Dr Jelena Seferović; Visiting Fellowship 2022/23
Biography
Since I started my postgraduate doctoral studies at the Department of Ethnology and Cultural Anthropology at the Faculty of Humanities and Social Science, University of Zagreb, Croatia I have mainly dealt with historically oriented topics. This includes research into the daily lives of members of vulnerable groups, with a focus on the female population with mental disorders.
After defending my doctorate dissertation entitled “Construction of gender identity among female residents in homes for adults with mental illness” in 2017, as a researcher within the European Research Advance Grant project “Post-war transitions in gendered perspective: The case of the North-Eastern Adriatic Coast” (Faculty of Arts, University of Ljubljana; PI Prof. Dr. Marta Verginella) I considered mostly issues related to girls and women with mental disorders between the two world wars.
In addition, during this period I also discussed some other topics in the field of social micro-history of the Kingdom SCS / Yugoslavia and SFR Yugoslavia. For example, I analyzed the work of women's humanitarian associations, everyday life of war veterans with mental disorders from the First World War, then, dealt with the work of certain psychiatric hospitals and social care institutions that provided care people with mental disorders.
I have been employed at the Institute for Anthropological Research in Zagreb, Croatia since September 2021 where I continue to research and write about the aforementioned social phenomena, but since then my interest in the social history of SFR Yugoslavia grew. In particular, I started research on a war orphans of Second World War and that motivated me to go deeper in the history of childhood in this area. I especially became interested in the life stories of the children of the then female migrant workers.
Visiting Fellowship October 2022
In April 2022, I started collaboration with Dr. Nina Vodopivec from the Institute of Contemporary History in Ljubljana. More precisely, we started in devising a research project concept that will address the issue of women's labor migration in SR Slovenia and SR Croatia. We intend to explore this topic from the perspective of their children and to consider it in relation to the then political and socio-economic conditions and gender stereotypes characteristic of this time and space. I will use the Fellowship opportunity to finish preparing the project documentation with Dr. Vodopivec.
Publications
- Seferović, Jelena (2021) “Teaching the history of psychosocial consequences of sexual violence in the context of female psychiatric patients”. Review of Education, Pedagogy, and Cultural Studies, Taylor & Francis Group, 43(2), pp. 119-141
- Seferović, Jelena (2020): “Reflection of the (In)power of Men in the Context of Post-War Everyday Life of Croatian War Veterans with Mental Disorders from World War I”. Synthesis philosophica, Hrvatsko filozofsko društvo, 35(1), pp. 25-44
- Seferović, Jelena (2019): “Prilog istraživanju kulture djevojaštva nakon Prvog svjetskog rata: primjer djevojaka sa psihičkim smetnjama iz ruralnih krajeva kontinentalne Hrvatske”. Prilozi, Institut za historiju u Sarajevu, 48, p.p. 177-210
- Seferović, Jelena (2019): “Povijesni razvoj institucionalizacije ranjivih skupina: primjer “Prihvatilišta odraslih Narodnog odbora grada Zagreba”. Filozofska istraživanja, Hrvatsko filozofsko društvo, 39(1), p.p. 159-170
- Seferović, Jelena (2021): “Analiza prezentacije i interpretacije prostitucije i prostituiranih žena u časopisu Ženski pokret”. Ženski pokret (1920-1938) : zbornik radova, ur. Jelena Milinković i Žarka Svirčev (Beograd: Institut za književnost i umetnost), p.p. 217-23
