Dejan Guzina

Dejan Guzina is an Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science within the Faculty of Arts at Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo, Ontario. He has been a faculty member at Laurier since 2001, following a postdoctoral fellowship at the Centre for the Study of Democracy at Queen's University (2000-2001).

Dr. Guzina received his PhD in political science from Carleton University in Ottawa in January 2000. Originally from Belgrade, Serbia, he came to Canada in 1990 and completed an honours degree in economics from Belgrade University in 1984 before pursuing political science in Canada.

Dr. Guzina's research focuses on the intersection of comparative democratization and nationalism, with particular emphasis on the Western Balkans. His work examines the correlation between populism and democracy, the politics of memorialization in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Serbia, and Montenegro, and power-sharing institutions in divided societies.

• Comparative democratization
• Nationalism, citizenship and minority rights
• Politics of the Western Balkans
• Populism and competitive authoritarianism
• Ethnic conflict management
• External state and nation building in post-conflict states

His scholarly output demonstrates a consistent focus on post-Yugoslav states, particularly examining how historical narratives shape contemporary political challenges. Recent work has explored Serbia's foreign policy dilemmas, Bosnian peace processes, and police reform in post-conflict settings. His research often bridges theoretical frameworks from comparative politics with empirical analysis of specific Balkan contexts, revealing how identity crises and geopolitical pressures influence state development in the region.

Dr. Guzina is fluent in both English and Serbian (Bosnian/Croatian/Montenegrin), which facilitates his research in the region. His work has been published in journals including Canadian Slavonic Papers, Geopolitics, and Nations and Nationalism, among others.