Manca Koren is a junior researcher at the Slovenian Migration Institute, ZRC SAZU, and a doctoral student at the ZRC SAZU Graduate School, where she studies the informal employment of domestic care workers in the cross-border area between Slovenia and Italy.
She holds a BA in Cultural History from the University of Nova Gorica and an MA in Marriage and Family Studies from the Faculty of Theology, University of Ljubljana.
Her research is situated at the intersection of migration studies, welfare state research, informal economy studies, and care work.
Manca Koren’s primary research area is the informal employment of domestic care workers in the cross-border region between Slovenia and Italy, situated at the intersection of migration studies, welfare state research, informal economy studies, and care work, with a focus on the dynamics of cross-border labour markets and institutional and socio-political frameworks.
Her research focuses on analysing the mechanisms and factors that enable the formation of a specific cross-border informal care labour market, as well as on understanding the relationships between care workers, families, and the broader institutional environment, with particular attention to historical, social, and cultural factors and the persistence of gendered forms of labour mobility.
Methodologically, she adopts an interdisciplinary and mixed-methods approach, combining a review of scholarly literature, analysis of statistical data, and the conduct of interviews as part of fieldwork.
Among her key research and professional activities is her editorial contribution to the publication Platforma 5: Proceedings of the Graduate School ZRC SAZU (ZRC Publishing, 2025). She also contributed to the monograph Love in Letters (University of Nova Gorica Press, 2022), which presents a transcription and interpretative analysis of the correspondence between the Alexandrian migrant worker Felicita Koglot Peric and Franc Peric; this correspondence was also the subject of her MA thesis, which received the SLORI Award for outstanding master’s and doctoral theses in 2023. She regularly presents her research in international academic and teaching contexts, including a guest lecture titled Women’s Informal Care Work in the Slovenian-Italian Border Area at the University of Urbino (2024).
She also participates as a teaching assistant at the School of Advanced Social Studies and the School of Humanities at the University of Nova Gorica.
KOREN, Manca. Družinsko življenje in doživljanje aleksandrinstva v pismih. V: VONČINA, Lara (ur.), et al. Ljubezen v pismih : dopisovanje med Felicito Koglot in Francem Pericem : Aleksandrija-Bilje : 1921-1931. V Novi Gorici: Založba Univerze, 2022.
KOREN, Manca. Kratek oris zgodovinskih razmer v Egiptu in na Primorskem v obdobju med obema vojnama. V: VONČINA, Lara (ur.), et al. Ljubezen v pismih : dopisovanje med Felicito Koglot in Francem Pericem : Aleksandrija-Bilje : 1921-1931. V Novi Gorici: Založba Univerze, 2022.
Koren, Manca, Vesna Bajc, Martin Batagelj, idr. Nova Gorica, mesto izobraženk. Nova Gorica : avtorji in avtorice, 2017.
Koren, Manca, Pia Rednak, Lucija Mandić, in Dragan Petrevski, ur. Platforma 5. ZRC SAZU, Založba ZRC, 2025. https://doi.org/10.3986/9789610510703.
- National and Cultural Identity of Slovenian Emigration in the Context of Migration Studies (research programme • January 1, 2013 - December 31, 2027)
- Challenges of International Labour Mobility in a National Context. The case of Slovenia (fundamental research project • October 1, 2023 - September 30, 2026)
- University of Nova Gorica, School of Humanities, undergraduate programme in Cultural History (teaching assistant).
- School of Advanced Social Studies, undergraduate programmes in Social Management and Psychosocial Support (teaching assistant).
- SLORI Award for outstanding master’s and doctoral theses (2022/2023).
- Member of the editorial team of Platforma: Proceedings of the Graduate School ZRC SAZU.