Program

Summer Institute for the Study of East Central and Southeastern Europe, 2026

Project

Medical Pluralism in Southeastern Europe under Socialism: From Repression to Institutionalization

Department

Balkan Ethnology

Abstract

This project examines medical pluralism in socialist Albania, Bulgaria, and Yugoslavia, with special attention to Albanian-inhabited regions within Yugoslavia. It investigates how state policies and ideological shifts shaped the relationship between biomedicine, folk medicine, and religious healing practices. While Albania is at the center of this research, a comparative framework allows for a deeper understanding of how different socialist regimes navigated tensions between modernization, cultural heritage, and medical diversity.