Maja Godina Golija is a researcher at the Institute of Slovenian Ethnology at ZRC SAZU. After studying ethnology, philosophy, and social history at the University of Ljubljana and the Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster, she received her Ph.D. in ethnology from the University of Ljubljana. She researched and studied at foreign research institutions in Prague, Łódź, Tartu, Münster, Mainz, and Dublin. She presents her scientific results at academic conferences, in academic journals, and in monographs, and contributes to the work of international academic associations. From 2010 to 2016, she was the head of the ZRC SAZU Prekmurje Research Station and the ZRC SAZU Maribor Research Station. As a full professor of ethnology, she teaches at the Postgraduate School ZRC SAZU and at the Faculty of Arts of the University of Maribor.
Maja Godina Golija’s main areas of research are nutrition and the economy in Slovenia, urban life, and the impact of political and economic development on changes in everyday life. She is particularly interested in the role of material culture as a reflection of economic and social conditions and as an expression of local and national identities.
Among her most significant achievements are the monographs “From the Suburbs of Maribor: On the Life and Culture of Maribor Workers from 1919 to 1941”; “The Food Culture in Maribor in the 1920s and 1930s,” the co-authored monographs “The Language of Objects” and “Maribor—City and People,” published by ZRC SAZU Press, and “Nourishing Victory. Food Shortages and Post-Imperial Transition in the Bohemian Lands and Slovenia,” published by the prestigious foreign publisher Central European University Press.
Through participation in INTERREG projects (Alpfoodway: a cross-disciplinary, transnational and participative approach to Alpine food cultural heritage; ETNOFOLK: Preserving and Promoting Ethnological Cultural Heritage in Central Europe) and projects with foreign research agencies (Mobility, Integration, and Adaptation along the Hungarian-Slovenian Border; Feeding Victory: Food Supply and Post-Imperial Transition in the Czech Lands and Slovenia, 1918–1923), she has co-created domestic and international partner research networks and fostered fruitful collaboration with research institutions in Central Europe (Czech Republic, Hungary, Switzerland, Austria, and Germany).
The main objectives of future research are investigating the impact of economic and political changes on the food culture of Slovenians, as well as the use and preservation of culinary heritage.
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: Obzorja.
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: Aristej.
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.
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.
2017 The Growing Importance of Local Pumpkin Seed Oil Production in Slovenia. Acta Ethnographica Hungarica 62, No. 2, 373-388.
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.
2023 To feed a town - the operation of the Maribor food market, 1910-2020. Food, culture, & society, str. 1-16.
2024 “Who could be strong when hungry? Food supply and nutrition of the civilian population in Maribor at the end of and after World War I. Austrian History Yarbook 55, str. 298-311.
2026 Nourishing Victory. Food Shortages and Post-Imperial Transition in the Bohemian Lands and Slovenia (soavtorstvo). Budapest: Central European University Press.
- Culturality: CULTUral heritage in RurAL remote areas for creative tourism and sustainabiliTY (fundamental research project • April 1, 2024 - March 31, 2028)
- Hraniti zmago: Preskrba s hrano in postimperialna tranzicija v čeških deželah in Sloveniji, 1918-1923 (bilateral project • January 1, 2021 - February 28, 2025)
- Protected Areas along the Slovenian-Hungarian border (bilateral project • June 1, 2017 - December 31, 2020)
- Alpfoodway: a cross-disciplinary, transnational and participative approach to Alpine food cultural heritage (INTERREG • November 1, 2016 - October 31, 2019)
- Mobilnost, integracija in adaptacija ob madžarsko-slovenski meji (international research project • January 1, 2013 - December 31, 2015)
- 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)
- University of Maribor, Faculty of Arts, Bachelor’s program in Sociology and Interdisciplinary Social Sciences (instructor for two courses), Master’s program in Sociology and Interdisciplinary Social Sciences (instructor), Doctoral program in History (course instructor).
- Postgraduate School ZRC SAZU, Comparative Studies of Ideas and Cultures program, Slovenian Studies module (course instructor)
- Glazer Award for Lifetime Achievement, 2026
- Murko Award, the highest national award in the field of ethnology, 2018
- Appointment as an honorary member of the Hungarian Ethnographic Society, 2021
- Prešeren Student Award, Faculty of Arts, 1986
- member of the International Editorial Board of Bealoideas (Folklore Society of Ireland)
- member of the editorial board of the scientific journal Etnolog
- member of the Scientific Council of ZRC SAZU, 2008–2012
- member of the Scientific Research Council for the Humanities, ARIS, 2016–2026
- member of SED - Slovenian Ethnological Society
- member of SIEF - Société Internationale d’Ethnologie et de Folklore
- member of ICREFH - International Commission for Ethnological Food Research
- member of the Commission for the History and Culture of Germans in Southeastern Europe
- member of the Presidium of the International Commission for Research into European Food History