Support for Selena Špica’s reappointment at the Department of Sociology and the Institute for Sociological Research

We respectfully call on the Department of Sociology and the Institute for Sociological Research to consider, and in due time decide upon, the reappointment of Selena Špica, recognizing her long-standing contributions to teaching, research, and the academic community. By signing this petition, we express our support for continuity of work, transparent institutional procedure, and the protection of academic dignity.

Selena Špica is a sociologist (Senior Research Associate) who graduated as the top student of her cohort. She holds two Master’s degrees - one from the Department of Sociology, University of Belgrade, and another from the Faculty of Organizational Sciences, in Human Resource Management. She has also completed two alternative academic programs (Women’s Studies at the Faculty of Political Sciences, University of Belgrade, and Queer Studies organized by the Center for Queer Studies in Belgrade).

Over the course of ten years, she worked as a teaching associate at the Department of Sociology, Faculty of Philosophy (across nine different courses), at the Faculty of Organizational Sciences, and as a researcher at the Institute for Sociological Research (projects of the Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development of the Republic of Serbia, No. 179035). She also served for five years as secretary of the international scientific Journal of Sociology (M23). She pursued further academic training in Paris within the Gender Studies program at the Genre, Travail, Mobilités Institute (Centre de Recherches Sociologiques et Politiques de Paris), as a recipient of a French Embassy scholarship.

Following childbirth, she was effectively pushed out of her academic position - first reinstated on a temporary basis, and later once again left without material or professional stability.

She is currently completing a co-tutelle PhD at the University of Paris 8 – France (funded through the French Government Scholarship Program) and at the Faculty of Philosophy, University of Belgrade. She is a researcher at the Laboratory for Gender and Sexuality Studies (LEGS, Paris), author of several academic publications in Serbia and abroad, co-author of the Youth Strategy for the Municipality of Stari Grad, and project leader of E!monkeypation* (Ministry of Youth and Sports of the Republic of Serbia, No. 401-01-156/2019-04).

Selena is not asking for sympathy; she is asking for the opportunity to work with dignity.

At present, she lacks even the basic financial means for everyday life.

May the Force be with us!

* A creative sociological youth project blending emancipation with artistic/activist monkey-themed branding.

Selena Špica    Contact the author of the petition