Announcing the Third Winner of the Dragan Klaić Lecturer Award

Knowing that Professor Jacques Bonniel is retiring this year, we sincerely want to give him deserved recognition for excellent academic achievements, our appreciation for his efforts, dedication and hard work, as well as our deepest gratitude for wonderful cooperation in the last 13 years.

As one of the founders and directors of the program (since 2002), Jacques Bonniel significantly contributed to the development of the UNESCO Chair in Cultural Policy and Management, joint interdisciplinary master study program of the University of Arts in Belgrade and Université Lumière Lyon 2.

Doctor in Sociology, former CNRS researcher and former Master of Sociology Lectures at the University Lumière Lyon 2, Jacques Bonniel has targeted his interventions on the analysis of cultural practices and policies, both in research and studies in education (initial and continuing). In 1988 he founded and continues to coordinate the Master turned professional Master 2 “Development of international artistic and cultural projects.”

He teaches cultural development issues in several universities in France and abroad as well as training for professionals and public officials. In partnership with the University of Arts in Belgrade, he created a Master “Management policies and cultural projects in the Balkans.”

Founding member of ENCATC (the European network on cultural management and cultural policy education), he chaired for several years as continues to be an active member.

He has organized international conferences on cultural policies of towns and cities, cultural activity in the suburbs, cultural development. Mobilized by public authorities – Administration of the State (DRAC, DRAF, ARS, …), Cities, Provinces, Regions, Nature parks, he was invited to share his expertise with urban planning agencies, prospective units as in cultural associations and professional unions.

Jacques Bonniel also publishes articles in specialized cultural magazines.

Initiated by the UNESCO Chair in Cultural Policy and Management at the University of Arts in Belgrade, the Dragan Klaić Fellowship Program is presented in memory of Prof. Dragan Klaić, PhD, theater scholar and cultural analyst. Supported by the Open Society Foundations and the European Cultural Foundation, it consists of 2 initiatives – Dragan Klaić Fellowship (student scholarship) and Dragan Klaić Lecturer (professor award), both given annually in order to contribute to the creation of a centre of excellence and attract the best students and professors to the UNESCO Chair in Cultural Policy and Management. This interdisciplinary master study program is organized in cooperation with the Université Lumière Lyon 2 (France) and taught in English and French. For promoting international cultural cooperation, intercultural dialogue and mediation in the Balkans, the program received the UNESCO Chair title in 2004. 

Dragan Klaić was a theater scholar and cultural analyst. He served as a Permanent Fellow of Felix Meritis Foundation in Amsterdam and taught Arts and Cultural Policy at the University of Leiden. He obtained a degree in Dramaturgy in Belgrade and a Doctorate in Theater History and Dramatic Criticism from Yale University. Klaić worked as a theater critic and dramaturge, held professorships at the University of Arts in Belgrade and University of Amsterdam, guest professorships in the USA, at the CEU Budapest and University of Bologna, led the Theater Instituut Nederland, co-founded the European Theater Quarterly Euromaske, and served as the President of the European Network of Information Centers for the Performing Arts and of the European Forum for the Arts and Heritage. His fields of engagement were contemporary performing arts, European cultural policies, strategies of cultural development and international cultural cooperation, interculturalism and cultural memory. He led complex international research projects, conceptualized numerous conferences and symposia, authored and edited publications. Klaić is the author of several books and hundreds of articles. He was the Chair of the European Festival Research Project. DraganKlaić passed away in August 2011.



Jacques Bonniel's full CV is available below.