Skip to content
Azra Hromadžić

Azra Hromadžić

Contact Information:

ahromadz@syr.edu

315.443.5782

209C Maxwell Hall

Azra Hromadžić

Associate Professor, Anthropology Department


Laura J. and L. Douglas Meredith Professor for Teaching Excellence

Senior Research Associate, Program for the Advancement of Research on Conflict and Collaboration

Faculty Affiliate, Aging Studies Institute

Senior Research Associate, Center for European Studies

Courses

  • 2024 Fall
    • ANT 700 Selected Topics - Grant Proposal Writing
    • ANT 400/600 Selected Topics - War Ecologies
  • 2024 Summer
    • ANT 121 Peoples and Cultures of the World
  • 2024 Spring
    • ANT 711 Current Anthropological Theory
    • ANT 185 Global Encounters:Comparing World Views & Values Cross-Culturally
  • 2023 Fall
    • ANT 185 Global Encounters:Comparing World Views & Values Cross-Culturally
    • ANT 700 Selected Topics - Grant Proposal Writing
    • ANT 400 Selected Topics - International Aid&Intervention
  • 2023 Summer
    • ANT 185 Global Encounters:Comparing World Views & Values Cross-Culturally
    • ANT 713 Proposal Writing
  • 2023 Spring
    • ANT 711 Current Anthropological Theory
  • 2022 Summer
    • ANT 185 Global Encounters:Comparing World Views & Values Cross-Culturally
  • 2022 Spring
    • ANT/IRP 499 Honors Capstone Project

Highest degree earned

Ph.D., University of Pennsylvania, 2009

Bio

Azra Hromadžić is a cultural anthropologist with research interests in the anthropology of international policy in the context of state-making in postwar Bosnia and Herzegovina. Her book, "Citizens of an Empty Nation: Youth and State-Making in Postwar Bosnia and Herzegovina" (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2015), is an ethnographic investigation of the internationally directed postwar intervention policies in Bosnia and Herzegovina and the response of local people, especially youth, to these policy efforts. The book was translated into Serbian in 2017 ("Samo Bosne nema: Mladi i građenje države u posleratnoj Bosni i Hercegovini." Beograd: Biblioteka XX Vek).  

In 2015, Hromadžić initiated a new project that ethnographically researches aging, care and social services in the context of postwar and postsocialist Bosnia and Herzegovina. She co-edited (with Monika Palmberger) a volume titled "Care Across Distance: Ethnographic Explorations of Aging and Migration" which was published with Berghahn Books in 2018.

Hromadžić spent the spring semester of 2017 as a Fulbright Scholar in Bosnia-Herzegovina where she conducted research and taught at the University of Bihać. This experience propelled her to begin a new research project on what she calls "riverine citizenship" and river-inspired socialist vernacular environmentalisms, social movements, political imaginations, ecotourist practices, and green capitalist investment projects in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Her book manuscript tentatively titled "Riverine Citizenship: On Love and Politics in Multispecies Relationships" is under contract with the Central European University Press.

Hromadžić is the recipient of the 2017 Daniel Patrick Moynihan Award for Teaching and Research, the 2017 Excellence in Graduate Education Faculty Recognition Award, the 2014 Meredith Professors' Teaching Recognition Award, the 2022-2023 Dr. Ralph E. Montonna Professorship for the Teaching and Education of Undergraduates, and 2023-2026 Laura J. and L. Douglas Meredith Professors of Teaching Excellence.

Her research has been supported with grants and fellowships from Fulbright; American Council for International Education, U.S. Department of State; National Council for Eurasian and East European Research; Social Science Research Council; U.S. Institute of Peace; and Spencer Foundation.

Areas of Expertise

Political anthropology; ethno-political violence and post-conflict reconciliation; socialism and post-socialism; gender; youth cultural practices; social policy and welfare; aging, care and responsibility; environmental politics and riverine worlds; the Balkans.

