Together with Sorbonne IV professors Philippe Gelez and Sacha Markovic, in the 2018 to 2022 period, I led two projects that unfolded within the framework of the “Hubert Curien – Pavle Savić” programme.
The first project, entitled ‘French-Serbian relations in the field of diplomacy and media representation: Historical experience and contemporary challenges,’ paid homage to the 180th anniversary of diplomatic relations between France and Serbia, while the second project, ‘France and the Western Balkans: the legacy of the past and European integration,’ served to expand the field of research. The results of these projects included an international scientific conference, a collection of papers entitled ‘France and Serbia: Challenges of Eternal Friendship’ and two special French-language editions of the magazine Serbian Political Thought, four roundtable events in Paris, held at the Sorbonne and the Cultural Centre of Serbia, as well as two in Belgrade.
The most important factors for our work are mobility, access to archives and libraries. I am proud that we jointly mapped the fields of unexplored topics in French-Serbian relations and held guest lectures at the Sorbonne. The Pavle Savić Programme enabled us to engage in European scientific streams and to link up with 50 scientists in the field of social sciences and humanities, 25 of whom are young scientists. We applied jointly for new scientific collaboration on two occasions and received support. First from the French Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs, and then from Francophonie for the current project ‘Strengthening and Perspectives of Scientific Cooperation in the Western Balkans,’ which is being jointly implemented by L’INALCO, the Institute for Political Studies, the Faculty of Law in Bitola, the Faculty of Philology in Nikšić, the EuropaNova Academia and Cercle. The idea is to create a regional graduate school in the Balkans. We will soon see the publishing of my book ‘Nation of Heroes: French Scientists, Diplomats, Publicists and Artists on Serbia and the Serbs,’ which was partly created as a result of these projects.
Our projects testify to the importance of the Pavle Savić Programme as a platform for developing scientific cooperation, which, alongside innovation, isn’t only crucial in the context of scientific results and scientific diplomacy, but is also an important component in the development of every country in this world of rivalries. I believe that the words of Ivan Đaja, an early 20th century scientist who was born to a French mother and a Serbian father, will also be important in the future: “Science is a great thing in and of itself. But it is even greater if directed towards great general goals of humanity as a whole… Science mustn’t be separated from the great ideals of humanity, justice and freedom.”