Jelena GLIGORIJEVIĆ, PhD
(Research associate)
Email: gligorijevic@mdw.ac.at
Jelena Gligorijević is a scholar in the cultural study of music whose work explores the intersections of identity, power, and politics in popular music, with a particular focus on the Balkan region and the post-Yugoslav space. Her research is grounded in ethnographic approaches and situated within the broader field of critical cultural studies.
Across an international academic trajectory spanning Serbia, Britain, Finland, Switzerland, Austria, and Ireland, she has examined a wide range of topics – from Max Cavalera’s world metal projects and queer karaoke practices to live music performances during the COVID-19 crisis and the impact of Brexit on popular music in Britain. These diverse case studies are united by a sustained interest in how music cultures articulate social and political meanings. This focus is also central to her doctoral dissertation, Contemporary Music Festivals as Micronational Spaces: Articulations of National Identity in Serbia’s Exit and Guča Trumpet Festivals (University of Turku, 2019).
Jelena has been awarded several competitive fellowships, including the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowship (2020). As a Marie Curie Fellow at Dublin City University, she further developed her methodological approach by engaging with ethnographic filmmaking and arts-based research methods. Her work increasingly seeks to move between scholarship, artistic practice, and forms of cultural activism.
More recently, she has expanded her professional practice beyond academia by working as a Culture and Communication Manager for an IT company based in Slovenia. In this role, she designs and leads communication workshops and teambuilding activities, and contributes to BizTech conference panels focused on bridging technology, corporate environments, and the humanities.
With the generous support of the MMRC, including an AMMR seed grant and mentorship during the application process, Jelena is currently Principal Investigator of the FWF-funded project Made in YUGOSLAVIennA: Balkan Music and Multiple Marginality. The project is carried out in collaboration with postdoctoral researcher Adriana Sabo (PhD).