Jernej Kaluža, a member of the MEMPOP project, is currently on a three-month Erasmus+ staff exchange (March–June 2025) at the Department of Cultural Studies, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Rijeka. He is participating in two courses led by fellow project members: Political Economy of Music (with Diana Grgurić) and Politics of the Visual (with Boris Ružić). In addition to his teaching, he is also pursuing research on digital media and music during his stay. Below is his short report, along with a few photos.

I’m enjoying my time in Rijeka. Together with the students, we’re exploring what music videos can tell us about contemporary society and how digital media function in everyday life. We analyze music videos from the region, reflect on attention economies, local differences in cultural production, and how algorithms shape our perspectives online. Rijeka offers a lively setting for these discussions – just far enough to feel different, but close enough to feel familiar, with its own media landscape and nice student energy.

Alongside the teaching work, I’m also deepening my research collaboration within the MEMPOP project. Meetings with researchers here aren’t just productive – they often turn into long sessions in local coffee bars where ideas just keep flowing. We’re already sketching the outlines of future joint publications.

For example, Diana Grgurić and I are working on a co-authored article about Oliver Dragojević. For this, I’ve analyzed the lyrics of all his songs. I’ve found that they predominantly focus on themes of love, though always clearly situated within a local Mediterranean context – especially marked by a dichotomy between sea and land, and a pronounced mnemonic perspective: Oliver often speaks of love through reflective memories of the past. The five most frequent words in his lyrics are: love (ljubav), heart (srce), sea (more), life (život), and time (vrime). Very nice words, I think.

This exchange is an opportunity for me to try out new teaching approaches, refine the methods I already use in my courses, and learn from colleagues who share similar research passions.

Beyond the professional challenge, this exchange is also a personal one: I’ve relocated to Rijeka with my partner and my two daughters who are attending a local school for the duration of our stay – where they’ve been warmly welcomed.

I believe that regional cooperation is more important than ever in today’s politically unpredictable times, and that this exchange – however small – is my contribution to breaking out of national cultural bubbles.

So far, everything’s going well. The only thing I wouldn’t wish on anyone in a similar situation – and which I currently share with many seasonal workers in Croatia – is dealing with the bureaucracy.

Disclosure: This text (and this disclosure itself) was written with the assistance of ChatGPT, an AI language model developed by OpenAI, based on input and guidance provided by the author.