Diasporas Speaking

Dr Phil ⁠Chloe Fagan⁠ is our guest for the episode Writing Oneself into History | Kosovar-Albanian Literature in the German-speaking space. Dr Chloe Fagan received a Bachelor's Degree in German and English, and then her PhD in German Literature from Trinity College Dublin. She currently works for Goethe-Institut Irland. She has published 'Translation and the Renegotiation of Albanian-Austr...

In this episode I am joined by Jasmin Mujanović to explore Bosnia's political and social landscape three decades after the Dayton Peace Accords, which were initialed on 21 November 1995 in Dayton, Ohio, and formally signed in Paris on 14 December 1995. We discuss how the country's constitutional setup shapes its sovereignty and democratic development, the importance of understanding pre-wa...

After an enriching first season, Diasporas Speaking is happy to come back with a second season, with the first episode streaming the week of the 8th of December 2025.

In this episode, Rina Limoni, founder and host of the Diasporas Speaking Podcast will be interviewed by Arbër Qerka-Gashi, to reflect on her life experiences through music. Using songs and music as prompts to evoke memories, the conversation delves into how these songs and music have accompanied Rina throughout her journey of displacement and migration, through the difficulties of navigating ident...

Writing Oneself into History: Queer, Bosnian, Muslim, and Foreign with Ervin Malakaj Ervin Malakaj was born in Doboj. In the 1990s he lived as refugee in Germany before immigrating to the USA. After completing graduate degrees in German studies, he became a professor at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada, where he currently lives with his partner and dog. Ervin’s scholarly wor...

Selma Jahić was born in 1988 in Srebrenica and grew up nearby in a village called Blječeva. During the war years from 1992 to 1995, she and her family stayed exclusively in Srebrenica and the surrounding area. In August 1995, Selma came to Vienna after being expelled from Srebrenica in July 1995, a time during which she lost many family members. Since then, she has been living in Vienna. She compl...

From the Margins to the Centre: Reframing Mental Health Through a Community Lens with Alberta Sinani Alberta Sinani is a Kosovo-born artist and community psychologist based in Austria. Her work explores themes of migration, intergenerational resilience, and liberation practices within communities. As a Fulbright Student in the U.S., she has focused on immigrant youth mental health and civic engage...

Post-2000 Migration from Serbia: Storming Against Your Government's Political Legacy with Damnjan Jovanović'sDamnjan Jovanović was born in Montenegro and grew up in Serbia, where he earned a Bachelor of Science in Electrical, Electronic, and Communications Engineering Technology from the University of Belgrade. A passionate technologist, Damnjan is fluent in multiple programming languages...

After all, Eurovision explains everything with Dr Catherine Baker Dr Catherine Baker is Reader in 20th Century History at the University of Hull. Her research on narratives of national and European identity in media and popular culture centres on the post-Yugoslav space and its transnational connections, from the Eurovision Song Contest to the region’s place in global politics of race. She is the...

Sounds of Struggle: Music and Cultural Divides in 1990s Serbia with Dr Eric Gordy Dr Eric Gordy is Professor of Political and Cultural Sociology at the School for Slavonic and East European Studies, University College London. His research concentrates on Southeast Europe, especially the states of the former Yugoslavia. He is the author of The Culture of Power in Serbia: Nationalism and the Destruc...

Living the Political: Choosing Kosovo with Her Excellency Kosovar Ambassador to the Kingdom of Norway Dr. Nita Luci H.E. Dr. Nita Luci is Ambassador of the Republic of Kosovo to the Kingdom of Norway. She holds an MA and PhD in Anthropology from the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor and assistant professorship in anthropology at the University of Prishtina. Her academic, teaching and research pract...

Gendered experiences in the legal system: refugee and migrant women with Hana Marku Hana Marku is an immigration and refugee lawyer in Toronto, Canada. She practices law at Marku & Lee Immigration and Refugee Lawyers, where she is a principal lawyer alongside her firm partner Damey Lee. She has lived between Canada and Kosova, having gone back and forth a few times. She was formerly a writer, edit...

