Imperial & Global Forum

‘Cold War Socialism, Non-Alignment and Anti-Colonialism in the Yugoslav Press, 1961 – 1979’: AHRC Collaborative Doctoral Partnership (CDP) PhD Studentship Ref: 5853

Deadline 5 May 2026

About the award

Supervisors

Dr Ljubica Spaskovska University of Exeter – Faculty of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences

Milan Grba, the British Library

The University of Exeter and the British Library are pleased to announce the availability of a fully funded Collaborative Doctoral Studentship from 1 October 2026 under the AHRC Collaborative Doctoral Partnership Scheme.

The project Cold War Socialism, Non-Alignment and Anti-Colonialism in the Yugoslav Press, 1961-1979 proposes an innovative investigation into Yugoslavia’s multifaceted role during the Cold War, specifically its involvement with the Non-Aligned Movement and anti-colonial efforts.

This project will be jointly supervised Dr Ljubica Spaskovska and Professor James Mark at the University of Exeter and by Milan Grba and Savka Andic at the British Library.  The student will spend time with both the University of Exeter and the British Library and will become part of the wider cohort of AHRC CDP funded PhD students across the UK.

The University of Exeter and the British Library are keen to encourage applications from a diverse range of people, from different backgrounds and career stages, and particularly welcome applications from Global Majority students and those currently underrepresented in doctoral student cohorts.  

The Research Project

The project centres on Yugoslavia’s global role in the Cold War, emphasizing its advocacy of non-alignment, anti-colonialism, and support for newly independent nations and liberation movements. The project will draw upon the recently digitised and largely unexamined Joint Translation Service (JTS) bulletins, a sole archive housed at the British Library. The project’s core purpose is to apply advanced digital methods and interdisciplinary research to the Joint Translation Service Archive, uncovering fresh insights into Cold War socialism and anti-colonialism from a Yugoslav perspective, and aiming to understand how Yugoslavia, a founding Non-Aligned Movement member, forged a ‘third way’. The student will be engaged in creating a fully digitally searchable Joint Translation Service resource, deriving new datasets, and helping to establish a global network of Non-Aligned Movement-related archives with a view to creating a digital repository. The successful applicant would be able to build upon this and develop their own specific approach and themes. In addition to the focus on the JTS archive, applicants could potentially bring this material into dialogue with other archives and primary materials.

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