Vukovar Regional Center

Josipa Jurja Strossmayera 25
32000 Vukovar
Phone: + 385 32 450 323
E-mail: ivana.bendra@pilar.hr

Ivana Bendra, PhD

2006

The Regional Center of the Ivo Pilar Institute of Social Sciences in Vukovar was founded on September 28, 2006, by decision of the Institute’s Managing Board, with the prior consent of the Ministry of Science, Education and Sports of the Republic of Croatia.

The opening ceremony of the Center, in the presence of the Auxiliary Bishop of the Diocese of Đakovo and Srijem, Msgr. dr. sc. Đuro Hranić, the Minister of Science, Education and Sports of the Republic of Croatia, Prof. Dragan Primorac, PhD, the Prefect of Vukovar-Srijem County Božo Galić, the Deputy Mayor of the City of Vukovar Vladimir Emedij, the President of the Managing Board of the Pilar Institute Nevio Šetić, PhD, the State Secretary for Science Prof. Dražen Vikić Topić, PhD, the Vice President of the Croatian Academy of Sciences and academician Alice Wertheimer-Baletić, the Rector of the Josip Juraj Strossmayer University in Osijek Prof. Gordana Kralik, PhD, the Dean of the Lavoslav Ružička Polytechnic in Vukovar Prof. Antun Pintarić, PhD, as well as many other prominent figures from the academic and public life of Vukovar and the Vukovar-Srijem County, was held on 4 October 2006. On that occasion, Msgr. Dr. Sc. Đuro Hranić blessed the premises of the Centre and Minister Primorac was presented with the Pilar Medal for his contribution to the development of the Pilar Institute and the Regional Centre in Vukovar.

By decision of the Institute’s Managing Board of 28 November 2006, Dražen Živić, PhD, was appointed Head of the Regional Centre. The Centre’s work programme was adopted by the Institute’s Scientific Council in July 2007.

• Ivana Bendra, PhD, research associate
• Sandra Cvikić, PhD, research associate
• Marta Keglević, assistant
• Mateo Žanić, senior research associate
• Dražen Živić, PhD, scientific advisor with tenure

The fundamental reasons for establishing the Regional Centre of the Ivo Pilar Institute in Vukovar are based on the real and symbolic significance of Vukovar in the process of establishing, defending and developing the Croatian state. The Centre carries out programmes, themes and projects of a global, national and local-regional nature. The Centre provides scientific research, archival-documentation, publishing, consultancy and educational services to the academic, management and economic community. The work program and activities of the Pilar Institute Regional Center in Vukovar are aligned with the fundamental goal of the Institute’s network structure – that in addition to regular scientific and research activities, each center also develops activities that will direct thematic centers towards the national and global, and not just regional, levels of activity. This means that the Center in Vukovar, at the national and global levels, directs its activities towards the Croatian Homeland War and the geostrategic aspects of the history and future of Danubian Europe, and at the regional level towards topics related to Danubian Croatia and Croats in Serbia.

The primary and most important activity of the regional center is scientific and research work on global, national and local-regional topics. In this sense, programs and projects of permanent scientific and research activities have a dominant significance. In addition to original scientific research, the regional center organizes, collects and preserves a variety of historical materials, statistical and demographic documentation and other sources on the creation of the Croatian state and the Croatian Homeland War, as well as on all other aspects of the social, demographic, political, historical, cultural and economic development of the Croatian Danube region and the Croatian national minority in Serbia.

The Regional Center Vukovar, in cooperation with other regional centers of the Pilar Institute, as well as other scientific and cultural institutions from this area, also carries out an appropriate form of publishing activity, in particular the publication of scientific books (monographs), Proceedings and thematic issues of the journals “Društvena istraživanja” and “Pilar” on topics that are important for the global, national and local-regional level of its scientific and research activity.

The work of the Regional Center Vukovar is public, which means that the Center organizes or supports the organization of a number of public events (scientific conferences, symposia, congresses, round tables, public forums and book presentations). In this context, the largest public event organized by the Center is the traditional scientific and professional conference “Vukovar ´91”, which was first held in November 1997. By November 2010, a total of 13 conferences had been held, the last five of which were in Vukovar.

