The Ivan Rakovec Institute of Palaeontology, in cooperation with the doctoral programme Environmental and Regional Studies (module Paleobiology and Sedimentary Geology), invites you to two public lectures,

 

on Tuesday, 14 April 2026 at 4:00 PM.

 

The guest lecturers will be Prof.  Attila Demény, PhD from the Institute for Geological and Geochemical Research, HUN-REN Research Centre for Astronomy and Earth Sciences in Budapest, and Assoc. Prof. László Bujtor, PhD from the Institute of Geography and Environmental Sciences, Eszterházy Károly Catholic University in Eger.

 

The event will be held in English in the Gosposka Hall of ZM GIAM ZRC SAZU, Gosposka ulica 16, Ljubljana.

 

 

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Prof. Attila Demény, PhD
Institute for Geological and Geochemical Research, HUN-REN Research Centre for Astronomy and Earth Sciences, Budapest, Hungary.

 

Attila Demény graduated at the Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, as a geologist in 1986. He is dealing with stable isotope geochemistry since 1988, when he had a scholarship at the University of Utrecht, then he established a stable isotope laboratory in Budapest in 1990. He is dealing mainly with stable isotope analyses of various substances and environments from the Earth’s mantle to paleoclimate archives. He is an author of 170 journal articles and book chapters, and has received 5109 google scholar citations. He is a member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, and was a director of the Institute for Geological and Geochemical Research, Budapest, from 2008 to 2026.

 

Why aptychi and rhyncholites are so good paleoclimate archives: microfabric features and geochemical compositions.

 

Oxygen isotope analysis of calcitic fossils is one of the most important tools for determining paleotemperatures, for which detection of primary textures and late-stage alterations is essential. I’ll present the results of EBSD measurements of internal structures of aptychi and rhyncholites and their mathematical analyses, as well as stable isotope analyses that demonstrate that well selected aptychi and especially rhyncholites can provide precise paleotemperature data. The studies have been published in International Journal of Earth Sciences (https://doi.org/10.1007/s00531-023-02376-5) and Communications Earth & Environment (https://doi.org/10.1038/s43247-025-02892-z).

 

 

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Assoc. Prof. László Bujtor, PhD

Institute of Geography and Environmental Sciences, Eszterházy Károly Catholic University, Eger, Hungary

 

László Bujtor (b. 1965) geologist, graduated in 1989 Eötvös University, Budapest. László earned his PhD at the University of Pécs in 2007 and made habilitation there in 2016. He also gained experiences in the for-profit field working for multinational firms in marketing and sales roles and getting MBA in 2005 at the State University of New York at Buffalo and the Technological University of Budapest.

 

Research field is palaeontology, including Mesozoic (chiefly Jurassic – Cretaceous) stratigraphy, palaeoecology, palaeobiogeography, and taxonomy of ammonites, brachiopods, crustacean microcoprolites. Main interest is the Mesozoic geology of the Mecsek Mountains (South Hungary) having also experiences from the Transdanubian Range and the Villány Mountains (Hungary), Northern Calcareous Alps (Austria), Cisnadioara (Southern Carpathians, Romania.

 

László is an associate professor at the Eszterházy Károly Catholic University (Eger, Hungary) from 202 and from 2024 promoted to a Head of Department. Before that he was working fof the University of Pécs (South Hungary) between 2013 and 2022.

 

László is an author of 177 papers (incl. scientific, popular scientific and fiction books/papers) out of which 50 are in English published in internationally acknowledged papers. Cumulative IF: 40.026, number of independent citation: 484, H-index: 12.

 

László is a co-curator of Komlóverzum Visitng Centre at Komló (Mecsek Mountains, South Hungary) and the scientific advisor of the institution.

 

Bouligand structure in Nature – universal application of a simple geometrical phenomenon

 

French biologist Yves Bouligand recognised a unique, hierarchical helical structure at the external cuticle of decapod crustaceans in 1972. The structure, which is the organisation of organic and non-organic (e.g., calcite) material of living creatures distribute outstanding mechanical properties to the material in which applied.

 

The structure today called ‘Bouligand structure’ after Yves Bouligand who discovered it. Later research prove the presence in far animal and even plant groups and revelaed its universal presence in Nature. First technological application occurred in 2024 by Rolls-Royce in airplane engine cover plates to strengthen the structure against unprecedented object impacts.

