July 5th

We got up early in order to have a meeting in New Belgrade.  A healthy length away from our hotel, our group was forced to use the Belgrade public transportation in the middle of rush hour.  It is similar to other big city rush hour commutes, packed into a crowded bus with no air conditioning and little room to maneuver. Not the most pleasant moment of our trip, but definitely a cultural experience, we'll put it that way.

Getting off the bus in New Belgrade, we walked to the headquarters of B92, an extremely influential media group in Serbia.  Originating as a radio station, the liberal station was involved in the turning of the tide against Milosevic, refusing to be silenced by the state and broadcasting news and information without a license.  It was the most popular television and radio station in the last two decades, with several channels, including a 24 hour news source.  It has since fallen in ratings, and has resumed its role as a government watchdog, but still remains popular for news and entertainment.  We were escorted around the station by one of the co-founders and current leaders, who was fired for standing against Milosevic, but is now back on the job.  He explained the inner workings of the station, showing the studios for news, morning talk shows, and radio.  He gave an interesting tour, but many of us were distracted by the Spongebob episode playing on the several screens around the building.

After another cramped bus ride back into Old Belgrade, we broke for lunch.  We reconvened at the "Belgrade Lady," a skyscraper a few blocks from our hotel.  One of the building's inhabitants is the Belgrade Open School, a private university of which Mladen, one of our trip leaders and Belgrade native, is an alum.  One of the ads greeting us outside the elevator to the 16th floor was for the chance to enjoy an American experience studying abroad at the University of Nebraska. What fun.  

Anyway, the school was kind enough to let us use one of its classrooms for our lectures for the next week and a half.  The lecture this day served as one to ground us in the purpose of the dialogue.  We looked at the ideas of different theorists of cultures around the world and how they applied to the Balkans.  Mostly, we focused on Sam Huntington’s idea of “Clash of Civilizations,” with Professor Sullivan slashing his theories of essentially dividing the world’s population into 7 or 8 groups.  The lecture complicated these theories, challenging the simple notion that the conflicts in the Balkans go only as deep as religion and other easily identifiable factors.