ValEUs Lecture Series (17): “In the Spirit of the European Values”—Bulgarian-North Macedonia’s Dispute

Join our upcoming ValEUs Lecture “In the Spirit of the European Values”—Bulgarian-North Macedonia’s Dispute over History and Memory with Dr. Naum Trajanovski. Trajanovski is a Guest Lecturer at the European University Viadrina (supported by the Meyer‑Struckmann‑Stiftung) and a researcher at the University of Warsaw.

About the Lecture:
The lecture examines how disputes over history and memory become sites of societal and ontological security seeking in the context of the Bulgaria-North Macedonia relationship, highlighting the central role of intellectuals and commemorative practices in these processes.

In two recently written chapters co-authored with Ivan Nikolovski, we argue that when states are perceived as failing to adequately defend national identity, intellectuals step in as key securitization actors by framing foundational historical narratives and memories as existentially threatened, thereby linking ontological and societal security through memory politics. Empirically, the lecture focuses on three contested commemorations, showing how co-claimed historical figures generate divergent paths of renegotiating the Macedonian national master narrative. These cases illustrate varying entanglements between national icons, temporal security, and securitization, revealing how struggles over the past continue to shape contemporary identity insecurity and political conflict.