Women teachers after 1945

Drawing on the analysis of unpublished primary sources held by the former Yugoslav and the US Archives, and also newspapers and specialized scholarly literature, the paper sheds light on the under-researched topic of Slovene refugee women in Trieste in the first decade after World War II. They left or fled Yugoslavia for political reasons. Special attention is given to the jobs performed by these women. They worked predominantly as teachers in schools (not only in primary schools) that were allowed by the Anglo-American Allied Military Government (GMA), provided they were not under Communist or pro-Yugoslav influence. Due to the very strong politicization of cultural life and polarization among Slovenes in post-war Trieste at the time, the topic remains under-researched; the role of the said refugee women in Trieste remains unknown.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Gorazd Bajc is currently an Associate Professor of European History and History of the Balkans at the University of Maribor, Faculty of Arts, where he is also the Vice-Dean for research activities, as well as a Senior Research Fellow at the University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Arts (as part of ERC Advanced Grant project EIRENE, project manager Prof. Marta Verginella) and at the Institute Nova Revija for the Humanities, Ljubljana. The main focus of his research and teaching lies in diplomacy and international relations, particularly the history of intelligence services and of the breakup of Yugoslavia, the history of anti-fascism, of Slovenian/Yugoslav–Italian relations, of the Balkans, of dissidence and violence, as well as the legal situation of the Slovene minority in Italy. He was a supervisor of four PhD students, a co-examiner of one PhD student, a co-examiner of one Master student (from University of Bologna), supervisor of 17 and a co-examiner of four BA theses. On 27 and 28 October 2016 he was a discussant of four PhD students at the University of Teramo. Between 2011 and 2016 he was the supervisor of a young researcher (PhD candidate), and currently is again the supervisor of a young researcher (PhD candidate, 2019–2022). He is a member of the board of editors (since 2005) and editor (since 2014) of the high-impact scientific journal Acta Histriae and editor (since 2014) of the high-impact scientific journal Annales – Series Historia et Sociologia, and he is also a member of the board of editors (since 2012) of the series Fontes – Studia Diplomatica, and (since 2016) of the scientific journals Sodobni vojaški izzivi/Contemporary Military Challenges. He is author of 3 monographs, two university textbooks and more than 60 scientific papers, co-author of 4 monographs and edited 9 books (some as co-editor). In 2017 the European Commision awarded him the Marie Sklodowska – Curie Actions Seal of Excellence.

He collaborates on the EIRENE project.