Monika Kropej Telban (b. 1956), Ph.D., research advisor, researches literary folklore, narrative culture, folk medicine, folk belief, and history of Slovenian ethnology.
She has been working on the research projects of the Institute of Slovenian Ethnology at the Scientific Research Centre of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts (ZRC SAZU), and also on research projects funded by the EU. She has delivered a number of lectures at international scientific conferences in Slovenia and other countries.
She published several scientific books, among others Folk Tale and Reality [Pravljica in stvarnost] (1995); Karel Štrekelj – From the Springs of Poetics [Karel Štrekelj – Iz vrelcev besedne ustvarjalnosti] (2001); From Ajd to Goldenhorn. Slovenian Mythological Beings [Od ajda do zlatoroga – Slovenska bajeslovna bitja] (2008); A Treasury of Slovenian Folklore (2010); Supernatural Beings from Slovenian Myths and Folktales (2012); Type Index of Slovenian Folktales, Animal Tales and Fables [Tipni indeks slovenskih ljudskih pravljic; Živalske pravljice in basni] (2015).
She published numerous articles in prominent Slovenian and international journals and scientific books in the field of folk narrative research, among them also in the German central journal for narrative culture Fabula and in Estonian journal Folklore.
She wrote articles for various encyclopaedias, among others for the Encyclopaedia of Folktales [Enzyklopädie des Märchens] in Göttingen, Encyclopaedia of Slovenian Culture in Carinthia [Enzyklopädie der slowenischen Kultur in Kärnten] in Vienna, and online encyclopaedia ERNIE – Encyclopedia of Romantic Nationalism in Europe.
She edited 19 scientific books. She published nine and edited 16 books in the popular book series Treasury of Slovene Folk Tales [Zakladnica slovenskih pripovedi].
She has been collaborating with the International Centre on Plurilinguism [Centro Internazionale sul Plurilinguismo] and the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures [Dipartimento di Lingue e Letterature, Comunicazione, Formazione e Società] at the University of Udine [Università degli Studi di Udine], Italy; and with Slovenian Institute of Ethnology Urban Jarnik in Klagenfurt, Austria.
She is member of international societies: International Society for Folk Narrative Research, International Society for Contemporary Legend Research and International Association for Comparative Mythology.
She is involved in the research programme of Institute of Slovenian Ethnology ZRC SAZU: Cultural Spaces and Practices in Ethnology and Folklore Studies [Etnološke in folkloristične raziskave kulturnih prostorov in praks] (P6-0088)

Education
in 1974 she graduated at the secondary school Gimnazija Ivana Cankarja  in Ljubljana
in 1980 she completed her B.A. studies in Ethnology and History of art at the Department of Ethnology and Cultural Anthropology at the Faculty of Arts of the University of Ljubljana
in 1989 she defended her M.A. thesis entitled Karel Štrekelj and His Ethnographic Legacy [Karel Štrekelj in njegova narodopisna zapuščina] at the Department of Ethnology and Cultural Anthropology at the Faculty of Arts of the University of Ljubljana
in 1993 she defended her Ph.D. thesis entitled Folk Culture in Slovene Fairy Tales and Legends Based on the Example of Štrekelj’s Legacy [Ljudska kultura v slovenskih ljudskih pravljicah in povedkah, na primerih iz Štrekljeve zapuščine] at the Department of Ethnology and Cultural Anthropology at the Faculty of Arts of the University of Ljubljana
in years 1994–1998 she further advanced her scientific studies in Budapest, Vienna, Graz, and Innsbruck

Employment
in 1983 she started working at the Slovene Ethnographic Museum in Ljubljana
from 1985 on she has been working at the Institute of Slovenian Ethnology at the Scientific Research Centre of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts (ISN ZRC SAZU) in Ljubljana.

Management functions and skills
from 2002 to 2010 she was head of the Institute of Slovenian Ethnology at the Scientific Research Centre of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts (ZRC SAZU) in Ljubljana
 from 2009 to 2015 she was member of the Executive Board of the Slovenian Ethnological Society
from 1998 she is co-editor-in-chief and founder of the international journal Studia Mythologica Slavica
since 1999 she is co-editing and co-authoring the books published by the publishing house Didakta in the collection Treasury of Slovene Folk Tales [Zakladnica slovenskih pripovedi]
from 2004 she is co-editor-in-chief and the founder of the book series Studia mythologica Slavica – Supplementa
from 2005 to 2015 she was on the editorial board of the journal Folklore, published by Estonian Institute of Folklore in Tartu
from 2013 she is a member of the editorial board of the journal Folklore Studies [Tautosakos darbai] published by the Institute of Lithuanian Literature and Folklore, Vilnius University, Lithuania
from 2010 she is co-editor-in-chief and founder of the book series Slovenian Storytellers [Slovenski pravljičarji]
between 2011 and 2014 she served as the the Slovenian coordinator of the research project Etnofolk. Preservation and Enhancement of Folk Cultural Heritage in Central Europe, funded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and Interreg multilateral programme Central Europe
from 2017 to 2019 she was coordinator for ZRC SAZU partner in the research project Living Magic [Živa coprnija], funded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and Interreg bilateral programme Slovenia – Croatia

Mentor
she has been mentor or co-mentor of many students at the Pedagogical Faculty of the University of Ljubljana
she mentored the young researcher Katarina Šrimpf at the Institute of Slovenian Ethnology at the Scientific Research Centre of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts (ZRC SAZU), who finished her Ph.D. at the University of Nova Gorica in 2015