Aleksandar Boskovic

Aleksandar Bošković is a Senior Lecturer in Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian at Columbia University's Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures, where he also serves as Co-Director of the Institute of East Central Europe. His academic career spans both American and European institutions, bringing a transnational perspective to his work on Eastern European cultural production.

Bošković received his Ph.D. in Slavic Studies from the University of Michigan (2013) and an M.A. in Comparative Literature and Literary Theory from the University of Belgrade (2007). Prior to joining Columbia, he was a research fellow at the Institute of Literature and Art in Belgrade (2003-2008), where he worked on Serbian literature of the 20th century. His academic journey reflects a deep engagement with both Western academic traditions and Eastern European intellectual contexts.

Bošković's research focuses on experimental art from the former Yugoslavia, examining how creative practices across literature, film, visual arts, and radio express decolonial aesthetics and radical epistemologies. His work demonstrates how Yugoslav artists used techniques of refusal and negation to reframe questions of value and imagine new cultural narratives. He argues that radical Yugoslav art practices offer insights applicable to both post-Balkan and European contexts, emphasizing that culture is founded not on identity but on responsibility. His current project, "Nothing (:) Made in Yugoslavia," investigates how negation practices across different media in former Yugoslavia relate to the notion of artistic value, while he is also completing "Constructivist Cinépoetry Book," which explores cine-dispositive concepts in relation to early Soviet agit-poetry books.

Bošković's scholarly output reveals a consistent engagement with avant-garde traditions, experimental media forms, and the intersection of political theory with artistic practice. His publications span multiple disciplines including literary studies, film theory, visual culture, and memory studies, with a particular focus on how artistic practices respond to political and historical circumstances in Eastern Europe, especially regarding negation, refusal, and the rethinking of cultural value systems.

• Collegium de Lyon Fellowship (2019-2020)
• Michael I. Sovern/Columbia Affiliated Fellowship at the American Academy in Rome (2023-24)
• NIAS Fellow (Semester 1, 2025-2026)
• Research support from the Harriman Institute

Bošković has made substantial contributions to academic discourse through his numerous publications, including monographs, edited volumes, journal articles, and book chapters. His work bridges historical analysis with contemporary theoretical concerns, particularly regarding how artistic practices engage with questions of value, memory, and political imagination in post-socialist contexts. His research demonstrates how artistic practices can serve as powerful tools for reimagining cultural narratives beyond conventional identity frameworks.