Born and raised in Ljubljana, Slovenia, I was lured on a westward trajectory by my enthusiasm for humanistic inquiry as well as the fellowships I received to study abroad in Barcelona, on the East Coast, and in the Midwest. In 2020 I received my PhD in English from Northwestern University, where I then taught classes on topics ranging from environmental justice in literature to music documentary films as a Visiting Assistant Professor. During my time as a graduate student, I pursued my interests in public humanities, program development, and nonprofit administration by interning at the Chicago History Museum. Building on this experience, I then worked for the UCI Institute & Museum of California Art in a role that was primarily administrative, but to which I brought my academic interests and training to explore public programing and grant writing in more detail. My interest in grants had already begun in graduate school with an interdisciplinary, multi-university Humanities Without Walls grant on Indigenous art and activism; through this grant I had the opportunity to do hands-on work around grant protocols, collaborative research, community accountability, and public-facing scholarship. To learn more about the project and the various artist contributions the group curated, visit indigenousmississippi.com. My own essay on the Mississippi River in Native American poetry—another outcome of the work of this grant—will appear in the Spring 2023 issue of NAIS.
I’m thrilled to join the UCHRI team and help connect and promote the research that is taking place across the ten UC campuses and create important opportunities for UC faculty and graduate students, all while recovering from Chicago winters. In my spare time, I like to photograph places I care about, so I’m excited to explore Southern California with my camera.
