Barbara Ivančič Kutin has been a researcher of verbal tradition, particularly folklore narratives, at the Institute of Slovenian Ethnology, ZRC SAZU, since 1999. After completing her studies in Slovenian language and literature and cultural sociology (1998), she taught Slovenian for a year and a half, then trained as a junior researcher and earned her PhD in 2005 with a dissertation on literary folklore at the Department of Slovenian Language and Literature, Faculty of Arts, University of Ljubljana.
She has developed her professional expertise through inter-academic exchanges and research visits to institutions abroad (Estonia, Slovakia, Russia, Serbia, Croatia), as well as a visiting researcher at foreign universities (Buenos Aires, Argentina; Udine, Italy). Since 2017, she has been an external lecturer at the Faculty of Arts in Ljubljana and, since 2026, at the ZRC SAZU Graduate School.
Barbara Ivančič Kutin’s research on folklore lies at the intersection of ethnology and linguistics (dialectology) and focuses on Slovenian narrative tradition (including short folklore genres), as well as its performative, linguistic, and social dimensions. Her work addresses, among other topics, the contexts and processes of the transmission of tradition, the stylistic (aesthetic) aspects of narratives, the role of storytellers, the specific features of local repertoires, and the transformation of folklore from the private sphere into the public sphere and popular culture. She pays particular attention to dialectal expression, especially the Bovec dialect.
Her research is largely based on her own fieldwork conducted in Slovenia, primarily in the north-western region of the Soča Valley, as well as among the Slovenian linguistic minority in Italy (Venetian Slovenia, Resia) and among Slovenian emigrant communities worldwide.
She participates in national and international research projects and presents her findings at academic conferences and invited lectures. In addition, she is actively engaged in raising awareness of and preserving oral tradition, collaborating with the general public as well as with local communities, linguistic minorities, cultural associations, and schools.
She is the author of three scholarly monographs—Dictionary of the Bovec Dialect (2007), A Written Recors of Live Storytelling (2011), and Krivopete: Wild Women with Backward-facing Feet in the Slovenian Folklore (2018), for which she received the title Excellence in Science—as well as the handbook Bovec Tales in Situ (2022) and numerous other scholarly, professional, and popular publications. She serves as editor-in-chief of the series Slovene Storytellers and the local studies anthology Domači kraji, and is a member of the editorial boards of the academic journal Traditions, the scholarly book series Ethnologica – Dissertationes, and Knjižnica Glasnika SED. She is also a member of several professional associations.
2024. IVANČIČ KUTIN, Barbara. Celostna obravnava slovstvene folklore v šoli : besedilo s kontekstom in teksturo v izkustvenem pouku in situ. Jezik in slovstvo 69 (3),165-180. https://journals.uni-lj.si/jezikinslovstvo/article/view/18342, DOI: 10.4312/jis.69.3.165-180.
2022. IVANČIČ KUTIN, Barbara. Paremiološko gradivo iz Zgornjega Posočja v dveh rokopisnih zbirkah : elementi lokalnosti s poudarkom na kulturnospecifičnih folklornih obrazcih z lokalnimi antroponimi. Slavistična revija 70 (3), 333-348. DOI: 10.57589/srl.v70i3.4035
2021. IVANČIČ KUTIN, Barbara. Tolminska frika : od izrecno delovne jedi do simbola tolminskosti. Etnolog : glasnik Slovenskega etnografskega muzejag31 = 82, 159-177. https://www.etno-muzej.si/files/etnolog/pdf/0354-0316_31_Ivancic_Tolminska.pdf.
2021. IVANČIČ KUTIN, Barbara, KROPEJ TELBAN, Monika (avtor, fotograf). Legends of places as part of the sustainable development of regions. Folklore: Electronic Journal of Folklore 81,157-178. http://www.folklore.ee/folklore/vol81/ivancic_kropej.pdf, DOI: 10.7592/FEJF2021.81.ivancic_kropej.
2021. IVANČIČ KUTIN, Barbara. Elements of Slovenian national consciousness in relation to the mother country and the Latin American culture in narrative materials documented among Slovenians in Argentina. Folkloristika: časopis Udruženja folklorista Srbije 6( 2), 211-238. https://folkloristics.org/Elements-of-Slovenian-National-Consciousness-in-Relation-to-the-Mother-Country-and-the-Latin-American-Culture-in-Narrative-Materials-Documented-among-Slovenians-in-Argentina.php, DOI: 10.18485/folk.2021.6.2.10.
2021. IVANČIČ KUTIN, Barbara, KROPEJ TELBAN, Monika. Ohranjanje nesnovne kulturne dediščine z lokalnimi pripovedmi v prostoru. Traditiones 47 (3), 103-115, DOI: 10.3986/Traditio2018470307.
