Mojca Kovačič

Curriculum Vitae

(last update: December 2023)

Mojca Kovačič is an ethnomusicologist interested in cultural, social and political aspects of all kinds of music and sound expressions. Through studies of folk song, instrumental music, and contemporary music and sound phenomena, she explores the principles of musical structures and performances and illuminates their relationships to issues such as gender, nationalism, cultural politics, folklorization, identifications, migrations and minorities. In recent years, she has focused more on the study of urban soundscapes, particularly in terms of how they are perceived by audiences and the role of national and local politics in shaping them. She has broadened her studies of  the perception of sound/music by understanding the affective potentials of sound, which include both the physical experience of the listener and its intertwining with social, historical, personal, and political aspects.

She is head of the Institute of Ethnomusicology and a lecturer of the module Slovenian Folk Musical Heritage at the Academy of Music, University of Ljubljana, as well as an occasional guest lecturer at other faculties and departments. She has a lot of experience with research and applied projects, both in leading and coordinating projects where ZRC is a partner institution, and regularly organizes international scientific symposia. In her career she has been a guest editor of scientific journals and a member of the international editorial board, and has presented her research at numerous international conferences. She is also the national representative of ethnomusicologists in the international ethnomusicological society ICTM.

In addition to the scientific research work, she takes care of the dissemination of results of the institute's work in the media (interviews on national radio, participation in television documentaries, publications in popular magazines). She has edited some publications of sound recordings and conducted smaller applicative projects in order to promote musicking among the wider public: i.e. regular monthly singing at the coffee bar in Ljubljana and regular monthly meetings of instrumentalists at the Slovene ethnographic museum. She has also organized concerts and various workshops for children.

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS

• From Polka Dance to Polka Mass. Polka in the (Trans-)Cultural Identity Context Among the Slovenian Diaspora in the USA. In Diverging Ontologies in Music for Dancing. European Voices 5. Ardian Ahmedaja (ed.). Wien: Böhlau Verlag, 2023. 77-95.
• Slovenian Trubači: the economies of affect within and beyond ethno-racialized difference (Hofman, Ana and Mojca Kovačič) In Affect’s social lives : post-Yugoslav reflections. 1st ed. Hofman, Ana et al (eds.). Ljubljana: Založba ZRC, ZRC SAZU, 2023. 109-138. Zbirka Kulturni spomin, 10. DOI: 10.3986/9789610507291_04.
• Zakaj, zakoj, warum, or why? : multilingualism in Austrian Carinthian popular music. Traditiones : zbornik Inštituta za slovensko narodopisje. 2022, 51/2. 119-138. DOI: 10.3986/Traditio2022510206.
• Creating atmospheric coherence through commemorative rituals, singing partisan songs, and rehearsed affect. Narodna umjetnost : hrvatski časopis za etnologiju i folkloristiku. 2021, 58/ 2. 69-87. ISSN 0547-2504. https://hrcak.srce.hr/ojs/index.php/nu/article/view/20340, DOI: 10.15176/vol58no204.

Monographs

• Glasbena podoba ljudske pesmi v rokopisnih, tiskanih in zvočnih virih v prvih desetletjih 20. stoletja [The musical image of folk songs in manuscript, printed and audio sources in the first decades of the 20th century]. Ljubljana: Znanstvena založba Filozofske fakultete, Zbirka Glasba na Slovenskem po 1918, 2015.
• Pa se sliš… Pritrkavanje v slovenskem in evropskem prostoru. [Bell chiming in the Slovenan and European space]. Ljubljana: Založba ZRC, ZRC SAZU, 2012.

Selected articles

• Identifications through musical expressions of Africanness in Slovenia.Muzikološki zbornik.2019, zv. 55/ 2: 65-78.
• Music, migration and minorities : perspectives and reflections [Glasba, migracije in manjšine: perspektive in refleksije]. Muzikološki zbornik.2019, 55/ 2: 5-17.
• Kako naj zveni mesto?: religijski in ulični zvoki Ljubljane med zakonodajo in človeškim izkustvom. [How should the city sound ?: the religious and street sounds of Ljubljana between legislation and human experience]. Etnolog: glasnik Slovenskega etnografskega muzeja. [Nova vrsta].2018, 28 /79: 123-140.
• Official regulations and perceptual aspects of bell ringing. Muzikologija: časopis Muzikološkog instituta Srpske akademije nauka i umetnosti. 2017.
• EducOpera in Slovenia: compretence and artistic approach through the creation of opera by youngsters and for youngsters. In: KOVAČIČ, Mojca (ed.), et al. EducOpera: an education to opera as a method of reducing early school leaving. Massy: Opéra de Massy, 2019: 86-97.
• Slovar zvonjenja in pritrkavanja[Dictionary of bell ringing and bell chiming]. Ljubljana: Založba ZRC, 2017.
• Akustemologija zvonjenja v urbanem prostoru [Acoustemology of bell ringing in urban space]. Glasnik Slovenskega etnološkega društva, 2016, 56(1/2): 53-63.
• "Sacred noise": the case of the ezan in Ljubljana ["Duhovni hrup": primer ezana v Ljubljani]. Muzikološki zbornik, 2016, 52/2: 25-38.
• "Kje so ljudski godci?": refleksija preteklih konceptov in možnosti novih opredelitev ljudskega godčevstva ["Where are the folk musicians?": Examination of past concepts and possibilities for a new definition of folk instrumental music]. Glasnik Slovenskega etnološkega društva, 2014, 54/ 3: 12-20.
• V deželi harmonike - nacionalizacija harmonike v slovenskem kontekstu [In the 'accordionland' - the nationalization of the accordion in the Slovenian context]. MLEKUŽ, Jernej (ur.), et al. Venček domačih: predmeti, Slovencem sveti. Ljubljana:Založba ZRC SAZU, 2015: 87-116.