Anthem Press has recently published Mexico-US, Serbia-EU Border Lives and Works. Learn more.
Classes and Workshops
Below are brief descriptions of selected examples of classes and workshops that Lažetić currently teaches or has taught in the past.
Lažetić’s teaching focuses on international relations, human security, and forced displacement and is grounded in feminist pedagogical approaches that emphasize critical engagement with power and inequality. Students are encouraged to identify and critically analyze sources of power while fostering a sense of community, mutual support, and collaborative learning in the classroom. Intersectionality and attention to how different dimensions of identity shape lived experiences and perceptions are central to course design and classroom discussion.
Lažetić emphasizes the integration of classroom learning with direct engagement beyond the university and is committed to providing students with opportunities to learn from individuals addressing some of the most pressing social and political challenges of our time. This approach is reflected in the design of courses and programs that facilitate engagement with diverse actors, including policymakers, researchers, artists, activists, and individuals directly impacted by the issues examined in the classroom.
— BOSTON UNIVERSITY —
KILACHAND HONORS COLLEGE
Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Global Challenges
This course is part of the Kilachand Honors College two-semester sequence Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Global Challenges and is taught by an interdisciplinary team of instructors. It adopts a two-pronged approach to the study of forced displacement, combining a broad examination of global patterns and frameworks with in-depth analysis of specific geographic and political contexts.
Each week, a lecture delivered by a different member of the teaching team introduces key themes and debates in refugee and forced displacement studies, including international legal frameworks, empire and modern state formation, processes of racialization, gender and other dimensions of identity, the role of the arts, and contemporary health interventions and their limitations. The second weekly class session is dedicated to context-specific discussion, during which students critically apply these broader themes to particular regional settings introduced by course instructors.
Lažetić’s section focuses on the EU–Serbia borderlands, examining the political, legal, and social dynamics that shape this space and the lived experiences of people on the move as they attempt to reach the European Union. Through this case study, students gain insight into the structural conditions and border practices that produce distinct challenges for the people on the move and different civil society actors who are trying to assist them.
— CFD SUMMER PROGRAM —
Migration and Border Regimes and Interdisciplinary Summer School
on Forced Displacement
COURSE DESCRIPTION
Traditionally open to both undergraduate and graduate students, the program has evolved alongside deepening partnerships in Serbia and shifting regional dynamics. Beginning in 2026, it will be exclusively open to graduate students, reflecting a transition toward a rigorous, research-oriented format that emphasizes comparative analysis, interdisciplinary dialogue, and collaborative inquiry.
As part of the program, participants will travel to Serbia for two weeks in late May and early June, engaging in seminars, workshops, and field visits coordinated by the Faculty of Political Science, University of Belgrade, in partnership with CFD. Graduate students from Serbia will also join the program, creating an environment of mutual learning and cross-regional exchange between scholars from the Balkans and beyond. All selected participants are required to attend five, two-hour-long, in-person pre-departure sessions before their trip to Serbia. These sessions will be scheduled for March and April 2026.
PROGRAM BACKGROUND & RATIONALE
Long before the so-called “long summer of migration” in 2015, both the United States and the European Union had been developing increasingly restrictive border regimes—systems designed to limit access to their territories and asylum procedures for people on the move. Today, those on the move are routinely pushed back across borders, detained in zones of legal limbo, or contained in third countries such as Libya.
This program examines how and why these strategies of deterrence and externalization have emerged, how they operate across different regions, and how they are experienced, resisted, and reimagined by communities, civil society organizations, and people on the move themselves.
— ON-GOING WORKSHOPS —
CENTER ON FORCED DISPLACEMENT
Research Workshop Series
IMISCOE
PhD Reflexivities in Migration Research Workshops
Graduate students and junior scholars often take on large research projects with few resources and under strict time constraints, which impacts the research design process and outcomes. While there are plenty of forums for sharing research results, there is a lack of spaces to discuss first steps, challenges faced along the way, and how to recalibrate from obstacles. This series of workshops and conversations gives participants a chance to “peek behind the curtain” — to demystify and collaborate around parts of the methodological process that can sometimes feel messy, intimidating or uncharted. It combines in-person and hybrid sessions and allows anyone interested in engaging more deeply in discussions around specific research methods and ethical dilemmas to join the workshop. Some sessions are also devoted to workshopping specific papers and projects where participants bring in their works-in-progress for discussion. Up to date schedule and opportunities for engagement can be found on the CFD website.
Organized and led by Lažetić in her role as PhD Representative on the Governing Board of the IMISCOE Standing Committee Reflexivities in Migration Studies, these sessions provide a collaborative platform for scholarly exchange. The sessions offer early career researchers opportunities to present their work, receive constructive feedback, and engage in discussions of key methodological and theoretical challenges in reflexive migration research.
Lažetić facilitates these discussions, fostering a supportive environment for scholars interested in alternative research approaches that are attentive to power dynamics in the production of knowledge about migration and committed to de-nationalizing and de-migranticizing studies of mobility and diversity. IMISCOE invites PhD candidates and early career researchers contributing to Reflexivities in Migration Studies to express interest in presenting, discussing, or participating in other capacities in the online sessions.
— PAST CLASSES TAUGHT —
Course Listings
SUMMER 2024
Interdisciplinary Summer School on Forced Displacement—
Main Theme: “Border Securitization and Internal Displacement”
Center on Forced Displacement, Boston University;
University of Belgrade, Faculty of Political Science, Belgrade, Serbia
SPRING 2024
HC302 A1 Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Global Challenges II—
Interdisciplinary Course on Forced Displacement
Kilachand Honors College, Boston University
SUMMER 2023
Interdisciplinary Summer School on Forced Displacement—
Main Theme: “EU Border Externalization and Its Impacts”
Center on Forced Displacement, Boston University;
University of Belgrade, Faculty of Political Science, Belgrade, Serbia
SPRING 2023
Forced Migration
The Fletcher School, Tufts University
Intro to Research, Qualitative Methods, and Survey Tools
The Fletcher School, Tufts University
FALL 2022
HUB193: Border Regime and Border Externalization
BU HUB, Boston University
SPRING 2021
Research Practice in Qualitative Methods
Harvard University, Department of Government
FALL 2021
HUB194: Research Methods in Forced Displacement
BU HUB, Boston University
SUMMER 2020
Summer Intensive Course on Qualitative Research Methods
The Henry J. Leir Institute, Tufts University
