Since December 2024, students across Serbia have emerged as a powerful force of mobilization and resistance – organizing mass protests across the country, occupying public universities, and demanding institutional accountability for the tragic event in Novi Sad, greater academic freedoms, and social justice.
In a political climate marked by democratic backsliding and growing polarization, these student-led protests raise urgent questions: What is driving this new wave of mobilization which is one of the largest in the country’s modern history? What are students fighting for, and what do their demands reveal about the current state of democracy and civic space in Serbia?
This Open Conversation will bring together students from the University of Belgrade and professors from the Circle U. universities to explore how the ongoing protests are reshaping public discourse and reclaiming universities as spaces of critical engagement. Far from being isolated events, these actions form part of a broader struggle for democratic participation, transparency, and the right to dissent. Rather than viewing student protests as a threat, the discussion will frame them as a vital democratic practice – one that challenges complacency, reclaims agency, and envisions alternative futures within a system that often resists transformation.
Panel
- Emilija Milenković, student at Faculty of Political Sciences, University of Belgrade
- Maja Petrović, student at the Faculty of Mining and Geology, University of Belgrade
- Professor Nemanja Džuverović, University of Belgrade
- Professor Dan Banik, University of Oslo
- Dr. Claudia Matthes, Humboldt Universität zu Berlin
