The Faculty of Philosophy comprises eleven departments, each with a diverse range of research activities and interests:

• Bosnian Language and Literature
• English Language and Literature
• German Language and Literature
• Turkish Language and Literature
• Pedagogy and Psychology
• History
• Social Work
• Journalism
• Philosophy and Sociology
• Teacher Education
• Shop Class and Computer Science (for educational purposes)

While research activities may vary depending on respective departments’ needs, the overall objective of all departments is students’ and professors’ active participation in international and national conferences, congresses, etc.

Department of Bosnian Language and Literature comprises the following research activities:

• Character of stress, stress distinction, distribution and stress paradigms of variable words in standard languages and organic idioms
• development and current conditions of standard language forms in Bosnian, Croatian and Serbian languages
• phonological and prosodic systems of the standard Bosnian, Croatian and Serbian languages
• basic education in general linguistics
• basic approaches in European and American linguistics
• language/speech distinction
• applied linguistics – foreign languages
• the position og the Mid-South Slavic diasystem in Slavic linguistics schools
• Oriental/Germanic/ Latin and English philology, their influences on B/H/S system
• Differences in the norms of standard B&H languages
• Historical indicators of the development in linguistic stylistics
• Standard B/H/S language morphology
• Standard B/H/S language syntax
• Dialectology as a scientific discipline
• The basis of the linguistics geography theory
• Urban dialectology
• Historical and synchronical dialectology
• Development of accents in Mid-South Slavic diasystem
• Shtokavian, Kajkavian, Chakavian and Torlakian dialects
• B&H dialects and pther dialects of the Mid-South Slavic diasystem
• Dialectology research methodology
• Analysis of different dialect texts
• Lexicography
• Development of lexicography in B&H
• Preserved dictionaries in older B&H lexicography
• Dictionary: Encyclopedic and language dictionaries
• Contemporary lexicography in B/H/S language
• B/H/S language teaching methodology
• Literature teaching methodology
• Written language in the period from 11th to late 15th century (Middle Age Bosnia)
• Slavic writing systems development
• Written language from the late 15th to second half of 19th century (The Age of Ottoman Empire)
• Bosnian literary language in the second half of the 19th and the early 20th century (3rd stage of development)
• Recent literature on Bosnian language
• The fourth phase in Bosnian literary language development
• The fifth phase in Bosnian literary language development
• National oral literature: Parry's collection
• Epigraphic and epitaph
• The art of stećak (Bosnian standing tomb stone)
• The status of Middle Age Bosnian epigraphic within genre system of the Middle Age Bosnian literature
• The Poetics of the Middle Age Bosnia epigraphic: terseness, themes and motifs, general places, figures…
• Beginnings of literary creation in B&H
• Literary historical guidelines and literary values of creation in B&H in the late period
• Cultural and historical concepts (history theories of the 19th and 20th century)
• Literature styles and genres of the 19th and 20th century
• Literary and artistic practices related to stylistic forms
• Theoretical approaches. Definitions of novels.
• Beginning of the novel
• Moralizing and psychology
• Romanticism and novel
• Philosophy of epic and novel: archaic and modern culture
• The concept of realism
• Naturalism and „experiment“ theory
• Expressionism and futurism prose
• Basic novel dichotomy of the 20th century
• Novel and philosophy of history. From Broch to Sartre.
• The Poetics of New Novel/Nouveau Roman
• The Postmodern novel
• Literature, culture and cultural studies
• Imagology
• Identity and alteration (the concepts of Other and Otherness)
• Balkanism, Orientalism, Egsotism
• Analysis of images in and interpretation of B&H and South Slavic literary works
• Theoretical definitions and history of the terms world, comparative literature/ comparative literature studies
• Comparative literature studies and issues related to topics, literary interpretation, translation, influence, intertextuality, intermediality, chronotopes,…
• Theories, methodologies, and approaches from the view point of the comparative literature studies (positivism, Geistesgeschischte, formalism, new criticism, phenomenology, reception theory, psychoanalytical and archetypal criticism, structuralism, semiotics, post-structuralism, cultural studies)
• Inter-literary communities
• Literary-historical, epochal, typical, poetic characteristics and directions in Renaissance, Baroque and Classicism literature
• The status of B&H literature within South Slavic inter-literary community during the Austro-Hungarian rule
• Europeanization and Orientalization of Bosnian literature; cultural-emancipatory cincepts and national polarization; terms “revival” and “revival literature”; Mehmed –Bay Kapetanović Ljubušak’s literary and cultural mission
• Coexistence and intertwining of styles and poetics (from Enlightenment to Modernism); cultural and literary life; literary periodicals (Bošnjak, Behar, Gajret, Biser)
• Safvet Bay Bašagić's enlightenment and cultural (identitary) mission
• Between ideology and literature: Osman Đikić, Avdo Karabegović Hasanbegov, S. Avdo Karabegović; Fadil Kurtagić.
• Edhem Mulabdić at the crossroad of Romanticism and Realism.
• Modernism in Musa Ćazim Ćatić’s poetry.
• Writers’ duo Osman Nuri Hadžić and Ivan Milićević: Osman – Aziz.
• Nafija Sarajlić’s subject matter
• The beginning of drama in B&H literature (Bašagić, Šantić, Resulović)
• Three phases in Serbian literature development in Bosnia and Herzegovina during the Austro-Hungarian rule (folklore - romaniticism, realism, modern literary trends)
• Cultural and literary centres of Bosnian Serbs (Mosta, Sarajevo)
• The importance of literary periodicals(Bosanska vila, Zora)
• The literature of «Mlada Bosna»
• Prosaic literature; the inception and development of B&H story from oral story (Niko Besarović, Luka Grđić-Bjelokosić)
• Affirmation of realism (stories and novels by S.Ćorović) and modern novel concept (P. Kočić)
• Poetry in the Neo-romanticism (Šantić, early Dučić); parnas symbolic synthesis (Dučić), introducing social motifs.
• Folklore and social melodrama (S.Ćorović). Between farce and political satire (Kočić, Jazavac pred sudom)
• Dramas inspired by folk songs (A. Šantić)
• Literary historiography and criticism (Dučić, Vladimir Ćorović, D. Mitrinović)
• Journals in literary work of Bosnian Croats (Don Franjo Milićević's papers)
• Cultural and literary significance of Sarajevo's „Nada“ and S. S. Kranjčević's Bosnian mission; the influence of Croatian literature
• Kranjčić's folloewrs in poetry (T. Alaupović)
• Prose writers: didactic folk prose (I. Klarić)
• Romantic short story and its departure from social motivation (Ante Jukić)
• Modernization of the folk-regional narrative (M. Jurkić)
• Romantic historicism and „Catholic Moderna“ (N. Jenko alias Eugen Matić)
• Melodrama in Bosnian Catholic envirnoment (Lepušić – Kuzmanović – Milinović)
• Middle Age literature
• Teh importance of Cyril and Methodius' work
• Characteristics and importance of the medieval literature in Slavic regions
• Srbian biographical literature. Sava Nemanjić, Stevan Prvovjenčani, Domentijan
• Croatian medieval literature. Baska Tablet. Interpretative literature of the Middle Age
• Macedonian medieval literature
• The beginning of Renaissance literature in South Slavic region
• Literature of Dubrovnik and Dalmatia. Marko Marulić, Šiško Menčetić, Džore Držić, Andrija Čubranović, Hanibal Lucić.
• Poetics of contemporary B&H poetry, its development and relations towards the B&H poetic and literary tradition
• Literary historical, epochal, standard, poetic characteristics and trends in world literature in Romanticism and Realism
• Literary historical, epochal, standard, poetic characteristics and trends in world literature in Modernism and Postmodernism
• The social role of the short story in transition processes
• Contemporary B&H prose (hybrid postmodern Romanesque genre (metafiction), towards the decline of postmodernism/new sensibility, critical mimetism/, anti/war novel and story, new-historical novel, transitional novel, women’s letter and writing in B&H prose)
• Contemporary B&H poetry (documentarism, neorealism, anti/war poetry, subcultural phenomena in B&H poetry)
• Essay genre, criticism, literary historiography and theory
• Intertextuality
• Paroddy
• Metafiction
• Decentring the postmodern:ex-centric
• Problematizing history
• Issues of referentiality
• Discourse, powe, ideology
• Historical subject in/towards history and his story

