Miami hosts lecture on the ‘Bridge to Nowhere’

An Ottoman-era bridge, in the Bosnian village of Žepa, will be the subject of a special Havighurst Center lecture at 2:50 p.m. Feb. 6.

The lecture by Robert Hayden entitled, “The Bridge to Nowhere and the Central Memorial at Žepa, an Island in a Bosnian Land Archipelago,” will examine the cultural significance and foreign support for an unmarked bridge. In 2016, the U.S Embassy in Sarajevo paid $62,000 to reinforce the bridge.

The embassy said the bridge, because it was the subject of a story by author and Nobel Prize laureate Ivo Andric, promoted tourism in Bosnia while preserving the country’s history. However, villagers later questioned the importance of the bridge to the village itself and pointed to an important memorial that locals felt was ignored. This was seen as a symbol of foreign involvement in Bosnia during and after the 1992-95 war.

Hayden is a professor emeritus at the University of Pittsburgh. Professor Hayden was also the director of the center for Russian & East European Studies. 

The lecture is in room 313 of Harrison Hall.