I am a historian working in the field of contemporary European history, with the main focus so far on political history of feminisms in the first half of twentieth century.
Since 2021, I have been working as a research assistant at the Institute of Contemporary History in Ljubljana. I am currently involved in two research projects at the Institute, the Political History research program and the Analysis of and Responses to Extremist Narratives (ARENAS) HORIZON project.
I am also since 2023 a member of the team of researchers at the ERC-funded project The History of Feminist Political Thought and Women's Rights Discourses in East Central Europe 1929-2001 (HERESSEE) at the University of Vienna.
I defended my doctoral dissertation at the History Department of the Central European University (CEU) in Vienna in January 2024. The dissertation was co-supervised by professors Balázs Trencsényi and Francisca de Haan, and was awarded a summa cum laude distinction.
During my doctoral studies, I was a visiting student at the University of Cambridge, I held an Erasmus internship at the University of Ljubljana, and was awarded grants as a visiting researcher at the ÉHÉSS in Paris, the Institute of Contemporary History in Prague, and the Institute of Croatian Language and Linguistics in Zagreb.
I hold MA degrees in Comparative history and in Cultural Policy and Management. Besides academic work, I have plenty of experience of organizing cultural and public events in several NGOs in Serbia, as well as initiating and organizing various academic events. At the Institute, I currently coordinate the Visiting Fellowship program, which I initiated in
2022.
RESEARCH INTERESTS:
My research focuses on contemporary European history, and lies at the intersection of political history, women's and gender history, and intellectual history.
In my doctoral research, I explored the political transformation of interwar feminist organizing and feminist political thought by focusing on Yugoslavia. Using a comparative and transnational perspective, I studied the involvement of Yugoslav women in the major international organizations of the time.
I have recently began to research certain aspects of post-1945 feminist political thought in Yugoslavia, as well as the historical roots of contemporary extremist narratives in Serbia and Croatia.
My research interests encompass:
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Women's intellectual history
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Feminist political thought
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History of transnational women's organizing
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History of Yugoslavia
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Rural history (with the focus on peasant women)
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20th century political history
SELECTED PUBLICATIONS:
Balazs Trencsenyi, Lucija Balikić, and Una Blagojević, ed. Crisis Discourses in East Central Europe, 1918 to 2000: Never-Ending Story? Routledge. Forthcoming in 2024.
Articles and chapters in edited volumes:
with Kristina Andělová, “Crises of Feminism and Democracy in the Interwar Period. Yugoslav and Czechoslovak Entanglements”, in Crisis Discourses in East Central Europe, 1918 to 2000: Never-Ending Story?, ed. Balazs
Trencsenyi, Lucija Balikić, Una Blagojević, Isidora Grubački. New York – London, Routledge. Forthcoming in 2024.
with Irena Selišnik, “The National Women’s Alliance in interwar Yugoslavia: between feminist reform and institutional social politics”, Women's History Review 32, no. 2 (2022): 242-260.
“Communism, Left Feminism and Generations in the 1930s: The Case of Yugoslavia,” in Gender, Generations and Communism in Central and South-Eastern Europe, eds. by Anna Artwińska and Agnieszka Mrozik. London: Routledge, 2020.
“Women Activists’ Relation to Peasant Women’s Work in the 1930s Yugoslavia,” Women, Work and Agency. Organizing and activism around the world in the long 20th century, edited by Eloisa Betti, Silke Neunsinger, Leda Papastefanaki, Marica Tolomelli, and Susan Zimmermann. Budapest, New York, CEU
Press, 2022.
“The Emergence of the Yugoslav Interwar Liberal Feminist Movement and The Little Entente of Women: An Entangled History Approach (1919-1924),” Feminist Encounters, A Journal of Critical Studies in Culture and Politics, guest
editors Maria Bucur and Krassimira Daskalova, 2020.
“Čija kriza?: feminizam i demokratija u Jugoslaviji 20-ih godina XX veka”, Prispevki za novejšo zgodovino 62, no. 2 (2022): 29-49.
“Angažman Vere Štajn Erlih u časopisu Žena danas (1936-1940)”, in Časopis Žena danas (1936-1940) : prosvećivanje za revoluciju : zbornik radova”, ed. Stanislava Barać (Belgrade: Institute of Literature and Arts, 2022).