Raising Political Awareness: The Role of Extracurricular Civic Education with Nejra Dedić-Demirović Non-formal Political Education refers to educational processes and activities that take place outside of regular school instruction, aiming to raise individuals' political awareness and political maturity. It is generally directed at various age groups and target audiences and is offered by differen...

Kosovo and Statehood: The Battle for Recognition and the Fight Against De-recognition with Dr Gezim Visoka. Dr Gëzim Visoka is the Associate Dean for Research in the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences and Associate Professor of Peace and Conflict Studies in the School of Law and Government at Dublin City University (DCU). Dr Visoka is a leading international scholar on statehood and state r...

Framing Post-2000 Kosovo E-Migration: Between the Legacy of War and a New Generation of Professionals In this episode, we are joined by Dr Vjosa Musliu, who will share her motivations for emigrating from Kosovo and reflect on the period that led to the new journey in Belgium. The existing literature on Kosovar emigration primarily focuses on those who left before or during the 1990s, driven by eco...

What happens when a place declares independence? How does the political landscape evolve in the aftermath, and how do these shifts affect the people and political figures dealing with the past in that newly independent state? These questions will guide our conversation in February, which coincides with Kosovo's Independence anniversary on the 17th and the parliamentary elections on the 9th. To kic...

Nik Jovčić-Sas will be our guest for this episode of Diasporas Speaking. Thank you to Arbër Qerka-Gashi for agreeing to co-host this episode with me. Nik Jovčić-Sas is a British-Serb LGBTQ+ activist, musician, drag queen and Eastern Orthodox Theologian. Their work focuses on the intersection of the LGBTQ+ community and Orthodox Christian theology, history and identity - particularly within Serbia...

For many people in the Balkans, where Islam, the Christian Orthodox tradition, and Catholicism coexist, New Year's Eve is the defining end-of-year celebration. In Albania, the Christmas tree is called 'Bredhi, but it's not necessarily tied to Christmas- it's a symbol of New Year's festivities, a sentiment shared across much of the region. For members of the Balkan diaspora, celebrating New Year's...

In this episode, Irina Janakievska joins us to share her diaspora story, speak about her debut cookbook “The Balkan Kitchen” and explore food traditions in the Balkans and their transformation beyond. From childhood, we become immersed in culinary traditions, where food choices shape and reinforce our social identities. In the diaspora, the act of "food travelling" - preparing, sharing, and consum...

Having lost the right to a cultural archive through colonisation, folklore, which in Kosovo had traditionally served as an instrument to reiterate history, played a crucial role in maintaining and producing a common cultural identity. Reverberating around Serbian oppression and consequently the ensuing immigration during the 1990s, the imaginary distributed through popular culture articulated in t...

The experiences of women who migrated from Kosovo to the West during the 1990s or earlier remain largely unaddressed or marginalised in current Kosovar-Albanian migration narratives. With this in mind, we will begin periodic conversations with the generation of women who moved to the diaspora with their families or claimed asylum on their own. To begin this series, I interviewed my mother, Ilirjet...

Contemporary Albanian identities in both digital and offline spaces are deeply influenced by legacies of war, colonialism, tradition, and modernity. Over the past decade, Albanian social media has increasingly become a platform where heteronormative norms are performed, casting Albanian identity through a heteronationalist lens focused on national heroes and the flag. This idealisation of heterono...

BONUS Episode: In response to the current narratives about Albanian women and men in Switzerland, I teamed up with Swiss-Albanian feminists to create this bonus episode, delving deeper into the issues of gender-based violence beyond the attention-grabbing headlines. Globally, one in three women will face gender-based violence, often from a partner, former partner, or family member. In the context...

Are UK Kosovars the "posh spice" of our diaspora and German-speaking diasporas a "different breed"? The evolution of diasporas in host countries is influenced by various factors, including the generation of migrants, the host country’s migration policies and attitudes, language proficiency, and available professional opportunities. These elements also play a role in shaping how diasporas are viewe...

Language forms the core of who we are, encapsulating our identity and how we perform it in our socio-cultural spaces. Language, then spoken in a space formerly designed and imagined for a homogenous society in the diasporas, becomes a place of struggle for immigrants. A mirror of exile and the experiences that encapsulate it. In this episode, we will speak with Jonë Zhitia about her essay ‘Nadryw...