S10E06: Ivan­ka Popović on the Ser­bian Protests (Part 1) 

This episode explores the mass stu­dent-led protests in Ser­bia against cor­rup­tion of the regime. How did moral out­rage over a fatal rail­way sta­tion roof col­lapse in 2024 fuel a large-scale protest move­ment? And what key fac­tors are behind its momen­tum? Lis­ten to hear about cur­rent gov­ern­ment tac­tics and the impli­ca­tions for aca­d­e­m­ic free­dom, uni­ver­si­ty auton­o­my and democ­ra­ti­za­tion of Ser­bian society.

Guest fea­tured on this episode:

Ivan­ka Popovic is a pro­fes­sor at the Fac­ul­ty of Tech­nol­o­gy and Met­al­lur­gy at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Bel­grade Ser­bia. She was the first woman pres­i­dent of the Ser­bian Chem­i­cal Soci­ety and a mem­ber of the exec­u­tive board of the Euro­pean Chem­i­cal Soci­ety. Between 2006 and 2012 she was the first woman dean of the fac­ul­ty, and from 2018 till 2021 she served as the rec­tor of the Uni­ver­si­ty of Bel­grade. Dur­ing her tenure, the uni­ver­si­ty became a mem­ber of a Euro­pean Uni­ver­si­ty Alliance and adopt­ed a gen­der equal­i­ty plan, as well as reg­u­la­tion on pre­ven­tion and pro­tec­tion against sex­u­al harass­ment.
Ivan­ka is a renowned schol­ar work­ing on poly­mer engi­neer­ing and sus­tain­able devel­op­ment. She’s also the vice pres­i­dent of the Euro­pean Uni­ver­si­ty Asso­ci­a­tion and an hon­orary pres­i­dent of the Danube Rec­tor Con­fer­ence. Besides her exten­sive research out­put, Ivan­ka has been active­ly involved with the civic ini­tia­tive Pro­Glas, which she ini­ti­at­ed with fel­low aca­d­e­mics and intel­lec­tu­als in 2023.