Dr. Kaja Širok contributed to the Identity on the Line project from September 2019 until January 2021. She is a research fellow at the Faculty of Arts (Department for Sociology), University of Ljubljana and former director of the National Museum of Contemporary History of Slovenia. A historian by training, her PhD in cultural studies focused on contested memories and identity making in the border area between Italy and Slovenia. Her current research addresses museums and memory studies, with special attention paid to the creation of national historical narratives related to identity formation, contested memories, revisionism and (re)interpretations of history.
She has published several articles on the memorialisation of the past in museum exhibitions and is active in several EU projects. Kaja Širok is a member of the Academic Committee of the House of European History in Brussels. She is the president of ICOM Slovenia, board member of ETHCOM, ICOM’s standing committee for ethics, and ICMEMO (International Committee of Memorial Museums in Remembrance of the Victims of Public Crimes).