An oral history approach to post-conflict identity in Bosnia and Herzegovina

This article, which arises from lengthy fieldwork conducted in the city of Mostar in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), utilises the oral history method to evaluate the changing nature of identity in a post-conflict setting. This appraisal is to be conducted with the wider goal of assessing the utility of oral history in understanding post-conflict identity. The personal narratives obtained from the fieldwork are placed into an opposing frame of reference related to the effects of conflict. The reference frames were two differing accounts of the Bosnian civil war, the first supplied by a Bosniak and the other by a Croat. These accounts will be used to exemplify the importance of oral history as a research tool for studying contested and complex social realities.