We are pleased to introduce two new members who bring fresh perspectives and expertise to our research collective:

Eric Ušić

…is a postdoctoral researcher at the Faculty of Arts, University of Rijeka, where he graduated. He earned his doctorate at the Faculty of Social Sciences in Ljubljana. His PhD thesis, titled Visual Ethnography of (Post)World War II Political Graffiti in Istria, explores the intersections of political expression and visual culture in historical and contemporary contexts. His dissertation presents a visual-ethnographic research of political graffiti created during World War II and the immediate postwar period in Istria, in present-day Croatia, by antifascist, communist, and pro-Yugoslav organizations and activists. Methodologically, the research employzied a mixed-method strategy, combining visual-ethnographic methods (photography, observations, informal conversations, field notes), secondary quantitative and qualitative methods (compositional interpretation, content analysis, semiological-interpretive analysis), and historical research (oral history, archival research, close reading of memoirs, testimonies, newspapers). The visual-ethnographic fieldwork documented 1,349 different forms of graffiti in 142 Istrian towns and villages. Analysis of the graffiti revealed their complex compositional, linguistic, ideological, and symbolic structures, identifying four key ideological pillars: Titoist-Yugoslav, communist-revolutionary, popular-national, and antifascist-memory discourses, with Tito serving as the central symbolic figure. The PhD thesis represented a basis for his recently published book Zidovi pamte: Vizualna etnografija političkih grafita iz Drugog svjetskog rata i poraća u Istri (2024).

Beyond his academic research, Eric is the co-author of the photo monograph Živote damo Istru, ne damo (2020) published by the Ethnographic Museum of Istria. He has also written numerous scientific articles, essays, art critiques, and translations from Italian to Croatian. Additionally, he is one of the organizers of the Vodnjan Film Festival in Fažana Film Festival (VFFuFFF). With the team of the New Vodnjan Film Festival, he co-authored two feature films: The Girl in the Blue Dress (2021) and La Predstava (2022).

Martina Ricci

…joins MEMPOP as a doctoral intern while completing her PhD in Global History and Governance at the Scuola Superiore Meridionale in Naples. Her research takes a historical approach to museology, with a particular focus on war museums and memorial sites in the former Yugoslavia. Martina’s work is deeply interdisciplinary, bridging memory studies, material culture, and cultural history. While in Ljubljana, she will collaborate with the MEMPOP team to explore the role of folk and popular culture in museum narratives and national identity formation.

Her research investigates the processes of collective memory in post-Yugoslav countries through a comparative analysis of civic and war museums, with particular attention to material aspects, scenographic strategies, and their intersections with cultural tourism. The early stages of her PhD were dedicated to extensive visual fieldwork and oral history collection, giving her research a strongly itinerant dimension. In addition to her doctoral research, Martina has collaborated with the Institute of History of Mediterranean Europe of the National Research Council (ISEM CNR), where she carried our research and training activities on Mediterranean history and cultures, with a particular focus on the promotion of cultural productions and cultural diplomacy.

Stay tuned for more updates on their research and upcoming MEMPOP activities!