I am spending April in Ljubljana at the always wonderful Institute for Contemporary History. I'm very happy to spend some nice springtime here after my defense. If you're in town, let's get coffee.

I am happy to announce that I have defended my PhD dissertation on Yugoslav department stores at the @historicalstudies.bsky.social at @weareceu.bsky.social I am incredibly thankful to my supervisor, defense committee, and all my friends and family who have supported me throughout the years.

Last day to apply for the new semester at IUFU, including our course "Semi-periphery and Borderlands in the European integration: Rethinking Balkans for Ukraine."

Apply here: forms.gle/8V8uv5y7kuLD...

Last day to apply:

"Politics & Narratives at European Borderlands: Rethinking Balkans for Ukraine "
Free course offered by #ceu & #ifdt Belgrade. Open to students from SE Europe, Ukraine & beyond.

Send your application to: balkancourse.ceu@gmail.com

More info: ifdt.bg.ac.rs/2024/08/call...

Uni Wien students show Rashid Khalidi how they gathered in the campus courtyard after the rectorate canceled the lecture hall for his talk and then called the police on them. One student asked an important question about how to protect our right to learn.

On top of it having to witness how the University of Vienna called the police, including the WEGA units, to forcibly dissolve the solidarity camp on campus and arrest students taking part in it.

Happy May Day from the Na-Ma department store.

A European Citizens' Initiative for safe and accessible abortions. You can sign it here: citizens-initiative.europa.eu/initiatives/...

Department store "Bistričanka" from the mid-1980s in the village Marija Bistrica, a national Croatian Marian shrine and pilgrimage site dedicated to the Black Madonna.

Every March, the department store's Nama bulletin published reports on its mostly female workforce. Here are some excerpts from a special report marking the UN's International Women's Year in 1975. Women workers complained about not being promoted to managerial positions and the burden of housework.

I'm super excited about this announcement. Please join Lea @leahorvat.bsky.social, Aleks @aleksranko.bsky.social and me in Vienna or on Zoom on March 15 to discuss Lea's book on mass housing in socialist Yugoslavia.

The Invisible University of Ukraine accepts applications for the new semester. It's an amazing program so pls share or encourage any Ukrainian students you know to apply.

Apply here: forms.gle/zxJiJksZjxmW... & send your materials (motivation letter, CV, and research proposal) to iufu@ceu.edu.

In recent news, the Nama department store chain will have to sell its last two stores in Zagreb. As a long goodbye to my beloved store and fave PhD case study, I'm starting an Insta project of posting every day some visual material and info from the chain's history: www.instagram.com/nama_snama/

New Year's Eve 1962, department store Beograd, Terazije. Photo: Jovan Đorđević.

After a week of being sick and stressed, it was nice to spend a part of Sunday walking around the snow-covered Otto-Wagner-Areal with the beautiful Kirche am Steinhof. I even spotted a deer, which is always therapeutic.

Can't believe I'm starting my last month in Berlin. If you're in town, let's grab a ☕

Methods of state-socialist knowledge exchange: a Yugoslav home economist from Ljubuški explains in the late 1950s how a local epic folk singer (guslar) wrote a song for the Osijek-based company Saponia in exchange for financial support and expert help in using detergents.

Still my fave library in Zagreb: at my alma mater, the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences. Nothing like a wholesome view of socialist architecture and Medvednica mountain.

Hi there, new here, thanks to @aleksranko.bsky.social. I'll start with a recently pale blue sky above my favorite department store. Designed by Aleksandar Dragomanović in 1960s for the Na-Ma enterprise in the city center of Trnsko, Zagreb. The place where I grew up, and which inspired my research.