Department of History of UP Faculty of Humanities
and UP University Library invite you to a lecture

Asst. Prof. Dr. Angela Ilić

titled

THE EVANGELICAL-LUTHERAN CHURCH IN THE SLOVENE LANDS AND THE GERMAN REALM OF INFLUENCE, 1919–1945. IDENTITIES AND CHOICES.

The lecture will take place
in Trubar Hall UP UK, Trubarjeva 1, 6000 Koper,
on Monday, 9 November 2026, starting at 11.00.
The lecture will be held in English.

Participation in the event is free. The event will also be broadcast online (Zoom: https://upr-si.zoom.us/j/64458913608?pwd=WuTL52ZAaqX6XgiggDnRC5rECb6pKH.1, Meeting ID: 644 5891 3608, Passcode: 312248).

German-language Protestantism in the diaspora is a subject that has, from an international perspective, remained largely unexplored. While there is a substantial body of work concerning the German-language Protestantism of the Transylvanian Saxons in Romania, studies that transcend the boundaries of specific historical periods or individual countries—particularly those examining the links between Germany and the various German diaspora communities in Central and Southeastern Europe are rare.

The lecture by Assoc. Prof. Dr. Angela Ilić will focus on a topic that has received relatively little systematic scholarly attention: the relationship between German national identity and the Lutheran Church within the Slovenian territory during the pivotal period between the finis Austriae (the end of the Austrian Empire) and the conclusion of the Second World War (1919–1945).

Introduction of the guest

Dr. Angela Ilić is a historian and scholar of religion. She specializes in the history of Southeast Europe during the 19th and 20th centuries, processes of national and confessional identity formation, the status of minorities in Central and Southeast Europe, and the relationship between religion and society in post-socialist countries. She also devotes particular attention to ecumenism and interreligious dialogue.

Since February 2016, she has been a research fellow at the Institute for German Culture and History of Southeast Europe (IKGS) at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, where, among other roles, she serves on the editorial board of the journal Spiegelungen. In 2022, she completed her habilitation at the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz in the fields of contemporary and Eastern European history, and she currently holds the position of Privatdozentin (private lecturer) there. Previously, she worked as a postdoctoral researcher within the Graduiertenkolleg (research training group) “The Christian Churches Facing the Challenge of ‘Europe’” (Mainz / Leibniz Institute of European History) and at Temple University in Philadelphia, among other positions.

Among her current research projects is one concerning the European network of pastors in German-speaking Protestant congregations in Southeast Europe during the 19th and 20th centuries. She also has strong ties to the Slovenian context: she has researched identity processes in late-Habsburg Maribor, the Protestant diaspora in the Slovenian lands, and the activities of the Gustav-Adolf-Verein within the territory of present-day Slovenia. In 2024, she was a visiting scholar at the Faculty of Arts, University of Ljubljana, where she delivered lectures on Rijeka and Maribor.

Through her research, Ilić systematically fills a gap in our understanding of the transnational networks of German-speaking Protestantism in Central and Southeast Europe, while simultaneously offering a multi-perspective view of identity processes within the multi-ethnic urban centers of the late Habsburg Monarchy.

Selected bibliography

Monographs

Identitäten in regionalen Zentren der Habsburgermonarchie 1867–1918. Die Fallbeispiele Rijeka und Maribor. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag, 2024 (Balkanologische Veröffentlichungen 70). – Habilitacijsko delo.

Churches in the Face of Political and Social Transition. German-Serbian Ecumenical Consultations 1999–2009 / Kirchen und der politisch-gesellschaftliche Wandel. Deutsch-serbische ökumenische Begegnungen 1999–2009. Leipzig 2014.

Egyházi és vallási közösségek szerepe a vajdasági magyarok identitásának megőrzésében [Vloga cerkva in verskih skupnosti pri ohranjanju identitete vojvodinskih Madžarov]. Budapest 2007.

Editorial work (selection)

Bekenntnis und Diaspora. Beziehungen und Netzwerke zwischen Deutschland, Mittel- und Südosteuropa im Protestantismus vom 16. bis 20. Jahrhundert. Regensburg: Verlag Friedrich Pustet, 2021 (Veröffentlichungen des Instituts für deutsche Kultur und Geschichte Südosteuropas, Bd. 142).

(together with Tobias Weger, ed.) Bewegung – Organisation – Ideologie. Sportliche Mobilisierung in Südosteuropa im 19. und 20. Jahrhundert. München: De Gruyter Oldenbourg, 2023.

 (together with Florian Kührer-Wielachom, Irena Samide and Tanja Žigon, ed.) Blick ins Ungewisse. Visionen und Utopien im Donau-Karpaten-Raum 1917 und danach. Regensburg: Verlag Friedrich Pustet, 2019.