Postcard from 1927 (Collection: library Knjižnica Mirana Jarca, Novo Mesto. Public domain). https://www.kamra.si/mm-elementi/ljubezenska-razglednica-17/).

Call for Participation in the Scientific Conference

The History of Emotions: Challenges, Potentials, and Case Studies from the Territory between the Alps and the northern Adriatic

Published on: August 21, 2026

There is currently growing international interest in researching the history of emotions - an innovative field with significant research potential. In this context, emotions are no longer merely a peripheral element in the study of historical topics; rather, they stand at the very center of historians' attention, whether the focus is on a single emotion or a broad spectrum of emotions. Moreover, the history of emotions can be explored through a wide variety of historical sources (such as wills, court records, diaries and pastoral visitation reports), examining at the level of either a single individual or a specific group of people.

With the aim of fostering research into the history of emotions within Slovenian historiography and facilitating the exchange of views and experiences in this field, researchers at the Milko Kos Historical Institute ZRC SAZU are organizing a scholarly conference titled The History of Emotions: Challenges, Potentials, and Case Studies from the Territory between the Alps and the Northern Adriatic. We welcome contributions that focus specifically on emotions in a historical context, covering the period from antiquity through the 1920s.

We invite researchers to contribute papers addressing, in particular:
• case studies from the territory between the Alps and the Northern Adriatic, which may be based on a wide variety of historical sources
• challenges, potentials, methods, or approaches in researching emotions from a historical perspective.

The conference will take place on September 22 and 23, 2027, in the Gosposka Hall of the Geographical Museum (GIAM ZRC SAZU) in Ljubljana.

We invite you to submit your paper proposals by December 31, 2026, to neva.makuc@zrc-sazu.si. Submissions should include the paper title, a brief abstract (up to 10 lines), and a short biography (up to 10 lines). Abstracts will be published in the conference program booklet.

The contributions are also intended for publication in a scholarly monograph by Založba ZRC. To this end, the editorial board is accepting submissions until October 31, 2027. Contributions should not exceed one author's sheet (approx. 30,000 characters, including spaces) and must be formatted in accordance with the guidelines of the journal Kronika (see the link). Submissions will undergo peer review and will be published under a CC BY-SA license. Visual material should be included only if essential to the content of the article and must be accompanied by the necessary licenses and permissions.

We look forward to your participation!

Organizing Committee: Dr. Neva Makuc, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Petra Svoljšak, Dr. Miha Preinfalk, Barbara Šterbenc Svetina (M.A.), Urban Makorič

The scientific conference is part of the research programme Basic Research of Slovene Cultural Past (P6-0052) and the research project Emotions in Focus: Case Studies from the Territory between the Alps and the North Adriatic (J6-70229), both co-financed by the Slovenian Research and Innovation Agency from the state budget.