Research activities in the Department of English Language and Literature are organized and carried out through the following fields of science:

1. Modern English Language and Linguistics
2. English and American Literature
3. Cultural Studies

I. RESEARCH ACTIVITIES by respective fields

1. The field of Modern English Language and Linguistics comprises research activities in theoretical and applied linguistics as follows:

• All levels of linguistic analysis: phonology, morphology, syntax and semantics,
• interdisciplinary linguistics, especially sociolinguistics and pragmatics in international and national context,
• cognitive linguistics : conceptual metaphor theory, conceptual integration theory, mental space theory and cognitive linguistics,
• contrastive analysis and translation, contact linguistics, focusing on the field of language borrowing
• English language teaching methodology; acquiring English as a second language, academic writing in English

2. Research areas in English and American Literature focus on theoretical and applied literature studies including the following :

• Interdisciplinary research on the contemporary literary criticism theories,
• Interdisciplinary qualitative research on the contemporary literary and cultural production in Great Britain and United States of America (USA),
• Comparative research on intersectionality of gender, class and nation in literary, cultural and theoretical Anglo-American and national production,
• Interdisciplinary research on translation in national and international context,
• Comparative interdisciplinary research on the key issues within the contemporary literary production of Great Britain, USA and BH in regional and international context, in relations with the recent contribution to the analysis of the wider social processes within social sciences and humanities.

