Roberta Nikšić

Roberta Nikšić was selected for the 2022 European Press Prize shortlist for ‘Life with migrants.’

Roberta Nikšić (Mrkonjić Grad, 1982), a theologian, graduated in Franciscan Theology in Sarajevo, and completed Women’s Studies in Zagreb. She has published reviews in Bosna Franciscana, and Motrišta, short stories, reviews, columns and reportages in Svjetlo Riječi, articles on the socio-political engagement of women theologians in Bosnia-Herzegovina and Croatia in Religion & Geselschaft in Ost und West, and in Journal of the European Society of Women in Theological Research.  She also published two books of poetry.

During her collaboration for Svjetlo Riječi, a magazine run by Bosnian Franciscans, she has learned from the best, because the magazine brought together some of the most prominent intellectuals, theologians, journalists, writers, historians. That scenario changed in 2013., after the dismissal of the editor-in-chief which also resulted in a change in editorial policy. Many collaborators refused to write for Svjetlo Riječi, and so did she. With time, that formerly open-minded and critical magazine for religion, society and culture became a one-sided monthly magazine that keeps silent about anomalies in Bosnian societies and religious communities, such as, among other things, the nationalization of religion and consecration of the national, and the use of religion to ensure the rise of the political power of individuals and their political parties.

By launching polisa.ba in 2020., again by a group of Bosnian Franciscans, a website that nurtures openness, care and commitment to marginal voices that cannot be seen or heard in the midst of widespread media noise, on the platform where contributors can freely reflect on the positive aspects of religion and critically reflect on anomalies in Bosnian society, she found her home to write.