Jelena Seferović, PhD

Academic and scientific degrees:

• 2017 Ph.D. in Ethnology and Cultural Anthropology, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Zagreb, Croatia
• 2007 M.A. in Fine Arts, Academy of Fine Arts, Zagreb, Croatia

Work experience:

• 2024 –    Research Associate. Institute of Contemporary History, Ljubljana, Slovenia
• 2021 –     Research Associate. Institute for Anthropological Research, Zagreb, Croatia
• 2018 – 2020 Assistant with a PhD. ERC Advance Grant project EIRENE – Post-War Transitions in gendered Perspective: The Case of the North-Eastern Adriatic Region. Project funded by the European Research Council under the Horizon 2020 program. Project leader: Prof. Dr. Marta Verginella, Faculty of Arts, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia
• 2011 – 2017 Commercialist. S-ECO Ltd. for trade and production of wooden products, Dubrovnik, Croatia
• 2008 – 2011 – Educator. Center for Education and Upbringing Gornje Prekrižje, Zagreb, Croatia

Cooperation on projects:

• 2025–present: Researcher, Medical Crises in Croatia in the First Half of the 20th Century (HRZZ, IP-2025-02-4618). Project PI: Dr. Martin Kuhar, Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts, Zagreb, Croatia
• 2024 –        Member of the project team. Multilevel sustainability as a precondition for health and well-being (SUSTAINWELL). Project leader: Dr. Morana Jarec, Institute for Anthropological Reserach, Zagreb
• 2023 –        Project leader. Care and Education Systems for Children with Sensory Disabilities in the First and Second Yugoslav State. Project funded by the Public Agency for Research Activities of the Republic of Slovenia.
• 2023 –        Secondary proposer, MC and member of the Healthcare Patients working group. COST Action National, International and Transnational Histories of Healthcare, 1850-2000. Project leader: Prof. Barry Doyle, University of Huddersfield, United Kingdom
• 2023 –        Member of the project team. Bilateral project The Impact of Global Insecurities on Strengthening Movements for Food Sovereignty in Croatia and Slovenia. Project funded by the Ministry of Science and Education of the Republic of Croatia. Project leader: Dr. Olga Orlić, Institute for Anthropological Research, Zagreb, Croatia and Prof. Peter Simonič, Faculty of Arts, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia
• 2022 –         Assistant with a PhD. Sin, Shame, Symptom: Suicide and its Perceptions in Slovenia (1850-2000). Project funded by the Public Agency for Research Activities of the Republic of Slovenia. Project leader Dr. Meta Remec, Institute of Contemporary History, Ljubljana, Slovenia
• 2022 – 2024. MC and member of the Accessing Citizenship working group. COST Action History of Identity Documentation in European Nations: Citizenship, Nationality and Migration. PI: Dr. Jennifer Redmond, Maynooth University, Ireland
• 2021 – 2023. Member of the Marginalised People and the Mixed Economy of Welfare working group. COST Action Who cares in Europe? Project leader:Prof. Clarisse Berthenze, Paris Cite University, France
• 2020 – 2022. Member of the project team. Solidarity economy in Croatia: an anthropological perspective. Project funded by the Croatian Science Foundation. Project leader: Dr. Olga Orlić, Institute for Anthropological Research, Zagreb, Croatia
• 2018 – 2020. Member of the project team. Cultural history of psychiatry in Southeastern Europe. Project funded by the Bavarian Academic Center for Central, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe and the Bavarian Research Association. Project leader: Dr. Heike Karge, Institute of History, University of Regensburg, Germany.

Organizational skills and competencies:

• 2024 –          Chairperson of the Gender Equality Commission, Institute for Anthropological Reseach, Zagreb
• 2014 – 2017 Project leader. Improving the quality of dental care at the Lobor – Grad Home for Mentally Ill Adults. The project was carried out with the support of the Ombudsman for Persons with Disabilities Office, Zagreb, Croatia
• 2015 Member of the Organizing Committee. Third scientific conference of postgraduate doctoral students in social and humanistic sciences, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Zagreb
• 2020 Member of the Organizing Committee. Fifteenth International Auksology Congress, Šibenik
• 2020 Participation in the development of a survey questionnaire for the Slovenian-Croatian project “Developmental Programming of Metabolic Syndrome and Diabetes” application to the Croatian Science Foundation (IPS-2020-01). Institute of Anthropology, Zagreb, Croatia
• 2020 Participation in the preparation of courses for the Interdisciplinary Study of Anthropology and Human Genetics at the University of Pula. Courses: Fundamentals of Sociocultural Anthropology, Field Research in Anthropology, and Sociocultural Anthropology in Health and Illness Research. Institute of Anthropology, Zagreb, Croatia
• 2023 Research stay at the Department of Archaeology, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina
• 2023 Research stay at Panteion University – Department of Social Anthropology, Athens, Greece
• 2023 Research stay at the Institute of History, University of Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina
• 2022 Research stay at the Institute of Contemporary History, Ljubljana, Slovenia

Research interests: History of vulnerable groups, psychiatry, and disability, social welfare systems; anthropology of sexuality, dying, and death.

