Transnational Memory Activism in Bosnia and Herzegovina

This book provides an in-depth case study of White Armband Day, a civic and transnational protest against the denial of genocidal violence in Prijedor during the early days of the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina (1992-1995). It explores how this commemorative event emerged amid local memory struggles as a spontaneous global social media campaign for the victims’ right to remember and traces its evolution into a transnational commemoration day, marked in Prijedor, across the post-Yugoslav region, within diasporic communities, and online. Based on multi-sited fieldwork conducted in Bosnia and Herzegovina and several places of settlement, the book focuses on the transnational and diasporic dimensions of this commemorative protest and pays particular attention to the role of translocal networks in establishing this commemoration within conflict-generated Bosnian-Herzegovinian diasporic communities. The book will appeal to an international audience of academics and advanced students engaging in current discussions in memory studies, transitional justice, and diaspora studies. It will be of interest to scholars of contemporary Southeastern Europe and other societies grappling with the legacies of a violent past and to practitioners seeking to support civil society in advancing post-war justice and challenging the silencing of historic injustice.