collective memory.
– Kornelija Ajlec and Božo Repe, Borders as Historical Practices
The editorial introduction outlines the central conceptual framework of the issue: borders are not merely geographical facts, but historical categories that organize space, identities, and historical meaning. The issue moves from the cartographic production of space, through violent and contemporary border practices, to history teaching, curricula, and textbooks.
– Srđan Radović, Borders, Spaces, and Ethnic Maps in South East Europe (An Overview)
The author examines ethnic and ethnographic maps in Southeast Europe and the former Yugoslavia, showing that maps are not neutral representations of space. Rather, they function as social and political constructions that connect territory, identity, and claims to legitimacy.
– Kornelija Ajlec and Božo Repe, Occupation Borders as High-Intensity Border-Making: Slovenia, 1941–1945
The article analyses occupation borders in Slovenia during the Second World War as an example of short-lived but highly intensive border-making. The authors argue that the long-term effects of borders are not necessarily determined by their duration, but by the intensity of coercion, demographic disruption, administrative replacement, and the interruption of established spatial practices.
– Kriton Kuci, Banal Nationalism and the (In)visibility of Borders: The Case of Albania and Greece
The article examines the Albanian–Greek maritime dispute through the concept of banal nationalism. The author analyses how political and media discourse transform the border into a symbol of sovereignty, national dignity, legality, and historical memory.
– Angelos Palikidis, Teaching History in Contemporary Balkans: A Comparative Analysis Based on the Survey of the Observatory on History Teaching in Europe
The article offers a comparative overview of history teaching in selected Southeast European countries, based on the survey of the Observatory on History Teaching in Europe. It highlights the continued prominence of national history, rigid curricula, overloaded content, and the persistent gap between academic and school history.
– Vassiliki Sakka, History Education in Greece: How do Borders and Neighbors Fit in Conservative Curricula? Cracking the Canon with Bottom-up Initiatives
The author analyses how Greek history education addresses borders, neighbours, minorities, and diversity. The article shows that official curricula often reinforce monocultural and national narratives, while also drawing attention to teachers’ initiatives, academic networks, and international projects that seek to open space for multiperspective and inclusive history education from below.
– Kenan Çayir, Reimagining Civilization and Nationhood through Education: “The Century of Türkiye Maarif (Educational) Model”
The article critically analyses the 2024 Turkish curriculum reform and its manifestation in the 9th-grade history textbook. The author shows how the reform situates historical narrative within a pan-Turkic and Turkish-Islamic civilizational imagination, and how the school curriculum participates in shaping ideas of nationhood, civilization, and historical continuity.
The thematic issue Borders as Historical Practices offers an interdisciplinary and problem-oriented insight into the history of borders in Southeast Europe. Taken together, the contributions show that borders are neither static nor self-evident. They are produced, transformed, and sustained through political decisions, violence, cartographic practices, public discourse, education, and memory.
The full issue is available on the Retrospektive website: https://retrospektive-journal.org/digitalni-arhiv/
