Dušan T. Bataković

Dušan T. Bataković (Serbian Cyrillic Душан Т. Батаковић; born April 23, 1957 in Belgrade) is a Serbian historian and diplomat. His specialty is modern and contemporary Serbian and Balkan history. He holds the post of Assistant Professor at the University of Belgrade and was a researcher at the Institute for History and the Institute for Balkan Studies at the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts.

Biography

Bataković graduated with a degree in history from the University of Belgrade Faculty of Philosophy in 1982. He holds an M.A. in history from the same institution (1988). He received his Ph.D. in history from the University of Paris IV: Paris-Sorbonne in 1997 with the thesis La France et la formation de la démocratie parlementaire en Serbie 1830-1914 (France and the formation of parliamentary democracy in Serbia, 1830-1914).

He is a specialist for nineteenth- and twentieth-century Balkan history. He has written and published extensively on the modern and contemporary history of Serbia, in particular Kosovo and Serbian-Albanian relations, focusing on nationalism, and the origins of religious and ethnic strife. Another area of his research is the impact of communism on the contemporary history of Serbia, Yugoslavia and the Balkans. Bataković writes in Serbian, English and French and his bibliography includes dozens of historical monographs, edited volumes and more than a hundred articles published in various languages.

Bataković is also the author of the historical TV documentary Crveno doba (The Red Epoch), which aired on Serbia's public broadcaster, RTS, in 2004. Combining testimonies of witnesses with historic narrative the film was the first to open the question of the crimes of the communist Yugoslav authorities (the "red terror") against their political and class enemies in post-World War II Serbia and Montenegro (1944-1947).

In October 2005 he became Director of the Institute for Balkan Studies of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts and editor-in-chief of the Institute’s annual Balcanica journal as well as of its Special editions. In September 2008, Bataković was appointed Vice-Director of the Institute for Balkan Studies and elected president of the Serbian Committee of AIESEE (Association Internationale d'Etudes du Sud-Est Europeen).

Parallel to his academic life, Dušan T. Bataković has also pursued a career in politics and diplomacy. As the president of the Council for Democratic Changes in Serbia (a pro-democracy NGO), he campaigned against the Milosevic regime in the late 1990s. From 2001 to 2005 he served as Ambassador of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (later Serbia and Montenegro) to the Hellenic Republic. In July 2005 he became Advisor for political issues to the President of Serbia Boris Tadić. In that capacity he became a member, in November 2005, of the Serbian negotiating team at the UN-sponsored talks on the future status of the province of Kosovo in Vienna.

He was appointed Ambassador of Serbia to Canada in July 2007 and Ambassador of Serbia in Paris, France in January 2009.

Works

• Dečansko pitanje (The Dečani Question), Belgrade: Historical Institute-Prosveta 1989. (second updated edition: Belgrade: Čigoja štampa 2007) ISBN 978-86-7558-450-6
• Savremenici o Kosovu i Metohiji 1850-1912 (Contemporaries on Kosovo and Metohija 1850-1912), Belgrade: Srpska književna zadruga 1989.
• Kolubarska bitka (The Battle of Kolubara 1914), Belgrade: Litera 1989 (with N. B. Popović).
• Kosovo i Metohija u srpskoj istoriji (Kosovo and Metohia in Serbian History), Belgrade: Srpska književna zadruga 1989, (co-author); German translation: Kosovo und Metochien in der serbischen Geschichte, Lausanne: L'Age d'Homme 1989 (co-author; four chapters); French translation: Le Kosovo-Metohija dans l'histoire serbe, Lausanne: L'Age d'Homme 1990 (co-author, four chapters). ISBN 2-8251-0139-7
• Kosovo i Metohija u srpsko-arbanaškim odnosima (Kosovo and Metohija in Serb-Albanian Relations), Priština: Jedinstvo 1991. ISBN 86-7019-071-0. (2nd updated edition: Čigoja štampa, Belgrade 2006.)
• The Kosovo Chronicles, Belgrade: Plato Books 1992, ISBN 86-447-0006-5; Romanian translation: Cronica de la Kosovo, Bucuresti: Editura Biblioteca Bucurestilor 1999. ISBN 973-99243-0-1
• Kosovo. La spirale de la haine, Lausanne: L'Age d'Homme 1993 (2nd Edition 1998).
• La Yougoslavie : nations, religions, idéologies, Lausanne: L'Age d'Homme 1994. ISBN 9-782825-105344
• The Serbs of Bosnia and Herzegovina. History and Politics, Paris: Dialogue 1996. ISBN 2-911527-10-0
• Kosovo i Metohija. Istorija i ideologija, (Kosovo and Metohija: History and Ideology), Belgrade: Hrišćanska misao 1998. (2nd updated edition: Belgrade: Čigoja štampa 2006).
• Нова историја српског народа (A New History of the Serbian People), Beograd: Naš Dom 2000 (co-authors: A. Fotić, M. St. Protić, N. Samardžić); Second updated edition: Belgrade 2002, ISBN 86-7268-015-4; Korean translation: Seoul 2001, ISBN 89-89205-20-4; French translation: Histoire du peuple serbe, Lausanne: L’Age d’Homme 2005. ISBN 2-8251-1958-X
• Kosovo. Un conflit sans fin? Lausanne: L'Age d'Homme 2008. ISBN 978-2-8251-3875-5

Sources

• Zeljan Šuster, Historical Dictionary of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, The Scarecrow Press, Landham & London 1999, p. 43
• Sima M. Ćirković, Rade Mihaljčić (ed.), Enciklopedija srpske istoriografije, Knowledge, Belgrade 1997, p. 273
• Slobodan Georgijev, ”Dusan Batakovic: A Historian of the Present”, BalkanInsight, Dec. 2009

External links

• Dušan T. Bataković, historian - personal website
• Нова историја српског народа
• Dusan T. Batakovic at IMDb
• The Kosovo Chronicles (full text)
• The Institute for Balkan Studies at SASA official website

Persondata
Name	Batakovic, Dusan T.
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Date of birth	April 23, 1957
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