Brief Biography

Darko Leitner-Stojanov a historian with a PhD in Byzantine and Post-Byzantine Studies from the Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes - Paris (2013). He is an assistant professor/docent at the Institute of National History – Skopje (2009 - present), and was a visiting researcher at the University of New York in Tirana (2014-2019). In 2019 he was the holder of the Otto Bennemann Grant for Innovative Methodological Aprroaches in International Textbook Research at the Georg-Eckert (Leibniz) Institute for International Textbook Research in Braunschweig, for his work on „Science and Technology in Yugoslav history textbooks“, and in 2014-2015 he was the Ernst Mach worldwide research grant at the Centre for Southeast European Studies at the University of Graz. Since 2014 he is a member of an international project team led by the Humboldt University in Berlin, with focus on the history of socialist Yugoslavia (current project entitled „Pluralismus und Vernetzung im (post-)imperialen und sozialistischen Südosteuropa“).

Research Interests

Period: 20th century, 4th-6th century
Area: Southeastern Europe, North Macedonia, Byzantium
Topics: Textbook analysis, historical political myths, great migrations period

Selected Publications

• The Myth of Victimization in Macedonian History Textbooks (1991-2018), in: G. Ognjenović & J. Jozelić (eds.), Nationhood and Politicization of History in School Textbooks. Identity, the Curriculum and Educational Media, Palgrave Macmillan, 2020, 227-252 (co-author).
• Militarization via Education: A 1945 Primer from Socialist Macedonia, JEMMS 11/1 (2019), 35-52.
• A country of progress or a country in crisis? Socialist Yugoslavia in Macedonian history textbooks, in: Grandits, H. et alii (eds.), Representations of Socialist Yugoslavia. Re-examinations and Perspectives, UMHIS & Srednja Europa: Sarajevo-Zagreb, 2019, 73-80 (in Serbo-Croatian).
• Between History and Politics: Understanding Antiquitas Myths in Macedonian History Textbooks, in: C. Lichnofsky, E. Pandelejmoni & D. Stojanov (eds.), Myths and Mythical Spaces. Conditions and Challenges for History Textbooks in Albania and South-Eastern Europe, (Eckert. Die Schriftenreihe, Band 147), V & R unipress, Goettingen, 2018, 77-95 (co-author).
• A Tale in Stone and Bronze: Old/New Strategies for Political Mobilization in the Republic of Macedonia, Nationalities Papers 45/3 (2017), 356-369 (co-author).
• Remembering and Forgetting SFR Yugoslavia: Historiography and History Textbooks in the Republic of Macedonia, Südosteuropa 64/2 (2016), 206-225 (co-author).
• In Search of Autochthony: A Case Study of the Great Migrations Period as Presented in History Textbooks in Macedonia, Der Donauraum 50/3-4 (2010), 225-234.

• Revisiting 2001, Forum Civil Peace Service (Skopje office)/Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology/Center for Research of Nationalism and Culture, Skopje, 2019 (co-editor).
• Myths and Mythical Spaces. Conditions and Challenges for History Textbooks in Albania and South-Eastern Europe, (Eckert. Die Schriftenreihe, Band 147), V & R unipress, Goettingen, 2018 (co-editor).
• It’s all gone now: Yugoslavia in the memories of people from Macedonia, Forum Civil Peace Service (Skopje office)/Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology/Center for Research of Nationalism and Culture, Skopje, 2017 (co-editor).