I organised international conference on “Populations’ transfers in 20th century Europe. The case of Istria” (Koper/Capodistria, Slovenia, 25th‒26th April 2014) in collaboration with Catherine Gousseff, director of the Centre d’Études des Mondes Russe, Caucasien et Centre-Européen, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, L’École des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (CERCEC CNRS, EHESS), Paris. Koper is one of the emptied towns in Istria due to mass migrations of (mostly) Italian speaking population after the World War II that occurred because of the allies’ politics and the inclusion of this conflict territory in Yugoslavia, followed by the introduction of the new (socialist) system. This part of history remains unknown from many aspects and silent in today’s Slovenia and is frequently subject to political manipulations. The aim of this conference was to surpass the conflict national (Slovene, Croatian and Italian) interpretations of this part of the past, with the contributions of internationally established researchers analysing it in a broader European perspective of the 20th century for the first time. The interdisciplinary conference gathered experts from the fields of history, ethnology, cultural anthropology, sociology and architecture. The keynote speakers were world-renowned researchers of populations’ transfers and contemporary European history – Catherine Gousseff (CERCEC CNRS/EHESS, Paris), Philipp Ther (University of Vienna) and Gustavo Corni (University of Trento). Other speakers were also well established researchers: Pamela Ballinger (University of Michigan), Jasna Čapo (Institute of Ethnology and Folklore Research, Zagreb), Cathie Carmichael (University of East Anglia), Lidija Nikočević (Ethnographic Museum of Istria, Pazin), Gloria Nemec (IRSML Trieste – CRS Rovigno), Raoul Pupo (University of Trieste), Marta Verginella (University of Ljubljana), Jure Gombač (Slovenian Migration Institute, ZRC SAZU, Ljubljana), Neža Čebron Lipovec and Katja Hrobat Virloget (University of Primorska). The conference was organized in the frame of my postdoctoral project and co-sponsored by TEPSIS Labex and CERCEC CNRS/EHESS (France), French Institute in Slovenia, Italian Institute for Culture in Slovenia and Austrian Cultural Forum. The international scientific monograph with papers from the above mentioned researchers and others, edited by the two conference convenors, is currently in preparation for the press (Annales Mediterranei, 2015).
B.01 Organiser of a scientific meeting
COBISS.SI-ID: 1537081540I participate regularly on international conferences (EASA, SIEF, ISFNR and other conferences of smaller scale), the last paper was presented on EASA (European Association of Social Anthropologists) conference in Tallin in 2014. The paper “The Burden of the Past. Living together with divided memories on mass migrations in the Post-war Yugoslavia in Istria, Slovenia” was accepted in the panel “Intimacy of Social Memory and the Construction of Self-identity linked to the Holocaust and Forced Migrations in the Current Interconnected World”, conveyed by Carole Lemee (Université Bordeaux & UMR Ades) and Vytis Ciubrinskas (Vytautas Magnus University). The presentation revealed how the divided memories on post-war mass migrations of Italians from Istria influence the identities and cohabitation between those, who remained, and between immigrants. This part of the past divides not just the two national collective memories, but also the memories of those living in the emptied (and resettled) places. What is understood as “exodus”, forced migrations on one side, is taken as voluntary migrations on the other. On the one hand, the identity of a community is founded on the notion of “the victim”, and on the other hand the same tragic events are neglected, reinterpreted and censored by the winning collective (national) memory, which also refers to the concept of “the victim”. The Italian speaking inhabitants, who remained in Yugoslavia, lost all their social ties and found themselves as strangers in their own home just as the immigrants. “Suppressed memories”, amnesias of pressures, feelings of complicity, enmities remained hidden because of their incompatibility with the national collective memory. The presentation showed the multiplicity of memories that, according to Halbwachs, can be explained by associating the individual memories to the various groups, to which a person is simultaneously a member. The paper is currently beeing prepared for the conference publication.
B.03 Paper at an international scientific conference
COBISS.SI-ID: 1536886468The results of the postdoctoral project were presented at the international ethnological conference on the topic of Istria. The title indicates the "urban legend" from Istria about the bunch of keys received by the immigrants, by which they searched an appartment in the emptied istrian towns. At the same time the legend reflects the symbolic borders between the "natives" and immigrants, perceived by the "natives" as a privileged class. The paper will be published in the Zbornik za narodni život i običaje (Croatia).
B.03 Paper at an international scientific conference
COBISS.SI-ID: 1536020420Lectures on foreign universities: Within the framework of the international project Tempus IV - BIHERIT (2012/13-2013/14), managed by the Faculty of Arts, University of Ljubljana (dr. Novaković), we conducted a training on heritage studies as curricular modules at three universities in Bosnia and Herzegovina: Sarajevo, Tuzla and Banja Luka. In the frame of my course The Concepts and Methodology of Heritage Research I lectured 90 hours of lessons in two academic years. One lecture on each university was dedicated to the conflict heritage and memories in Istria as a base for discussions on the contemporary divided memories after the recent war in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The results of the posdoctoral researh project were presented in the frame of the current pedagocic work on the University of Primorska: Ethnological Heritage, Methodology of Heritage Research on the Faculty of Humanities; and Intangible Heritage, Cultural Heritage and its Preservation on the joint study programme with Faculty of Tourism Studies. The results were presented also at the University of Ljubljana by Ethnology of the Slovenes (Habinc).
B.05 Guest lecturer at an institute/university
The contribution is published in the professional book for the teachers of hitorical circles in the secundary and primary schols. By warning of the marginalised memories it raises the public awarness and it sensibilise the dominant society on the minority problems. The disemination was performed also by other lectures for the public and media. A big echo had the radio broadcast on the tematic of exodus together with Pamela Ballinger and Gustavo Corni. http://4d.rtvslo.si/arhiv/il-vaso-di-pandora/174272791. [COBISS.SI-ID 1536448452]
D.10 Educational activities
COBISS.SI-ID: 1536171204