MEMPOP at EASA 2026: The Afterlives of Belgrade’s Generalštab

MEMPOP associated researcher Astrea Nikolovska presented her research at the European Association of Social Anthropologists (EASA) 2026 Conference, “Anthropology: Possibilities in a Polarised World,” held in Poznań from 21–24 July 2026.

Her paper, “The Afterlives of a Ruin: ‘Generalštab’ Between Neoliberal Development and Protection of Cultural Heritage,” was presented as part of the panel “Entangled Ruins: Polarised Temporalities and the Afterlives of Decay,” convened by Karolina Ćwiek-Rogalska (Institute of Slavic Studies, Polish Academy of Sciences) and Václav Sixta (Charles University). The paper examined the contested afterlife of the Yugoslav military headquarters in central Belgrade, which has remained in ruins since the 1999 NATO bombing. For more than two decades, the listed modernist complex has functioned simultaneously as an unofficial memorial to the bombing, a piece of architectural heritage, and an unresolved urban space. The recent plans to redevelop the site into a luxury hotel have brought these competing meanings into renewed conflict.

Drawing on participant observation, media analysis, and engagement with protesters, Nikolovska focused particularly on student mobilizations against the redevelopment of the site and the removal of its cultural heritage status. The paper explored how the ruin has come to materialize competing political imaginaries and temporalities: between memories of war and promises of economic development, cultural heritage and private capital, and the protection of public space and its commercial transformation.

The panel opened a broader discussion about the material remnants of empires and political regimes, the agency of ruins and matter, and the ways material remains continue to intervene in contemporary social and political life. These conversations provided an opportunity to situate research conducted within MEMPOP within wider anthropological debates on materiality, memory, heritage, and polarisation.

EASA 2026 brought together anthropologists around the theme of the possibilities of anthropology in an increasingly polarised world, with a programme extending beyond academic panels to workshops, laboratories, films, and other collaborative formats.