Commemoration for Professor Zgodić: His message is to educate!

(Patria) - A commemoration was held today at the Faculty of Political Sciences in Sarajevo for Professor Emeritus Esad Zgodić, who passed away on January 5th at the age of 74. As his colleagues and students stated, Zgodić was a magnificent and brilliant intellectual figure, a passionate writer, and an innovative researcher.

The Dean of the Faculty of Political Sciences, an institution with which he was identified, Sead Turčalo, and professors Šaćir Filandra, Besima Borić, and Elvis Fejzić bid farewell to Professor Esad Zgodić with fitting speeches.

- Professor Zgodić was more than an academic; he was a philosopher of Bosnia. His philosophy can be summarized in his search for the 'logos of Bosnia's historical existence'. This search was not merely academic; it was a path towards discovering the internal values and modes of existence that ensured the preservation of BiH as a historically, territorially, culturally, spiritually, legally, and politically unique entity. To think about Bosnia, in Zgodić's words, was to acknowledge the forces of gathering, accumulation, and consolidation that preserve Bosnia and Herzegovina as an indestructible historical entity - Turčalo recalled.

His faith in the power of knowledge and cognition in shaping society, despite all criticism of modernity and modern ways of life, was present in his books.

- Zgodić was also intellectually ambitious, as befits any intellectual. He innovatively addressed new and emerging topics and problems in political discourse, carefully followed and understood the production of social sciences, and predominantly defended and elaborated his positions, but without falling into dogmatism - Filandra emphasized.

All these qualities, he added, made him the most authoritative intellectual figure among his associates and colleagues, who will miss him from this aspect as well.

As the head of the Department of Political Sciences and a professor in that department for decades, Zgodić played a key role in shaping the direction in which this field developed at UNSA.

In an interview with students, Borić recalled, Zgodić said that "the word education contains the word 'obraz' (face/honor) within it, and to have an 'obraz' means to be a person of moral integrity".

- Therefore, his message is to educate yourselves, be people of knowledge, and be people of honesty and self-respect - Borić stated.

It was concluded at the commemoration that Professor Esad Zgodić's academic role extended beyond lectures and seminars. The opus of over 38 books, many of them multi-volume, attests to this. The scientific valorization of Esad Zgodić's persona and work is yet to follow by his colleagues and numerous students who bid farewell to their colleague and professor today.

His book "Uz knjige o Bosni" (With Books about Bosnia), for which he had just completed the manuscript, will be published and promoted on March 1st, Independence Day of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Esad Zgodić was a full professor at the Faculty of Political Sciences of the University of Sarajevo, teaching Introduction to Political Science, General Political Science, and Contemporary Theories of Power. He was the founder of the History of Social and Political Thought in Bosnia and Herzegovina as a teaching discipline and worked as a professor in this subject until his retirement. He was also responsible for the courses Rhetoric, Theories of Globalization, and State and Globalization, while also being involved in the implementation of the Democracy and Human Rights course, as well as postgraduate study programs at several faculties.

He received several awards for best books, and in 2006, the Faculty of Political Sciences awarded him a Special Recognition for his extensive scientific research work. In the context of celebrating its 50th anniversary, the Faculty of Political Sciences awarded him a Certificate of Appreciation for his scientific and pedagogical work in 2011. He participated in the preparation of numerous round tables and scientific symposia, reviewed and promoted books, participated in numerous scientific gatherings, and gave lectures at various political schools, seminars, colloquiums, and public forums.