“Međuratni liberalni feminizam: narodni ženski savez i odnos humanitarnog i socijalnog pitanja u dvadesetim godinama 20. veka”, in Ženski pokret (1920-1938) : zbornik radova (Belgrade: Institute of Literature and Arts, 2021).
Other publications:
“Ina Jun Broda” (with Iva Jelušić and Lucija Bakšić), “Novi feminizam”, and “Mitra Mitrović” in Texts and Contexts from the History of Feminism and Women’s Rights, eds. Zsófia Lórand, Adela Hîncu, Jovana Mihajlović Trbovc, Katarzyna Stańczak-Wiślicz (CEU Press, 2024).
Introduction to and translation of: Alojzija Štebi, “Mišljenje javnosti i feminizam u Jugoslaviji” (Public Opinion and Feminism in Yugoslavia), Ženski pokret [Women's Movement] 9 (1924), 376–379, in Aspasia 16, 2022: 103–109.
Book review, “Mona L. Siegel, Peace on Our Terms. The Global Battle for Women’s Rights After the First World War”, Law and History Review, 2021.
“Kaja's Path and Milka Žicina's Path: The Uses of Literary Works for Labour and Intellectual History,” https://zarah-ceu.org/kajas-path-and-milka-zicinas-path-the-uses-of-literary-works-for-labour-and-intellectual-history/, 24/02/2023.
SCIENTIFIC NETWORKS:
ORGANIZATIONAL AND COLLABORATIVE INITIATIVES (selection)
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March 2021 – October 2023: Member of the organizing team and researcher of the project Neverending Story? Mapping Crisis-Discourses in East Central Europe, 1918-2020, hosted by CEU Democracy Institute, with prof. Balázs Trencsényi, Lucija
Balikić, Una Blagojević.
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Co-organizer with Dr. Adela Hincu of the Women's Intellectual History, Care, and Social Thought seminar series, as a partnership between the Who Cares in Europe COST Action and the Intellectual History in ECE Research Network, 2021-2022.
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Co-organizer (with Dr. Adela Hincu and Lucija Balikić) of the Intellectual History & Public Engagement: Intellectual History in East Central Europa Summer Workshop (COST Action Who Cares in Europe and Imre Kertész Kolleg Jena), July 2022.
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Co-organizer of the international workshop At the Nexus of Voluntary Action and Public Policies: Rethinking Care in Southeastern Europe, with Fabio Giomi (CNRS, CETOBaC, EHESS Paris), Ljubljana, August 2021.
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Co-organizer with Dr. Zsófia Lórand of the Women’s Intellectual History in East Central Europe seminar series, within the framework of the Intellectual History in ECE Research Network, 2021.
AWARDS, MOBILITY, SCHOLARSHIPS:
Centre d’études turques, ottomanes, balkaniques et centrasiatiques, EHESS, Paris, guest researcher, under the supervision of Dr. Fabio Giomi - COST Action Who cares in Europe, STSM scheme (2021, three weeks; 2023, one week).
Institute of Croatian Language and Linguistics, Zagreb, guest researcher (Grant application with Dr. Branimir Brgles – COST Action Worck, STSM scheme, 2022).
Cambridge University, visiting student, under the supervision of Dr. Celia Donert – CEU Doctoral Research Support Grant (2021, two months).
Institute of Contemporary History, Prague, guest researcher, under the supervision of Dr. Michal Kopeček - Josef Dobrovský Fellowship of The Czech Academy of Sciences (2021, six weeks).
Faculty of Arts, University of Ljubljana, PhD Erasmus internship on the ERC project Eirene - Post-war transitions in gendered perspective: The case of the North-Eastern Adriatic region, under the supervision of Prof. Marta Verginella (2020, four months).
TEACHING EXPERIENCE:
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Teaching Assistant for Discourses of Crisis: Texts and Contexts with professor Balázs Trencsényi, at Central European University.
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Teaching Assistant for Historiography Lecture and Seminar with professors László Kontler and Daniel Ziemann, at Central European University.
LANGUAGES:
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Serbian/ Croatian: native fluency
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English: proficient
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Slovene: advanced
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French: medium (reading, understanding)
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Spanish: medium (reading, understanding)
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Czech: beginner to medium (reading, understanding)
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German: beginner to medium (reading, understanding)
