Jovan Byford | The Open University (original) (raw)
Papers by Jovan Byford
Psychology and History
This is the introductory chapter to the book, Psychology and History Interdisciplinary Exploratio... more This is the introductory chapter to the book, Psychology and History Interdisciplinary Explorations, published by Cambridge University Press.
Tragovi, 2023
This article explores the history and memory of the last Ustasha crime in Sisak: the massacre per... more This article explores the history and memory of the last Ustasha crime in Sisak: the massacre perpetrated on the banks of the River Sava on 4 May 1945, on the eve of the Ustasha withdrawal from the city. Although the victims of this massacre – known locally as “Sava victims” – became a visible object of public remembrance in Sisak after the war, no scholarly works have ever been published on the event, and memorialisation was accompanied by a striking lack of interest in the identities of the victims, or the facts of what happened to them. This article is an attempt to explain and counter this longstanding tradition of neglect by addressing, for the first time, key questions about who the victims were, how many were killed and why. Examining the story of the Sisak massacre is important because, since the 1970s, there has been speculation that bodies discovered on the banks of the Sava were victims not of an Ustasha massacre, but of Partisan revenge killings perpetrated after the liberation of Sisak. This revisionist interpretation has gained traction in Croatia since the 1990s, and even some mainstream Croatian historians have suggested that, due to the paucity of historical evidence about the crime, the revisionists' views cannot be dismissed outright. The paper critically examines this argument, and by illuminating the facts of the case, hopes to provide some much-needed clarity. Also, in mapping the events in Sisak in the final weeks of the war, the article reveals that the massacre on the banks of the Sava in Sisak was not an isolated event. There were other crimes committed in and around Sisak in the final weeks of the war, crimes which are very much part of the story of the “Sava victims”, yet which were until now completely unknown. Among them are one of the last massacres of Serbs by the Ustasha, and what is
probably the final act of the Holocaust in the Independent State of Croatia. The article brings to light these previously unknown crimes and reveals the identities of some of the victims.
Članak istražuje istorijat i sećanje na poslednji ustaški zločin u Sisku – masakr počinjen na obali Save 4. maja 1945. godine, uoči povlačenja ustaša iz grada. Iako su žrtve masakra, u lokalnom kontekstu poznatije kao “savske žrtve”, postale vidljivi objekat javnog sećanja u Sisku nakon rata, do sada nije objavljen nijedan istraživački rad o samom događaju, a memorijalizacija je bila praćena i upečatljivim nedostatkom zainteresovanosti za identitete žrtava, kao i za činjenice o tome kako su nastradale. Ovaj članak predstavlja pokušaj da se, prvi put, odgovori na ključna pitanja o tome ko su bile žrtve, koliko ih je bilo i zbog čega su stradale, time se opirući dugotrajnoj tradiciji izbegavanja odgovara na ta pitanja ili negiranja tih događaja. Istraživanje masakra u Sisku je važno i zbog toga što su još od sedamdesetih godina 20. veka prisutne spekulacije da tela pronađena na obali Save ne pripadaju žrtvama ustaškog masakra, već žrtvama partizanskih osvetničkih ubistava počinjenih nakon oslobođenja Siska. Ta revizionistička interpretacija je dobila na snazi u Hrvatskoj od devedesetih godina prošlog veka, pa su čak i neki hrvatski “mejnstrim” istoričari sugerisali da, usled nedostataka istorijskih dokaza o samom zločinu, tvrdnje revizionista ne smeju biti momentalno odbačene. Rad kritički preispituje tu tvrdnju, ukazujući na činjenice u vezi s tim događajem, u želji da pruži preko potrebna objašnjenja. Takođe, mapiranjem događaja u Sisku tokom poslednjih nedelja rata, ovaj članak nastoji da pokaže kako masakr na obali Save u Sisku nije bio izolovan slučaj. Postojali su i drugi zločini počinjeni u Sisku i okolini u poslednjim nedeljama rata, koji su u velikoj meri deo priče o savskim žrtvama, ali koji su do sada bili potpuno nepoznati. Među njima je i jedan od poslednjih masakra Srba koje su počinile ustaše, kao i verovatno i poslednji akt Holokausta u Nezavisnoj Državi Hrvatskoj. Ovaj članak nastoji da osvetli te ranije nepoznate događaje i da otkrije identitet stradalih žrtava.
Fotografien aus den Lagern des NS-Regimes, 2018
Fotografien aus den Lagern des NS-Regimes. Beweissicherung und ästhetische Praxis [Photographs fr... more Fotografien aus den Lagern des NS-Regimes. Beweissicherung und ästhetische Praxis [Photographs from the camps of the Nazi regime.