 

The presentation introduce the maverick science of Bouligad structure, its presence in Nature, possible human applications and the prospects in future material and natural science

 

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Photo: SEM images of a cross-section of Laevaptychus. A – surface image obtained using the EBSD method. B – shows the crystallographic orientation of carbonate crystals. Source: Demény et al., 2025.

On 13 April at 6 pm, Eric Cazdyn (University of Toronto) will give a lecture at the Institute of Philosophy and the Postgraduate School ZRC SAZU.

 

The lecture, dedicated to Fredric Jameson, will take place in the Atrium ZRC, Novi trg 2, Ljubljana.

 

Prior to the lecture, a preliminary presentation will be given of the Slovenian translation of Jameson’s lectures Years of Theory, forthcoming in June this year in the Philosophica moderna series. In this book, Jameson offers a wide-ranging and historically differentiated account of the development of modern French thought, tracing its key transformations from Sartre and existentialism through structuralism and post-structuralism to contemporary theoretical currents. The lectures do not merely provide a chronological overview, but also attempt a conceptual understanding of the internal dynamics of these shifts, consistently situating them within broader political and historical developments while examining their impact on the wider fields of the humanities and social sciences.

 

The Blindspot Machine: The Jameson Iteration

What is a blindspot? What might it teach us about how we look, how we think, how we desire, and how change occurs in the world? Cazdyn argues that the dominant ideology of the blindspot today (from culture to politics) as something missing, as something to be disclosed or concealed, is the deadliest weapon used by those in power. To develop this critique, Cazdyn has built what he calls a “Blindspot Machine”—a multi-camera optics system that, instead of exposing blindspots (the violent desire of state power), produces a new theory and practice of the blindspot itself. In this iteration of the Blindspot Machine project, Cazdyn will highlight how the work of Fredric Jameson informs and inspires the key problematics of the blindspot. Clips from a film that Cazdyn made with Jameson (not long before his death), will be screened as part of the lecture.

 

Eric Cazdyn is Professor of Aesthetics and Politics at the University of Toronto (Centre for Comparative Literature and Department of East Asian Studies), where he teaches courses on critical and cultural theory, psychoanalysis, Marxism, film, and architecture. He is the author of The Already Dead: The New Time of Politics, Culture and Illness (2012), After Globalization (with Imre Szeman, 2011), The Flash of Capital: Film and Geopolitics in Japan (2002), and Nothing: Three Inquiries in Buddhism (with Marcus Boon and Timothy Morton, 2015), and the editor of Trespasses: Selected Writings of Masao Miyoshi (2010) and Disastrous Consequences (2007).

 

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Photo by Kostas Dimopoulos

We invite you to a guest lecture organised as part of the doctoral module Cultural History by the Postgraduate School ZRC SAZU and the Institute of Culture and Memory Studies ZRC SAZU.

 

Tamara Banjeglav, PhD, research associate at the Institute for Cultural and Memory Studies, ZRC SAZU:

 

Slow Violence and the Politics of Time: Delayed Reconstruction after the Petrinja Earthquake

 

A 6.4-magnitude earthquake struck central Croatia in December 2020, with its epicentre near the town of Petrinja, marking one of the most devastating natural disasters in the country’s recent history. While the initial event was sudden and highly visible — triggering emergency responses, media attention and government promises of rapid recovery — this presentation argues that the disaster cannot be understood only through its immediate material destruction. Rather, it is argued that delayed reconstruction, damaged infrastructure, bureaucratic obstacles, and institutional neglect have transformed time itself into a mechanism of violence. Drawing on Rob Nixon’s concept of “slow violence,” the presentation conceptualizes post-earthquake recovery as a temporally extended process in which harm unfolds gradually and often invisibly. In this context, waiting is not a neutral condition but a politically produced experience that exacerbates inequality and uncertainty.

 

The presentation attempts to answer the following research questions: how does slow violence manifest in the extended recovery process following the 2020 Petrinja earthquake? In what ways do bureaucratic delay, social neglect, and uneven reconstruction contribute to ongoing harm and injustice? By foregrounding the politics of time, the analysis shows that the effects of disaster persist not only in ruined buildings but in the protracted and uneven processes of rebuilding, through which vulnerability is reproduced rather than resolved.