• Demographic aspects of urban-rural polarization of Croatia
• Minorities in Croatia and Croats in neighboring countries: historical identities
• Croatian identity, religion and the challenges of European integration
• Vukovar-Srijem County: space, people, identity (scientific and professional study)

• VUKOVAR – CROATIAN HERITAGE AND DEVELOPMENT PERSPECTIVES, Proceedings of the 9th Scientific and Professional Conference “Vukovar ’91 – fifteen years later”; editors: D. Živić, I. Žebec, Ivo PIlar Institute of Social Sciences, Zagreb-Vukovar, 2007.
• VUKOVAR – QUESTIONS ABOUT THE FUTURE, Thematic issue of the journal Društvena istraživanja (93-94/2008); guest editor: D. Živić.
• DEMOGRAPHIC CONTEXT AND SOCIO-CULTURAL CONSEQUENCES OF THE CROATIAN HOMELAND WAR, Proceedings of the 10th Scientific and Professional Conference “Vukovar ’91. – Sixteen Years Later”, editors: D. Živić, I. Žebec, Ivo Pilar Institute of Social Sciences, Zagreb-Vukovar, 2009.
• PEACEFUL REINTEGRATION OF THE CROATIAN DANUBE REGION – SCIENTIFIC, EMPIRICAL AND EXPERIENCED INSIGHTS, Proceedings of the 11th Scientific and Professional Conference “Vukovar ’91. – Seventeen Years Later”; editors: D. Živić, S. Cvikić, Ivo PIlar Institute of Social Sciences, Zagreb-Vukovar, 2010.
• THE CHURCH AND THE VUKOVAR FRANCISCANS. Author: Fr. Ivica Jagodić, editor: Dražen Živić; Franciscan Monastery Vukovar and Ivo Pilar Institute of Social Sciences, 2011.
• VICTOR QUIA VICTIMA – Hope for Croatia, Proceedings of the 13th Scientific and Professional Conference “Vukovar ’91. – Nineteen Years Later”; editor: Dražen Živić, Institute of Social Sciences Ivo Pilar, Zagreb-Vukovar, 2012.
• VUKOVAR-SRIJEM COUNTY – Space, People, Identity, Monograph; editor: Dražen Živić, Ivo Pilar Institute of Social Sciences and Vukovar-Srijem County, Zagreb – Vukovar, 2012.
• IDENTITY OF SRIJEM IN THE PAST AND PRESENT II. Proceedings of the Scientific Conference; editors: Dražen Živić and Sandra Cvikić; Municipality of Nijemci and Ivo Pilar Institute of Social Sciences, 2012.
• VUKOVAR ‘91. – TRUTH AND/OR CONTESTATION (between science and manipulation), Proceedings of the 14th and 15th scientific and professional conference Vukovar ’91; editors: Dražen Živić, Sanja Špoljar Vržina, Vinicije Lupis and Sandra Cvikić, Ivo PIlar Institute of Social Sciences and Matica hrvatska Vukovar Branch, Zagreb ‒ Vukovar, 2013.
• VUKOVAR ’91. – GENOCIDE AND MEMORICID HERITAGE OF THE EUROPEAN UNION. Proceedings of the 16th scientific and professional conference “Vukovar ’91. – twenty-two years later”; editors: Dražen Živić, Sanja Špoljar Vržina, Ivana Žebec Šilj, Sandra Cvikić; Ivo Pilar Institute of Social Sciences and Matica Hrvatska Vukovar Branch, 2014.
• WHAT IS VUKOVAR TO CROATIA AND EUROPE? Proceedings of the 17th scientific and professional conference “Vukovar ’91. – twenty-three years later”; editors: Dražen Živić, Sanja Špoljar Vržina, Ivana Žebec Šilj, Vine Mihaljević; Ivo PIlar Institute of Social Sciences and Matica Hrvatska Branch in Vukovar, 2016.
• SRIJEM IN THE FIRST WORLD WAR 1914 – 1918. Proceedings of the scientific conference; editor Stjepan Prutki; State Archives in Vukovar, Ivo Pilar Institute of Social Sciences, Faculty of Philosophy in Osijek, Matica Hrvatska Branch in Vukovar and Association of Historians and Heirs of Local Antiquities of Slavonia, Baranja and Srijem, 2017.
• VUKOVAR ’91.: HOMELAND (AND EUROPEAN) SECURITY. SECURITY CRISIS AND POLICIES OF MANIPULATING SOVEREIGNTY. Proceedings of the 18th scientific and professional conference “Vukovar ’91. – twenty-four years later”; editors: Sandra Cvikić, Ivana Žebec Šilj, Ivana Bendra; Ivo Pilar Institute of Social Sciences, 2017.
• JOSIP LOVRETIĆ (1865 – 1948), ONE CENTURY LATER. Proceedings of the scientific conference; edited by: Anica Bilić, Sandra Cvikić, Ljubica Gligorević, Luka Marijanović, Dražen Živić; City of Otoka, Ivo Pilar Institute of Social Sciences, Center for Scientific Work of the Croatian Academy of Sciences in Vinkovci, City Museum Vinkovci and Archdiocese of Đakovo-Osijek, 2017.
• CULTURE OF MEMORY BETWEEN EMOTIONS AND INSTITUTIONS. REPRESENTING THE BATTLE OF VUKOVAR FROM 1991 TO 2016. Author Mateo Žanić, editor D. Živić;Ivo Pilar  Institute of Social Sciences, 2017.
• CROATIAN SOCIETY: 25 YEARS AFTER VUKOVAR ’91 Proceedings of the 19th scientific and professional conference “Vukovar ’91 – twenty-five years later”; editors: Dražen Živić, Mateo Žanić, Petar Macut; Ivo Pilar Institute of Social Sciences, Branch of Matica Hrvatska in Vukovar, 2018.

