PhD in Literature, Research Advisor
Janja Žitnik Serafin graduated from the University of Ljubljana in English and German languages and literatures in 1981; she achieved her master’s degree in American literature in 1989, and her doctor’s degree in literary sciences in 1992. In 1982–2018, she was regularly employed at the Research Centre of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts (ZRC SAZU), in the years 1982–85 at the Institute of the Slovenian Language, and from October 1985 on at the Slovenian Migration Institute.
She was principal investigator in a number of research projects between 1993 and 2018. In the years 1992–94, she was head of the Slovenian Migration Institute. She was member of the Research Committee of the Slovenian Migration Institute (1994–2016) and its Chair (2008–2016); member of the Research Committee of the ZRC SAZU (1999–2016) and its Deputy Chair (2008–2016); editor-in-chief of the academic journal Dve domovini/Two Homelands (1996–2000; she was member of the editorial board since its foundation in 1990); chief editor of the academic monograph series Migracije (Migrations) (2001–2008); and editor-in-charge of AEMI Journal, issued by the Association of European Migration Institutions (AEMI). With her lectures, subjects and as (co)mentor took part in post-graduate study programmes at the University of Ljubljana (Faculty of Arts, Departments of Slovene and Slavonic Languages and Literatures) and at the University of Nova Gorica (Graduate School). She was head of the Slovenian Migration Institute's research programme in the years 2013–2018.
Fields of work: Slovenian emigration, immigration to Slovenia, history of emigrant/immigrant literature and culture
ŽITNIK SERAFIN, Janja. Louis Adamič in sodobniki: 1948-1951. Ljubljana: Slovenska akademija znanosti in umetnosti, Razred za filološke in literarne vede: = Academia scientiarum et artium Slovenica, Classis II: Philologia et litterae, 1992, 214 p.
--- . Pero in politika: zadnja leta Louisa Adamiča. V Ljubljani: Slovenska matica, 1993, 187 p.
--- . Orel in korenine med "brušenjem" in cenzuro (Zbirka ZRC, 6). Ljubljana: Znanstvenoraziskovalni center SAZU, 1995, 242 p.
--- . Pogovori o Louisu Adamiču. Ljubljana: Prešernova družba, 1995, 197 p.
--- (ed., in cooperation with Helga Glušič). Slovenska izseljenska književnost. Ljubljana: ZRC: Rokus, 1999, vol. 1: 400 p., vol. 2: 484 p., vol. 3: 407 p.
--- . Statistical facts are human fates: Unequal citizens in Slovenia. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, Jan. 2008, vol. 34, no. 1, pp. [77]–94.
--- . Večkulturna Slovenija: Položaj migrantske književnosti in kulture v slovenskem prostoru (Migracije, 15). Ljubljana: ZRC, ZRC SAZU, 2008, 314 p.
--- . Bridges and walls: Slovenian multiethnic literature and culture. Frankfurt am Main [etc.]: Peter Lang, 2012, 376 p.
--- (ed.). Priseljevanje in društveno delovanje Slovencev v drugih delih jugoslovanskega prostora: Zgodovinski oris in sedanjost. Ljubljana: Založba ZRC, ZRC SAZU, 2014, 264 p.
--- (ed.). Slovensko izseljenstvo v luči otroške izkušnje. Ljubljana: Založba ZRC, ZRC SAZU, 2015, 193 p.
ŽITNIK SERAFIN, Janja, KALC, Aleksej (ed.). Raziskovanje slovenskega izseljenstva: Vidiki, pristopi, vsebine. Ljubljana: Založba ZRC, 2017, 242 p.