🎧 Listen Now
This episode brings listeners from the historical context established in Episode 1 directly into the lived experience of Serbia’s student movement. Through the voices of Katica, Nina and Natalija, we move beyond chronology and into conscience—into the moment when collective grief transformed into collective action.
What began as a tragedy in Novi Sad became a reckoning for an entire generation. This conversation captures the point where history stopped being something observed—and became something lived, organized, and defended.
🧵 Episode Overview
Following the historical groundwork laid in Episode 1, Episode 2, Part 1 centers the voices of the students themselves.
Liza Florida sits down with three student leaders who emerged at the forefront of Serbia’s mass civic awakening following the November 1st collapse of the railway station canopy in Novi Sad, a preventable disaster that claimed 16 lives. Rather than recounting events from a distance, this episode offers firsthand testimony—what it felt like to live inside a system where corruption is not abstract, but lethal.
The students describe how mourning evolved into mobilization, and how universities became sanctuaries of resistance. Through democratic student assemblies known as Plenums, young people from vastly different disciplines—engineering, philosophy, medicine, and the arts—came together to practice the democracy they felt had been stripped from public life.
From sleeping on faculty floors in freezing conditions to facing police repression and public intimidation, these women reveal a new form of leadership rooted not in hierarchy, but in solidarity, care, and moral clarity.
This is not a story about politics as ideology—it is about survival, accountability, and the fundamental right to live.
🔑 Key Topics Covered
The Fall of the Canopy
A firsthand account of the Novi Sad tragedy and the immediate shock that ignited a national awakening.
Corruption as a Life-Threatening Reality
How systemic negligence and state-aligned reconstruction projects led to fatal consequences.
11:52 AM — The Power of Silence
The weekly collective pause honoring the victims, transforming grief into public remembrance.
When Students Were Attacked
Why violence against students became a turning point that mobilized broader public outrage.
The Plenum Model
An inside look at horizontal, democratic student assemblies used to debate, organize, and decide collectively.
Inter-Faculty Unity
How collaboration between technical sciences and the humanities strengthened the movement.
The Right to Live
A shift away from partisan framing toward a universal demand for safety, dignity, and accountability.
Resilience Under Pressure
The personal cost of resistance—sleep deprivation, surveillance, intimidation, and propaganda.
🧠 Voices from the Frontlines
- “We realized we could lose our lives if we don’t speak up now. This isn’t about ideology—it’s about the right to walk down the street safely.”
- “Attacking students—the future engineers, doctors, and lawyers—is what truly angered the people.”
- “Our professors told us they were learning democracy from us again—learning how to listen.”
- “The faculty became our home. We came with sleeping bags and food and said: ‘This space is now protected.’”
- “It was coincidence that 16 people were killed—and coincidence that more weren’t. Everyone knows someone it could have been.”
- “True strength comes from love, solidarity, and honoring life.”
💡 Grassroots Organizing & Collective Action
Plenum (Student Assemblies)
Horizontal decision-making spaces that restored participatory democracy within universities.
Campus Blockades
Sustained, nonviolent occupations that transformed academic institutions into centers of civic resistance.
STAV (Student Activism Group)
A Novi Sad–based collective continuing its work despite arrests, trials, and state pressure.
🤝 Connect with the Students of Serbia
The Students of Serbia represent a rising global call for transparency, accountability, and dignity.
Follow their movement and ongoing actions through student-led social channels:
Katica Stevanvoic: https://www.linkedin.com/in/katica-stevanovic-4614442b0/
Nina Kustodic: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ninakustudic/
🤝 Connect with Me
📷 Instagram: @lizaflorida | @eightbillionproject
👤 Facebook: Eight Billion Podcast
💼 LinkedIn: Liza Florida
🌐 Website: lizaflorida.com
🙏 Special Thanks
To Katica, Nina and Natalija—for their courage, clarity, and commitment to truth.
To the International Peace Bureau—for partnership and support throughout this series.
To the victims of the Novi Sad tragedy and their families—your lives are honored, your memory held.
And to our listeners: may this episode remind you that democracy is not inherited—it is practiced, protected, and renewed by those brave enough to stand.
🔗 About the Series
Women as Agents of Change is a special podcast series hosted by Liza Florida, presented by Eight Billion in collaboration with the International Peace Bureau. Each episode uplifts women and youth shaping a more just, peaceful, and accountable world.
