DEEP INSIDE OF A PARALLEL UNIVERSE: RELIGIOUS ELEMENTS SURROUNDING THE STUDENT MOVEMENT IN SERBIA

Abstract

Following the collapse of the concrete canopy at the newly reconstructed train station in
Novi Sad, which killed sixteen people, Serbia has been witnessing the largest student movement in
Europe since 1968. Students of diverse ideological, political, and religious backgrounds have come
together to demand justice and accountability from a corrupt political establishment. This paper
will strive to explore the religious and quasi-religious elements of the movement – rituals of silence,
pilgrimage, ascetic endurance, and communal feasting – interpreted through a functional and anthropological
approach to religion inspired by Durkheim. The study combines qualitative media
discourse analysis of secular and religious communications (November 2024 to June 2025) with
the author’s direct anthropological observation of protest events. This dual perspective enables an
examination of how collective rituals and moral symbols emerged both in representation and in
practice. The protests drew strong reactions from Serbian Orthodox Church dignitaries and other
public voices, which will be examined through critical discourse analysis, focusing on how churchstate
relations and religious or ideological divisions were framed. The question of various collective
subjects fulfilling the usual societal functions of religion will be posed.