Nikola Moravčević (, also rendered as Nicholas Moravcevich, born December 10, 1935) is a Serbian-American literary historian, literary critic, academic and novelist. Born and educated in Yugoslavia, he moved to the United States in 1955, and made an academic career, chiefly at the University of Illinois at Chicago, in the field of Slavic Studies and literary history. Since 1990s, he published several historical novels in Serbian and English. He lives in Chicago.
Biography
Moravčević was born in Zagreb, (Kingdom of Yugoslavia) in a family of Serbian officer of Yugoslav Royal Army on December 10, 1935. During the World War II, his father was captured and held prisoner by the Germans but refused to return to the communist Yugoslavia after the war ended.
After he completed undergraduate studies at the Faculty of Dramatic Arts at the University of Belgrade in 1955, Moravčević moved to the United States. After three years of service in the U.S. Army, he obtained in 1961 a magisterial degree in Theatrical Directing from the School of Theatre Arts at the Art Institute of Chicago, and in 1964 a doctoral degree in Comparative Literature from the University of Wisconsin–Madison.
He subsequently taught at Stevens College in Missouri as an assistant professor (1964–66) and at the University of Illinois at Chicago as an assistant professor (1966–68), an associate professor (1968–71) and full professor (1971–2002). At UIC he also held several administrative positions. In 1968, he founded the Slavic Department and served as its head for thirteen years (until 1981). From 1981 to 1988, he served as the university's vice-chancellor and director of campus development.