No event of any significance in the world today – be it an unexpected election result, a terroris... more No event of any significance in the world today – be it an unexpected election result, a terrorist attack, the death of a public figure, a meteorological anomaly, or the flu pandemic – takes place without generating at least a flutter of conspiracy speculations. Conspiracy Theories: A Critical Introduction offers a well informed, highly accessible, and thoroughly engaging introduction to conspiracy theories, discussing their nature and history, causes and consequences. Through a series of specific questions that cut to the core of conspiracism as a global social and cultural phenomenon, the book deconstructs the logic and rhetoric of conspiracy theories and analyses the broader social and psychological factors that contribute to their persistence in modern society. • What are the defining characteristics of conspiracy theories and how do they differ from legitimate inquiries into actual conspiracies? • How long have conspiracy theories been around and to what extent are contemporary...
Picturing Genocide in the Independent State of Croatia
Picturing Genocide in the Independent State of Croatia examines the role which atrocity photograp... more Picturing Genocide in the Independent State of Croatia examines the role which atrocity photographs played, and continue to play, in shaping the public memory of the Second World War in the countries of the former Yugoslavia. Focusing on visual representations of one of the most controversial and politically divisive episodes of the war - genocidal violence perpetrated against Serbs, Jews, and Roma by the pro-Nazi Ustasha regime in the Independent State of Croatia (1941-1945) - the book examines the origins and history of the relevant atrocity images, and charts their post-war fate. It scrutinizes the institutional dynamic behind the collection and preservation of images of the genocide, and considers how they were used to represent the region's violent past in public exhibitions, books and the press, in film and television documentaries, and other settings, between 1945 and the present. In analysing the changing importance, visibility and interpretation of atrocity images, first in socialist Yugoslavia and later also in its successor states, the book pays special attention to the politics of the atrocity photograph. It explores how images were strategically and selectively mobilized at different times, and by different memory communities and stakeholders, to do different things: justify retribution against political opponents in the immediate aftermath of the war, sustain the discourses of national unity on which socialist Yugoslavia was founded, or, in the post-communist era, prop-up different nationalist agendas, and in many ways 'frame' the Yugoslav wars of the 1990s. In exploring this hitherto neglected aspect of Yugoslav history and visual culture, the book offers important insights into a number of issues of broader contemporary relevance. These include the political and emotional impact of violent images, and the intricate nexus of political, cultural and psychological factors which account for their enduring power to shape the collective memory of mass violence.
Qualitative Psychology, 2016
The book examines the rehabilitation over the past two decades of Bishop Nikolaj Velimirovic (188... more The book examines the rehabilitation over the past two decades of Bishop Nikolaj Velimirovic (1881–1956), the controversial Serbian Orthodox Christian philosopher. Having been vilified by the former Yugoslav Communist authorities as a traitor, antisemite and a fascist, Velimirovic has come to be regarded in Serbian society as a saintly figure and the most important religious person since medieval times. The book charts the posthumous passage of Velimirovic from ‘traitor’ to ‘saint’ and examines the complementary dynamics of repression and denial that were used to divert public attention from the controversies surrounding his life. It presents the first detailed examination of the way in which an Eastern Orthodox Church manages controversy surrounding the presence of antisemitism within its ranks and considers the implications of the continuing reverence of Nikolaj Velimirovic for the persistence of antisemitism in Serbian Orthodox culture and Serbian society as a whole. The study is...
The paper examines an aspect of the rhetoric of conspiracy theory in the light of the social repr... more The paper examines an aspect of the rhetoric of conspiracy theory in the light of the social representations approach. It proposes that the theory of social representations can complement discourse-oriented methods in the exploration of rhetorical aspects of conspiracism. A specific example from contemporary Serbian conspiracy culture is examined in order to suggest that the processes of re-presentation, and more specifically anchoring and objectification (Moscovici, 1976, 1984b) play an important role in the continuous transformation of conspiracist ideology. The function of representation in conspiratorial rhetoric is explored on the way in which the metaphorical reference to ‘neocortical war’ in US military literature on information warfare was anchored into Serbian conspiratorial discourse, and eventually objectified, by being transformed into a literal allusion to brain manipulation. It is suggested that, as well as altering the meaning of the phrase ‘neocortical war’, the proc...
