PhD Oral Exam - Kevin Hackley, History

When studying for a doctoral degree (PhD), candidates submit a thesis that provides a critical review of the current state of knowledge of the thesis subject as well as the student’s own contributions to the subject. The distinguishing criterion of doctoral graduate research is a significant and original contribution to knowledge.

Once accepted, the candidate presents the thesis orally. This oral exam is open to the public.

Abstract

As was the case in numerous localities in the Independent State of Croatia, the civilians of Zvornik County in Bosnia and Herzegovina were subjected to collective mass violence committed by various military actors during the Second World War. This dissertation uses testimonies gathered by the Communist Party of Yugoslavia (Komunistička partija Jugoslavije – KPJ) in their “Territorial Commission for Determining the Crimes of the Occupiers and their Collaborators of Bosnia and Herzegovina” to dissect the nature of political mass violence in Zvornik. Local Ustaša began arresting Serbian political and religious elites as early as the summer of 1941, escalating further in August during a country-wide campaign to capture and expel Serbs living in the country to German-occupied Serbia. Often motivated by revenge for crimes against Serbian civilians, Četnik units responded with violence against Muslim communities, a group that was collectively identified with the Ustaša regime and their policies.

Using monthly reports submitted by the County Committee for the KPJ stationed in Zvornik, this project analyzes the impact of the conflict on how the residents of Zvornik (Zvorničani) defined their relationships to the group categories of “Serbian” and “Muslim” in the immediate postwar period. It is argued that the grievances from crimes committed during the Second World War exacerbated the perceived separateness of these identities.

Moreover, while the national Party platform of the KPJ celebrated the diversity of Yugoslavia and the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the execution of several policies, particularly those related to the policing of Islam, fueled greater disharmony between groups. In the case of Zvornik County, this problem was made worse by the antagonistic behavior and incompetence of local KPJ officials. This not only affected the legitimacy of Party institutions and policies in Zvornik, but also generated more distrust between Muslims and Serbs. It is only through this kind of micro-level data and analysis that one can begin to understand how ordinary people internalize their own sense of national identity, and how they define those categories in relation to others.