Assoc. Prof. Mirjam Milharčič Hladnik, PhD, is a Principal Research Associate at the Slovenian Migration Institute, ZRC SAZU, and Associate Professor at the University of Nova Gorica. A sociologist by training, she works in the fields of migration and women’s studies, with a particular focus on auto/biographical methodology, the analysis of migrant correspondence and life stories, and questions of gender and integration. She is a passionate collector of stories and interpretations in all their forms, and is happiest among yellowed pages of migrant letters. Her work illuminates the experiences of migrants in historical and contemporary perspective, with emphasis on Slovenian emigration and transnational identities.
Mirjam Milharčič Hladnik completed her doctorate in the Sociology of Culture at the Faculty of Arts, University of Ljubljana (1994). She has been a researcher at the Slovenian Migration Institute, ZRC SAZU, since 1999, where she holds the title of Principal Research Associate. She is also an Associate Professor at the University of Nova Gorica and a lecturer at the ZRC SAZU Graduate School.
Her core research areas are migration and women’s studies, within which she focuses on: (1) ego documents, migrant correspondence, and life stories; (2) questions of gender, inequality, and integration; (3) the history of Slovenian emigration in a transnational perspective; and (4) the analysis of migrant experiences in contemporary and historical contexts. Particular attention is devoted to erased or historically marginalised women’s voices in the Slovenian and migrant sphere.
Since 2011, she has been a member of the international Erasmus Mundus Master’s programme in Migration and Intercultural Relations (EMMIR), on which she also lectures. She is the screenwriter of the documentary film Ameriške Slovenke – Američanke (100% Slovenian) and co-author of the exhibition Achievements of American Slovenians: a contribution to the cultures of two homelands (2011). From 2015 to 2023, she served as Editor-in-Chief of the international peer-reviewed journal Dve domovini / Two Homelands.
Her key achievements include the monograph Daring Dreams of the Future: Slovenian Mass Migrations 1870–1945 (Peter Lang, 2024, co-authored with A. Kalc and J. Žitnik Serafin), From Slovenia to Egypt: Aleksandrinke’s Trans-Mediterranean Domestic Workers’ Migration and National Imagination (V&R Unipress, 2015), Going Places (University of Akron Press, 2014), and numerous internationally published articles on women’s migrant labour, auto/biographical methodology, and Slovenian emigration. She is currently researching Slovenian migrant correspondence.
Research Areas
- Migration studies; women’s and migrant labour
- Auto/biographical and narrative methodology; analysis of letters and ego documents
- Sociology of education; civic education and human rights
- Slovenian emigration; transnational identities
KALC, Aleksej, MILHARČIČ-HLADNIK, Mirjam, ŽITNIK SERAFIN, Janja. 2024.. Daring dreams of the future: Slovenian mass migrations 1870–1945. Berlin [etc.]: P. Lang, Thought, society, culture, vol. 5. DOI: 10.3726/b21284
MILHARČIČ-HLADNIK, Mirjam. 2021.. “People cannot live on love alone”: negotiating love, gender roles, and family care between Slovenia and Egypt. In: BORGES, Marcelo J. (ed.), CANCIAN, Sonia (ed.), REEDER, Linda (ed.). Emotional landscapes: love, gender, and migration, Studies of world migrations. Urbana; Chicago; Springfield: University of Illinois Press, pp. 57–74.
KALC, Aleksej, MILHARČIČ-HLADNIK, Mirjam, ŽITNIK SERAFIN, Janja. 2020.. Doba velikih migracij na Slovenskem. (Migracije, 30). Ljubljana: ZRC SAZU Press.
MILHARČIČ-HLADNIK, Mirjam. 2015.. Kultura mešanosti v nacionalnem in migracijskem kontekstu. Annales: anali za istrske in mediteranske študije, Series historia et sociologia, vol. 25, no. 1, pp. 171–182.
MILHARČIČ-HLADNIK, Mirjam (ed.). 2015.. From Slovenia to Egypt: Aleksandrinke’s Trans-Mediterranean Domestic Workers’ Migration and National Imagination. Göttingen: V&R Unipress.
MILHARČIČ-HLADNIK, Mirjam, MLEKUŽ, Jernej (eds.). 2014.. Going places: Slovenian women’s stories on migration. Akron: University of Akron Press.
- The Slovenian immigrants in US between two homelands and cultures (BIlateral cooperation between US and Slovenia with Bucknell University) (bilateral project • July 1, 2022 - June 30, 2024)
- Only (with) others are we (applied project • May 13, 2016 - September 30, 2021)
- The Current and Required Representation of the Topic of Slovenian Emigration in Curricula of Primary and Secondary Schools within the Republic of Slovenia – A Conceptual Framework to Re-Evaluate the Role of the Topic of Emigration in Curricula of Primary (target research project • April 1, 2018 - June 30, 2019)
- OUT SIDE IN – Inclusive Adult Education for Refugees (international project • September 1, 2015 - August 1, 2018)
- EDUKA – Educating for Diversity (international project • October 1, 2011 - September 30, 2014)
- University of Nova Gorica – Faculty of Humanities: Sociology of Gender (course leader); Graduate Faculty, Humanities: Methods of Research, Argumentation and Writing in the Humanities and Social Sciences; Gender and Migration (course leader)
- ZRC SAZU Graduate School – Comparative Study of Ideas and Cultures, Migration Studies Module: Migration, Emotions and Gender (course leader)
- Erasmus Mundus Master in Migration and Intercultural Relations (EMMIR): Migration, Gender, Work (course leader)
- Editor-in-Chief, Dve domovini / Two Homelands (international peer-reviewed journal; 2015–2023)
- Chair, ZRC SAZU Commission for Ethics, Integrity and Equal Opportunities
- Member, ZRC SAZU Scientific Council
- Member, Scientific Council of the Slovenian Migration Institute, ZRC SAZU
- Member, Senate of the ZRC SAZU Graduate School
- President, City of Women Society and International Festival, Ljubljana (2006–2009)