Selected Publications

  • Books
    • Hromadzic, A., Palmbrger, M., Care Across Distance: Ethnographic Explorations of Aging and Migration. Berghahn Books, 2018.
    • Hromadzic, A., Samo Bosne nema: Mladi i građenje države u posleratnoj Bosni i Hercegovini. Beograd: Biblioteka XX vek. (Translation of Citizens of an Empty Nation). University of Pennsylvania Press, 2017.
    • Hromadzic, A., Citizens of an Empty Nation: Youth and State-making in Postwar Bosnia and Herzegovina. University of Pennsylvania Press, 2015.
  • Journal Articles
  • Book Chapters
    • Hromadžić, A., "Hooked: Social Lives and Historical Entanglements at the Cultural Center in Bihać." In Flamingo Loophole. Parigini, N., Karam, L. and Bertelè, F. (eds.) Grafičar, 2023.
    • Hromadžić, A., "On Being Too Close." In Stories of violence, war, and displacement: Intersections of life, research, and knowledge production. Genealogy, 2023.
    • Hromadzic, A., "Because I Have a Hook-up’: Cheating Citizens and the Unbearable State in Post-Dayton Bosnia and Herzegovina." In The Everyday Lives of Sovereignty: Contesting and Enacting the State. Bryant, R., Reevers, M. (eds.) Cornell University Press, 2021.
    • Hromadzic, A., "Una je naš najdublji politički i etički impuls." In Amanet. Dedic, H., Lonic, J. (eds.) Grafičar, Bihać, 2020.
    • Hromadzic, A., "“But where else could they go?” The State, Family, and Private Care in a Bosnian Town." In Everyday Life in the Balkans. University of Indiana Press, 2019.
    • Hromadzic, A., ""Where were they until now?" Aging, Care, and Abandonment in a Bosnian town." In Care Across Distance. Palmberger, M., Hromadzic, A. (eds.) Berghahn Books, 2018.
    • Hromadzic, A., Palmberger , M., "Introduction." In Care Across Distance. Hromadzic, A., Palmberger, M. (eds.) Berghahn Books, 2018.
  • Book Reviews
    • Hromadzic, A., "Remaking Muslim Lives: Everyday Islam in Postwar Bosnia and Herzegovina." Slavic Review, 2022.
    • Hromadzic, A., Brković, Č., "Managing Ambiguity: How Clientelism, Citizenship, and Power Shape Personhood in Bosnia and Herzegovina.." Journal of Anthropological Research, 2019.
    • Hromadzic, A., Larson, J. L., "Critical Thinking in Slovakia After Socialism." Political and Legal Anthropology Review, 2017.
    • Hromadzic, A., Helms, E., "Innocence and Victimhood: Gender, Nation, and Women’s Activism in Postwar Bosnia-Herzegovina." Slavonica , 2017.
    • Hromadzic, A., Jansen, S., "Yearnings in the Meantime: ‘Normal Lives’ and the State in a Sarajevo Apartment Complex." Slavic Review, 2017.
    • Hromadzic, A., Hajdarpasic, E., "Whose Bosnia? Nationalism and Political Imagination in the Balkans." Society for the Anthropology of Europe., 2016.
    • Hromadzic, A., Halilovich, H., "Places of Pain: Forced Displacement, Popular Memory and Trans-Local Identities in Bosnian War-Torn Communities." American Ethnologist, 2014.

Presentations and Events

Syracuse University, "Navigating Tense Classrooms: Graduate Students" (November, 2023)

Territories and Identities: A Critical Perspective on Belonging, Scuola Normale Superiore, "Riverine Citizenship: Place-Based Environmental Politics in Bosnia and Herzegovina" (November, 2023)

Syracuse University, "Cultura Politics of Prison Towns: A Conversation" (October, 2023)

United World Colleges, "Meet the Author: Citizens of an Empty Nation" (October, 2023)

Syracuse University, "Navigating Tense Classrooms: Faculty" (October, 2023)

Syracuse University, "Reverberations: War Memories" (October, 2023)

Department of Sociology, Faculty of Philosophy, University of Zagreb, "Meet the author: Samo Bosne nema" (May, 2023)