3. Cultural Studies comprise fundamental and applied research activities relating to cultural theory and cultural studies in the national and international context, comprising the following research areas:

• Contemporary cultural theories and cultural studies,
• Interdisciplinary qualitative (field, archive and theoretical) research on contemporary and historical cultural occurrences and processes in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and its regional and international environment;
• Interdisciplinary research on contemporary cultural production in Great Britain and the USA, and specific areas within the British and American cultural studies,
• Qualitative and quantitative research on contemporary cultural practices and identity, cultural politics and economy, and cultural strategies in national and international context,
• Interdisciplinary research on specific fields in global and local popular and mass culture (film, audio-visual arts, media culture, new advancements in cultural production, common cultural practises, etc.)

II. Research activities are implemented through:

i. Master’s theses and doctoral dissertations in I and II cycle studies respectively;
ii. Individual and collaborative research projects supported by science funds by the resource ministries, other governmental bodies, and non-governmental bodies, and non-governmental organizations in Bosnia and Herzegovina;
iii. Individual and collaborative research projects financed from relevant funds by the European Union, European Union countries, United States of America, Euro-Atlantic region, and other countries;
iv. Research projects supported by the relevant business sector entities, legal entities and natural persons in the country and abroad.

III. Results of research activities are published in:

a. Relevant national and international journals,
b. Relevant proceedings of the national and international conferences and congresses,
c. Doctoral dissertations and master’s theses.
d. Other relevant printed and electronic periodicals.

Department of German Language and Literature comprises the following research activities:

• The study of contemporary German language;
• Contrastive research - German-Bosnian language;
• Syntactic distribution of different parts of speech;
• Phraseology of the German and Bosnian language, proverbs, jokes;
• Passive in German and Bosnian;
• Syntactic analysis from the point of view of grammatical dependence;
• Semantics, semantic roles, semantic relations;
• Metaphors in political discourse;
• Lexeme “WO” in German language and its Bosnian equivalent;
• The study of German literature;
• Perception of German literature during the Austro-Hungarian rule.

Department of Social Work comprises the following research activities:

• Systematic study of etiology and diagnosing social need, social issues and social occurrences
• The study of application of contemporary models of social politics and social politics in Bosnia and Herzegovina
• The study of modality and results of social development and social planning
• The study of efficiency of the application of basic and auxiliary methods in social work in prevention and solving issues related to social needs of an individual, family and local community
• The study of contemporary institutional and non-institutional models and areas in social work developments
• The study of occurrences, results and efficiency of social work in social, children’s and family protection
• The study of etiology and phenomenology of socio-pathological occurrences and contemporary risks
• The study of civil society and social networks as development resources for voluntary social work and networking social work
• The study of social status, the quality of satisfying social needs and enactment of social rights for people with special needs
• The study of contemporary models of social work in work with minor felons and other people expressing deviant behavior
• The study of functions and objectives of social work in the areas of socialization, re-socialization, rehabilitation, social therapy and social integration
• The study of results in implementation of preventive and other social programs on different levels of social organization
• The study of contemporary standards in the areas of professional social work development around the world and in providing services
• The study of the importance of development of supervision and management in social work
• The study and improvement in theoretical and scientific thought that is to improve development of social work and social politics in B&H.

Department of Journalism comprises the following research activities in the field of communications theory and mass media:

• The study of forms and ways of communicating in interpersonal, group and mass levels
• The study of effects of various levels of communication on and individual, group and society
• The study of effects of human communication on social trends and changes
• The study of effects of human communication on cultural trends and changes
• The study of effects of form of communication on constituting public opinion
• The study of theoretical frames and models of communication
• The study of public opinion
• The study of effect of mass media to an individual and society
• The study of effect of mass media messages on public and target groups
• The study of functions and trends in the area of mass media and mass communication
• Preparation, implementation and evaluation of research projects in relevant areas
• Publishing scientific and professional papers in relevant publications
• Participation in scientific conferences, seminars and other gatherings
• Inter-university and inter-faculty cooperation
• Other research activities relevant for the fields of Communications Theory and Mass Media

Department of Philosophy and Sociology comprises the following research activities:

a) Philosophy

• The study of contemporary philosophy
• Theoretical basis of political philosophy
• Knowledge and Science Philosophy
• The study of philosophy of existentialism

b) Sociology

• The study of transitional processes in contemporary B&H society
• Issues in development of the contemporary B&H family
• The study of social structure of inter-ethnic relations in B&H society
• The study of economic sociology
• Theoretical and empirical research in genocide sociology
• The study of theoretical frames of globalization
• The study of social and historical foundations of the ethnic identity of Bosnjaks
• The study of social and political thought in Bosnia and Herzegovina

Department of Teachers’ Education comprises the following research activities:

• The study of theoretical basis and curricula development for pre-school and primary school education
• Methodology of work with children with special needs
• Theoretical basis and practical aspects of multidisciplinary approach
• Contemporary teaching models and their application methods in lower classes in primary schools
• Designing curricula for educating teaching staff on the basis of the scientific and empirical research
• Psychology and didactics of early learning stages