Jelena Tešija, Visiting Fellowship 2024/25

Biography

Jelena Tešija is a PhD candidate at the Central European University in Vienna and a research affiliate, formerly a doctoral researcher, in the ERC Advanced Grant research project ZARAH. Her PhD dissertation focuses on the history of the International Co-operative Women’s Guild (ICWG) and the contributions of Central and Eastern European members to shaping its gendered labour activism. From 2021 to 2023, she was a curator of the ZARAH blog series. She holds two master’s degrees, one in Journalism and one in Gender Studies. Her master’s thesis in Gender Studies (2014) focused on the history of Yugoslav women’s socialist organization from the 1950s. Before starting her PhD in Comparative History, she covered topics related to labour and women’s movements as a feminist journalist and editor, an independent researcher, and an activist. In her non-academic life, she was also a communications coordinator in the NGO sector, responsible for project management as well.

Research Interests

gender history of the (Yugoslav) cooperative movement
history of feminisms and women’s labour activism
historical perspectives on and theories of gender and social reproduction
historical relationships between socialism and feminism

Motivation

During my one-year-long research stay in Ljubljana as a Marietta Blau Grant awardee, I will be working on the part of my dissertation that focuses on Central and Eastern Europe, particularly Socialist Yugoslavia. My main motivation for choosing the INZ as a host institution has been its unique team of experts in the history of Yugoslav cooperatives. Additionally, I need to revisit archives and libraries in Ljubljana to consult some crucial collections for my PhD project.

Publications

with Selin Çağatay, Alexandra Ghiț, Olga Gnydiuk, Veronika Helfert, Ivelina Masheva, Zhanna Popova, Eszter Varsa, and Susan Zimmermann, eds. Through the Prism of Gender and Work: Women’s Labour Struggles in Central and Eastern Europe and Beyond, 19th and 20th Centuries. Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2024.

with Selin Çağatay, Alexandra Ghiț, Olga Gnydiuk, Veronika Helfert, Ivelina Masheva, Zhanna Popova, Eszter Varsa, and Susan Zimmermann. ‘Introduction: Women’s Labour Struggles in Central and Eastern Europe and Beyond: Towards a Long-Term, Transregional, Integrative, and Critical Approach’. In Through the Prism of Gender and Work: Women’s Labour Struggles in Central and Eastern Europe and Beyond, 19th and 20th Centuries, edited by Selin Çağatay, Alexandra Ghit, Olga Gnydiuk, Veronika Helfert, Ivelina Masheva, Zhanna Popova, Jelena Tešija, Eszter Varsa, and Susan Zimmermann, 1–80. Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2024.

Jelena Tešija. ‘“Millions of Working Housewives”: The International Co-Operative Women’s Guild and Household Labour in the Interwar Period’. Journal of Contemporary Central and Eastern Europe 31, no. 2 (2023): 321–38.

with Alexandra Ghiț, Veronika Helfert, Ivelina Masheva, Zhanna Popova, Eszter Varsa, and Susan Zimmermann, eds. Women’s Labour Activism in Central and Eastern Europe and Internationally in the Twentieth Century, Journal of Contemporary Central and Eastern Europe 31, no. 2 (2023).

with Alexandra Ghiț, Veronika Helfert, Ivelina Masheva, Zhanna Popova, Eszter Varsa, and Susan Zimmermann, eds. ‘Women and the Gendered Politics of Work in Central and Eastern Europe, and Internationally, in the Twentieth Century: Activism, Governance, and Scale’. Journal of Contemporary Central and Eastern Europe 31, no. 2 (2023): 227–40.

Community-oriented articles, blog posts, interviews (selection)

with Selin Çağatay. “Through the Lens of Women’s Work and Activism: Introducing the ZARAH Guest Blog Series.” Online publication, blog post, 3 November 2022.

“Jelena Tešija: ‘Neki još smatraju da je feminizam opasan’ [Jelena Tešija: ’Some still think that feminism is dangerous’].” Interview by Ines Madunić. Gloria Glam, 8 March 2021.

Adela Jušić and Andreja Dugandžić. “Arhiv AFŽ-a čuva najvažnije emancipacijsko naslijeđe koje imamo [The AFŽ archive preserves the most important emancipation heritage we have].” Interview by Jelena Tešija. Libela.org, 2 July 2015.

Jelena Tešija. “Gradimo socijalizam, pomažemo radnoj ženi i uvjeravamo drugove da je to bitno [We are building socialism, helping the working woman and convincing our comrades that this is important].” Libela.org, 28 January 2015.

Jelena Tešija. “Više konja nego žena* ili kako je AFŽ vraćen iz zaborava i što s ostalima [More horses than women* or how AFŽ was brought back from oblivion and what about the others].” Libela.org, 6 December 2014.