 

The lecture will be held in English on Wednesday, April 8, 2026, at 1:00 p.m. in the library of the Institute for Cultural and Memory Studies ZRC SAZU, Trg francoske revolucije 7, 2nd floor, Ljubljana.

 

Tamara Banjeglav is a research associate at the Institute of Culture and Memory Studies at the Research Centre of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts. She holds the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions ERA fellowship, in the framework of which she is conducting research on the project “Time is (not) on my side: Remembering victims of slow violence in a post-conflict and post-disaster setting”. She has received her PhD degree from the University of Graz, Austria. Her research interests fall within the fields of memory studies, peace and conflict studies, nationalism studies, and transitional justice, particularly in the post-Yugoslav space.

 

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Photo: Tamara Banjeglav

Postgraduate School ZRC SAZU invites you to a public lecture by Dr. Björn Quiring:

 

Interpreting Hamlet’s Pregnant Silences: Nietzsche, Lacan, Benjamin.

 

The lecture in English will take place on Wednesday, 25 March 2026, at 5 PM at the Gosposka Hall at ZM GIAM ZRC SAZU, Gosposka ulica 16, Ljubljana.

 

In Shakespeare’s Hamlet, the protagonist frequently and eloquently refers to his own taciturnity and to the fundamental insights into the ways of the world that this silence conceals from his interlocutors. It is partly due to this emphasis on a pivotal inaccessibility that the play has provoked numerous philosophical and psychoanalytical interpretations. For example, Friedrich Nietzsche in The Birth of Tragedy and Walter Benjamin in Origin of the German Trauerspiel have dealt with Hamlet’s loquacious refusal to communicate; and their interpretations, while problematic, can contribute to a better understanding of the drama, when they are brought into dialogue with each other. They can also serve to question Jacques Lacan’s interpretation of the play and its focus on Hamlet’s struggle with the task of assuming a symbolic mandate. In the resultant reading, Hamlet emerges as a rather sinister figure of modern subjectivity, perhaps even a prefiguration of the fascist mindset.

 

Björn Quiring is Associate Professor of English at Trinity College Dublin and a scholar of early modern English literature. His teaching and research focuses on the intersections of literary theory with legal theory and philosophy, particularly the work of Benjamin, Blumenberg, Deleuze, and Empson. Quiring is the author of Trials of Nature: The Infinite Law Court of Milton’s Paradise Lost (Routledge, 2021) and Shakespeare’s Curse: The Aporias of Ritual Exclusion in Early Modern Royal Drama (Routledge, 2014).

 

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Photo: Kronborg Castle (Helsingør, Denmark), immortalized as Elsinore in the play Hamlet; Sara Gradišnik

The Institute of Philosophy of ZRC SAZU, in cooperation with the doctoral programme Comparative Studies of Ideas and Cultures at the Postgraduate School ZRC SAZU (module: Transformations of Modern Thought – Philosophy, Psychoanalysis, Culture),

 

cordially invites you to two guest lectures by Matteo Cosci, Associate Professor of the History of Philosophy at the Department of Philosophy and Cultural Heritage, Ca’ Foscari University of Venice.

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Monday, 16 February, and Tuesday, 17 February

Two Lectures on Galileo

 

 

Both lectures will take place at 12:00 am in the Gosposka Hall of ZM GIAM ZRC SAZU (Gosposka ulica 16, Ljubljana) and will be held in English.

In the first lecture, he will discuss the significance of Galileo’s reflections on the “new light” (Kepler’s nova) that appeared in the sky in 1604 for his Copernican cosmology. The full significance of this discovery can be understood through a comprehensive analysis of Galileo’s scattered studies on the nova and the study of the works of his opponents. In his lecture, he will refer to various sources (teaching notes, reports, selected quotations, letters, marginalia, etc.). These documents of Galileo can be classified as pieces of the puzzle of an unusual and consistent view of the nova that “de-fixed” the fixed stars. The framework of Galileo’s studies of the nova was the Copernicus heliocentric hypothesis, which he sought to confirm by studying this phenomenon.

