Sanja Sekelj, PhD

Biography

Sanja Sekelj is a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Institute of Art History in Zagreb. Her research focuses on the art production of the second half of the 20^th and the beginning of the 21^st century, with a specialization in the research of cultural dynamics and networking practices of the visual arts’ scene actors at the turn of the millennium. Her scientific production is directed primarily at the advancement of network analysis in art history, data analysis with both quantitative and qualitative methods, the genesis and development of digital technologies in art history in the local context, and the development of the art field and the role of cultural institutions in the late 20^th century.

In 2010, Sanja Sekelj graduated Art History and French Language and Literature from the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Zagreb. From 2016 to 2022, she was employed as a Research Assistant at the Institute of Art History in Zagreb on the research project ARTNET Modern and Contemporary Artist Networks, Art Groups and Art Associations – Organisation and Communication Models of Collaborative Art Practices in the 20th and 21st Century (HRZZ, 6270, 2014–2018). She defended her Doctoral Thesis “Digital Art History and Artists Networks in Croatia of the 1990s and 2000s” in 2021 at the University of Zadar, under the co-mentorship of Petar Prelog and Željka Tonković.

Since 2020, she has been a researcher at the bilateral scientific project Models and Practices of Global Cultural Exchange and Non-aligned Movement. Research in the Spatio-Temporal Cultural Dynamics (HRZZ, IPS-2020-01-3992; 2020–2023), and, since 2021, a collaborator on the project New Public Culture and Spaces of Sociability (ESF, 2021–2022). She authored a number of scientific articles and book chapters, and participated and/or organized dozens of international conferences. She co-edited the book Currents: 34 Years of Gallery Miroslav Kraljević (with Ana Kovačić and Lea Vene; GMK, Zagreb, 2020), and the thematic issue of the scientific journal Život umjetnosti (105-2019), focused on the topic of digital art history (with Ljiljana Kolešnik and Sanja Horvatinčić). She is one of the authors of the scientific database Croatian Artists' Network Information System (CAN_IS).

She participated in the work of several working groups or committees, among which the working group for the analysis of the state of cultural policy in the Republic of Croatia, within which she worked on the analysis of networking practices and collaborations within the culture sector in Croatia. She was a member of the curatorial team of Gallery Miroslav Kraljević (2013–2016) and the executive editor of the scientific journal Život umjetnosti (2018–2021).