FDV RESEARCH TEAM:

1. Defence Research Centre/ Chair of Defence Studies

HEAD OF THE PROJECT: Assoc. Univ. Prof. Janja Vuga Beršnak, Ph.D., is an associate professor at the Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Ljubljana, where she teaches various courses. Some of her research was conducted in the field among soldiers deployed in Tchad/CAR, UNIFIL, KFOR and, as a national representative, she contributed to the NATO working group studying the life of children in military families. She carried out some of her research at Archivo Disarmo and ISSMI in Italy and University of Klagenfurt in Austria. She led various projects, e.g. Military-specific risk and protective factors for military family health and well-being, System of crisis management in Slovenia, Crisis management mechanisms and currently she is head of projects Retention of military personnel in Slovenian armed forces and Socioecological Dynamic Models of Mental Health: Complex Crisis Burden among Professions of Critical Importance for the Society

Assist. Univ. Prof. Jelena Juvan, Ph.D., is an assistant professor at the Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Ljubljana. She  participate in teaching the courses: Common Foreign and Security Policy of the European Union, Common Security and Defence Policy of the EU, Disaster Management, Defence and Security System, and Security in the Information Society. She acted as an independent evaluator for the EU FP7 and H2020 Research Projects. Between 2013 and 2015, she was a member of the NATO International Scientific Evaluation Group (NATO ISEG 2013–2015). She was president of the Slovenian Political Science Association. Currently, she is a member of the NATO STO Technical Team: Personnel Retention in the Armed Forces (HFM-RTG318). 

Univ. Prof. Ljubica Jelušič, Ph.D., is a full professor at the Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Ljubljana. She currently teaches courses on polemology, military sociology, international operations and missions (IOMs), and regional security. Her research interests encompass contemporary armed conflicts, IOMs, military sociology, military family support programmes, and the conversion of military capabilities. She has been an active member of international scientific organisations such as ERGOMAS and ISA RC 01 on armed forces and conflict resolution. Her research has been performed within the Defence Research Centre where she was a leader of surveys on peacekeeping operations and on military personnel policy. In addition, she was engaged in European Union scientific programmes like the COST A10 action.  Between 2009 and 2012, she served as Minister of Defence of the Republic of Slovenia. 

Assoc. Univ. Prof. Rok Zupančič, Ph.D., is Associate Professor at Chair of Defence Studies, University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Social Sciences. Currently, he is leading the project Anxious Peace: Anxieties in cities of southeast European post-conflict societies: introducing an integrative approach to peacebuilding. His main fields of interest are conflict prevention and peacebuilding in Southeast Europe, in particular how anxiety psychologically, physiologically and neurobiologically affects body-minds of people in postconflict societies. 

Gašper Ferme, MA., is a junior researcher and PhD student at the University of Ljubljana’s Faculty of Social Sciences. Interested in the fields of civil-military relations, military sociology, and security studies, Gašper’s pursuit is centered on understanding and exploring the intricate dynamics between the Slovenian Armed Forces, the state, and Slovenian society at large. His PhD project focuses on this triad, aiming to provide insights into how the military institution, the government, and societal perceptions interact and shape each other in the context of Slovenia. 

2. Chair of Theoretical Sociology

Assist. Univ. Prof. Andreja Živoder, Ph.D., is an assistant professor at the Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia and a researcher at the Centre for Social Psychology. She is engaged in research on studies of everyday life, life course, youth studies and on social topics in the field of health. 

Univ. Prof. Alenka Švab, Ph.D., is a full professor of sociology at the Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Ljubljana. Her fields of interest are families and family policy, everyday life, life courses, social aspects of sexuality, intimacy and body. She has been involved in several national and international projects, including “Youth – actor of social change” – UP2YOUTH and “Governance of educational trajectories in Europe” GOETE that dealt with social changes in the life course of young people. She has co-written six scientific books on family and family life, fatherhood, the intimate life of secondary school and university students and the everyday life of gays and lesbians. In 2017, she was appointed a member of Council of the Republic of Slovenia for Children and the Family by the Government of the Republic of Slovenia. 

3. Chair of Social Informatics and Methodology

Assoc. Univ. Prof. Bojana Lobe Ph.D., is an associate professor at the Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Ljubljana, where she teaches methodological courses (statistics, questionnaire design, qualitative methods, comparative research, digital technologies and data collection). Her research interests include online qualitative research methods, mixed methods and multi-method designs, qualitative comparative analysis, researching children’s experiences and digital technologies.