Research areas:

• Migration
• Ethnic studies
• Youth (un)employment
• Sociology of everyday life

Biography:

Biography: Lucija Dežan graduated from the Faculty of Arts of the University of Maribor in the framework of a double major in English Language and Literature and Sociology in 2019. In her two master theses, she examined informal practices that youth use to achieve employment and the meaning and role of food in selected prose fiction by Canadian writers Margaret Atwood and Alice Munro. Currently, she is a doctoral student at the University of Maribor (Faculty of Arts).

Lucija Dežan has been working as a young researcher under Prof. Dr. Mateja Sedmak's supervision since 2019 within the Institute for Social Studies ZRS Koper. Previously, she gained research experience as ASEF Fellow (American-Slovenian Education Foundation) and spent 10 weeks at the University of Oklahoma, working with Prof. Dr. Ana Bračič. During that period, she gathered valuable methodological experience and knowledge, examined attitudes of displaced Serbs towards nationalism and refugees from Syria, and trained students for fieldwork as exit pollsters. Additionally, she helped to prepare international comparative study Youth Study Southeast Europe 2018 that is financed by the German foundation FES and combines 10 countries form Southeast Europe. Furthermore, she was part of a research team that examined attitudes of students from UM (University of Maribor) concerning sustainable means of mobility, especially cycling and opportunities to rise cycling culture within the municipality of Maribor. She is a member of Senate of Faculty of Arts.

In 2019, she participated at the International Congress of Psychologists of Slovenia where she presented the effects of a variety of parental styles on violent behaviour during adolescence among youth from 10 countries from Southeast Europe. In 2020, she has participated at online summer school organized by Faculty of Economics, University of Ljubljana where she educated herself in the field of mixed method research under the supervision of prof. dr. Tamara Pavasović Trošt. In the past, Lucija published two scientific articles and reported about scientific achievements for various Slovenian media (e.g. Radio Maribor, daily newspaper Večer).

In 2020, she received crystal city coat-of-arm for excellent grades and talent (the overall average grade must be 9.0 or above). Additionally, in 2020, she received first prize for the best master thesis associated with youth by Youth Council Slovenia.

Currently, she is part of a research team on the international project MiCREATE (Migrant Children and Communities in A Transforming Europe) that is financed by Research and Inovation Grant scheme Horizon.