Our Team
Dr Teodora Shek Brnardić, Principal Investigator
The Enlightenment sparked a cultural revolution in modern history, initiating a series of ongoing debates about the role of the individual in society, tolerance, and freedom. Thinkers in the Croatian lands of the 18th century also engaged with these questions, and their responses were deeply shaped by the dynamic events unfolding in their local context.
Curriculum vitae
Teodora Shek Brnardić (b. 1971) graduated in Classical Languages in 1994 and earned her Master’s degree in History in 1999, both from the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Zagreb. She completed her doctoral studies at the Central European University in Budapest, defending her award-winning dissertation Enlightened Officer at Work: The Educational Projects of the Bohemian Count Franz Joseph Kinsky (1739–1805) in 2004. Since 1994, she has been employed at the Croatian Institute of History. She is the author of the monograph The World of Baltazar Adam Krčelić Education between Tridentine Catholicism and the Catholic Enlightenment (2009). Dr Shek Brnardić has collaborated on several national and international research projects. From 2016 to 2019, she served as the national coordinator for the international Horizon 2020 project Cultural Opposition: Understanding the Cultural Heritage of Dissent in the Former Socialist Countries (COURAGE). She has published extensively in Croatian, German, and English, contributing to scholarly journals in both Croatia and abroad. Her research interests lie primarily in intellectual and cultural history, with a particular focus on the comparative history of the Enlightenment in Central and Southeast Europe.
PROJECT TOPIC: Enlightened nobility through the examples of Bohemian Count Franz Joseph Kinsky (1739–1805), author of pedagogical works and an epistolary travelogue through the Croatian lands (1788), and Dubrovnik nobleman and reformist writer Toma Basegli (1756–1806).
- stipekljaic@gmail.com
- CroRIS
- academia.edu
Dr Stipe Kljaić, Researcher
Is this a matter of simply rejecting modernism and the Enlightenment? No. From its very beginning, Christianity has understood itself as the religion of the logos, as the religion according to reason. It found its precursor, not primarily in the other religions, but in the philosophical enlightenment that cleared the way of traditions in order to devote itself to the pursuit of the true and the good, of the one God who is above all the gods. (Joseph Ratzinger)
Curriculum vitae
Stipe Kljaić (b. 1982) studied History at the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Zagreb. Since 2010, he has been employed at the Croatian Institute of History, where he currently holds the position of Senior Research Associate. In 2015, he earned his PhD in History from the University of Zagreb. In 2017, he published his first monograph on the activities of Croatian intellectuals in the first half of the 20th century, entitled Nikad više Jugoslavija. Intelektualci i hrvatsko nacionalno pitanje (1929. – 1945.) [Never Again Yugoslavia: Intellectuals and the Croatian National Question (1929–1945)]. From 2016 to 2019, he worked on the international Horizon 2020 project Cultural Opposition: Understanding the Cultural Heritage of Dissent in the Former Socialist Countries (COURAGE). In 2018 and 2019, he held research fellowships at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University (USA), and at the University of Bologna (Italy) at the FSCIRE Archives – Fondazione per le scienze religiose Giovanni XXIII. In 2021, he published his second monograph, Povijest kontrarevolucije: hrvatska konzervativna misao od 1789. do 1989. [The History of Counter-Revolution: Croatian Conservative Thought from 1789 to 1989]. His research interests focus on modern Croatian history, with a particular emphasis on intellectual history and the history of ideologies.
PROJECT TOPIC: (Anti-)Enlightenment and (anti-)revolutionary thought and activity of the Dalmatian Franciscan Andrija Dorotić (1761–1837).
- stipe.ledic@unicath.hr
- CroRIS
- academia.edu
Asst. Prof. Stipe Ledić, Researcher
A distinctive feature of Keresturi’s writing is the perceptiveness with which he approaches complex issues. This insight is the result of his formal education and his ongoing engagement with contemporary Enlightenment intellectual and socio-political currents.
Curriculum vitae
Stipe Ledić (b. 1970) graduated in Latin and History from the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Zagreb, in 1997. From 1999 to 2012, he taught Latin and History at secondary school level. Since 2012, he has been employed at the Department of History, Catholic University of Croatia, where he teaches Latin and courses on early modern history. He earned his PhD in 2018 with a thesis entitled Josip Keresturi – javno djelovanje i politička misao [Josip Keresturi – Public Activity and Political Thought]. His research examines the work of the court agent Josip Keresturi within the context of social, political, and administrative history, focusing on the interaction between the political elites of the Lands of the Crown of St. Stephen and the reform policies of the Viennese Court in the second half of the 18th century. His research interests include the administrative, ecclesiastical, social, economic, and educational aspects of Josephinism in Croatia, early modern Latin historiography, and history didactics. He is co-author of a history textbook for the third grade of high school and author of a study analysing history teaching with respect to the representation of Ban Petar Berislavić in textbooks. He has also published works exploring the origins and course of conflicts within the Zagreb clergy concerning Bishop Maksimilijan Vrhovac in the Diocese of Zagreb.