Between 1941 and 1945, approximately 80,000 inmates, mainly Serbs, Jews and Roma, perished in Jas... more Between 1941 and 1945, approximately 80,000 inmates, mainly Serbs, Jews and Roma, perished in Jasenovac, a brutal Ustasha–run concentration camp in the Independent State of Croatia. Ever since the 1980s, Jasenovac has been one of the most contentious aspects of the memory of the Second World War in the former Yugoslavia. Controversies surrounding the number of victims and the nature and purpose of the camp, which continue to polarize the region, have been well documented. However, there has been hardly any scholarly research on the deep divisions regarding the photographic record of Jasenovac and the uses of images in the representation of the horrors of this camp. This is even though fundamental differences in the perceived importance of atrocity images permeate the dominant cultures of memory in the region, and represent an important barrier to reconciliation. In Serbia and in the Bosnian Serb entity of Republika Srpska, graphic atrocity photographs are routinely used in in the ma...
The special section considers the relevance of a reflexive engagement with archives in psychology... more The special section considers the relevance of a reflexive engagement with archives in psychology, and explores the value of archives as a resource for empirical inquiry and scholarship. The contributions offer reflective commentaries on the potential and limitations of working with (and within) archives. They also highlight the range of theoretical, methodological and practical issues that psychologists might want to take into account when engaging in this kind of inquiry, including the need to treat archives and archiving as set of societal practices through which the past is not only preserved, but also constructed, and constituted.
Peace Psychology Book Series
Fotografien aus den Lagern des NS-Regimes, Nov 12, 2018
Fotografien aus den Lagern des NS-Regimes. Beweissicherung und ästhetische Praxis [Photographs fr... more Fotografien aus den Lagern des NS-Regimes. Beweissicherung und ästhetische Praxis [Photographs from the camps of the Nazi regime.
Qualitative Psychology, 2016
Conspiracy Theories, 2011
Patterns of Prejudice, 2006
Psychology and History
This is the introductory chapter to the book, Psychology and History Interdisciplinary Exploratio... more This is the introductory chapter to the book, Psychology and History Interdisciplinary Explorations, published by Cambridge University Press.
Tragovi, 2023
This article explores the history and memory of the last Ustasha crime in Sisak: the massacre per... more This article explores the history and memory of the last Ustasha crime in Sisak: the massacre perpetrated on the banks of the River Sava on 4 May 1945, on the eve of the Ustasha withdrawal from the city. Although the victims of this massacre – known locally as “Sava victims” – became a visible object of public remembrance in Sisak after the war, no scholarly works have ever been published on the event, and memorialisation was accompanied by a striking lack of interest in the identities of the victims, or the facts of what happened to them. This article is an attempt to explain and counter this longstanding tradition of neglect by addressing, for the first time, key questions about who the victims were, how many were killed and why. Examining the story of the Sisak massacre is important because, since the 1970s, there has been speculation that bodies discovered on the banks of the Sava were victims not of an Ustasha massacre, but of Partisan revenge killings perpetrated after the liberation of Sisak. This revisionist interpretation has gained traction in Croatia since the 1990s, and even some mainstream Croatian historians have suggested that, due to the paucity of historical evidence about the crime, the revisionists' views cannot be dismissed outright. The paper critically examines this argument, and by illuminating the facts of the case, hopes to provide some much-needed clarity. Also, in mapping the events in Sisak in the final weeks of the war, the article reveals that the massacre on the banks of the Sava in Sisak was not an isolated event. There were other crimes committed in and around Sisak in the final weeks of the war, crimes which are very much part of the story of the “Sava victims”, yet which were until now completely unknown. Among them are one of the last massacres of Serbs by the Ustasha, and what is
probably the final act of the Holocaust in the Independent State of Croatia. The article brings to light these previously unknown crimes and reveals the identities of some of the victims.
