Join us for a book presentation on First Nationalism Then Identity which focuses on the case of Bosnian Muslims, a rare historic instance of a nation emerging.  Although for Bosnian Muslims the transformative process of full national emergence and the assertion of a new salient identity have been going on for over three decades, Mirsad Kriještorac is the first to explain the significance of the whole process and how the adoption of their new Bosniak identity occurred. He provides a historical overview of Yugoslav and Bosnian Slavic Muslims’ transformation into a full-fledged distinct and independent national group as well as addresses the important question in the field of nationalism studies about the relationship between and workings of nationalism and identity. While this book is noteworthy for ordinary readers interested in the case of Bosnian Muslims, it is an important contribution to the scholarly debate on the role of nationalism in the political life of a group and adds an interdisciplinary perspective to comparative politics scholarship by drawing from anthropology, history, geography, and sociology.

Author:

Mirsad Kriještorac holds a Ph.D. in Political Science from Florida International University’s (FIU) School of International and Public Affairs, where he also teaches classes on Nationalism and Ethnicity as well as classes on International Protection of Human Rights. His research interest focuses on nationalism and the role of culture in politics, and he has published works on these topics. His book on Bosnian Muslims and their Bosniak Identity, the first ever on the topic, was published in September of 2022 by the University of Michigan Press. Kriještorac is now an assistant professor of Political Science at Broward College. He is also a Research Fellow at the Jaffer Center for Muslim World Studies at FIU. As a public intellectual, he frequently presents nationally and internationally at public forums on relevant political issues and serves his communities in various ways.