People

Dan Podjed, PhD, Principal Investigator

is a Research Fellow at the Research Centre of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts (ZRC SAZU), an Assistant Professor for Cultural and Social Anthropology at the University of Ljubljana’s Faculty of Arts, and a Researcher at the Innovation and Development Institute of University of Ljubljana. He has led several applied, interdisciplinary, and industry-oriented research projects, and was involved in the development of various IT solutions, including the 1, 2, 3 smartphone app for the promotion of sustainable mobility, the Green FF app for reducing energy consumption in public buildings, and the MOBISTYLE IT solution for improving energy efficiency and supporting healthy lifestyle in buildings (EU Horizon 2020 project). From 2010 to 2018, he coordinated the Applied Anthropology Network of the European Association of Social Anthropologists (EASA). He is the founder and from 2013 to 2018 the organiser of the international annual symposium Why the World Needs Anthropologists.


Aleš Smrekar, PhD

is a Senior Research Fellow and the head of the ZRC SAZU’s Anton Melik Geographical Institute, Department of Environmental Protection. He graduated in geography and ethnology in 1995 and acquired his PhD degree in geography in 2005. He has mentored four PhD students. His fields of interest are environmental pollution, protection, interpretation of natural values, raising of environmental awareness, also through participation processes. He has headed three project groups in last five years, in which the ZRC SAZU cooperates as a partner in international projects: INCOME – Improved Management of Contaminated Aquifers by Integration of Source Tracking, Monitoring Tools and Decision strategies (LIFE+), 2Bparks – Creative Sustainable Management, Territorially Compatible Marketing, and Environmental Education (Med Program) and BIOMOT – Motivational Strength of Ecosystem Services and Alternative Ways to Express the Value of Biodiversity (EU FP 7).


Tatiana Bajuk Senčar, PhD

is a Research Fellow at the ZRC SAZU's Institute of Slovenian Ethnology.  She has led or collaborated on numerous research projects in Slovenia and abroad linked to sustainable development. Her recent research interests include sustainable mobility both in urban and rural areas, sustainable tourism and heritage, and European integration, and the anthropology of European integration.


Jože Guna, PhD

is an Assistant Professor at the University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Electrical Engineering, where he teaches and researches at the Laboratory for Telecommunications and the Laboratory for Multimedia. His research interests lie in the Internet of Things (IoT), multimedia design, and user experience and interaction design planning. He has contributed to numerous national and international projects and was awarded industry certificates by Cisco, Apple, and Comptia. He is a senior member of the IEEE organisation.


Katarina Polajnar Horvat, PhD

is a Research Fellow at ZRC SAZU’s Anton Melik Geographical Institute. Her fields of interest are environmental protection and sustainable development, environmental awareness, understanding and changing environmental behaviour, and strategies and conditions for behaviour change through participation processes. Polajnar Horvat has been involved in several projects on environmental attitudes and habits in connection to waste.


Jurij Fikfak, PhD

is an Associate Professor and Research Advisor at ZRC SAZU. He spent the 1985-86 academic year in Germany as a DAAD scholarship recipient and devoted 1994-95 to honing his skills in the United States. Since then, he has organised numerous scientific conferences, headed national research projects and leads the research programme of the Institute. In his research, he is focused on methodology, especially on questions of qualitative research, ethnography and fieldwork. He is the editor-in-chief of Traditiones and an editor of several book series. Fikfak is active in numerous international associations (SIEF, ISFNR, EASA, GAA, ISA, etc.) and is a member of the executive board of the International Association for Semiotic Studies (IASS-AIS).


Saša Babič, PhD

is a Research Fellow at ZRC SAZU’s Institute of Slovenian Ethnology. Her interests include short folklore forms, including greetings, curses, proverbs, riddles, charms, and prayers. In addition, her current project research is focused on media discourses about sustainable mobility. She participated in several research projects and is skilled in administration, project management and event management.


Alenka Bezjak Mlakar, PhD

is the director of Telematics Conference SEEurope and Telematics Conference Middle East & Africa, annually organised in Dubai. She carried out her ethnographic study at a Slovenian IT company as part of her PhD studies.


Saša Poljak Istenič, PhD

is a Research Fellow at ZRC SAZU. Her research interests include environmental and social sustainability of urban practices and rural sustainable development.


Katarina Šrimpf Vendramin, PhD

is a Research Assistant at ZRC SAZU. Her research interests include folk narratives, identities, creativity, and volunteering.


Daša Ličen, MA

is an Assistant Researcher at the ZRC SAZU’s Institute of Slovenian Ethnology. Her MA thesis was focused on the culinary dimension of Istria, while her doctoral research is on the legacy of Trieste in time of Habsburg's rein.


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