PhD Mateja Sedmak
no.: 18581

Migration and integration; multiculturalism and multicultural management; border, ethnic and intercultural studies; ethnically mixed families; multicultural and transcultural identities; child-centered perspective and migrant children

Mateja Sedmak, PhD in Sociology, is Principal Research Associate and Head of the Institute for Social Sciences at the Science and Research Centre Koper. Her research interests include ethnic and intercultural studies, migration, integration, management of cultural diversity, and topics in sociology of everyday life and sociology of the family. She is a president of the Slovenian Sociological Society (2025 -) and a leader of the Section for Intercultural Studies. She is also a member of the European Sociological Association. She is editor of the journal Annales – Series Historia et Sociologia (SI) and member of the editorial boards of: Social Science Discussions (SI), Italian Sociological Review (IT), Demography (SR) and Društvena istraživanja (HR). Between 2003 and 2016 she was a lecturer at the University of Primorska (Faculty of Humanities, Faculty of Tourism Studies and Kinesiology). Between 2000 and 2013 she headed the Center for Public Opinion Research at ZRS Koper. She was a member of the Senate of the University of Primorska (2003-2007 and 2013-2016) and the Senate of the Faculty of Humanities. She was a member (2004-2011) of the Commission for the Promotion of the Role of Women in Science at the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology. Since 2017 she has been the President of Scientific Council of ZRS Koper. Since 2016 she has also been a member of the Council for Social Sciences at ARRS and since its establishment in 2020 she has been a member of the Council of Social Science Data Archive and since the same year she has been a member of Scientific Council of Peace Institute (Ljubljana). From 2024 she become the national representative of the Social Science and Humanities Strategy Working Group of European Strategic Forum on Research Infrastructure (ESFRI). She presented her work at scientific conferences and meetings in European countries as well as in the United States, in institutions such as the University of Oxford, South Bank University, Columbia University, University of Copenhagen, University Bielsko-Biala, University of Vienna, University of Estoril, University of Barcelona, University of Belgrade, University of Sarajevo and others. He is the leader of many national and international projects, including the MiCREATE project – Migrant Children and Communities and A Transforming Europe, funded by the Research and Innovation Grant Scheme, Horizon 2020 program. The Micreate project is carried out by a consortium of 15 partner institutions and over 80 researchers from Europe and Turkey. As well as the international project In Whose Best Interest? Exploring Unaccompanied Minors ‘Rights through the Lens of Migration and Asylum Processes (European Commission, 2014-2015) in Children’s Voices: Exploring Interethnic Violence and Children’s Rights in the School Environment (European Commission – FRC program, 2011-2012).