2019. IVANČIČ KUTIN, Barbara. Tematske poti in drugi izkustveni didaktični pristopi pri obravnavi folklornih besedil v osnovni šoli. Jezik in slovstvo 64( 2) 95-108, 117. ilustr. https://www.dlib.si/details/URN:NBN:SI:doc-L87MU6K2.
2018 IVANČIČ KUTIN, Barbara. Krivopete. Divje žene z nazaj zasukanimi stopali v slovenski folklori [Krivopete. Wild Women with Backward-facing Feet in the Slovenian Folklore, 2018, Ljubljana ZRC SAZU.
2017. IVANČIČ KUTIN, Barbara (avtor, fotograf). Motivne značilnosti pripovedi o izginulih jezerih na Tolminskem. Glasnik Slovenskega etnološkega društva 57 ( 1-2), 74-85. https://www.dlib.si/stream/URN:NBN:SI:DOC-TXIN9GQO/00ff6e3d-c53c-40f7-935c-8375a44f5172/PDF
2017. IVANČIČ KUTIN, Barbara. Transformacije (slovstvene) folklore v sodobni kulturi : krivopete v Zgornjem Posočju in v Benečiji. Traditiones 46(1/2) 37-54. DOI: 10.3986/Traditio2017460102.
2016. IVANČIČ KUTIN, Barbara. Krivopete: wild women with backward-facing feet in Slovenian folk narrative tradition. Folklore 127(2), 173-195. DOI: 10.1080/0015587X.2016.1175740.
2016. IVANČIČ KUTIN, Barbara. Folklorno gradivo in njegov zapis kot stičišče slovstvene folkloristike in dialektologije: pogled v preteklost in predlogi za prihodnost. Annales 26 (4), 715-726. http://zdjp.si/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/ASHS_26-2016-4_IVAN%C4%8CI%C4%8C.pdf, DOI: 10.19233/ASHS.2016.54.
2011 IVANČIČ KUTIN, Barbara. Živa pripoved v zapisu. Kontekst, tekstura in prekodiranje pripovedi Tine Kravanja iz Bavšice, [A Writen Record of Live Stroytelling. Context, Texture, and Transcpoding of Stories, told by Tina Kravanja from Bavšica], 2011. Ljubljana: ZRC SAZU.
2007 IVANČIČ KUTIN, Barbara. Slovar bovškega govora [Dictionary of Bovec dialect], 2007. Ljubljana: ZRC SAZU.
- INFORMATIZACIJA NEOPRIJEMLJIVE DEDIŠČINE ZA ETNOLOGIJO IN FOLKLORISTIKO (fundamental research project • January 1, 2005 - December 31, 2008)
- ETNOLOŠKI POGLEDI IN PODOBE (OD 19. DO 21. STOLETJA) (fundamental research project • January 1, 2004 - June 30, 2007)
- ETNOFOLK Ohranjanje in pospeševanje etnološke kulturne dediščine v Srednji Evropi (international project • May 1, 2011 - April 30, 2014)
- ZBORZBIRK Cultural heritage in collections between the Alps and Karst (international project • October 1, 2012 - March 31, 2015)
- Alpfoodway: a cross-disciplinary, transnational and participative approach to Alpine food cultural heritage (INTERREG • November 1, 2016 - October 31, 2019)
- Traditional Paremiological Units in Dialogue with Contemporary Use (research project • September 1, 2020 - August 31, 2023)
- Živa coprnija (INTERREG • August 1, 2017 - November 30, 2019)
- Slovenski pregovori kot kulturna dediščina: klasifikacija in redakcija korpusa (applied project • May 1, 2010 - April 30, 2013)
- Language, culture and values: economic images of everyday life in folklore forms (October 1, 2023 - September 30, 2026)
- Culturality: CULTUral heritage in RurAL remote areas for creative tourism and sustainabiliTY (fundamental research project • April 1, 2024 - March 31, 2028)
- Murko Award
- member of the editorial board of the academic journal Tradiones (2023–)
- member of the editorial board of Knjižnica Glasnika Slovenskega etnološkega društva (2023–)
- member of the editorial board Editor of the Domači Kraji, anthology of the municipality of Dobrova–Polhov Gradec (2017–)
- editor of the local culture and history journal Domači Kraji, anthology of the municipality of Dobrova–Polhov Gradec (2025–)
- member of the Slavic Society of Slovenia
- member of the Slovenian Ethnological Society
- member of the International Society for Folk Narrative Research (ISFNR)
- member of the Working Group of the Coordinator for Entry into the Register of Intangible Cultural Heritage 2013–2022