• 9th scientific and professional conference “Vukovar ’91 – fifteen years later” – “Vukovar – Croatian heritage and development perspectives” (Vukovar, 2006).
• 10th scientific and professional conference “Vukovar ’91 – sixteen years later” – “Demographic context and socio-cultural consequences of the Croatian Homeland War” (Vukovar, 2007).
• 11th scientific and professional conference “Vukovar ’91 – seventeen years later” – “Peaceful reintegration of the Croatian Danube region: expectations, effects, perspectives (1996-1998-2008)” (Vukovar, 2008).
• 12th scientific and professional conference “Vukovar ’91 – eighteen years later” – “The Battle of Vukovar – the battle for Croatia” (Vukovar, 2009).
• 13th scientific and professional conference “Vukovar ’91. – nineteen years later” – “Victor quia victima – hope for Croatia” (Vukovar, 2010). Co-organizers: Institute of Social Sciences Ivo Pilar – Regional Center Vukovar, Croatian Franciscan Province of St. Cyril and Methodius and Catholic Faculty of Theology in Đakovo.
• 14th scientific and professional conference “Vukovar ’91. – twenty years later” – Two decades of Croatian memory and development (Vukovar, 2011)
• 15th scientific and professional conference “Vukovar ’91. – twenty-one years later” – Vukovar ’91. – truth and/or denial (between science and manipulation) (Vukovar, 2012)
• 16th scientific and professional conference – “Vukovar ’91. – twenty-two years later – Vukovar ’91. – genocide and the memoricidal heritage of the European Union (Vukovar, 2013)
• 17th scientific and professional conference “Vukovar ’91. – twenty-three years later” – What is Vukovar for Croatia and Europe (Vukovar, 2014)
• 18th scientific and professional conference “Vukovar ’91. – twenty-four years later” – Vukovar ’91.: homeland (and European) security. The crisis of security and the politics of manipulating sovereignty (Vukovar, 2015)
• 19th scientific and professional conference “Vukovar ’91. – twenty-five years later” – Croatian society: 25 years after Vukovar ’91. (Vukovar, 2016)
• 20th Scientific and Professional Conference “Vukovar ’91 – Twenty-six Years Later” – Vukovar ’91: Public Discourses and Positions of Power (Vukovar, 2017)