Manca G. Renko, PhD

About the Researcher

Manca G. Renko is a historian whose research focuses on intellectual history, the history of labour, and women’s history in Central and Southeastern Europe in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Her research explores how canons are formed and which forms of intellectual, political, and artistic labour remain at their margins. She is particularly interested in invisible forms of intellectual work, the relationship between art and working conditions, and methodological approaches to studying the “blank spaces” of history.

Her research examines women’s political thought, women’s labour history, autobiographical sources, the history of emotions and trauma, as well as everyday forms of political and cultural engagement. She connects intellectual history with labour history, gender history, and cultural history, employing approaches from history “from below” and paying particular attention to popular culture as a historical source.

She is currently a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Vienna, where she leads the project Women’s Intellectual and Artistic Labor (WILA). She is also involved in research projects at the Institute of Contemporary History focusing on women’s political thought in East Central Europe and on nationalism in the Habsburg-Austrian borderlands. Previously, she worked as a researcher on two European Research Council (ERC) projects, Eirene and HERESSEE, as well as on a research project at ZRC SAZU dedicated to the history of women’s labour in Slovenia.

Alongside her academic work, she is active as an editor and publisher. In 2024, she founded the independent publishing house No! Press. Previously, she served as editor-in-chief of the art journal CUKR, editor-in-chief of the literary portal AirBeletrina, and artistic director of the international literary festival Fabula.

Her work has been published in national and international scholarly journals and edited volumes, including publications by CEU Press and Bloomsbury Academic.

Research Areas

intellectual history
labour history
women’s and gender history
women’s political thought and work
history from below
cultural history
popular cultures
nineteenth- and twentieth-century Central and Southeastern Europe

Education

2017
PhD in History of Europe and the Mediterranean, Faculty of Humanities, University of Primorska.
Supervisors: Prof Jože Pirjevec and Prof Borut Klabjan.
Dissertation: The Role of Russia and Slavic Reciprocity in the Northern Adriatic between 1848 and 1914.

2012
Degree in History and German Language and Literature (double-major programme), Faculty of Arts, University of Ljubljana.

Employment and Research Projects

2026–
Researcher, project Towards an Integrative Approach to Women’s Political Thought in East Central Europe: Cases from Slovenia and Its Neighbourhood in the Long Twentieth Century (PI: Dr Isidora Grubački), Institute of Contemporary History.

2026–
Researcher, project Recontextualising the National in the Age of Nationalism: Popular Encounters with Nationality in the Habsburg-Austrian Borderlands (PI: Dr Rok Stergar), Institute of Contemporary History.

2025–
Marie Skłodowska-Curie Postdoctoral Fellow, project Women’s Intellectual and Artistic Labor (WILA), Institute of Contemporary History, University of Vienna.

2023–
Researcher, ERC project HERESSEE – The History of Feminist Political Thought and Women’s Rights Discourses in East Central Europe, 1929–2001 (PI: Dr Zsófia Lóránd), University of Vienna.

2023–2025
Researcher, project The History of Women’s Labour in Slovenia in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries (PI: Prof Marta Verginella), Research Centre of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts (ZRC SAZU).

2019–2023
Researcher, ERC project Eirene – Post-War Transitions from a Gender Perspective (PI: Prof Marta Verginella), Department of History, Faculty of Arts, University of Ljubljana.

2012–2017
Junior Researcher, Institute for Historical Studies, Faculty of Humanities, University of Primorska.

Editorial and Publishing Work

2024–
Founder and Editor-in-Chief of the independent publishing house No! Press.

2021–2025
Editor-in-Chief of the contemporary art journal CUKR (Museum and Galleries of Ljubljana – Cukrarna).

2016–2020
Artistic Director of the international literary festival Fabula.

2012–2019
Editor-in-Chief of the literary portal AirBeletrina.

Professional Service

2024–
Member of the Governing Board of the Prešeren Fund.

2022–2025
Chair of the Council of the Museum of Contemporary and Modern History of Slovenia.

2022–2025
Chair of the Expert Committee for Books at the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Slovenia.

Selected Publications

Journal Articles

Renko, M. G. (2023). “Uninvited, History Entered Our Lives”: The Post-War Transitions in Autobiographical Perspective. Dacoromania Litteraria, 10, 18–42.
Renko, M. G. (2022). Class Struggle against Nationalism: The Case of Trieste, 1888–1914. Acta Histriae, 30(1), 161–184.
Renko, M. G. (2021). The Woman without Qualities? The Case of Alice Schalek, Intellectual Labour and Women Intellectuals. Acta Histriae, 29(4), 921–946.
Renko, M. G. (2021). Autobiographical Testimonies of the Post-War Transition. Prispevki za novejšo zgodovino, 61(3).
Renko, M. G. (2018). Resistance Literature as a Space of Emancipation? An Analysis of Women’s Characters in Anti-Fascist Literature from the Slovene Littoral. Acta Histriae, 26(4), 1217–1234.
Renko, M. G. (2014). The Slovene and Austrian National Question in the Modern Era: National Contamination of Culture or Cultural Contamination of the Nation? Acta Histriae, 22(4), 927–944.

Selected Book Chapters

Leopoldina Kos. Feminism and the Struggle of the Working Woman. In: Grubački, I., Zajc, M. (eds.). Political Transformations in the Interwar Period: The Case of Slovenian Political Thought. Institute of Contemporary History, 2026.
Zofka Kveder. The Grandson of Prince Marko. In: Grubački, I., Zajc, M. (eds.). Political Transformations in the Interwar Period: The Case of Slovenian Political Thought. Institute of Contemporary History, 2026.
Intellectual Labor: Gender, Emotions and Circumstances in the After-War Transitions. In: Verginella, M. (ed.). Women and Work in Postwar Transitions. CEU Press.
Angela Vode. In: Lóránd, Z. et al. (eds.). Texts and Contexts from the History of Feminism and Women’s Rights.CEU Press.
Vida Tomšič. In: Lóránd, Z. et al. (eds.). Texts and Contexts from the History of Feminism and Women’s Rights.CEU Press.
Vida Tomšič. In: Ratej, M. (ed.). Personalities of the Second World War. Založba ZRC, 2023.
Angela Piskernik. In: Mihajlović Trbovc, J. (ed.). Our Women Scientists: How Women Co-Created Science in Yugoslavia. Založba ZRC, 2023.
Renko, M. G. et al. Suffrage, Democracy and Citizenship. In: Painter, C., Sharp, I., Stibbe, M. (eds.). Socialist Women and the Great War, 1914–1921. Bloomsbury Academic, 2022.
Renko, M. G. et al. Life Trajectories: Making Revolution and Breaking Boundaries. In: Painter, C., Sharp, I., Stibbe, M. (eds.). Socialist Women and the Great War, 1914–1921. Bloomsbury Academic, 2022.
Between the Nation and the Proletariat: Responses to the Russian Revolution of 1905 in the Slovenian Lands. In: Nikiforov, K. V., Kirilina, L. A. (eds.). Slovenica 4: Russian–Slovenian Relations in the Twentieth Century.Moscow: Institute of Slavic Studies, Russian Academy of Sciences, 2018.