Miha Zobec is a research associate at ISIM ZRC SAZU and an assistant professor at the Faculty of Humanities, University of Primorska. His research interests include the relationship between migration and nation-building processes in the contexts of both Yugoslavias, the study of migration and emigration policies, migration control, diasporas, and the history of the family in migration contexts. He has published several scholarly articles and chapters on relations between the first Yugoslavia and emigrants, as well as a monograph on translocal connections and communications through migrant correspondence, focusing on the Karst village of Pliskovica and its emigrants in Argentina.
He pursued his research at the Leibniz Institute for East and Southeast European Research in Regensburg (September – October 2019), at the Center for Slavic, East European and Eurasian Studies, Ohio State University (September 2024) and at the Institute of History of the Czech Academy of Sciences in Prague (March – June 2025).
Miha Zobec conducts research in the fields of migration history, relations between the source country and diasporas (especially those in the U.S. and in Latin America), and migration control. He also deals with oral history and migrant communication, with an emphasis on the analysis of emigrant correspondence. He has published a scholarly monograph titled The Invisible and the Forgotten: Research on Emigration to Argentina between the World Wars on the Case of the Village Community of Pliskovica (2013) as well as a number of articles in Slovenian and international journals, including European History Quarterly, Europe-Asia Studies, Journal of Migration History, Central and East European Migration Review, and Nationalities Papers. With an essay on emigration from Central and Eastern Europe to Latin America, which he co-authored with anthropologist Dr. Nadia Molek, he contributed to the Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Migration Studies (2026). He actively contributes to the popularisation of scholarly achievements, the preparation of exhibitions and discussion events, including in cooperation with civil society organisations.
ZOBEC, Miha. Emigrant Remittances and Their Impact on Interwar Yugoslavia and Yugoslav Slovenia: Amounts, Transmission Channels, and Investment Patterns. European History Quarterly. 2026, https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/epub/10.1177/02656914261468644.
ZOBEC, Miha, MOLEK, Nadia. East Central European immigration to Latin America : a historical survey. V: MARINARI, Maddalena (ur.). Oxford research encyclopedia of migration studies. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 2026, [33] str. Oxford research encyclopedia. ISBN 978-019-78-5269-9. https://academic.oup.com/edited-volume/62568/chapter-abstract/560103535?redirectedFrom=fulltext&login=false, DOI: 10.1093/9780197852699.003.0057.
ZOBEC, Miha. Italian, Argentine, Yugoslav and Slovene : the many identities of Rudi Guštin. Europe-Asia studies. Jun. 2026, vol. 78, no. 5, str. 682-705.
ZOBEC, Miha. The kin-state and sending-state policies of interwar Yugoslavia : the issue of Julian March immigrants in their Yugoslav ‘homeland’ and the return of the ‘Tenth Banovina’. Central and Eastern European migration review. 2025, vol. 14, no. 2, str. 17-35.
ZOBEC, Miha. Tomajski posestnik in politik Anton Černe (1813–1891) med Dunajem in izvorno skupnostjo : pogled na življenjsko pot vaškega mogotca. Zgodovinski časopis : glasilo Zveze zgodovinskih društev Slovenije. [Tiskana izd.]. 2024, letn. 78, št. 1/2, str. 100-119.
ZOBEC, Miha. 2023. Yugoslav emigrants in Brazil from the Habsburgs to Karađorđevićs : transnational political engagement on the peripheries?. Journal of migration history. 2023, vol. 9, iss. 2, str. 162-188, ilustr. ISSN 2351-9916. DOI: 10.1163-23519924-09020002
ZOBEC, Miha. 2021. Creating the Unbound Yugoslav Nation : the Kingdom of Yugoslavia and Emigrants from the "Unredeemed" Julian March. Nationalities papers: the journal of nationalism and ethnicity. Str. 1-20. https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/nationalities-papers/article/abs/creating-the-unbound-yugoslav-nation-the-kingdom-of-yugoslavia-and-emigrants-from-the-unredeemed-julian-march/C8774BA5CC231AE4E4D3D6731972F341. DOI: 10.1017/nps.2020.90.
ZOBEC, Miha. 2019. The Surveillance and Persecution of Slovene Antifascists in Argentina: How the Authorities Conspired in Combating "Undesired" Immigration. Dve domovini : razprave o izseljenstvu. Št. 49, str. 221-238. http://twohomelands.zrc-sazu.si/uploads/articles/1549290791_DD49_Zobec_Undesird%20Immigration.pdf. DOI: 10.3986/dd.v0i49.7262.
ZOBEC, Miha. 2018. La via parlamentare all'approvazione della legge di tutela della comunità Slovena in Italia. Annales : anali za istrske in mediteranske študije. Series historia et sociologia. Št. 2, str. 297-308. https://zdjp.si/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/ASHS_28-2018-2_ZOBEC.pdf. DOI: 10.19233/ASHS.2018.20.
ZOBEC, Miha. 2015. Familial Networks of Exchange, Support an Solidarity as Expressed through Personal Correspondence. Studia Historica Slovenica : časopis za humanistične in družboslovne študije. Št. 1, str. 169-184.
ZOBEC, Miha. 2013. Nevidni in pozabljeni: raziskava o izseljevanju v Argentino med svetovnima vojnama na primeru vaške skupnosti Pliskovica. Pliskovica: Razvojno društvo Pliska.
- Migration and Development in Central and Southeastern Europe since the Nineteenth Century (bilateral project • January 1, 2025 - December 31, 2026)
- Comparative analysis of the development of the institutional framework of diaspora policies - Slovenia and Croatia from the nineteenth century to independen (bilateral project • January 1, 2025 - December 31, 2026)
- Between the “Tenth Banovina” and the “Seventh Republic”: States and Diasporas in the First and Second Yugoslavia (fundamental project • October 1, 2023 - September 30, 2026)
- Questioning the borders of the nation: migration and the (de)construction of Yugoslavia (19th – 21st century) (UK – Slovenia bilateral cooperation with the University of Glasgow) (bilateral project • May 1, 2023 - April 30, 2025)
- The States and Diasporas in the First and Second Yugoslavia (Serbia – Slovenia bilateral cooperation with the Institute for the Recent History of Serbia, Belgrade) (bilateral project • April 1, 2023 - June 30, 2025)
- Minorities, Diasporas and the Subversives: Transterritorial Control over the Slovene Emigrants during the Interwar Period (postdoctoral research project • August 1, 2019 - July 31, 2021)
- A scholarship from the Centre for Slavic, East European and Eurasian Studies for a research stay at Ohio State University (September 2024) and the Josef Dobrovský scholarship for research at the Institute of History of the Czech Academy of Sciences (March–June 2025).
- In 2021 the scholarship of dr. Bojan Erhartič, awarded to the most promising young researchers of ZRC SAZU, for conducting research at the Institute for Eastern and Southeastern Europe in Regensburg.
- second prizes at the calls for the best graduate thesis and PhD dissertations organized by the Office for Slovenians Abroad in 2011 (for the graduate thesis “Being an Argentian and Living at Home”) and 2018 (PhD dissertation “The Endeavour of Slovene Minority in Italy for Achieving Legal Protection 1975-2009”).