Luka Lucic

Luka’s primary academic research explores the effects of radical change—such as migration, war, and urban destruction—on the socio-cognitive development of young people. His work shows that the consequences of growing up during migrations, wars, or political instabilities are not solely trauma and emotional scars, but that knowledge and experience gained in the contexts of radical change dynamically influence the cognitive growth of young people. In addition to academic publications, his research has been featured in The New York Times, Radio Kingston, Nature, The Architect’s Newspaper, Radio Free Europe, Göteborgs-Posten, The Future Architecture Platform, and Pratt News.

In collaboration with Pratt’s School of Design, Dr. Lucić led the Kingston Creative Exchange, a project funded by the Martin Architecture and Design Workshop (MADWORKSHOP). Through adaptive reuse, the project established a space in Kingston, New York, for creative exchange between local artisans and youth. Employing the activity theory approach, Luka developed a curriculum entitled The Syntax of Design, which integrated mold-casting, slip-casting ceramics, and soap production together with interior and communication design. The curriculum was successfully implemented by Pratt’s interdisciplinary design team, local artisans, and Kingston High School students who often live in areas with a high concentration of creative artistic capital but are frequently unable to access it. Rather than solely interpreting this social imbalance, the point of the curriculum was to change it.

Dr. Lucić also serves as Visiting Professor in the Department of Psychology at the Faculty of Media and Communications (FMK) in Belgrade, Serbia where he contributes to qualitative methodology courses. With FMK Knjige, he is editing a series of foundational texts in sociocultural psychology, originally written in Russian and English, soon to appear in Serbian translation.

He served on the Board of Directors of the Jean Piaget Society from 2017 to 2021. At Pratt, he helped establish the Psychology Minor in 2014 and currently serves as its coordinator. During the 2015–2016 academic year, he was a visiting faculty member in the Department of Psychology at Boğaziçi University in Istanbul, where he taught courses in cultural psychology. Before joining Pratt, he was an Adult Literacy Fellow at the NYC Office of the Mayor, taught psychology at Hunter College, and lectured on the history of immigration at the New-York Historical Society.

Extending beyond empirical research, Luka’s writing traces how stories of migration, war, and marginality are told—and transformed—through language and artistic expression. His recent publications appear in both scholarly and creative contexts, reflecting an ongoing dialogue between psychological theory and artistic practice.

B.A., The City College of New York; M.Phil., Ph.D., The Graduate Center, CUNY.

Next Age Daydream, in Surrealism Tomorrow: The Next 100 Years, edited with Karolina Koczynska, LibreLit, Issue Four, 2025

Surrealism Tomorrow: The Next 100 Years, edited with Karolina Koczynska, LibreLit, Issue Four, 2025

Beyond Trauma Narratives: How the Military Siege of Sarajevo Shaped Stories Told in the Aftermath, in Narrative in Crisis: Reflections from the Limits of Storytelling, Oxford University Press, 2024 (with G. Fløgstad)

Bewilderment and Illumination: Language as a Tool to Understand the Migrant Experience, in Migrant Scholars Researching Migration: Reflexivity, Subjectivity, and Biographical Research, Routledge, 2023

An Informal Education Intervention in Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic: Homework Mentorships in a Berlin Refugee Shelter, Human Arenas, vol. 4, no. 4, 2021 (with C. O’Connell)

War Schools: Teaching Innovations Implemented Across Makeshift Educational Spaces during the Military Siege of Sarajevo, Pedagogy, Culture & Society, vol. 29, no. 4, 2021

They Are Thirsty for Internet More than Water: Learning and Cognitive Development among Young Refugees Undergoing Migration, in Z. Yan (ed.), Analyzing Human Behavior in Cyberspace, IGI Global, 2019 (with L. Liharska)

Ecological Landscape in Narrative Thought: How Siege Survivors Employ Prepositions to Make Sense of War-Torn Sarajevo, Narrative Inquiry, vol. 28, no. 2, 2018 (with E. Bridges)

Developmental Affordances of War-Torn Landscapes: Growing Up in Sarajevo Under Siege, Human Development, vol. 59, 2016

Narrative Approaches to Conflict Resolution Across Technologically Mediated Landscapes, International Journal of Cyber Behavior, Psychology and Learning, vol. 6, no. 1, 2016

Changing Landscapes, Changing Narratives: Socio-Cultural Approach for Teaching Global Migrants, Pedagogy, Culture & Society, vol. 24, no. 2, 2016

The Crisis of Geographical Imagination in Turkey, Metropolitics, June 20, 2016

The Boys of Sarajevo’s War Tunnel, Metropolitics, January 12, 2016

Earlier and co-authored work has appeared in Schizophrenia Research, European Psychiatry, Pedagogy, Culture & Society, and International Journal of Intercultural Relations.