Staff profile

Dr Jana Bacevic is an interdisciplinary social and political theorist whose interests lie at the intersection between knowing about and acting in the world. Dr Bacevic's research combines philosophy, sociology and anthropology, and addresses questions of sociology of knowledge, inequality and injustice, and political economy. Their contributions have included the investigation of the science-politics nexus and the role of 'not knowing' the future in the context of global risks, including pandemics and climate change; the intersection between valuation, epistemic injustice, and the reproduction of social inequalities; and the political ontology of critique both as a genre and a form of speech-act. Dr Bacevic has contributed to public debates on these topics, and has also worked as a policy advisor to governments, international, and non-governmental organizations, especially in the fields of minority rights, social justice, and post-conflict reconciliation. 

Dr Bacevic joined Durham in 2020, having previously worked at universities of Cambridge, Aarhus, Central European University in Budapest, as well as Singidunum University and the University of Belgrade. They hold a PhD in sociology (University of Cambridge, 2019) and anthropology (University of Belgrade, 2008). Dr Bacevic has had fellowships at the Hannah Arendt Center for Politics and the Humanities at Bard College, Bristol University, Open Society Archives, and the University of Oxford.

Dr Bacevic is on the editorial board of The Philosopher, UK's longest-running public philosophy journal, and on the steering board of the Centre for Humanities Engaging Science and Society (CHESS) at Durham. They are a member of the Cambridge Social Ontology Group.

In 2025 and 2026, Dr Bacevic will be on Leverhulme Research Fellowship awarded for their project "Uncategorical imperatives: examining non-reciprocity", which engages with the question of nonreciprocity from the standpoint of non-ideal moral and political theory and its implications for in/equality, in/justice and re/distribution in the context of global violence, state repression, and climate collapse. They welcome inquiries from potential PhD students, especially those working at the intersection of social and political theory. 

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

• 2025: Leverhulme Research Fellowship, 'Understanding non-reciprocity':
• 2024: Invited lecture, Cambridge Summer School in Social Ontology, University of Cambridge:
• 2024: Invited lecture, British Sociological Association Theory Group:
• 2024: Keynote, Association Winslow Sante Publique:
• 2023: Panel Member, Science Foundation Ireland:
• 2023: Invited lecture, Hannah Arendt Center for Politics and the Humanities, Bard College:
• 2023: Fellow, Hannah Arendt Center for Politics and Humanities, Bard College:
• 2022: Editor, The Philosopher, UK's oldest public philosophy journal:
• 2022: Keynote, Anthropology of the Future/Future of Anthropology, Serbian Academy of Arts and Sciences, Viminacium:
• 2022: Invited lecture, School of Sociology and Social Policy, University of Leeds:
• 2022: Keynote, American Philosophical Association Political Epistemology Network Conference, Amsterdam:
• 2022: Keynote, Praxis Symposium IV: Post-pandemic higher education, University of Gothenburg:
• 2021: Keynote, Theory Summer School, Leibniz Center for Science and Society, Hannover:
• 2021: Invited lecture, Department of Sociology, University of Cambridge:
• 2021: Editorial board member, Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour:

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. University under Attack?: Politics, Contestation and Agency beyond the ‘Neoliberal University’. In R. Barnett, & M. Peters (Eds.), The Idea of the University: Contemporary Perspectives (21-39). Peter Lang. https://doi.org/10.3726/b11839
• Bacevic, J. Beyond the Third Mission: Toward an Actor-Based Account of Universities’ Relationship with Society. In H. Egul, & S. Cosar (Eds.), Universities in the Neoliberal Era: Academic Cultures and Critical Perspectives. Palgrave Macmillan
• Mackay, F., & Bacevic, J. (2023). The politics of gender and identity. In A. Morgan (Ed.), What Matters Most: Conversations on the Art of Living (3-12). Agenda Publishing. https://doi.org/10.2307/jj.1357297.5
• Bacevic, J. (2022). Why do we fail to predict social crises?. In S. Jasanoff (Ed.), Un/certainty. Massachusetts Institute of Technology Press
• Bacevic, J. (2016). Education, conflict and class reproduction in socialist Yugoslavia. In R. Archer, I. Duda, & P. Stubbs (Eds.), Social Inequalities and Discontent in Yugoslav Socialism (77 - 94). Taylor and Francis. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315609461
• 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 P. Zgaga, U. Teichler, & J. Brennan (Eds.), The Globalisation Challenge for European Higher Education (287-308). Peter Lang AG. https://doi.org/10.3726/978-3-653-06508-4
• 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 S. Horvat, & I. Štiks (Eds.), Welcome to the Desert of Post-Socialism! Radical Politics After Yugoslavia (223-242). Verso Books

Journal Article

• Bacevic, J. (online). What is social science if not critical?. The British Journal of Sociology, https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-4446.13142
• Bacevic, J. (2024). No such thing as free speech? Performativity, free speech, and academic freedom in the UK. Law and Critique, https://doi.org/10.1007/s10978-023-09373-2
• Bacevic, J., & McGoey, L. (2024). Liberal fatalism, COVID 19 and the politics of impossibility. Economy and Society, 53(1), 163-182. https://doi.org/10.1080/03085147.2024.2312710
• Bacevic, J. (2023). Epistemic injustice and epistemic positioning: towards an intersectional political economy. Current Sociology, 71(6), 1122-1140. https://doi.org/10.1177/00113921211057609
• Anderson, B., Aitken, S., Bacevic, J., Callard, F., Chung, K. D. (., Coleman, K. S., Hayden, R. F., Healy, S., Irwin, R. L., Jellis, T., Jukes, J., Khan, S., Marotta, S., Seitz, D. K., Snepvangers, K., Staples, A., Turner, C., Tse, J., Watson, M., & Wilkinson, E. (2023). Encountering Berlant part 1: Concepts otherwise. The Geographical Journal, 189(1), 117-142. https://doi.org/10.1111/geoj.12494
• Bacevic, J. (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. https://doi.org/10.1177/13684310211018939
• Bacevic, J. (2021). Unthinking knowledge production: from post-Covid to post-carbon futures. Globalizations, 18(7), 1206-1218. https://doi.org/10.1080/14747731.2020.1807855
• Bacevic, J. (2019). With or without U? Assemblage theory and (de)territorialising the university. Globalisation, Societies and Education, 17(1), 78-91. https://doi.org/10.1080/14767724.2018.1498323
• Bacevic, J. (2019). Knowing Neoliberalism. Social Epistemology, 33(4), 380-392. https://doi.org/10.1080/02691728.2019.1638990
• Bacevic, J., & Muellerleile, C. (2018). The moral economy of open access. European Journal of Social Theory, 21(2), 169-188. https://doi.org/10.1177/1368431017717368
• 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. https://doi.org/10.2304/eerj.2014.13.6.699
• 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. https://doi.org/10.1080/21568235.2014.916534
• Bacevic, J. (2010). Masters or servants? Power and discourse in Serbian higher education reform. Social Anthropology, 18(1), 43-56. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1469-8676.2009.00097.x

Other (Print)

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