About employee

prof. dr. sc. Borna Fuerst-Bjeliš

Title: Full Professor
Function:Chair, IGU Commission on Marginalization, Globalization, and Regional and Local Response
Location: 228
Public phone number:01/4895 428
Internal phone number:428
E-mail: E-mail
Department: GEOG - Division of Regional Geography and Methodic
Graduation year:1983
mr.sc. graduation year:1990
PhD graduation year:1996
Employed in this institution since:1989

Teaching

undergraduate

graduate

integrated undergraduate and graduate

doctoral

Consultations

CONTACT HOURS 

LECTURES IN SS 2023-24

MEDITERRANEAN- lectures Tuesday, from 15:30

OFFICE HOURS : after every lecture /  via ZOOM appointments or e-mail

 

DOCTORAL PROGRAMME:

Scientific work: Friday 15:00-20:00 following the previous announcement at Doctoral study programme web page.  OFFICE HOURS : via e-mail or ZOOM appointments.

Biography

Borna Fuerst-Bjeliš,  senior researcher and full professor at the University of Zagreb. In the year 2012 she was awarded by “Federico Grisogono” award for the scientific achievement and outstanding contribution to the development of geography in Croatia,  in 2021 by Science Award  of Croatian Geographical Society, while in the 2015  she was awarded by the  Plaquette and Medal of the University of Zadar  (Croatia) as well as in the 2020 by the Plaquette of the University of Mostar (Bosnia & Herzegovina) in recognition of the distinguished contribution to cooperation. 

In the period of  2017-19 she was the vice-president of the European Society for Environmental History. Since  2016, she is the member of the Steering Committee of the IGU Commission on Marginalization, Globalization and Regional and Local Response, while in 2020 she was appointed the Chair of the Commission.

She graduated Geography from the Faculty of Science in 1983 at the University of Zagreb, completed her MSc in 1990 and the PhD in 1996. Since then she visited several foreign research and educational institutions (St. Gallen, Bern, Madrid, and Boston) with the aim of specialization in the field of environmental history, landscape change and regional and local community development. She speaks English (C) and French (B).

Since 1989 she is working at the University of Zagreb (Faculty of Science, Department of Geography). For many years she participated in the leadership of the University of Zagreb, Faculty of Science and Department of geography (among numerous other positions she served as vice-dean for international cooperation and chair of the Doctoral programme of Geography for 8 years).

Her field of expertise is environmental history and landscape change, spatially focused mainly on Mediterranean karst area, including the development of methodologies of research (historical cartography, GIS technology), borderlands areas, spatial perceptions and spatial (regional) identities. Since 2007 she was a project leader on environmental change, cultural landscapes and regional identities financed by the Ministry of Science and the University of Zagreb; the project coordinator of two international projects (Swiss Science Foundation), and a collaborator on a number of other scientific projects (6). Apart from the conference presentations, she delivered 11 invited  or plenary key note lectures at the conferences and international summer schools in Europe, Canada and USA. She authored and co-authored more then hundred papers, while the results of her research are published in 70 peer reviewed scientific journal articles and book chapters  up to now.

Since the beginning of her academic career, she has taught 20 courses from the bachelor to doctoral level at the University of Zagreb at the study programmes of Geography and Environmental Science, as well as at  doctoral programmes of the Universities of Zadar (Croatia) and Mostar (Bosnia and Herzegovina).

Currently she teaches Environmental history, Mediterranean Studies, Regional Concepts as well as  Scientific Work and Research Methodologies at Environmental and Cultural Landscape Studies/Modules at PhD Programe. She has been mentor in more than 80 bachelor and master thesis and 10 doctoral thesis.

She is the co-author of the university textbook on „Historical geography of Croatia“ (Split University),  the editor of  the open access book "Mediterranean Identities - Environment, Society, Culture" (InTechOpen) and the editor of Croatian editions as well as  the author of the chapters in two books on environmental history: “What is Environmental History” by D. Hughes and “The Global Environmental History” by I.G.Simmons (Disput). She is also author and co-editor in the Springer book series "The perspectives on geographical marginality" and "Environmental History" (Volume "Environmental Histories of the Dinaric Karst" ). She co-authored  the scientific monograph "The Historical Geography of Croatia - Territorial Change and Cultural Landscapes"  in Springer series "Historical Geography and Geosciences". 

She is the member of a number of international and national scientific organization, while in most of them she was/ is the member of the board of directors (International Geographic Union; European Society for Environmental History; Association for Croatian Studies; Association of American Geographers/ Specialty group Environment and Perception; Croatian Geographical Society; Croatian Cartographical Association; Croatian Geomorphological Society).

She is the member of the editorial boards of the leading Croatian geographical  and environmental-historian scientific journals, as well as of the number of other European scientific journals.

She has been the member of scientific committees of many national and international conferences. She was the initiator and chair of the local organizing and scientific commitee of the first IGU conference  held in Croatia, in Dubrovnik (2012) as well as the chair of the local organizing committee of the 9. biennial conference of the European Society for Environmental History in Zagreb (2017). 

She has been the representative and coordinator of the Regional Action Center – Croatia of the  International Year of Global Understanding (2016), the initiative of the International Geographic Union  - IGU.

She is also engaged in popular science (journal editorial, popular science TV shows and interviews, public lectures).

 

Published papers recorded in the Croatian Scientific Bibliography Database (CROSBI)

Note: this list of papers is located in an maintained by the Ruđer Bošković Institute which is in charge of the Croatian Scientific Bibliography Database (CROSBI). This link will take you to the appropriate CROSBI page of this person, containing a list of papers they have themselves entered in the database.

Show CROSBI records
For further information and for instructions on changing the above data, please contact help@bib.irb.hr.

List of select publications

PUBLISHED BOOKS

B. Fuerst-Bjeliš, E. Nel & S. Pelc (Eds.): COVID-19 and Marginalisation of People and Places, Springer, 2022. DOI:10.1007/978-3-031-11139-6

 

B. Fuerst-Bjeliš & N. Glamuzina: The Historical Geography of Croatia.Territorial Change and Cultural Landscapes, Springer, 2021. DOI: 10.1007/978-3-030-68433-4

Book review  by Radu MÂRZA in Territorial Identity and Development (TID)Volume 7 / No. 1, Spring. 

Book review by David S. Hardin in Historical Geography 49, 97-99. doi:10.1353/hgo.2021.0009.


B. Fuerst-Bjeliš & W. Leimgruber (Eds): Globalization, Marginalization and Conflict, Springer, 2020. DOI: 10.1007/978-3-030-53218-5

   

B. Fuerst-Bjeliš (Ed.): Mediterranean Identities – Environment, Society, Culture, IntechOpen, 2017.DOI: 10.5772/66587

 

N. Glamuzina & B. Fuerst-Bjeliš: Historijska geografija Hrvatske, University of Split - Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Split, 2015. DOI:10.13140/RG.2.1.2077.2883.

Hobbies and interests

Humanitarian and environmental engagement

Friend and donor to UNICEF Childhood Guardians ProgrammeSOS Children's Village Lekenik Croatia and  independent, non-profit and non-governmental organizations Greenpeace Croatia and Animal Friends Croatia.