2024-25

The course consists of a general survey of the history and cultural development of the peoples of the Balkans with emphasis upon the Ottoman period until 1878. In particular, the course deals with the position of the peoples of the Balkans in the political, social, economic and cultural context of the Ottoman Empire, their intellectual development, the rise of national movements and the path towards the foundation of nation states.

Social psychology is one of the most fundamental branches of the discipline of psychology. It recognizes the fact that the individual is an active participant in the shaping of our social universe thanks to the mutual influences between individual and social environment and concentrates upon the point where these two entities interconnect. It deals with phenomena and types of behavior that can be examined and explained at four levels of analysis, that is, intra-individual, interpersonal, intergroup and ideological.

From the 15th to the 18th century, Europe witnessed a series of intellectual, social and economic changes that led to the transformation of old institutions and to the creation of new. The course deals with the factors that contributed to these changes and to the ways in which European social and economic structures and dominant ideologies and beliefs changed.

The course presents the history of the so-called "Islamic world", i.e. those areas where Islam raised and prevailed. The course examines the periods of Islamic history from the pro-Islamic era in Arabia (6th c.) until the 16th century, when most of the Islamic territories are incorporated into    the Ottoman state. The course is historical and not theological, it deals with the history of regions conventionally called "Islamic world" and not with Islam as a religion.