Jernej Mlekuž has had (not always by his fault) a few issues with his disciplinary identity throughout his career. That is why you’ll find him dressed differently: sometimes as an ethnologist, geographer, anthropologist, culturologist, historian or even hydrologist... He tends to associate migration research with the more banal aspects of life such as food and drink (e.g. burek, Carniolan sausage, slivovitz) or news printing! Of course, he is interested in several other things. In addition to (and about this), he lectures at the ERUDIO School of Sustainable Tourism, is part of the editorship of Migracije, and is the former editor of Dve Domovini / Two Homelands, as well as is the chair of the Research Committee at the Slovenian Migration Institute. Most of all, he enjoys river rapids.
His research focus is on migration theory and methodology, cultural aspects of migration processes, material culture, epistemology, epiphenomena and water levels and gauges.
Fields of work: migration studies, social spatiatility, material culture, media studies, philosophy of science
Slivovitz and Everyday Nationalism: The Analysis of Slovene Newspapers in Interwar Yugoslavia. Nationalities Papers, 2023: 1-16. doi:10.1017/nps.2023.20, https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/nationalities-papers/article/slivovitz-and-everyday-nationalism-the-analysis-of-slovene-newspapers-in-interwar-yugoslavia/4BE15C2A0FD0A785118D0BE13EA2D9D1
Kalorien und Nationalstolz. Oder wie die Krainer Wurst zur Entstehung der slowenischen Nation beitrug. Wien: LIT Verlag, 2022. https://www.lit-verlag.de/isbn/978-3-643-91226-8
ABCČĆ migracij. Ljubljana: Založba ZRC, 2021. https://isim.zrc-sazu.si/en/publikacije/abccc-migracij#v
The renaissance of sausage: the role of Kranjska sausage in the contemporary process of reconstructing the Slovenian nation. Nations and nationalism, 2020, 26/2: 407–423 (selected as exceptional scientific achievements by Slovenian Research Agency). doi: 10.1111/nana.12572, https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/nana.12572
The sausage that awakened a nation: the Carniolan sausage in the Slovenian national imagination, 1849–1918. Rethinking history, 2020, 24/3–4: 503–522. doi: 10.1080/13642529.2020.1831352, https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/13642529.2020.1831352?needAccess=true
Pijača z zaslugami za narod: slivovka in banalni nacionalizem v izbranem časopisju socialistične Jugoslavije. Traditiones, 2020, 49/3: 115-134. doi: 10.3986/Traditio2020490306, https://ojs.zrc-sazu.si/traditiones/article/view/9432/8537
I feel Kranjska klobasa: Kako je kranjska kobasica podignula slovensku naciju. Zagreb: Srednja Evropa, 2018 (Murko award 2018 by Slovene Ethnological Society for outstanding achievement in ethnology in the previous year). https://srednja-europa.hr/proizvod/i-feel-kranjska-kobasica/
Kranjsko klobasanje: Slovenska zgodovina, kot jo pišejo packe kranjske klobase na časopisnem papirju. Ljubljana: Beletrina, 2017 (awarded by Gourmand International as the best book in the category Culinary History, 2018). https://beletrina.si/knjiga/kranjsko-klobasanje
»We asked for workers. We got bureks instead.« The Meanings and Significance of the Burek in Slovenia. Ethnologia Europaea 2017, 47/2: 72–86. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/346319176_WE_ASKED_FOR_WORKERS_WE_GOT_BUREKS_INSTEAD_Meanings_and_Material_Significance_of_the_Burek_in_Slovenia
When the grease runs through the paper: On the consumption of ultragreasy bureks. Food, power, and agency (eds. Jürgen Martschukat, Bryant Simon). London: Bloomsbury, 2017, 169–190. https://www.bloomsburycollections.com/book/food-power-and-agency/ch8-when-the-grease-runs-through-the-paper-on-the-consumption-of-ultragreasy-bureks
Bosanci, čefurji, čapci and other burekalised creatures: Images of immigrants and their descendants in Slovenian media and popular culture. Citizens at heart? Perspectives on integration of refugees in the EU after the Yugoslav wars of succession (eds. Li Bennich-Björkman et al. ). Uppsala: Uppsala University. 2016, 69–85. http://uu.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:987355/FULLTEXT01.pdf
Burek: A culinary metaphor. Budapest; New York: Central European University Press, 2015 (translated in Slovenian, Serbian and Albanian, awarded by Gourmand International as the best book in the category Culinary History Best food writing, 2016). https://www.ceu.edu/article/2015-09-22/burek-culinary-metaphor
Made in YU: How nonhumans activated Yugoslavia (research project • January 1, 2020 - December 31, 2022)