Podcast Summary:

New Books Network
Episode: Jovana Babović, "The Youngest Yugoslavs: An Oral History of Post-Socialist Memory"
Date: January 30, 2026
Host: Eva Glisic
Guest: Jovana Babović, Associate Professor of Modern European History, SUNY Geneseo

Overview

This episode features a conversation with historian Jovana Babović about her new book, The Youngest Yugoslavs: An Oral History of Post-Socialist Memory (Indiana UP, 2025). Babović discusses her unique oral history project focusing on the last generation to experience a unified Yugoslavia as children. Through in-depth interviews, the book explores how these "youngest Yugoslavs" remember their past, process their identity, and reflect on the legacy of a country that no longer exists.

Main Theme and Purpose

• The episode centers on the voices and memories of people born between 1971 and 1991 in Yugoslavia, termed "the youngest Yugoslavs."
• Babović’s project aims to capture how this cohort—who experienced Yugoslavia only as children—think about their identity in adulthood, both within the region and in the diaspora.
• The discussion showcases the importance of oral history in understanding how post-socialist memory is constructed outside the familiar focus on Yugoslavia’s violent breakup.

Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. Origins of the Project & Babović’s Background

(02:07–03:34)

• Babović’s academic interests include urban culture and society in Yugoslavia, taking a “bottom-up” approach to historical research.
• Her fascination with everyday Yugoslav experience shaped this book: "I am really kind of leaning into those interests of listening to the voices of everyday people and thinking about Yugoslavia as experiences of people who actually live the history rather than necessarily state..." (03:03, Jovana Babović)

2. Why Study the Youngest Yugoslavs?

(04:24–06:49)

• Previous research has focused on older generations who lived most of their lives in Yugoslavia or those who suffered the most loss due to its dissolution.

• Babović realized the voices of those who were children at the time—who did not lose careers or homes, but lost their homeland—had been overlooked:

  "Nobody had really asked the question, what happened to that youngest generation who were children, who never came of age, ... but yet they were impacted deeply by Yugoslavia because they lived their childhood in it and, moreover, as children lost their homelands." (04:50, Jovana Babović)

• Her work importantly includes members of the diaspora, incorporating stories of global mobility.

3. Defining the Cohort: Common Experiences and Distinctions

(07:33–09:58)

• Most interviewees recall positive childhood memories: participation in the Pioneer Organization, foods, family travel, and a sense of belonging—both familial and societal.

• This cohort is characteristically critical of war, Yugoslavia’s dissolution, and the post-socialist transition.

  "They're very thoughtful about those experiences because they lived through them, but then also have lived half of their life since Yugoslav dissolution... they're very thoughtful and critical and self reflective about nostalgia as a whole." (07:33, Jovana Babović)

• Their nostalgia is complicated—not a simple longing for the past, but an engagement with what has been lost and how the present compares.

4. Interview Approach and Diversity of Voices

(10:50–13:04)

• Babović employed a network-based, “chain interview” method to reach a wide spectrum of participants.
• Representation aimed for diversity in gender, geography, language, parenthood, queerness, class, and place of residence (both in the former Yugoslavia and abroad).
• "I wanted to show a diversity of Yugoslav experiences. ...I aim to show, for example—diversity of gender... diversity of place of origin...diversity of place of residence...bilingualism, queerness, parenthood, even class." (11:10–12:02, Jovana Babović)

5. Historical Contexts Shaping the Interviews

(14:06–16:17)

• The project was both a product of and shaped by the COVID-19 pandemic—interviewees were perhaps more reflective or available due to lockdowns.
• Memories of the Yugoslav wars were re-activated by the war in Ukraine, which surfaced regularly in conversations.

  "When it comes to the war in the Ukraine, ...it was really triggering for a lot of people. And that came up in a lot of interviews." (15:47, Jovana Babović)

6. Structure of the Book & Border Stories

(17:32–22:33)

• The book opens with interviews from Slovenia (near the Italian border) and with a Hungarian from Vojvodina (northern Serbia)—deliberately de-centering the traditional, capital-centric Yugoslav narrative.

• Borders, languages, and transnational experiences shaped childhoods and highlight the multi-ethnic, multi-lingual nature of Yugoslavia:

  "I wanted to show that Yugoslavia was still part of this bigger world and Yugoslavs were very transnational in a way." (17:32–18:06, Jovana Babović)

• Linguistic policies enabled young Yugoslavs to learn in their mother tongue—facilitating later global mobility.