PROJECT TOPIC: Court agent Josip Keresturi (1739–1794) and Zagreb Bishop Maksimilijan Vrhovac (1752–1827). The aim is to examine the influence of Enlightenment ideas, including those of the Catholic Enlightenment, on their views and public activities within the context of social networks in the Habsburg Monarchy.
- krperkov@ffzg.unizg.hr
- CroRIS
Assoc. Prof Katja Radoš-Perković, Researcher
In somma l’uomo è una stravagante creatura, e chi ci chiama animali ragionevoli si fa beffe di noi e della ragione. (In the end, man is a peculiar creature, and anyone who calls us rational animals is making a mockery of both us and reason.). Julije Bajamonti (letter to Alberto Fortis, 15 April 1788)
Curriculum vitae
Katja Radoš-Perković is an Associate Professor at the Department of Italian, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Zagreb. She earned her PhD in 2011 with a dissertation on Croatian translations of Carlo Goldoni, published in 2013 under the title Pregovori s izvornikom. O hrvatskim prijevodima Goldonijevih komedija [Negotiations with the Original: On Croatian Translations of Goldoni’s Comedies] (Leykam). In addition to translation studies and 18th-century Italian theatre, her research focuses on Croatian and Italian opera libretti. In 2021, she edited, translated, and prepared the critical bilingual edition of the manuscript Dnevnik Luke Sorkočevića [Memoriae. The Journal of Luka Sorkočević] (HAZU-HMD), for which she received the 2022 “Dragan Plamenac” Annual Award of the Croatian Musicological Society and the 2023 HAZU Annual Award in the field of musical arts and musicology. She has participated in numerous national and international academic conferences and has published more than forty scholarly and professional articles in Croatian, English, and Italian, in both domestic and international journals and edited volumes.
PROJECT TOPIC: The non-musical works of the Split polymath Julije Bajamonti (1744–1800) in the context of his Enlightenment role in Dalmatia and Italy.
- gsutalo@ffzg.hr
- CroRIS
- academia.edu
Asst. Prof. Goranka Šutalo, Researcher
Although Croatian literary historiography has provided a fairly thorough account of Blagojević’s works, it seems to me that their Enlightenment dimension has yet to be clearly defined, and is still largely reduced to a few basic theses: that Blagojević is the most prominent Slavonian representative of Josephinism; that his views are somewhat more radical than those of Relković (for example, in his sharp criticism of the Franciscans); but that he, too, is far removed from Western illuminism (atheism and deism), and that his Enlightenment is therefore ‘moderate’, adapted to local circumstances or, in the words of Rafo Bogišić, a Croatian Enlightenment. I find this explanation insufficiently precise because it focuses primarily on what (Croatian) Enlightenment is not (or what it lacks to qualify as such), rather than on what it actually is.
Curriculum vitae
Goranka Šutalo (b. 1979) graduated in Croatian Language and Literature and Philosophy in 2004 from the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Zagreb. She earned her doctorate at the same faculty in April 2017 with a thesis entitled Imagološki aspekti slavonskih vjerskih polemika u 18. stoljeću [Imagological Aspects of Slavonian Religious Polemics in the 18th Century]. She is currently employed as an Assistant Professor at the Department of Croatian Studies, Chair of Older Croatian Literature, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Zagreb. She has published articles in both domestic and international journals, primarily in the field of early modern Croatian literature. She has also participated in national and international academic conferences. Her research interests focus on 18th-century Croatian literature, literary imagology, and cultural studies.
PROJECT TOPIC: The oeuvre of the Slavonian Enlightenment writer and Viennese court chaplain Joso Krmpotić (between 1750 and 1755 – after 1797) in the context of Catholic Enlightenment.
- zrinko.novosel@gmail.com
- CroRIS
- academia.edu
Dr Zrinko Novosel, Senior Assistant
The modern idea of fundamental and universal human rights emerged from the writings of Enlightenment philosophers, jurists, and polymaths. Research into the reception of their works among Croatian intellectuals of the 18th century also means exploring how these ideas were implemented within the Croatian context.
