Život i rad Smilje Kostić-Joksić (1895–1981) profesorke Medicinskog fakulteta u Beogradu
The Life and Work of Smilja Kostić-Joksić (1895–1981) Professor at the Faculty of Medicine in Belgrade

Author(s): Dragomir Bondžić, Ivana Pantelić
Subject(s): History, Gender Studies, Gender history
Published by: Етнографски институт САНУ
Keywords: Dr. Smilja Kostić-Joksić (1895–1981); women; education; university; emancipation
Summary/Abstract: The paper analyses the life and scientific career of Smilja Kostić-Joksić, professor at the Faculty of Medicine University of Belgrade. Born in 1895 in Belgrade, where she attended grammar school, she participated in the Balkan Wars and the First World War as a nurse. She completed her medical studies in France in 1921, where she began her career at the Children’s Clinic in Strasbourg. However, in 1922 she returned to Belgrade, where she worked at the newly established Faculty of Medicine, first as a teaching assistant, and then, from 1939, as an assistant professor of pediatrics – the first female assistant professor at this institution. She was elected associate professor in 1948 and confirmed in 1950. Due to her “ideological and political inadequacy”, she was expelled from the school in 1954. She worked at the Children’s Clinic, practised pediatrics, established an infant counselling centre, and published several monographs and more than 120 scientific and professional papers. In particular, she was concerned with childhood tuberculosis and the protective effects of the BCG vaccine, the safety of which she proved. For scientific results she was awarded the French Order of the Légion d’honneur. In addition to scientific, professional and pedagogical work at the school and health institutions, she was also involved in social work, advancing medical knowledge, promoting health and hygiene among the general public, especially among women and children. The work and life of Smilja Kostić-Joksić are viewed and presented in a broader social, political and cultural context, within the framework of Serbia and Yugoslavia in the first half of the 20th century, and especially in the context of the development and operation of the Faculty of Medicine and the University of Belgrade, their teaching staff , and ideological and political circumstances that led to her expulsion from the Faculty and University. She died in Belgrade in 1981. She was married to Aleksandar Kostić, who had also been a student in France, a prominent scientist, physician and professor at the Faculty of Medicine in Belgrade, who was similarly expelled from teaching in 1952 because of his “ideological and political inadequacy”. In the course of the research we use documents contained in the fonds of the Archives of Serbia and the Archives of Yugoslavia.

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