Public Call for Enrolment of the Ninth Generation of Students of the Žarana Papić School of Feminism in 2025

Through Žarana Papić School of Feminism, Sarajevo Open Centre has, since 2015, continued the Women’s Studies Programme „Žarana Papić“ that was launched and led by the Association Žene ženama in 1998 as the first study programme about women in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The school is a space for exchange of knowledge on feminism(s) and tends to fill in the gaps for formal education system in BiH regarding feminist theory, history, everyday life criticism, gender and queer studies.

About the School:

This year as well, Žarana Papić School of Feminism offers the academic-activist educational programme, with the aim to provide the students with feminist education about the practices, theories and concepts needed for professional and critical public work and activism in the national, international governmental and non-governmental organisations, in the fields of human rights and gender equality.

The school consists of several theoretical-practical modules that the students will be attending from April until November 2025.

The school acts both on the production of knowledge, enabling interaction between science and different segments of society, as well as on encouraging specific advocacy and activist initiatives in our environment. In each generation, we deal with an introduction to feminist, gender, and queer studies and their relationship to normative knowledge; theories, history and characteristics of the movement; after that, we pay attention to topics such as the institutionalization of feminism through gender equality policies, gender-based violence, socio-economic rights, health, anti-gender politics etc. We deal with current topics that need to be viewed through a feminist prism, especially in spheres where human rights and gender equality are threatened.

Lecturers and topics

The programme of the upcoming, ninth generation will deal with the following topics:

  • Relation between feminist, gender, queer studies and standardized knowledge
  • Feminist education – education on feminism
  • History of the feminist movement; variety of theoretical concepts within feminism currents
  • Historical aspect of struggles for access to education
  • Ideology and state ideological apparatuses
  • Cultural studies; theories of hegemony
  • Marxism and class; class identities
  • Feminism in media space/discourse
  • Questioning personal values and analysis of context-adapted social values
  • Anti-fascist women’s front
  • Informal educational programmes that promote feminism
  • Feminism and gender studies in academia
  • Feminist linguistics: gender sensitive language
  • Education on gender, sexuality and health
  • Body, beauty, ageing: narratives, pressures, visual politics of objectification and expectations
  • Feminist critique of political economy. Productive and reproductive labour: feminist perspectives
  • Care economy
  • Institutional memory of women’s contributions to society
  • Gender and sexuality on film

The lectures will be followed by students’ exercises and practical assignments, in the form of reading, text analysis, as well as other tasks that should be prepared and presented to the group. The additional value of the programme is the students’ ability to design and implement specific actions in public space, create various formats that contain feminist interventions into current issues and problems of society.

Application process

Every adult person who lives in Bosnia and Herzegovina and is interested in gaining new knowledge, developing critical thinking and feminist questioning of reality, that can help them in creating social changes through advocacy activities, activism or through different science and artwork, can apply for the school. Everyone is welcome: students of humanities, social sciences, technical sciences, natural sciences or the arts, as well as all those who do not study. We also welcome the persons who have business careers, who work in private or public sector, in civil society organisations, or who do not work at all.

You can fill out the application for the school via this online link. It is expected from the candidates to be highly motivated and engaged during the programme.

Classes

Classes will take place from April to November 2025 (11 weeks), every other Friday and Saturday of the month. On Fridays, the classes will be held 17:30-20:00, on Saturdays 10:00-14:00 or 15:00, which depends on the complexity of the topic. There will be breaks from the end of April until half of May and during the summer (July and August). The lectures and workshops will be held in BCS language.

It is expected that the students attend min. 75% of all the classes. The classes will be held at Sarajevo Open Centre premises, address: Podgaj 14, Sarajevo.

The students who meet the attendance criteria will get certificate of participation at the end of the school, and the most interested participants will be invited to work with Sarajevo Open Centre and other organizations on advocating the topics related to women’s rights, human rights of LGBTI persons and generally human rights in BiH.

SOC can reimburse travel and accommodation costs to participants who are not from Sarajevo.

Deadline for applying: April 1st 2025

Interested individuals can get additional information about the school via e-mail [email protected] or telephone number 033 551 000. You can find more about the previous years’ School of Feminism, as well as the activities of the Sarajevo Open Centre, on www.soc.ba.

Žarana Papić School of Feminism is supported by Equality Fund.