User:Mazacane/Vera Smiljanić

Vera Smiljanić Čolanović (Čibutkovica, near Lazarevac, February 25, 1923 – Belgrade, November 3, 2021) was a renown Yugoslav and Serbian psychologist and feminist. She was one of the founders of the Department of Psychology at the Faculty of Philosophy, University of Belgrade. She authored pioneering works in developmental psychology (interpersonal relationships, left-handedness, children's humor and laughter), gender differences and aging. She was one of the initiators of the feminist movement in Yugoslavia

Biography
Vera Smiljanić was born on February 15, 1923, in the village of Čitbukovca near Lazarevac, in a family of teachers. During the Second World War, she was active in the partisan movement.

After completing her teacher training in Kragujevac in 1942, she worked as a teacher in the villages of Stanci near Kuršumlija and Tečić in the Levač region from 1943 to 1944.

In 1945, she began her studies at the Faculty of Philosophy at the University of Belgrade, where philosophy, psychology and pedagogy were part of the same department. While in university, she worked at TANJUG Archives. She graduated in 1950 with the highest honors at the top of her class. She wrote her thesis under the supervision of Professor Borislav Stevanović for which she received the November Prize in 1951.

After graduation, Vera Smiljanić worked as a trainee at the Department of Psychology at the Faculty of Philosophy, and from 1954, she was a permanent teaching assistant for the Child Psychology class under the supervision of Professor Stevanović.

During the 1958/59 school year, she spent several months in London, UK on a study trip. She obtained her PhD on the topic of "Some determinants of interpersonal relationships and social perception" in 1962 and that same year she was selected as an associate professor teaching Psychology of Childhood and Adolescence, a newly introduced class at the Faculty of Philosophy in 1961.

She spent the 1967/68 school year in the USA as a Ford Foundation scholar.

She was appointed as an associate professor of developmental psychology in 1970. She led significant research projects, and from 1972 to 1980, was the head of the Institute of Psychology. In 1977, she spent several months in Moscow as part of a study visit to Lomonosov University.

Vera Smiljanić was the head of the Seminar for Child and Pedagogical Psychology (subsequently renamed as the Department of Child Psychology and afterwards as the Department of Developmental Psychology) from 1977 until her retirement. She became a tenured professor of Developmental Psychology in 1981. She retired in 1988 but continued her professional work. She lectured at her home Faculty for an additional two years, at the University of Priština and at the Faculty of Defectology at the University of Belgrade.

During the establishment of the Department of Psychology at the Faculty of Philosophy of the University of Novi Sad, she taught Developmental Psychology and mentored doctoral students Uroš Mladenović (on the topic of gender roles), Lajoš Genc (on the topic of bilingualism in children), and Svenka Savić (on the topic of speech development in twins).

She co-wrote a series of children's joke books with her grandson Vid Stambolović, entitled "To Burst with Laughter,", published by Kreativni Centar in Belgrade

Feminist activism
Vera Smiljanić promoted ideas of gender equality throughout her work and academic career and participated in activities of the informal group "Women and Society" which organized public lectures and discussions in the Yugoslav area (Ljubljana, Zagreb and Belgrade). She spoke at forums on the topic of psychology of gender and sex (especially upon her return from her scholarship at the University of California, Berkeley in 1968). When an alternative academic interdisciplinary program of Women's Studies was formed at the Center for Women's Studies in Belgrade (1992), she gave lectures in the elective course entitled Psychology (1997/98, with Marina Bogdanović, Nada Ler, Lepa Mlađenović, and others) and Classics of Psychoanalysis (2000/01) on topics such as Freud's teachings about women, psychoanalytic critique of Freud, as well as Kohlberg's theory of gender identity and Karl Jung's theory. She taught and participated in various events at the Center for Women's Studies later on as well.

Vera Smiljanić promoted feminist aspects in developmental psychology and was a mentor for a number of seminars, undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral papers in the field of gender differences. She contributed to female students in their final year choosing topics for their graduate papers related to gender equality (such as Lepa Mlađenović, Sofija Trivunac).

Awards and recognitions
1951: Best student of the generation (During the celebration of November 29th).

1973: Plaque of the Kolarac People's University (KNU) as recognition for exceptional contribution to the development of the Kolarac People's University, Belgrade.

1975: "Borislav Stevanović" award for the research project "New revision of the Binet-Simon scale" (teamwork with Prof. Dr. Vera

Smiljanić-Čolanović, Prof. Dr. Ivan Ivić, Mr. Ruzica Rosandić, Milan Milinković).

1976: City of Belgrade October Prize (for collective work "Development and measurement of intelligence").

1978: Plaque for the inaugural 25th anniversary of the establishment and work of the Society of Psychologists of SR Serbia, for special contribution to the development and improvement of the society, Niška Banja.

1978: Certificate of appreciation for outstanding contribution to the development of psychology and the work of the Society of Psychologists of Yugoslavia (for the inaugural 25th anniversary of the establishment and work of the Union of Societies of Psychologists of Yugoslavia, Sarajevo).

1984: Certificate of appreciation at the VIII Congress of Psychologists of Yugoslavia, Herceg Novi.

1988: Order of Labor with Red Flag.

Selected bibliography
Child psychology, (with Ivan Tolicić, in Slovenian), Mladinska knjiga, Ljubljana, 1968.

Psychology of aging, Nolit, Belgrade, 1979.

Developmental psychology, Society of Psychologists of Serbia, Belgrade, 1979

Literature
"Smiljanić, Vera", u: Srpski Who is Who 2011-2013, Zavod za udžbenike, Beograd, 2013, str. 662.

Stepanović Ilić, Ivana i Natalija Panić, "Sećanje na profesorku dr Veru Smiljanić", doajen razvojne psihologije", Psihološke novine, list Društva psihologa Srbije, br. 452, god. XLIV, Društvo psihologa Srbije, Beograd, januar 2022, str. 8.