The Njegoš Endowment for Serbian Language and Culture at Columbia University, named for the great 19th-century Serbian-Montenegrin prince and bishop-poet, Petar Petrovic-Njegoš, was established in 1997 with the goal of supporting instruction in Serbian language, literature and culture at Columbia University. As part of its overall fundraising efforts, the Njegoš Endowment sponsors a wide range of lectures and cultural events related to Serbia, the Serbian people, and the Serbian population in the United States. These lectures and forums are open to students and the general public. One of the goals of the Njegoš Fund is to provide a attractive range of lectures and guests in order to build interest in Serbian studies. The Harriman Institute regularly hosts high-ranking statesmen, top scientists, scholars and artists from all around the world, and since the largest number of students learning Serbian do study political science and international relations, the role of the Njegoš Fund in informing and educating young American humanists and diplomats is of the utmost importance. 

Columbia University has a long history of instruction in Serbian studies. Serbian has been taught at Columbia since 1918. Each year, Columbia students have enrolled in classes to learn the basics of Serbian grammar, spelling, as well as literature, history, and culture. Since 2014, Columbia has offered instruction in the Serbian language to students at Cornell and Yale universities through the Shared Course Initiative via high-definition videoconferencing. The Department of Slavic Languages and the Harriman Institute continue to provide courses and cultural events that bring Serbian studies to both the University community and the general public.

Notable among the University’s Serbian connections have been Nikola Tesla and Mihajlo Idvorski Pupin. Tesla’s lecture on the rotating magnetic field as a means for the electrical distribution of energy and discoveries in the realm of high frequency engineering and coupled tuning were invaluable to the growth of modern electrical engineering. He was awarded an honorary LL.D. from Columbia in 1894. Pupin graduated from the college in 1883, and after obtaining his Ph.D. at the University of Berlin, he returned to Columbia in 1889 as lecturer of mathematical physics in the newly formed Department of Electrical Engineering, where he became a professor in 1901 and a professor emeritus in 1931. Pupin’s research pioneered carrier wave detection and current analysis, and his accomplishments included the invention of the Pupin coil and the replication of Roentgen’s production of x-rays. He was also a consul of the Kingdom of Serbia in New York. Columbia’s Pupin Hall has been named a National Historic Landmark for its association with experiments relating to the splitting of the atom and the Manhattan Project. In recent history, some of Columbia’s most prominent professors of Serbian descent have made tremendous contributions in biomedical engineering, English literature and many other fields.

In 2024, the Njegoš Endowment commemorates the centennial of the Pulitzer Prize awarded to the celebrated Serbian-American scientist, Michael Idvorsky Pupin, received for his autobiography From Immigrant to Inventor. Numerous lectures will be held and guests from Serbia will attend. Your donation will ensure the successful organization of these events.

In addition to short-term goals, the Njegoš Endowment also has plans for the long term. The two most important are to establish an endowed Visiting Professorship and Chair in South Slavic Studies at Columbia University. Such positions are permanent and financially independent, and they would ensure the future of Serbian language and culture studies at this prestigious institution. Your contribution will help us to reach this goal.