Contact: Tesija_Jelena@phd.ceu.edu; jelenatesija@gmail.com
My PhD dissertation explores the complex dynamics between social democrats and communists in the International Co-operative Women's Guild from the 1920s to the 1960s. The research primarily focuses on women co-operative activists from Eastern Europe, with a particular emphasis on those from socialist Yugoslavia.
From 2020 to 2026, I worked first as a doctoral researcher and then as a research affiliate on the ERC-funded project "ZARAH: Women’s Labour Activism in Eastern Europe and Transnationally, from the Age of Empires to the Late 20th Century".
I hold two master's degrees, one in Journalism and one in Gender Studies. My master's thesis in Gender Studies (2014) focused on the history of Yugoslav women’s socialist organization from the 1950s. Before starting my PhD, I worked as a feminist journalist, independent researcher, lecturer, and activist, covering topics related to labor and women's movements.
My areas of interest include the gender history of the (Yugoslav) co-operative movement; the history of feminisms and women's labor activism; historical perspectives on and theories of gender and social reproduction; and the historical relationships between socialism and feminism.
In 2025, I co-authored with Selin Çağatay, Mátyás Erdélyi, Alexandra Ghiț, Olga Gnydiuk, Veronika Helfert, Ivelina Masheva, Zhanna Popova, Eszter Varsa, and Susan Zimmermann a research monograph Women’s Labour Activism in Eastern Europe and Beyond. A new Transnational History (London: UCL Press).
In 2024, I co-edited with Selin Çağatay, Alexandra Ghiț, Olga Gnydiuk, Veronika Helfert, Ivelina Masheva, Zhanna Popova, Eszter Varsa, and Susan Zimmermann an edited volume Through the Prism of Gender and Work. Women’s Labour Struggles in Central and Eastern Europe and Beyond, 19th and 20th Centuries (Leiden and Boston, MA: Brill). In 2023, I co-edited with Alexandra Ghit, Veronika Helfert, Ivelina Masheva, Zhanna Popova, Eszter Varsa, and Susan Zimmermann, a special issue on Women’s Labour Activism in Central and Eastern Europe and Internationally in the Twentieth Century, Journal of Contemporary Central and Eastern Europe, 31 (2).
In 2023, I published my first article on the ICWG “‘Millions of Working Housewives:’ the International Co-operative Women’s Guild and Household Labour in the Interwar Period”, Journal of Contemporary Central and Eastern Europe 31 (2): 321-338.
From November 2021 to April 2023, I curated the ZARAH blog series III and IV, which are available here.
