Traian Stoianovich

Traian Stoianovich (1920 in Gradešnica, Yugoslavia (now Republic of Macedonia) – December 21, 2005 in New Brunswick) was a historian and a professor of history at the Rutgers University. He specialized in the history of the Balkans.

Biography

Of Serbian background, Stoianovich was born in 1920 in Gradešnica, then part of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, but grew up in Rochester, New York, after his parents brought him to America. At a time when it was difficult for working-class people and immigrants to achieve higher education, he earned his undergraduate degree from the University of Rochester. After serving in the United States Army during World War II, he took a masters degree at New York University and received a doctorate from Université de Paris in 1952, where he became a major figure in the internationally influential Annales School of history.His doctoral mentor was Fernand Braudel.

Stoianovich was for four decades a teacher of European and world history at Rutgers University. He has also taught at New York University, University of California, Berkeley, Stanford University, and Sir George Williams University (renamed Concordia University) in Montreal, Canada. He taught at the University of Thessaloniki, Greece, 1958-1959, on a Fulbright grant.

He applied his education to the study of the Balkans, publishing "A Study of Balkan Civilization" (1967) which is regarded as both a classic and a major educational text. After his retirement he published a four volume collection of articles and essays, "Between East and West, the Balkan and Mediterranean Worlds" (1992–1995) and also "Balkan Worlds: The First and Last Europe" (1994) rich in its insights and understanding for both the Balkans and European civilization. Many of his works were translated into Serbian and published in the former Yugoslavia, as well as other major languages. [1]

Dr. Norman Markowitz, JRI Director, Professor of History, Rutgers University, remembers him well:

"I had the privilege of knowing Traian Stoianovich as an outstanding colleague and friend at Rutgers University, both before and after his retirement. A kind and gentleman, Traian was fiercely proud in a non-chauvinist way of his Serbian heritage and of the achievements of the Serbian people. He detested not only the NATO war that devastated Serbia and dismembered Yugoslavia, but what he regarded as the racist libels and slanders directed against the Serbian people both during and after the war. When the politicians and generals who directed that war of aggression are ugly footnotes to history, his work as a scholar and his enormously positive achievements as a teacher will continue to live."

He was a member of the Jasenovac Research Institute's Advisory Board.

He continued to work as a scholar right up to his death on December 21, 2005, after a long struggle with cancer.

Family

Traian Stoianovich was married to painter Marcelle Stoianovich, active mostly in Paris. His daughter Diana Stoianovich married in 1986 to Charles H. Revson Jr., heir of Charles Revson and they have two sons, Charles H. Revson III and Alexander Traian Revson.[2] His son, Christian Stoianovich is a screenwriter and film producer [3]

Main publications

References

  1. ↑ In Memoriam: Traian Stoianovich.
  2. ↑ Miss Stoianovich weds an investor. New York Times.
  3. ↑ Christian Stoianovich. IMDb.