Staff profile

Biography

I am a social theorist with an interest in aspects of knowledge, ranging from formal epistemology to social practices, politics and policies. My work combines philosophy, sociology, and political economy to study how ideas, institutions, and practices of knowledge production interact with the social world. 

I have a PhD in sociology and one in anthropology. I joined the Department of Sociology at Durham in 2020, having previously worked at the University of Cambridge, University of Aarhus, Central European University in Budapest, Singidunum University and the Faculty of Philosophy of the University of Belgrade. I have also held visiting fellowships at the University of Bristol, University of Auckland, Open Society Archives in Budapest, and the University of Oxford.

My recent publications address questions such as the role of scientific evidence and expertise in managing pandemics; relationship between knowledge, prediction, and social interventions; and the politics and policies of valuing, measuring, and distributing knowledge. I am particularly interested in the relationships between knowledge, power, and forms of community, identity and justice. 

At Durham, I convene Public Sociology: Theory and Practice (PGT) and Social Theory and the Politics of Knowledge (UG). 

• social theory
• sociology of knowledge
• philosophy of (social) science
• political philosophy
• political sociology
• political economy
• inequalities and social justice
• anthropology of Empire
• sociology of science
• relational sociology

• Higher Education and Social Inequalities

• 2022: : Member of editorial board, The Philosopher, UK's oldest public philosophy journal
• 2022: : Keynote speaker, Political Epistemology Network, Amsterdam, 2022
• 2022: : Keynote speaker, Anthropology of the Future/Future of Anthropology, Serbian Academy of Arts and Sciences, Viminacium 2022
• 2022: : Invited lecture: School of Sociology and Social Policy, University of Leeds
• 2021: : Keynote speaker, Theory Summmer School, ;Leibniz Center for Science and Society, September 2021
• 2021: : Invited lecture: Department of Sociology, University of Cambridge
• 0000: : Editorial board member, Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour (SAGE)
• 0000: : Keynote speaker, ;Praxis Symposium IV: Post-pandemic higher education, University of Gothenburg, Sweden, May 2022 ;

Authored book

• Bacevic, J. (2014). From class to identity: The politics of education reforms in former Yugoslavia. Central European University.

Chapter in book

• Bacevic, J. (2022). Why do we fail to predict social crises? In Uncertainty. Jasanoff, S. MIT Press.
• Bacevic, J (2018). University under Attack?: Politics, Contestation and Agency beyond the ‘Neoliberal University’. In The Idea of the University: Contemporary Perspectives. Barnett, R & Peters, MA Peter Lang. 21-39.
• Bacevic, J (2017). Beyond the Third Mission: Toward an Actor-Based Account of Universities’ Relationship with Society. In Universities in the Neoliberal Era: Academic Cultures and Critical Perspectives. Egul, Hakan & Cosar, Simten Palgrave Macmillan.
• Bacevic, Jana (2016). Education, conflict and class reproduction in socialist Yugoslavia. In Social Inequalities and Discontent in Yugoslav Socialism. Archer, Rory, Duda, Igor & Stubbs, Paul London, England: Taylor and Francis. 77 - 94.
• Bacevic, J. (2016). What kind of university for what kind of society? Nation-states, post-national constellations, and higher education in the post-Yugoslav space. In The Globalisation Challenge for European Higher Education. Zgaga, Pavel., Teichler, Ulrich. & Brennan, John. Peter Lang AG. 4: 287-308.
• Bacevic, J (2015). They had sex, drugs and rock’n’roll; we’ll have mini-jobs and loans to pay: Transition, social change and student movements in the post-Yugoslav region. In Welcome to the Desert of Post-Socialism! Radical Politics After Yugoslavia. Horvat, S & Štiks, I Verso Books. 223-242.

Journal Article

• Anderson, Ben, Aitken, Stuart, Bacevic, Jana, Callard, Felicity, Chung, Kwang Dae (Mitsy), Coleman, Kathryn S., Hayden, Robert F., Healy, Sarah, Irwin, Rita L., Jellis, Thomas, Jukes, Joe, Khan, Salman, Marotta, Steve, Seitz, David K., Snepvangers, Kim, Staples, Adam, Turner, Chloe, Tse, Justin, Watson, Marthy & Wilkinson, Eleanor (2023). Encountering Berlant part 1: Concepts otherwise. The Geographical Journal 189(1): 117-142.
• Bacevic, Jana (2021). Epistemic injustice and epistemic positioning: towards an intersectional political economy. Current Sociology
• Bacevic, Jana (2021). No such thing as sociological excuses? Performativity, rationality and social scientific expertise in late liberalism. European Journal of Social Theory 24(3): 394-410.
• Bacevic, Jana (2021). Unthinking knowledge production: from post-Covid to post-carbon futures. Globalizations 18(7): 1206-1218.
• Bacevic, Jana (2019). Knowing Neoliberalism. Social Epistemology 33(4): 380-392.
• Bacevic, J. (2019). With or without U? Assemblage theory and (de)territorialising the university. Globalisation, Societies and Education 17(1): 78-91.
• Bacevic, J. & Muellerleile, C. (2018). The moral economy of open access. European Journal of Social Theory 21(2): 169-188.
• Bacevic, J. (2014). (Education for) work sets you free: ‘employability’ and higher education in former Yugoslavia and its successor states. European Journal of Higher Education 4(3): 281-296.
• Nokkala, T. & Bacevic, J. (2014). University autonomy, agenda setting and the construction of agency: The case of the European university association in the European higher education area. European Educational Research Journal 13(6): 699-714.
• Bacevic, Jana (2010). Masters or servants? Power and discourse in Serbian higher education reform. Social Anthropology 18(1): 43-56.

Newspaper/Magazine Article

• Bacevic, Jana (2021). Epistemic autonomy and the 'Free Nose Guy' problem. The Philosopher