Maja Godina Golija (born 1960), Ph. D. , Scientific Councillor, studied ethnology, philosophy and social history at the University of Ljubljana and Westfälische Wilhelms Universität Münster. In 1995 she received her PhD in Ethnology from the University of Ljubljana. As a scholarship holder at foreign research institutions, she researched and studied in Prague, Lodz, Tartu, Münster, Mainz and Dublin.
Since 1996 she has worked in the Material Culture Section of the Institute of Slovenian Ethnology ZRC SAZU, where she has been researching material culture, urban life and food in Slovenia. She presents her scientific results at international and national scientific meetings, in scientific journals and monographs. She is the author of six ethnological monographs and the editor of the monographs Maribor and the People of Maribor (Maribor in Mariborčani), 2015, Prekmurje–The Image of the Pannonian Landscape (Prekmurje–podoba panonske pokrajine), 2014, and Wars in Slovenia: testimonies, memories, images (Vojne na Slovenskem: pričevanja, spomini, podobe,) 2012, as well as four issues of the scientific journal Traditions.
She is a member of the editorial boards of the scientific journals Bealoideas, Food&History, Etnolog and Glasnik Etnografskog instituta SASA. From 2003 to 2010, she was a member of the presidency of the International Commission for Research into European Food History / ICREFH, and since 2016 she has been Vice-Chair of the Food Research Working Group of the Société internationale d'ethnologie et de folklore (SIEF). From 2010 to 2016, she was the head of the ZRC SAZU Prekmurje Research Station and the ZRC SAZU Maribor Research Station. Since 2016 she has been a member of the ARRS Scientific Research Council for the Humanities.
In 2003 she became a university lecturer in ethnology at the University of Maribor and the University of Nova Gorica. Since 2018 she has been a full professor of ethnology at the Faculty of Arts, University of Maribor and the Postgraduate School ZRC SAZU. She is a mentor for undergraduate, master’s and doctoral students.
For her research work, she received the 2018 Murko Award, the highest national prize in the field of ethnology. In 2021, she became a foreign honorary member of the Hungarian Ethnographic Society.
Research areas/interests
- ethnology of nutrition
- history of ethnology
- material culture
- theory and methodology of ethnological research
- urban ethnology
1986 Maribor 1919-1941. Oris družabnega življenja. Maribor.
1992 Iz mariborskih predmestij. O življenju in kulturi mariborskih delavcev v letih od leta 1919 do 1941. Maribor.
1996 Prehrana v Mariboru v dvajsetih in tridesetih letih 20. stoletja. Maribor.
2000 Forest Fruits and Mushrooms in the Food Culture of Slovenes in the Twentieth Century. V: Food from Nature: Attitudes, Strategies and Culinary Practices. Uppsala: 209-216.
2002 Izbrana poglavja iz življenja Mariborčanov od leta 1860 do 1941. V: Studia Historica Slovenica, letnik 2, št. 1, 229-251.
2003 Food culture in Slovene urban inns and restaurants between the end of the nineteenth century and World War II. V: Eating out in Europe : picnics, gourmet dining and snacks since the late eighteenth century. Oxford; New York: 125-135.
2004 The influence of cookbooks on food culture in Slovenia in the nineteenth century and at the beginning of the twentieth century. V: Changing tastes : food culture and the processes of industrialization. Basel, 191-197.
2006 Prehranski pojmovnik za mlade. Maribor.
2007 Die materielle Kultur der Slowenen im 'Kronprinzenwerk'. V: FIKFAK, Jurij (ur.), JOHLER, Reinhard (ur.). Ethnographie in serie : zu Produktion und Rezeption der "österreichisch-ungarischen Monarchie in Wort und Bild", (Veröffentlichungen des Instituts für Europäische Ethnologie der Universität Wien, Band 28). Wien: Verlag des Instituts für Europäische Ethnologie, Dunaj 2007, 236-248.
2008 Materialne sledi kulture : prazniki in praznična miza Slovencev v 20. in 21. stoletju. Tradititiones 37, št. 2, str. 111-17.
2008 Oblikovanje sodobnega potrošnika : o spremembah v preskrbi in pridelavi živil na Slovenskem. Etnolog, N. vrsta (Ljubl.), 2008, letn. 18=(69), str. 95-111.
2009 Slovene food consumption in the twentieth century : from self-sufficiency to mass consumerism. V: The rise of obesity in Europe. Farnham, Burlington: Ashgate, str. 45-57.
2012 Contemporary appropriations of culinary tradition in Slovenia. V: Traditiones : zbornik Inštituta za slovensko narodopisje. 41, št. 2, str. 91-104.
2014 Potica in njene zgodbe: Slovenci v Srbiji in simbolni pomen hrane. Dve domovini : razprave o izseljenstvu 39, str. 55-66.
2015 Die dingliche Welt der Marburger Deutschen von der Mitte des 19. Jahrhunderts bis zum Ersten Weltkrieg. V: Provinz als Denk- und Lebensform : der Donau-Karpatenraum im langen 19. Jahrhundert, Frankfurt am Main: P. Lang, str. 91- 107.
2015 The impact of weather on rhythms and structure of meals in Slovenia. V: L'alimentation et le temps qu'il fait (Météos). Paris: Hermann, str. 329-338, 405-407.
2017 Novi Maribor : mesto v dvajsetih in tridesetih letih 20. stoletja. Maribor: Umetniški kabinet Primož Premzl.
2017 The Growing Importance of Local Pumpkin Seed Oil Production in Slovenia. Acta Ethnographica Hungarica 62, No. 2, 373-388.
2019 Drying, smoking, salting: increased interest in traditional methods of preserving food in Slovenia. V: Tradition and nutritional science in the modern food chain. Thesaloniki: American Farm School, str. 225-233.
2020 Zgornjesavinjski želodec : pripoved o prostoru, prehrani in ljudeh. Traditiones 49, št. 3. str. 35-52.
2021 Govorica predmetov (soavtorici Vanja Huzjan, Špela Ledinek Lozej). Ljubljana: ZRC SAZU, Založba ZRC.
Alpfoodway: a cross-disciplinary, transnational and participative approach to Alpine food cultural heritage (INTERREG • November 1, 2016 - October 31, 2019)
Protected Areas along the Slovenian-Hungarian border (bilateral project • June 1, 2017 - December 31, 2020)
Hraniti zmago: Preskrba s hrano in postimperialna tranzicija v čeških deželah in Sloveniji, 1918-1923 (bilateral project • January 1, 2021 - February 28, 2025)
ETNOFOLK Ohranjanje in pospeševanje etnološke kulturne dediščine v Srednji Evropi (international project • May 1, 2011 - April 30, 2014)
Srbi in Slovenci: migranti, manjšina, kolektivne identitete in spomini (bilateral project • January 1, 2012 - December 31, 2013)