Welcome to the website of the Centre for Research on Cultural Identity and Regional Heritage!

Mission of the Centre:

The fundamental mission of the Centre for Research on Cultural Identity and Regional Heritage is to enable interdisciplinary research into topics related to the construction of cultural identities: national, ethnic, gender, religious, minority, occupational, subcultural and other identities, and to establish the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences as a centre of scientific excellence in this research field.

Objectives of the Centre:

Objective 1. – Conducting interdisciplinary scientific research in the field of cultural identity and regional heritage (identifying, documenting, researching and promoting cultural heritage with the aim of affirming diverse cultural identities) by defining annual project topics.
Objective 2. – Applying for competitive national and international scientific projects focused on cultural identity and cultural heritage.
Objective 3. – Organising interdisciplinary professional and scientific conferences, seminars, workshops, exhibitions and cultural programmes in the field of cultural identity and regional heritage.
Objective 4. – Publishing and evaluating relevant works in the field of cultural identity and regional heritage (articles in Croatian and international journals and conference proceedings, reprints and digital databases of heritage materials unavailable in Croatian cultural and scientific institutions, reviews and translations, scientific publications).
Objective 5. – Encouraging and strengthening interdisciplinary cooperation with other higher education institutions in the Republic of Croatia, as well as Croatian and international universities and heritage institutions that foster the cultural identity of their home countries and minority communities.
Objective 6. – Organising the FFOS School of Croatian Language, History and Culture for pupils and students of Croatian origin attending secondary and higher education institutions abroad, as well as for anyone else wishing to improve their Croatian language skills and learn about Croatian culture and history.

Practices of the Centre:

  • actively connecting researchers and fostering cooperation among scholars from different departments of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences in Osijek, as well as among researchers at the University of Osijek whose work involves the study of cultural identities and regional heritage, regardless of their original scientific discipline, perspective or methodology
  • establishing cooperation with external and international institutions whose work fully or partially overlaps with that of the Centre, with the aim of applying for projects (scientific or professional), improving scientific and professional work, and disseminating results
  • strengthening interdisciplinarity through academic cooperation among researchers from different disciplines working towards common goals, specifically by connecting research in languages (Hungarian, German, Croatian, etc.), history/historiography, and literary theory and history
  • increasing scientific research on the formation and representation of cultural identities and regional heritage and disseminating its results, thereby increasing fundamental, applied and developmental knowledge
  • preserving cultural memory and regional heritage
  • promoting the value of research in the humanities and raising awareness of the importance of the humanities in a society and culture permeated by technologies that prioritise STEM fields and marginalise the humanities
  • developing a culture of dialogue by promoting acceptance of differences and otherness, as well as the values of inclusion, peace and solidarity in intercultural communication and communication with oppressed/minority identities
  • providing a platform for designing courses or educational programmes (at undergraduate, graduate and postgraduate levels or within lifelong learning)
  • strengthening digital literacy and innovation through engagement with digital humanities
  • encouraging publishing on cultural identities and regional heritage through the launch of a journal or book series within the Faculty’s publishing activities
  • popularising science and raising awareness of the importance of research in the humanities, particularly research into cultural identities and regional heritage, through cinema classrooms, reading rooms, workshops, round tables and summer schools

Head of the Centre:
Associate Professor Kristina Feldvari, PhD
Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences in Osijek / Department of Information Sciences, Chair of Information Organisation and Protection of Written Heritage

Research interests: information organisation, processing and description of materials, subject indexing and retrieval, controlled vocabularies, information behaviour, cultural heritage, ICT
Contact: kfeldvari@ffos.hr

Deputy Head of the Centre:
Associate Professor Melita Aleksa Varga, PhD
Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences in Osijek / Department of German Language and Literature, Chair of Applied Linguistics

Research interests: corpus linguistics, language acquisition, paremiology
Contact: maleksa@ffos.hr

Membership – Application Form

To become a member of the Centre, please complete the online application form at this link.

Contact

Centre for Research on Cultural Identity and Regional Heritage
Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences
Josip Juraj Strossmayer University of Osijek
Lorenza Jägera 9, HR − 31 000 Osijek

tel. 031 211 400
fax. 031 212 514

Associate Professor Kristina Feldvari, PhD, Head of the Centre (kfeldvari@ffos.hr)
Associate Professor Melita Aleksa Varga, PhD, Deputy Head of the Centre (maleksa@ffos.hr)