Projects
Current projects
Transformations of Intimacy in the literary discourse of Slovene “moderna” J6-3134
Project leader: Prof. Dr. Katja Mihurko Poniž (Basic Research Project, ARRS, 1. 11. 2021–31. 10. 2024)
Sustainable Digital Preservation of the Slovenian New Media Art
Project leader: Assoc. Prof. Dr. Aleš Vaupotič (Basic Research Project, ARRS, J7-3158, 1. 11. 2021–31. 10. 2024)
Researchers: Assist. Dr. Eszter Polonyi, Assist. Prof. Dr. Kristina Pranjić
An Archaeology of Identity Photography
Project leader: Dr. Eszter Polonyi
Historical Interpretations of the 20th Century
Programme group leader: Prof. Dr. Oto Luthar (ZRC SAZU)
Members of the programme group at UNG: Prof. Dr. Katja Mihurko Poniž, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Ana Toroš, Prof. dr. Peter Purg, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Kristina Pranjić
P6-0347
The research departs from the acknowledging the necessity of (self)reflection in research practices, discourses and the production of knowledge in the field of the humanities and particular the theory of historiography and memory studies. The team will focus on defining basic concepts (collective memory, plurality of historical interpretation, revisionism), as well as on the linguistic protocols and mobilisation of collective memory for social and/or political action. It will focus on the relationship between historiography and other discourses about the past. To do so, the team will investigate the following axiological aspects of the relationship: 1) Historiography and the “affective turn”: we will focus on the tensions and ambiguities that emerge from the entanglement of different historiographical interpretations on the one hand, and the experiential memory and affective investments into the past, on the other. In particular, the research is interested in epistemological, moral and political consequences of these tensions, and will rest on the long tradition of consideration of the ambiguous relationship between history and “life”. 2) Politics of memory (revisionism, influence of popular culture, influence of institutions on popular interpretations of history, etc.): we will investigate, in comparative perspective, the changes in memorial landscape in Central and Southeastern Europe and thoroughly investigate the extents of (re)appropriation and negotiation of memory on different social planes as well as at the interstices of the local and global, the European and national. 3) Space, memory and history: spatial contextualisations and materialisations of the past will facilitate a productive framework to investigate the complex relationship between affect, memory and institutionalised narratives about the past. 4) Memory, history and digital media: here we will focus on the changes in understanding of “being in time” in the era of instant connectivity, within the framework of affective relationship to technology and the past. We will highlight social and epistemological consequences of understanding the past, the present and the turn after the “connective turn” and in the culture of the past.
The research group will geographically focus on Slovenia and the neighbouring countries, particularly the region of the former Yugoslavia. It will compare findings with developments in the countries of the post-socialist east. Temporally and in terms of content, the programme will predominantly focus on the Second World War and the (socialist) Yugoslavia. Twenty-five years after the end of Yugoslavia and socialism, it is possible to engage in an extensive (re)interpretation of the events, reconstruction of social and (engaged) art practices and systematic analysis of political ideas and their ideological redefinitions. We are convinced that the processes of changing memory demand an interdisciplinary approach as they cannot be understood solely through the narrow perspectives of history and historiography.
Slovenian Writers and Imperial Censorship in the Long Nineteenth Century
Project leader: Assoc. Prof. Dr. Marijan Dović (ZRC SAZU)
Project team member UNG: Prof. Dr. Katja Mihurko Poniž
Project website
About the project
The three-year research project ARRS J6-2583 (1st September 2020–30th August 2023) aims to examine an under-researched topic that has yet to receive systematic scholarly attention. Instead of partial descriptions, this project offers an insight into the concealed yet constitutive nature of censorship practices by carrying out the first systematic survey of the period, which includes new primary sources, and framing the various detailed case studies with a new conceptualization of the modern institution of censorship. Rather than continue to apply the term “censorship” to highly heterogeneous practices, the project proposes a more unified concept of censorship, which then allows for insight into actual relatively specific areas of its legal regulation and implementation. In the literature of the period, these areas are 1) periodicals, 2) book publishing, and 3) theater.
The spatial scope is limited to the Slovenian lands within the Habsburg monarchy (especially Carniola, but also Carinthia and Styria); this Slovenian situation is then broadened by the imperial context and the context of neighboring literary cultures (German, Czech, Croatian, Hungarian). The temporal scope is the “long nineteenth century,” the period between 1789–1914, which the revolutionary year of 1848 divides almost symmetrically into two phases: the phase dominated by preventive (or pre-publication) censorship, and the phase determined mostly by retroactive (or post-publication) censorship.
DARIAH group Women Writers in History
The tasks of the DARIAH Working Group Women Writers are as follows:
- reinforcement and enlargement of a network created over the last decade thanks to NWO, COST and HERA;
- further development of a VRE allowing large-scale research in women’s literary history;
- encouragement of new research initiatives in this field, both individual and collaborative, focusing upon women’s authorship and reception;
- reflections upon use and interpretation of the data provided by as yet unexplored sources;
- service for – academic and other – teaching, and encourage students to use the online VRE as “their” tool;
- preparation of initiatives for crowdsourcing and citizen’s participation in the field of women’s literary history;
- maintenance of contact with members of other institutions in women’s cultural heritage and relevant networks such as WINE (Women’s Information Network of Europe).
Call for Webinar Presentations in 2023
and contributions for the Brill Collection “Women Writers in History”
The Slovenian group was one of the organizers of a conference Teaching Women Writers: exploring NEWW VRE possibilities (Ljubljana, November 16, 2017)
The project aims to utilize the panoramic view of the “longue durée,” whose long temporal scope itself also encourages theoretical and methodological reflection. The focus is on censorship in the narrow sense of institutionalized forms of control over the circulation of texts, the essential dimension of which is the capacity to sanction (implemented by the repressive apparatus of the state). This provides a firm vantage point for investigations into less institutionalized restrictions, such as self-censorship, indirect sanctions, market forces, discrimination against sexual and other minorities, and other forms of censorship in the broader sense.
The project comprises both general (synthetic) investigations and a set of carefully selected case studies covering the entire period, all literary media and genres, and all key problem areas of the proposed project. The focus is on the implementation of censorship practices; their impact on Slovenian books, newspapers, and theater; their role in the development of the Slovenian national movement; the recorded strategies for evading censorship; the changes in censorship’s social functions; and the impact of “gender censorship,” which remains an unexplored area of Slovenian literary history.