Vjekoslav Perica | |
|---|---|
| Born | Vjekoslav Perica (1955-07-11)11 July 1955 (age 69) Split |
| Occupation | Historian, journalist and writer |
| Subject | Modern history of religion in former Yugoslavia |
| Notable works | Balkan Idols: Religion and Nationalism in Yugoslav States |
| Notable awards | Fulbright Scholar |
Vjekoslav Perica (born 11 July 1955[1]) is a Croatianhistorian,journalist andwriter who specializes in the modernhistory of religions in the formerYugoslavia.
In his youth, Perica was a basketball player who was a member ofKK Jugoplastika's first team, but ultimately found academic pursuit more important than his sports career.[2] He graduated from theFaculty of Law inSplit in 1980.[2][3]
From 1985 to 1990 Perica was employed as the secretary of the government's Committee for Relations with Religious Communities. From 1988 to 1991 he wrote a column inNedjeljna Dalmacija called "Religion and Politics", and interviewed virtually all religious leaders in the formerYugoslavia.[2]
After being fired from his job in 1990, Perica went to the United States where he obtained a MSc inpolitical science (1994) and history (1995), as well as a PhD in history (1998), all from theUniversity of Minnesota.[2][3] His PhD thesis, "Religious revival and ethnic mobilization in Yugoslavia, 1965–1991: A history of the Yugoslav religious question from the reform era to the civil war", won him awards from both theUnited States Institute of Peace and theHarry Frank Guggenheim Foundation.[2][4] From 1999 to 2007 he worked as a visiting lecturer on a number of American universities.[2][3]
Perica is the author of the bookBalkan Idols: Religion and Nationalism in Yugoslav States (New York:Oxford University Press, 2002).[3] He is a former Research Fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars and the United States Institute of Peace.[3] In 2007 Perica was a U.S. Fulbright scholar in Belgrade, Serbia.[3]
A two-volume Serbian translation ofBalkan Idols, revised and expanded with a new introduction, was published byBiblioteka XX vek fromBelgrade in 2006.[3] In 2011/2012 he held fellowship at the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Studies in Humanities and Social Science in Wassenaar, The Netherlands. His most recent book is coauthored with Mitja Velikonja [University of Ljubljana] entitled "Nebeska Jugoslavija. Interakcije političkih mitologija i pop-kulture" published by Biblioteka XX vek, Belgrade 2012[5]Perica is Professor of history at theUniversity of Rijeka, Croatia. He lives in USA and Croatia.