Članak istražuje istorijat i sećanje na poslednji ustaški zločin u Sisku – masakr počinjen na obali Save 4. maja 1945. godine, uoči povlačenja ustaša iz grada. Iako su žrtve masakra, u lokalnom kontekstu poznatije kao “savske žrtve”, postale vidljivi objekat javnog sećanja u Sisku nakon rata, do sada nije objavljen nijedan istraživački rad o samom događaju, a memorijalizacija je bila praćena i upečatljivim nedostatkom zainteresovanosti za identitete žrtava, kao i za činjenice o tome kako su nastradale. Ovaj članak predstavlja pokušaj da se, prvi put, odgovori na ključna pitanja o tome ko su bile žrtve, koliko ih je bilo i zbog čega su stradale, time se opirući dugotrajnoj tradiciji izbegavanja odgovara na ta pitanja ili negiranja tih događaja. Istraživanje masakra u Sisku je važno i zbog toga što su još od sedamdesetih godina 20. veka prisutne spekulacije da tela pronađena na obali Save ne pripadaju žrtvama ustaškog masakra, već žrtvama partizanskih osvetničkih ubistava počinjenih nakon oslobođenja Siska. Ta revizionistička interpretacija je dobila na snazi u Hrvatskoj od devedesetih godina prošlog veka, pa su čak i neki hrvatski “mejnstrim” istoričari sugerisali da, usled nedostataka istorijskih dokaza o samom zločinu, tvrdnje revizionista ne smeju biti momentalno odbačene. Rad kritički preispituje tu tvrdnju, ukazujući na činjenice u vezi s tim događajem, u želji da pruži preko potrebna objašnjenja. Takođe, mapiranjem događaja u Sisku tokom poslednjih nedelja rata, ovaj članak nastoji da pokaže kako masakr na obali Save u Sisku nije bio izolovan slučaj. Postojali su i drugi zločini počinjeni u Sisku i okolini u poslednjim nedeljama rata, koji su u velikoj meri deo priče o savskim žrtvama, ali koji su do sada bili potpuno nepoznati. Među njima je i jedan od poslednjih masakra Srba koje su počinile ustaše, kao i verovatno i poslednji akt Holokausta u Nezavisnoj Državi Hrvatskoj. Ovaj članak nastoji da osvetli te ranije nepoznate događaje i da otkrije identitet stradalih žrtava.
Fotografien aus den Lagern des NS-Regimes, 2018
Fotografien aus den Lagern des NS-Regimes. Beweissicherung und ästhetische Praxis [Photographs fr... more Fotografien aus den Lagern des NS-Regimes. Beweissicherung und ästhetische Praxis [Photographs from the camps of the Nazi regime.
No event of any significance in the world today – be it an unexpected election result, a terroris... more No event of any significance in the world today – be it an unexpected election result, a terrorist attack, the death of a public figure, a meteorological anomaly, or the flu pandemic – takes place without generating at least a flutter of conspiracy speculations. Conspiracy Theories: A Critical Introduction offers a well informed, highly accessible, and thoroughly engaging introduction to conspiracy theories, discussing their nature and history, causes and consequences. Through a series of specific questions that cut to the core of conspiracism as a global social and cultural phenomenon, the book deconstructs the logic and rhetoric of conspiracy theories and analyses the broader social and psychological factors that contribute to their persistence in modern society. • What are the defining characteristics of conspiracy theories and how do they differ from legitimate inquiries into actual conspiracies? • How long have conspiracy theories been around and to what extent are contemporary...
Picturing Genocide in the Independent State of Croatia
Picturing Genocide in the Independent State of Croatia examines the role which atrocity photograp... more Picturing Genocide in the Independent State of Croatia examines the role which atrocity photographs played, and continue to play, in shaping the public memory of the Second World War in the countries of the former Yugoslavia. Focusing on visual representations of one of the most controversial and politically divisive episodes of the war - genocidal violence perpetrated against Serbs, Jews, and Roma by the pro-Nazi Ustasha regime in the Independent State of Croatia (1941-1945) - the book examines the origins and history of the relevant atrocity images, and charts their post-war fate. It scrutinizes the institutional dynamic behind the collection and preservation of images of the genocide, and considers how they were used to represent the region's violent past in public exhibitions, books and the press, in film and television documentaries, and other settings, between 1945 and the present. In analysing the changing importance, visibility and interpretation of atrocity images, first in socialist Yugoslavia and later also in its successor states, the book pays special attention to the politics of the atrocity photograph. It explores how images were strategically and selectively mobilized at different times, and by different memory communities and stakeholders, to do different things: justify retribution against political opponents in the immediate aftermath of the war, sustain the discourses of national unity on which socialist Yugoslavia was founded, or, in the post-communist era, prop-up different nationalist agendas, and in many ways 'frame' the Yugoslav wars of the 1990s. In exploring this hitherto neglected aspect of Yugoslav history and visual culture, the book offers important insights into a number of issues of broader contemporary relevance. These include the political and emotional impact of violent images, and the intricate nexus of political, cultural and psychological factors which account for their enduring power to shape the collective memory of mass violence.