Curriculum vitae
Zrinko Novosel (b.1989) completed his undergraduate studies in History at the Faculty of Croatian Studies, University of Zagreb, in 2011, and obtained his master’s degree in 2014. He earned a further MA in 2015 from Central European University in Budapest. As part of his professional training at the Croatian Institute of History, he contributed to the project From Protomodernisation to Modernisation of Croatia’s School System. As a doctoral researcher within the project The European Roots of Modern Croatia: The Transfer of Ideas in the Political and Cultural Fields in the 18th and 19th Centuries – EuKor he investigated intellectual movements and the transfer of ideas in the context of the Royal Academy of Sciences in Zagreb. He defended his doctoral thesis on this topic in 2023 at the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Zagreb.
PROJECT TOPIC: The reception of Enlightenment ideas and the circulation of knowledge among professors of the Royal Academy of Sciences in Zagreb, with a focus on Vinko Kalafatić (1747–1792) and his network of correspondents.
- majaperic4@hotmail.com
- academia.edu
Dr Maja Perić, Senior Assistant
Enlightenment ideas stimulated the spread of innovation and the exchange of knowledge among European cities and ports. Influenced by these ideals, new forms of cooperation and investment emerged, connecting different regions and contributing to economic and social progress across Europe in the 18th century.
Curriculum vitae
Maja Perić (born 1997) graduated in History in 2020 from the Faculty of Arts, University of Antwerp, Belgium. She completed her doctoral studies at the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Zagreb, in 2024 with a dissertation entitled Dutch and Flemish Images of the Eastern Adriatic from the 15th to 17th Centuries. In October 2022, she won the Prize for the Best Paper by Young Historians on the History of Slavonia, Srijem, and Baranja, awarded by the Croatian Institute of History, for her work on Dutch and Flemish travellers in Baranja, Slavonia, and Srijem between the 16th and 17th centuries. She has published several scholarly articles in Croatian and English in both domestic and international journals, and has participated in numerous academic conferences in Croatia and abroad. Her research primarily focuses on the study of relations between the historical regions of present-day Croatia and the Netherlands in the early modern period.
PROJECT TOPIC: The ideas behind the investments of Flemish and Dutch merchants in the Croatian lands during the 18th century.
- majurkovi@m.ffzg.hr
- CroRIS
- academia.edu
Marta Jurković, Assistant
As Robert Darnton points out, we can already speak of an early information society in the eighteenth century. By studying the circulation of knowledge, I aim to investigate the impact of Enlightenment ideas in the Croatian historical context and, as far as the sources allow, the mechanisms of (re)production and censorship of ideas — a topic that remains scientifically and socially relevant.
Curriculum vitae
Marta Jurković is a research assistant at the Croatian Institute of History. She earned her MA in History and English Language and Literature from the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Zagreb, in 2022, and studied at Utrecht University through the Erasmus+ program. She has received two Awards for Academic Excellence, as well as the Rector’s Award, and is currently pursuing a PhD in Premodern History at the University of Zagreb. Her research interests include intellectual history and historical anthropology, and she has published several papers in academic journals and edited volumes.
PROJECT TOPIC: The role of libraries in the production, circulation, and censorship of Enlightenment knowledge in Croatian Lands in the “long” eighteenth century.
Matea Marušić, Assistant
In one of the greatest works of French Enlightenment literature written before the Revolution, Thomas Raynal writes: “Philosophy must take the place of divinity on Earth. It unites, enlightens, helps, and encourages people.” The brief rule of France in Dalmatia came and went like a storm, bringing with it the achievements of the French Revolution in Enlightenment thought and statecraft. The Dalmatian population did not fail to react to these sudden changes.
Curriculum vitae
Matea Marušić (born 1993) graduated in 2018 from the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Zagreb, with a research-oriented degree in History. Her thesis was The Sermons of Friar Jeronim Filipović (1688–1765): Between Popular Piety and Moral Theology. She has participated in several academic conferences in Croatia and has published several papers in Croatian scientific journals. In 2025, she started her doctoral studies in Premodern History at the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences in Zagreb and took up a position as a research assistant at the Croatian Institute of History. As part of the LIGHT project, her research is focused on the main protagonists of Catholic (Counter-)Enlightenment in Napoleonic Dalmatia.
PROJECT TOPIC: The protagonists of Catholic (Counter-)Enlightenment in Napoleonic Dalmatia.
