Dr Vanja Huzjan is a researcher and librarian. She focuses her research on children and childhood from synchronic and diachronic perspectives, at the intersection of ethnology, cultural anthropology, folklore studies, sociology and psychoanalysis. Her interests include the ontology of children and childhood, the material and mental worlds of children, socialisation processes in the past and present, and representations of children in the adult world.
She has contributed to entries in the Register of Intangible Cultural Heritage and participated in applied projects to identify and promote heritage practices. She has also written several bibliographies. She writes socially critical posts for the institute's blog, Vsakdanjik (Everyday Life).
Dr Vanja Huzjan's main field of research is the ethnology of children and childhood. Her work focuses on the ontology of children and childhood, the material and mental worlds of children, socialisation processes in the past and present, and representations of children in the adult world. Her work lies at the intersection of ethnology, cultural anthropology, folklore studies, sociology and psychoanalysis. Written, pictorial and oral material retrieved in the office and in the field (narrative interviews) is always subject to qualitative analysis. Within this framework, she has researched children's artistic creativity, Oedipal conflicts, the material world of children in predominantly urban environments in the past, the rural economy in light of proverbs referring to children, tensions in socialisation processes (inculturation and violence), and representations of children in folk narrative songs, folk proverbs and interwar drama. She has also devoted herself to analysis of the lyrics of folk lullabies. Most recently, she has researched the persistence of unspoken humiliating practices by adults towards children in institutional settings.
Her current research goal is an ethnological study of engaged fatherhood in uncertain circumstances (permacrisis) during the early years of parenthood in Slovenia.
Her thoughts have been published in scientific and professional articles and chapters in monographs and conference proceedings. Her most important achievements include the scientific monograph Materialni svet otroštva (The Material World of Childhood), published by publishing house ZRC SAZU in 2023, and the frequently cited articles Slovenian folk lullabies: analysis of the lullaby texts and their functions from 2022 (Folklore) and Junak in vodja (Hero and Leader) from 2016 (Traditiones).
2025 Inheritance of a Farm Estate: »Children and Small Debts are Lots of Work«. Glasnik Slovenskega etnološkega društva, 65 (2), 68–79. https://dlib.si/details/URN:NBN:SI:DOC-YVUNCHJ7
2025 The Persistence of Silenced Adult Humiliating Practices in Relation to a Child. Ethnologia Slovaca et Slavica, 46, 41–63. https://stella.uniba.sk/texty/FIF_eth_slo_sla_46.pdf
2024 »Home was Just Work, Nothing Else«: The Problem of Child Labour in Slovenian Proverbs. In J. Jožef Beg, M. Hočevar & N. Kočnik (Eds), Jezik in književnost v spreminjanju (pp 95–107). Zveza društev Slavistično društvo Slovenije. https://stella.uniba.sk/texty/FIF_eth_slo_sla_46.pdf
2024 Ethnological Analysis of Lexeme »otrok« (Child) in the Collection of Slovenian Paremiological Units on Clarin.si. In S. Babič, N. Jakop & R. Mrvič (Eds), Paremiology between tradition and innovation (pp 151–179). Založba ZRC, ZRC SAZU. https://www.dlib.si/details/URN:NBN:SI:DOC-GGBA75QB
2023 The Image of a Child in Interwar Modernist Drama by Stanko Majcen, Ivan Pregelj and Slavko Grum. In A. Jež (Ed), Slovenska literatura in umetnost v družbenih kontekstih (pp 117–123). Znanstvena založba Filozofske fakultete. https://doi.org/10.4312/Obdobja.42.2784-7152
2023 The material world of childhood. Založba ZRC, ZRC SAZU. https://doi.org/10.3986/9789610507314
2022 Slovenian Folk Lullabies: Analysis of the Lullaby Texts and their Functions. Folklore, 86, 149–186. https://doi.org/10.7592/FEJF2022.86.huzjan
2021 Child Raising in Ljubljana and its Surroundings in the First Half of the 20th Century until the Second World War. Glasnik Slovenskega etnološkega društva, 61 (1), 54–64. https://www.dlib.si/details/URN:NBN:SI:doc-HE127DLB
- Ethnological, anthropological and folklore studies research on everyday life (research programme • January 1, 2022 - December 31, 2027)
- Language, culture and values: economic images of everyday life in folklore forms (October 1, 2023 - September 30, 2026)
- AlpTextyles - Collaborative solutions for a heritage & consumer sensitive relocalization of sustainable, circular, and innovative Alpine textile value chains (applied project • November 1, 2022 - October 31, 2025)
- Heroes and Celebrities in Slovenia and Central Europe (fundamental research project • August 1, 2013 - July 31, 2016)
- She has delivered a series of lectures on the psychosexual development of children to the staff of Hiša Zavetja Palčica (a crisis centre for pre-school children), as well as workshops on children's artistic creativity to kindergarten staff.