Qualitative Psychology, 2016
The book examines the rehabilitation over the past two decades of Bishop Nikolaj Velimirovic (188... more The book examines the rehabilitation over the past two decades of Bishop Nikolaj Velimirovic (1881–1956), the controversial Serbian Orthodox Christian philosopher. Having been vilified by the former Yugoslav Communist authorities as a traitor, antisemite and a fascist, Velimirovic has come to be regarded in Serbian society as a saintly figure and the most important religious person since medieval times. The book charts the posthumous passage of Velimirovic from ‘traitor’ to ‘saint’ and examines the complementary dynamics of repression and denial that were used to divert public attention from the controversies surrounding his life. It presents the first detailed examination of the way in which an Eastern Orthodox Church manages controversy surrounding the presence of antisemitism within its ranks and considers the implications of the continuing reverence of Nikolaj Velimirovic for the persistence of antisemitism in Serbian Orthodox culture and Serbian society as a whole. The study is...
The paper examines an aspect of the rhetoric of conspiracy theory in the light of the social repr... more The paper examines an aspect of the rhetoric of conspiracy theory in the light of the social representations approach. It proposes that the theory of social representations can complement discourse-oriented methods in the exploration of rhetorical aspects of conspiracism. A specific example from contemporary Serbian conspiracy culture is examined in order to suggest that the processes of re-presentation, and more specifically anchoring and objectification (Moscovici, 1976, 1984b) play an important role in the continuous transformation of conspiracist ideology. The function of representation in conspiratorial rhetoric is explored on the way in which the metaphorical reference to ‘neocortical war’ in US military literature on information warfare was anchored into Serbian conspiratorial discourse, and eventually objectified, by being transformed into a literal allusion to brain manipulation. It is suggested that, as well as altering the meaning of the phrase ‘neocortical war’, the proc...
Between 1941 and 1945, approximately 80,000 inmates, mainly Serbs, Jews and Roma, perished in Jas... more Between 1941 and 1945, approximately 80,000 inmates, mainly Serbs, Jews and Roma, perished in Jasenovac, a brutal Ustasha–run concentration camp in the Independent State of Croatia. Ever since the 1980s, Jasenovac has been one of the most contentious aspects of the memory of the Second World War in the former Yugoslavia. Controversies surrounding the number of victims and the nature and purpose of the camp, which continue to polarize the region, have been well documented. However, there has been hardly any scholarly research on the deep divisions regarding the photographic record of Jasenovac and the uses of images in the representation of the horrors of this camp. This is even though fundamental differences in the perceived importance of atrocity images permeate the dominant cultures of memory in the region, and represent an important barrier to reconciliation. In Serbia and in the Bosnian Serb entity of Republika Srpska, graphic atrocity photographs are routinely used in in the ma...
The special section considers the relevance of a reflexive engagement with archives in psychology... more The special section considers the relevance of a reflexive engagement with archives in psychology, and explores the value of archives as a resource for empirical inquiry and scholarship. The contributions offer reflective commentaries on the potential and limitations of working with (and within) archives. They also highlight the range of theoretical, methodological and practical issues that psychologists might want to take into account when engaging in this kind of inquiry, including the need to treat archives and archiving as set of societal practices through which the past is not only preserved, but also constructed, and constituted.
Peace Psychology Book Series
Fotografien aus den Lagern des NS-Regimes, Nov 12, 2018
Fotografien aus den Lagern des NS-Regimes. Beweissicherung und ästhetische Praxis [Photographs fr... more Fotografien aus den Lagern des NS-Regimes. Beweissicherung und ästhetische Praxis [Photographs from the camps of the Nazi regime.
Qualitative Psychology, 2016
Conspiracy Theories, 2011
Patterns of Prejudice, 2006
Picturing Genocide in the Independent State of Croatia examines the role which atrocity photograp... more Picturing Genocide in the Independent State of Croatia examines the role which atrocity photographs played, and continue to play, in shaping the public memory of the Second World War in the countries of the former Yugoslavia. Focusing on visual representations of one of the most controversial and politically divisive episodes of the war -- genocidal violence perpetrated against Serbs, Jews, and Roma by the pro-Nazi Ustasha regime in the Independent State of Croatia (1941-1945) -- the book examines the origins, history and legacy of violent images.
Notably, this book pays special attention to the politics of the atrocity photograph. It explores how images were strategically and selectively mobilized at different times, and by different memory communities and stakeholders, to do different things: justify retribution against political opponents in the immediate aftermath of the war, sustain the discourses of national unity on which socialist Yugoslavia was founded, or, in the post-communist era, prop-up different nationalist agendas, and 'frame' the Yugoslav wars of the 1990s.
In exploring this hitherto neglected aspect of Yugoslav history and visual culture, Jovan Byford sheds important light on the intricate nexus of political, cultural and psychological factors which account for the enduring power of atrocity images to shape the collective memory of mass violence.