Medaković had served as President of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts from 1998 to 2003, as Dean of the University of Belgrade Faculty of Philosophy (1971–1973) and was a member of the Matica srpska as well as other scholarly associations.

Dejan Medaković's great-grandfather Danilo had lived in the Kingdom of Serbia and held various positions in the administrations of princes Miloš and Mihailo Obrenović.

[1] He was also a member of the European Academy of Sciences and Arts in based in Salzburg, the Austrian Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies (ÖGE 18), the Leibniz Society in Berlin, member of the Matica srpska Council in Novi Sad and the president of the Vuk Karadžić Foundation Assembly.

He edited the Fine Arts Digest of Matica srpska journal (Serbian: Zbornik za likovne umetnosti Matice srpske).

He published many studies, essays, monographs, reviews and articles on various topics ranging from new developments in arts to current social and political issues.

In addition, he authored several important art monographs and studies dealing with cultural heritage of the Serbian Orthodox Church, writing about the monasteries of Hilandar and Savina.

Medaković was the recipient of many distinguished awards and honours: the Herder Prize; the Anton Gindely Prize; the City of Belgrade October Award; the Prosveta Annual Award; the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany (Bundesverdienstkreuz); the Austrian Cross of Honour for Science and Arts; the Gold Medal of Merit of the Republic of Hungary, the Medal of Vuk Karadžić of the First Order and many others.