 

 

In his second lecture, he will present the attribution process that has led him to the acknowledgement of Galileo as the author of the treatise entitled Considerazioni d’Alimberto Mauri on the nova of 1604 (Florence, 1606). He will argue that the confirmed attribution allows to reassess the subsequent technological and optical development of the design of the Dutch telescope. Moreover, a hypothesis for the decodification of the pseudonym, an overview of the references of choice, and the overall relevance of the neglected treatise on the “new star” can be accordingly discussed. In conclusion, it is possible to identify the Considerazioni as the promised treatise on the new star by Galileo and the missing bridge to the Sidereus Nuncius.

 

 

An outline of the findings to be presented in the lectures is available here.

 

 

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Matteo Cosci is associate professor of History of Philosophy at the Department of Philosophy and Cultural Heritage at Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, where he is also head of the degree program in “Philosophy, International Studies, and Economics”. Cosci studied at the University of Padua and at the King’s College London, spending research periods in Oxford and in the United States. His academic research focuses mainly on Aristotle, the history of Paduan Aristotelianism, and Galileo Galilei. Besides various contributions and articles on these topics, he is the author of the monograph Truth and comparison in Aristotle (2014), a couple of co-edited collections on the history of syllogism (Bloomsbury, 2018 and 2023), and a forthcoming book on Franz Brentano’s logic. Cosci is member of several national and international scientific societies and member of the editorial boards of academic journals such as Philosophical Readings in Lexis. At Ca’ Foscari Cosci has collaborated in two recent ERC research projects, on Renaissance Vernacular Aristotelianism and Early Modern Cosmology respectively. Cosci has recently concluded a Marie Curie research fellowship on the topic of the so-called Kepler supernova, with a project under the title of “The Ophiuchus Supernova: Post-Aristotelian Stargazing in the European Context”. In this framework he is currently editing and translating several works on that specific astronomical event. Among these, a special place is occupied by the study of the pseudonymous Considerazioni d’Alimberto Mauri (Florence, 1606), in regard of which Cosci has retrieved new evidence in favour of its re-attribution to Galileo.

 

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Photo: Copernican System of the Universe, Andreas Cellarius, 1660, From Harmonia Macrocosmica – Public Domain Image Archive

The Institute of Philosophy at ZRC SAZU, in collaboration with the doctoral program Comparative Studies of Ideas and Cultures at the Postgraduate School ZRC SAZU (module: Transformations of Modern Thought – Philosophy, Psychoanalysis, Culture),

 

invites you to two lectures by Lachlan Kermode, a doctoral student at Brown University.

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Friday, February 6 and 13, 2026, at 5 p.m. in the Gosposka Hall of ZRC SAZU, Gosposka ulica 16, Ljubljana:

Commodity Form, Sexualization, and Subject

 

This two-part seminar will be based on the thesis that there is an isomorphic relationship between the methods of political economy and psychoanalysis. Both techniques identify an essential characteristic of the subject: that it speaks and socializes, thereby entangling its nature in an internal contradiction. For both Freud and Marx, the speaking and social subject is not only what it is, but also something less—or more. At the first meeting, we will focus on Marx’s theory of commodity form from Capital as a reconfiguration of Kant’s self-sufficiency. In the second meeting, we will follow the thesis that this mathematical consistency in Marx appears (again) in Lacan’s theory of the subject. Psychoanalysis thus puts Marx’s philosophy on its feet and asks the question: what should we do with ourselves when we know that we can never know everything about ourselves?

 

The event will be held in English.

 

Lachlan Kermode is a doctoral student in contemporary culture and media and a master’s student in computer science at Brown University, where he is mentored by Joan Copjec. In his dissertation, From Capital to Calculus: Marx and the Cradle of Computer Science, he analyzes how computer science achieved institutional sovereignty in industry, epistemological dominance in academia, and the status of untouchable interpretive authority in addressing personal and political issues.

 

 

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NOTICE: Due to unforeseen circumstances, the second lecture (Friday, February 13, 2026) has been canceled. Thank you for your understanding.

 

 

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Cover image: Alexander Klepnev

 

On Monday, 19 January 2026, the Dean of the Postgraduate School ZRC SAZU, Asst. Prof. Dr. Jani Kozina, awarded six new Doctors of Philosophy their degrees as part of the third-cycle Comparative Study of Ideas and Cultures doctoral programme.

