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Key research themes
1. How did Slovene national identity and historiography evolve through education and textual narratives in the 19th and 20th centuries?
This research area focuses on the critical role of education systems, school textbooks, and literary historiography in shaping and reinforcing Slovene national identity. It examines how language policies, school reforms, and curricular narratives constructed collective memory and national consciousness, particularly during the late Habsburg period and into the post-Yugoslav era. This theme matters as it elucidates the mechanisms of nation-building via institutional and cultural tools and highlights tensions between memory, ideology, and historical knowledge production.
Key finding: This paper demonstrates that 19th-century school systems and textbooks were instrumental in forming a standardized Slovene language and collective identity, but also reveals how certain contributors from Slovene peripheries... Read more
Key finding: This study uncovers how mid-19th century Austrian school reforms, initially aimed at modernization and secularization, inadvertently facilitated Slovene national identity formation by institutionalizing Slovene language... Read more
Key finding: Analyzing imperial censorship apparatus in early 19th century Carniola, this article links the scarcity of Slovene-language periodicals and literary activity before 1848 to systematic suppression by the Habsburg censorship... Read more
Key finding: This article critiques the traditional grand narrative model of Slovene literary history, advocating for a modular, digitally collaborative approach that reflects the complexities of Slovene literary production beyond... Read more
2. How have Slovenes actively negotiated and contested national identity through historiographical and public debates since the late 20th century?
This theme explores the dynamic interplay between historians, political actors, and wider society in shaping, contesting, and historicizing the Slovene national narrative during post-socialist transitions. It includes analyses of public intellectual debates, redefinitions of national identity, and the politicization of historical memory amid Slovenia’s emergence as an independent state. Understanding these negotiations reveals the sociopolitical role of historiography and collective memory in nation-building and democratization.
Key finding: By analyzing a 1993 public debate among prominent Slovene historians, the paper reveals diverging temporal experiences and political understandings of nationhood that mirrored broader social cleavages during early... Read more
Key finding: This book examines how Yugoslavia’s contested WWII internal massacres were politically and culturally represented and manipulated from 1945 to 2002, uncovering how history was framed to support national reconciliation efforts... Read more
Key finding: The study analyzes the Venetic theory controversy as an ideological movement that rejected the Slavic origins of Slovenes, thereby catalyzing a redefinition of Slovene national imagery during Yugoslavia’s crisis. It argues... Read more
Key finding: Through content analysis of interwar Slovene newspapers, this article demonstrates how everyday cultural practices, such as the consumption of slivovitz, contributed to unreflective nation-building ('everyday nationalism')... Read more
Key finding: This study documents how ‘Vojvodinian historiography’ functioned as an ideologically driven Marxist historiographical school closely tied to the Communist League, flourishing under socialist governance and collapsing with... Read more
3. What methodological and thematic innovations characterize contemporary Slovene historiography and cultural studies in analyzing national identity and historical narratives?
Relevant scholarship examines new approaches to Slovene historiography and cultural history that challenge traditional grand narratives, incorporate interdisciplinary methods, and critically analyze migrating intellectual ideas and transnational influences affecting Slovenian historiography. This theme captures the expansion of scholarly inquiry into nuanced conceptualizations of identity, historiographical practices, and national memory construction, especially amid digitalization and globalization.
Key finding: This study highlights the innovative relational research project that compiles migrating social and political ideas across South Slavic cultures, including Slovene, from the 18th to 21st centuries. It opens new horizons by... Read more
Key finding: Focusing on recent shifts in Slovene literary studies, this article identifies paradigmatic changes from text-centric to context- and reception-oriented approaches, driven by digital resources and interdisciplinary research.... Read more
Key finding: The article critically examines the interplay of myth and ideology within contemporary Slovene historiography, highlighting how political shifts historically influenced national narratives, especially concerning democracy and... Read more
Key finding: Arguing for abandoning synthetic national grand narratives, this work advocates for a literary historiography approach informed by networked, cooperative knowledge production suited to the digital era. It recognizes the... Read more
Key finding: This introduction contextualizes historic anthropological and sociological fieldwork methods applied to the study of social institutions like the zadruga, emphasizing empirical, cross-ethnic analyses over ethnic-nationalist... Read more