On May 23, 2017, Dr. Gorčin Dizdar gave a lecture titled: "The Standing Stones of Medieval Bosnia: Heresy, Dualism and Symbols in Pre-Ottoman Balkans" at the International University of Sarajevo (IUS).
Dr. Gorčin Dizdar held an open lecture where the local audience could get insight into the content of his Ph.D. dissertation of the same title. He talked about the standing stones of medieval Bosnia, about the imagery of the flat carvings found in these stones scattered around in different regions of Bosnia and Herzegovina, about religious heresy, dualism, and symbols of the Bosnian Christian faction that marked the time when these monoliths were constructed. This was a great opportunity to listen about research made on the topic of this much hidden and poorly researched part of the European history and Bosnian tradition.
Dr. Gorčin Dizdar was born in Sarajevo in 1984. He became interested in the Bosnian medieval heritage of “stećak” stones at an early age, or as he calls them in English “standing stones”, which has somewhat to do with the rich legacy of his grandfather Mak Dizdar. In 2003 he was awarded the Oxford student scholarship, which enabled him to study philosophy and German literature at the University of Oxford. In 2009, he started his M.A. and later Ph.D. in Humanities at York University in Toronto, Canada, where he was awarded one of the most prestigious scholarships awarded by Canadian government, Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarship. After 2016, he returned to Bosnia where he has worked as Mak Dizdar Foundation director, and is currently teaching at the International University of Sarajevo. His works were published in Bosnian, Canadian and German journals.