 

Vita Zalar earned her PhD in the Cultural History module with the dissertation Anti-Roma Racism and Punitive Governance in the Habsburg and Yugoslav Monarchies, 1848-1941.
Supervisor: Prof. Dr Oto Luthar; Co-supervisor: Prof. Dr Ari Joskowicz.
Dissertation abstract.

 

Lucija Mandić earned her PhD in the Literature in Context module with the dissertation A Computational Reading of Slovenian Narrative prose of the Long 19th Century in the Context of Literary Canonisation.
Supervisor: Assist. Prof. Dr Andrejka Žejn; Co-supervisor: Assist. Prof. Dr Monika Deželak Trojar.
Dissertation abstract.

 

Vilja Lukan Pišek earned her PhD in the Cultural History module with the dissertation Musealisation of Difficult Heritage: Concentration Camp Ljubelj at the Intersection of Museology and Memory.
Supervisor: Assist. Prof. Dr Saša Poljak Istenič; Co-supervisor: Prof. Dr Oto Luthar.
Dissertation abstract.

 

Adriana Sabo earned her PhD in the Cultural History module with the dissertation “Me Fancy, You Nothing”: Mechanisms of Producing Empowered Femininity within the Contemporary Balkan Music Industry.
Supervisor: Assoc. Prof. Dr Ana Hofman.
Dissertation abstract.

 

Boris Mihalj earned his PhD in the Transformations of Modern Thought – Philosophy, Psychoanalysis, Culture module with the dissertation Thinking Play.
Supervisor: Prof. Dr Mladen Dolar; Co-supervisor: Prof. Dr Urban Kordeš.
Dissertation abstract.

 

Rok Mrvič earned his PhD in the Slovenian Studies – Tradition and Modernity module with the dissertation Swearing Forms in Contemporary Slovene Folklore System. A Folkloristic and Semiotic Analysis of Swearing.
Supervisor: Assist. Prof. Dr Barbara Ivančič Kutin; Co-supervisor: Assist. Prof. Dr Saša Babič.
Dissertation abstract.

 

This year’s doctoral dissertations reflect the programme’s strong interdisciplinary orientation and thematic diversity. Topics range from cultural history and memory studies to museology, literary studies, folklore, music, philosophy, and social criticism. Together, they demonstrate the programme’s commitment to rigorous and critical research into complex cultural and social phenomena.

 

The ceremonial event also included a cultural programme. Maks Zakrajšek and Vitja Kovačević, students of the Academy of Music, provided the musical accompaniment, and their guitar performance helped create a solemn atmosphere.

 

We extend our sincere congratulations to all the new Doctors of Philosophy on this important academic achievement.

 

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Photo: Marko Zaplatil

We cordially invite you to a lecture as part of the Lexicology, Lexicography, Gramaticography module by Vlad A. Neacșu, on Friday, 23 January 2026 at 2:00 PM:

 

Deciphering Languages Without Knowing Them: Linguistics Olympiad, Humans, and AI.

 

Linguistics Olympiad problems (LOPs) are a special genre of puzzles that present linguistic features and phenomena in an encrypted form. These problems are used in the International Linguistics Olympiad and related national olympiads and consist of a scaled-down corpus of sentences/phrases/words representative of certain linguistic phenomena. From this, the solver must infer/deduce a primitive set of grammatical rules of the language and then translate a new set of elements. In recent years, large language models (LLMs) have shown impressive performance on many language-related tasks, raising the question of whether such systems can also solve Linguistics Olympiad problems. And if so, how?
In this talk, I bring together two perspectives: empirical research on the performance of LLMs on LOPs, and pedagogical insights from training students for the International Linguistics Olympiad. I discuss why current AI systems often struggle with these problems despite their apparent fluency, focusing on issues such as memorisation and tokenisation.
By comparing how humans and machines approach the same tasks, the talk argues that Linguistics Olympiad problems offer a unique lens on the distinction between pattern recognition and genuine reasoning. I conclude by reflecting on what these findings imply both for the future of AI and for the educational value of linguistics competitions.

 

The lecture will be held in English in the conference room of ZRC SAZU, Novi trg 2, 1. floor, Ljubljana and at ZOOM (link, Meeting ID: 865 3030 1071, Passcode: 371494).