7. Forms and Limits of Yugoslav Identification

(23:07–26:19)

• Affinity for the Yugoslav identity doesn’t correlate strictly with ethnicity; instead, those dissatisfied with the present often idealize Yugoslavia’s lost possibilities.
• Some minorities felt excluded— as shown by a Hungarian interviewee struggling with language and feeling less able to claim "Yugoslav" as an identity:

  "For her, Yugoslavia has some ideals, has some pillars, but at the same time, she also didn't necessarily feel as included." (26:01–26:19, Jovana Babović)

8. Critique and Multiplicity

(27:41–29:29)

• Interviewees were clear-eyed about exclusions and inequalities in Yugoslavia—capable of holding both admiration and criticism:

  "They were really critical of Yugoslavia... We can still look at that ideal and still love the ideal while realizing that it hadn't necessarily become a reality." (27:41–28:43, Jovana Babović)

• Multiplicity and hybridity are lasting legacies:

  "The idea that you could be multiple identities, ... is, I think, a major legacy of Yugoslavia." (29:25, Jovana Babović)

9. The Concept of "Post-Yugoslav"

(29:45–32:18)

• Many interviewees self-identify as "post-Yugoslav" rather than any single national or ethnic category.

  "Post Yugoslav... allows exactly that thing that we were just talking about. It allows folks to embrace a complexity of identity...it’s a way to not erase the way that that environment shaped their childhood and ultimately their adulthoods." (29:45–32:18, Jovana Babović)

• Identity is contextual and mobile—often shifting with audience, circumstance, and geography.

10. Surprising Insights and Diaspora Dynamics

(33:45–37:52)

• Babović was surprised by the strength and warmth of post-Yugoslav diasporic communities globally, which enact Yugoslav values abroad:

  "It was these very post Yugoslav, post Yugoslav war diasporas that were explicitly Yugoslav in nature. And I was so heartened by that because it felt like another form of... post Yugoslav legacy." (33:45–34:30, Jovana Babović)

• The interviews confirmed that the youngest generation, despite being last in line, is keeping Yugoslav memory and ideals alive.

11. Classroom Use and Student Reactions

(38:50–41:57)

• The book was conceived in part as a teaching tool, bringing real voices and lived experiences to the classroom.

• Students responded enthusiastically—they found the interviews readable, relatable, and illuminating, helping decenter the stereotypical "cauldron of war" narrative about the Balkans.

  "I wanted unmediated voices...so (the) students could then kind of think through what did Yugoslavia mean for these kids when they were children, what does it mean for them now when they're adults." (39:13, Jovana Babović)

Notable Quotes and Memorable Moments

• On oral history and method:

  "I really love that. I love the idea of developing kind of a bottom up approach, studying Yugoslavia, which we haven't necessarily seen before..." (02:17, Jovana Babović)

• On nostalgia and critique:

  "It's not quite wistfulness or looking through the past through rosy colored glasses, but looking through the past critically." (09:13, Jovana Babović)

• On belonging and exclusion:

  "For her, Yugoslavia has some ideals, has some pillars, but at the same time, she... also didn't necessarily feel as included." (26:01, Jovana Babović)

• On multiplicity:

  "You could be multiple identities, ... and that multiplicity is, I think, a major legacy of Yugoslavia." (29:23, Jovana Babović)

• On the post-Yugoslav identity:

  "It’s a way to not erase the way that that environment shaped their childhood and ultimately their adulthoods." (32:08, Jovana Babović)

• On teaching and lived experience:

  "I wanted my students to be able to relate to them on that level. But also, I wanted unmediated voices." (39:12, Jovana Babović)

Timestamps for Important Segments

• [02:07] Jovana Babović on her background and previous work
• [04:24] Why focus on the youngest Yugoslavs?
• [07:33] Defining the cohort and their distinct experiences
• [10:50] Methodology: How interviewees were chosen
• [14:06] The impact of COVID-19 and the war in Ukraine
• [17:32] Book structure: Decentering the capital, featuring border narratives
• [23:07] Factors influencing affinity with the Yugoslav project
• [27:41] Interviewees’ critical reflections and the coexistence of ideals and reality
• [29:45] The meaning and use of "post-Yugoslav" as an identity
• [33:45] Surprises and diaspora communities
• [38:50] Teaching Yugoslav history and student reactions
• [42:12] Preview of Babović’s next project: the history of HIV/AIDS in Yugoslavia

Final Thoughts

Babović’s The Youngest Yugoslavs brings to light the nuanced, critical, and deeply personal memories of a generation that both lost a country and inherited a complex legacy of multinationalism, language, and identity. The oral histories capture not just nostalgia, but a thoughtful engagement with the ideals—and the failings—of the Yugoslav project. In sharing these diverse voices, the work challenges and enriches our understanding of post-socialist memory and offers a humanizing counterweight to reductive narratives about the Balkans.

Guest Next Steps:
Babović is starting new research into the history of HIV/AIDS in Yugoslavia, focusing on the state and societal responses during the 1970s and 1980s.

Host: Eva Glisic
Guest: Jovana Babović