Who?
The Centre for Cultural and Historical Research of Socialism (CKPIS) was founded at the Juraj Dobrila University of Pula in 2012. Its founding members are Igor Duda, Lada Duraković, Boris Koroman and Andrea Matošević, who teach at the Faculty of Humanities and the Academy of Music, and as researchers cover socialist and post-socialist topics from the different perspectives of their respective research fields: history, ethnology, anthropology, cultural studies, literary studies and musicology. The Centre cooperates with postdoctoral researchers, doctoral candidates, as well as MA and BA students (Researchers).

What?
The Centre's activities include research (Projects), publishing (CeKaPISarnica), organisation of conferences (Socialism on the Bench, etc.) and workshops (Doctoral Workshop), monthly info bulletin (Newsletter), collecting books, audio-visual and written archival materials, as well as information on the preservation of archival collections from the period of socialism, contributing to university curricula, encouraging students to study socialism, and following the progress of the associate doctoral students.

With whom?
The Centre aims at a multi- and inter-disciplinary study of socialism, and hence invites cooperation from other researchers, both from and outside of Pula, from Croatia and from abroad. At the moment there are around 300 scholars and PhD students in the international CKPIS network. We develop connections with similar institutions based on common research interests. Cooperation agreements have been signed with the Institute for East and Southeast European Studies (IOS) in Regensburg, Institute of Ethnology and Folklore Research (IEF) and Croatian Institute of History (HIP) in Zagreb, Department of Cultural Studies of the Faculty of Humanities, University of Rijeka (FFRI), Department for Interdisciplinary Research of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts (ZRC SAZU) in Ljubljana, Centre for the Study of Popular Culture (CSPK) in Prague, Institute for Philosophy and Social Theory, University of Belgrade (IFDT), and Institute of National History, University of Skopje (INI). Project cooperation includes partners such as the Centre for Southeast European Studies, University of Graz (CSEES), and Chair for Southeast European History, Humboldt University of Berlin (IfG). In research projects, cooperation with the Croatian Science Foundation (HRZZ) is extremely important for the Center, and in organizing Socialism on the Bench the key partner is the German foundation Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung Southeast Europe (RLS).

Why?
The Centre’s research interest focuses primarily on the period between 1945 and 1990 in Croatia and Yugoslavia, but also on the nineteenth and early twentieth century socialist and communist ideas. Moreover, we are interested in post-socialism and transition, as these witnessed the dissolution of the nearly fifty year-long tradition of socialist self-management and the disappearance of the utopian idea of creating a communist society. Socialism – as a historical, political, social, and cultural formation – is still a relatively unresearched topic in Croatia, although there have been some advances in that regard recently. Croatian researchers are not doing enough to catch up with the rich explorations of socialism taking place abroad. We consider it necessary to establish channels for international exchange of knowledge in order to avoid Croatia being reduced to a mere object within this field of study. 

Where?
A number of historical circumstances make Pula an ideal location for research in socialism. The labour movement in Pula has been organizing around socialist and communist ideas starting from the early twentieth century. These ideas become politically dominant after the Second World War, when Pula’s identity, together with its population and culture experience significant changes. Pula is now for the first time part of Croatia and Yugoslavia, and emerges as a city with an unusually important place in the Yugoslav socialist imaginary, mostly thanks to its vicinity to the presidential residence of Brijuni, its film festival, and its military function. The citiy’s long experience of socialism, as well as its liminal position on the map of the Cold War make Pula an excellent starting point for investigations of socialism, the Cold War, the Non-Aligned Movement, and the various influences of these formations on politics, culture, and everyday life.

Cooperation

Guests of CKPIS 2012-2017

10th anniversary in 2022

Chronology 2012-2024