 

Vlad A. Neacșu is a PhD student at the “Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” Institute of Linguistics of the Romanian Academy. His research focuses on the use of linguistics olympiad problems in academic research. He is a member of the International Board of the International Linguistics Olympiad and the Asia-Pacific Linguistics Olympiads and has extensive experience in training students for national and international linguistics competitions. His problems were featured in many national Linguistics Olympiads (among which, Slovenia, Romania, Republic of Moldova, Hong Kong, China, India, the United Kingdom, Brazil, Japan), as well as for the Asia-Pacific Linguistics Olympiad and the International Linguistics Olympiad.

 

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Photo bySiora Photography on Unsplash

We cordially invite you to a lecture as part of the Cultural History module by Iva Kosmos, PhD, on Tuesday, 20 January 2026 at 1:00 PM:

 

Yugoslav travel writers in the Third World: socialist contact zones and the anti-colonial production of knowledge.

 

In the first part of the lecture, I will provide a brief overview of my Marie Skłodowska-Curie ERA project at the University of Zagreb. I will present the project’s general rationale, scope, research questions and outputs, including a bibliography of Yugoslav travel writing on the Third World. The second part of the lecture will focus on one of the project’s central aims: to shed light on the anti-colonial – as Yugoslavs would have termed it – strategies in travel writing. Yugoslav travel writers were acutely aware that they inherited and naturalized imperial, colonial and orientalist imagery of Africa and Asia shaped by Western European literature, art, media and popular culture. As part of the broader Yugoslav project of establishing partnerships with post-colonial African and Asian states, travel writing emerged as the important discursive space for questioning and negotiating these relationships. Yugoslav travel writers sought to undo and unlearn their preconditioned reactions to and perceptions of Others by incorporating socio-historical education on the Third World countries, class and economic analysis, and constant self-reflection on one’s own production of knowledge. Considering the specific material conditions of Yugoslav travels and its distinct discursive orientation, I argue that these encounters unfolded within a specific socialist “contact zone” (cf. Pratt). Through a case study of travelogues and diary accounts by the Slovenian painter Jože Ciuha from Southeast Asia (Okameneli smehljaj (1963), Potovanje v deseto deželo (1966)) I will demonstrate the possibilities and limitations opened up by socialist contact zones and the perspective they produced.

 

The lecture will be held in English in the library of the Institute for Cultural and Memory Studies at ZRC SAZU, Trg francoske revolucije 7, 2nd floor, Ljubljana.

 

Iva Kosmos is a cultural studies scholar whose work brings together literary sociology, cultural and memory studies. Her research focuses on Yugoslav and post-Yugoslav literary and cultural production, examining it in relation to broader social, cultural, and political frameworks and contexts. In parallel, she explored the memory narratives of socialist industrial workers. She was a researcher at ZRC SAZU (2017-2024) and currently holds MSCA ERA Fellowship at the University of Zagreb. She has co-edited the monograph Social Impact in Arts and Culture. The Diverse Lives of a Concept (2022) and Stories from the Can: The History of Fish Processing and Canning in the Northeastern Adriatic (in Slovenian and Croatian, 2020).

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Photo by Eugenia Ai on Unsplash

The Postgraduate School ZRC SAZU participates as an Associated Partner in the international Momentum MSCA Premium Postdoctoral Fellowship Programme and invites researchers to apply for the second call (Call 2).

 

Momentum MSCA is a postdoctoral fellowship programme co-funded under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA), aimed at fostering scientific excellence, international mobility, and the development of independent research careers. As an associated partner, the Postgraduate School ZRC SAZU may act as one of the potential host institutions for selected postdoctoral researchers.

 

Selected candidates may be awarded a fellowship for a period of up to 36 months, including mandatory short-term international secondments. The programme offers competitive funding conditions as well as support for professional development, training, and networking within an international research environment.

 

The second call is open from 1 December 2025 to 31 January 2026.
The call is open to outstanding researchers from all research fields who wish to pursue their postdoctoral career in an internationally competitive research environment.

 

Further information on the call, eligibility criteria, and the application procedure is available in the official broschure and on the official programme website: https://momentummsca.mta.hu

 

Researchers are warmly invited to apply.