Displaced Detained Undeterred: A Creative/Critical Symposium, Cornell University, "Migrant Encounters in Bihać: Anthropologies of Dislocation, Extraction, and Refusal" (April, 2023)

Migrant Journeys: Lives and Deaths in Transition, Sawyer Seminar, Center on Forced Displacement, Boston University, "Migrant Encounters in Bihać: Notes on Dislocation and Contingent Circulation" (April, 2023)

Cornell Univeristy, "Our families." (May 9, 2022)

Ethics in Forced Migration Research, Refugee Research Network, "Hunted by Violence." (March, 2022)

Hromadzic, A., Baker, C., Riada talks to Catherine Baker, Azra Hromadzic on Politics, Race, Migration, Environment in Balkans - YouTube, Dignified Resistance, "Politics, Race, Migration, Environment in the Balkans: Conversation with Catherine Baker and Azra Hromadžić." (February 23, 2022)

University College London, "Emotions in Bosnia and Herzegovina: Discussion with Danijela Majstorović, Azra Hromadžić and Stef Jansen." (February, 2022)

Socialism, Capitalism and Childhood: Material Lives and Mutual Imaginations, Georgie State University, "The Una River Emeralds: Producing Ecologically Conscious Children in Socialist Yugoslavia." (October, 2021)

Council for European Studies, "Toxic Lives, Uncertain Futures and Environmental Crisis on the European Semiperiphery." (June, 2021)

Cornell University, "Migrant Encounters in Bihać: Ethnographies of Dislocation and Contingent Circulation" (April, 2021)

Guest lecture in LAW 813: Post-Conflict Reconstruction, Syracuse Univeristy, "Youth and State-making in Postwar Bosnia and Herzegovina." (April, 2021)

Meet the Scholar Coffee Hour: Humanities Center 2021 Faculty Fellows, Syracuse University, "We Will Not Give up Una! Riverine Citizenship and a City in Love with the River in Post-war Bosnia-Herzegovina." (March, 2021)

Ithaca College, "Migrant Crisis in Bihać." (November, 2020)

Double Transit Workshop, Zagreb, "Ethnographic Encounters and the ‘Migrant Crisis’ in Bihać: Anthropologies of Extraction, and Refusal." (August, 2020)

EASA, "We will not give up the Una!’ Riverine Citizenship and a City in Love with the River Postwar Bosnia and Herzegovina." (July, 2020)

Simon Fraser University, "Citizens of an Empty Nation" (March, 2020)

Samo vjeran pas?, St. Gallen, "Ethnographic Encounters and the “Migrant Crisis” in Bihać: Anthropologies of Extraction, Reflection and Refusal." (February, 2020)

Emptiness: Practices, Experiences, Meanings, and Sensibilities, University of Oxford, "Uninvited Citizens: Violence, Emptiness and Urban Ruination in Postwar and Postsocialist Bosnia and Herzegovina." (December, 2019)

Anthropological Association 118th Annual Meeting, "Life in an Age of Death: War and the River in Bosnia and Herzegovina." (November, 2019)

"‘We will not give up the Una!’ Riverine Citizenship and a City in Love with the River Postwar Bosnia and Herzegovina." (September, 2019)

IUAES 2019 Inter-Congress World Solidarities, "Life in an Age of Death: War and the River in Bosnia and Herzegovina." (August, 2019)

Authoritarianism Today Symposium, Syracuse University, "Fragmented Authoritarianim in Bosnia and Herzegovina." (April, 2019)

Spatiality of Violence Workshop, "Pensioners, Youth and Migrants: Ethnography of an “Empty” Ruin in Bihać, Bosnia and Herzegovina." (March, 2019)

Syracuse University, "Youth and State Making in Postwar Bosnia." (March, 2019)

Honors and Accolades

Laura J. and L. Douglas Meredith Professor of Teaching Excellence, Syracuse University (2023 - 2026)

Dr. Ralph E. Montonna Professor for the Teaching and Education of Undergraduates, The Maxwell School (2022 - 2023)

2013-2014 Laura J. and L. Douglas Meredith Teaching Recognition Award, Syracuse University (2014)