Teaching experience:

• 2007 – 2010 External collaborator. Conducting art workshops within the course of Creative art therapy, Faculty of Education and Rehabilitation, Department of Motor Disorders, Chronic Diseases and Art Therapy, University of Zagreb, Croatia

Published publications:

• Seferović Jelena (2025). Echoes of childhood : growing up between worlds of quiet and sound. Antropologija : časopis Centra za etnološka i antropološka istraživanja (CEAI) Filozofskog fakulteta Univerziteta u Beogradu, br. 25, sv. 1, str. 59–73. ISSN 1452-7243. https://antropologija.com/index.php/an/article/view/521/496, DOI: 10.21301/ant2513.
• Domitrović, Ivan, Abou Aldan, Damjan, Seferović, Jelena (2025). Nursing rituals for dying and deceased patients in hospitals of the Republic of Croatia = a qualitative study. Croatian nursing journal, vol. 9, no. 2, str. 197-207. ISSN 2584-6531. https://hrcak.srce.hr/342785, DOI: 10.24141/2/9/2/5.
• Seferović, Jelena, Dujmović, Sonja (2025). Challenges and achievements inthe care and education of children with sensory disabilities in Bosnia and Herzegovina (from the late 19th Century to 1941). Prispevki za novejšo zgodovino. [Tiskana izd.]. letn. 65, št. 1, str. 68-86, ilustr. ISSN 0353-0329. https://ojs.inz.si/pnz/article/view/4484, DOI: 10.51663/pnz.65.1.04.
• Batinić, Štefka, Seferović, Jelena, et al., Solter (2025). Ana (editor). Historija zaborava : prve žene zagrebačkih muzeja. Zagreb: Arheološki muzej u Zagrebu: Hrvatski školski muzej: Etnografski muzej Hrvatski školski muzej: Muzej za umjetnost i obrt, 175 str., ilustr. ISBN 978-953-8143-75-5.
• Seferović, Jelena (2024). “Lujo Thaller o seksualnom zdravlju.” Godišnjak njemačke zajednice, 31, 89-106.
• Seferović, Jelena (2024). “Perspectives on Suicide: Bosnian and Herzegovinian and Croatian Views from the 1880s to the 1930s.” Prispevki za novejšo zgodovino, 64(2), 77-96.
• Seferović, Jelena (2023). “Voluntary Aid to People with Mental Disorders in Croatia in the 1930s.” In Caring for the Socially Marginalised in Interwar Europe, 1919-1939: The Mixed Economy of Welfare, edited by Michele Mioni and Stefano Petrungaro, Palgrave Macmillan.
• Seferović, Jelena (2023): “Prilog istraživanju povijesti svakodnevice u Dječjem domu u Nazorovoj 49: review of the 1940s and 1950s”. Zbornik “Bioetička motrišta o mentalnom zdravlju”. Janeš, Luka i Kožić, Štefanija (ur.). Centar za bioetiku Fakulteta filozofije i religijskih znanosti Sveučilišta u Zagrebu, pp. 57-73
• Seferović, Jelena (2022): “Subjektivni doživljaj arhivskog istraživanja ratne siročadi iz Drugog svjetskog rata”, JAHR – European Journal of Bioethics. Katedra za društvene i humanističke znanosti u medicini Medicinskog fakulteta Sveučilišta u Rijeci i Dokumentacijsko istraživački centar za europsku bioetiku “Fritz Jahr” Sveučilišta u Rijeci, 13(2), pp. 311-325
• 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 (2021): “Analiza prezentacije i interpretacije prostitucije i prostituiranih žena u časopisu Ženski pokret”. Zbornik radova s konferencije “Časopis Ženski pokret”, p. 217-231
• Musić Milanović, Sanja; Lang Marović, Maja; Križan, Helena; Pezer, Martina; Seferović, Jelena; Missoni, Saša (2020): “Exploring the effect of socioeconomic development on child growth in posttransitional Croatia: a cross-sectional study”. International journal of public health, Springer, 65(4), pp. 1299-1307
• 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

Additonal education:

• 2012 – 2014  Clinical expressive arts therapy, Dugan LLC., Varaždin, Croatia