Hungry in Three Languages : (Un)Conscious Youth Efforts at Crossing Ethnonational Divisions in Post-Dayton Bosnia and Herzegovina

After the Dayton Accords ended the war in Bosnia in 1995, painful ethnic divisions remained-and remain-across the country. Separation of the populace along ethnic lines was deemed by Dayton\u27s architects to be the most effective way to keep the peace, and the traumatic memory of violence and ethnic cleansing legitimized such separation to many citizens at the time. Twenty five years later however, the divisions in Bosnian society that contributed to the outbreak of war in 1992 have only been further legitimized by the Dayton constitution, resulting in social stagnation and an inability to reconcile with the past. Bosnia remains a quasi-protectorate of the UN. Economic malaise, in large part a product of corruption and an unsuccessful attempt at rebuilding a war torn economy (under the clumsy management of the international community) has created widespread unemployment and discontent, which culminated in the violent protests in 2014. In this paper, I explore the way in which young Bosnians-Croats and Muslims alike- appear to be crossing the ethnonational divides drawn by traumatic memory and damaging political rhetoric, as well as confronting the deep rooted economic and political stagnation that has plagued the country since 1992