Filip Mitričević

Fellow and PhD Candidate
History Department, Russian and East European Institute
Indiana University Bloomington, United States of America

Visiting Fellowship 2025/26 (February 1, 2026 – March 1, 2026)

I completed my B.A. and M.A. degrees in history at the University of Novi Sad, Serbia. In 2019, I started the Modern East-European History Ph.D. studies at Indiana University Bloomington under Professor Maria Bucur’s supervision. After successfully passing the qualifying exams, I defended my dissertation proposal tentatively titled The World Champion of Antifascism: Yugoslavia’s Multidirectional Legitimacy Discourse in the Early Cold War (1948-1961). I published several peer-reviewed articles and book reviews and presented at international conferences, including the annual ASEEES conventions. I have written several op-eds for the Serbian media, including the Danas daily papers.

Statement of interest

The motivation for applying stems from my ambition to research and write about graphic novels as teaching tools in history classes, with a focus on the region of former Yugoslavia. I have long been interested in history-themed comic books and graphic novels, as well as their pedagogical capacities. At IU, I have developed a syllabus for an undergraduate class on the representation of history in comic books, teaching it through a combination of classical historical texts and graphic novels. Graphic novels have proven to be an efficient gateway for increasing student reading, interacting with history and its varying perspectives and manifestations. Recently, I have begun canvassing the former Yugoslav republics for examples of history-themed graphic novels and exploring their potential as teaching tools, intending to analyze and compare in a journal article what I consider to be publications with high pedagogical capacity. One of the included editions in my study is the “Memories and Dreams of Kristina B. – Ljubljana 1941-1945” by Zoran Smiljanić and Blaž Vurnik, published by the Museum and Galleries of Ljubljana. I would use the time in Ljubljana to research the Institute’s vast collection of literature on Yugoslav and Slovenian history, as well as the Museum and Galleries of Ljubljana’s collection on the history of the city. I plan to draft the journal article while at the Institute.

Selected publications

• Filip Mitricevic, “The World Champion of Antifascism: Arguing for Diplomacy with Memory and Critical Discourse Analysis in Studying the Early Cold War Yugoslavia,” SoG Academic Week edited volume (forthcoming)
• Filip Mitričević, “The Ways in Which I Never Thought About My Great-grandfather: An Essay on the Potentials of Photography as a Historical Document,” Currents of History, 2020/3, 247-268.
• Filip Mitričević (with Andrija Popović), “Shingles of Memory and Identity – Swabian House in Vojvodina as a Heritage of a People Not There Anymore,” Balkan Express Conference Proceedings (Prague, 2019), 121-137.
• Filip Mitričević, “Irig and its Townspeople during First World War,” Srem Historical Archive Journal 14 (2015), 40-54.
• Filip Mitricevic, “Searching for Missing Compassion: Serbia and the War in Ukraine,” NYU Jordan Center Blog, September 8th, 2022.