Vlatko Smiljanić

undergraduate

• 19th and 20th Century Croatian Historiography (38055) - Lecturer in charge
• Croatian Cultural and Political History of the 18th and 19th Centuries (37448) - Lecturer in charge
• Croatian Cultural and Political History of the 20th Century (37456) - Lecturer in charge
• Croatian National Rulers (248673) - Lecturer in charge
• Croatian Social and Cultural History from the19 th Century to the present day (188007) - Lecturer in charge
• History and Culture of the Croatian Countryside (291495) - Lecturer in charge
• Institutions of the Croatian people, society and the state (188079) - Lecturer in charge
• Vlachs in European and Croatian culture (284989) - Lecturer in charge

graduate

• Archivistics for historians (202954) - Lecturer in charge
• Historical Cartography of Croatian countries (270161) - Lecturer in charge
• History of Christianity in Croatia (270166) - Lecturer in charge
• Local History (285824) - Lecturer in charge

doctoral

• Croatian Traditional Culture (268695) - Lecturer in charge
• Historiography, Ideology, and Collective Memory (260848) - Lecturer in charge

Assistant Professor Dr. Vlatko Smiljanić is a university teacher and researcher at the Department of Croatology and the Department of History, and Vice-Dean for Business Affairs at the Faculty of Croatian Studies, University of Zagreb. He is Editor-in-Chief of the scholarly journal Kroatologija (A1/A2 category).

He was born in 1995 in Virovitica, where he attended primary school and grammar school. He completed his studies in History at the Faculty of Croatian Studies, University of Zagreb, in 2020. During his studies he worked as a student teaching assistant, held a Virovitica-Podravina County excellence scholarship, and received a number of student awards, including the Rector’s Award (2020), the Dean’s Award (2020), the Head of Department’s Award (2018) and several Head of Department’s Commendations. He is also the recipient of the Award for a Published Scientific Paper of High International Visibility (2024) and the Dean’s Commendation to Meritorious Teachers for Scientific and Teaching Work (2024). He is the author of two and co-author of one book, as well as co-editor of several scholarly books and conference proceedings in the fields of Croatology and history. He regularly publishes scholarly and professional articles on historical and croatological topics. He obtained his PhD in 2023, defending his doctoral thesis The Life and Works of Mirko Danijel Bogdanić from 1760 to 1802 under the supervision of Academician Stjepan Ćosić with the highest distinction (summa cum laude).

Assistant Professor Smiljanić’s research interests focus on the political, social, and cultural history of Croatia from the early modern period to the present, with particular emphasis on the local and regional history of Slavonia, Podravina, and the Virovitica area. He is especially engaged in biographical and ego-historical studies of peasant and intellectual elites (e.g. Mara Matočec, Jovo Stanisavljević Čaruga, Mirko Danijel Bogdanić), in which he combines a microhistorical approach with an analysis of the broader cultural, social, and ideological-political context. A significant part of his research is devoted to the history of education, and to cultural, ecclesiastical and civic institutions, as well as to the development of higher education in Croatia and to the relationship between faith, science and politics in Catholic Enlightenment. Alongside empirical historiographical research, he develops the theoretical and methodological framework of the place-based (local) history and Croatology as interdisciplinary fields, with a particular interest in the history of science.

He has published a total of 104 publications so far (December 2025). He is the author of 4 books (3 scientific monographs and 1 professional monograph) and the editor of 5 books (1 editorial scientific monograph, 2 conference proceedings, 1 collection of abstracts and 1 editorial edition). In scientific production, he has published 11 original scientific papers (A1) and 8 review scientific papers (A2), in addition to 6 previous communications (A3). He has also published 2 professional papers, 4 professional review papers, 17 reviews/reviews/critics, 1 editorial and 1 other contribution in journals. Within the framework of conferences, he had 17 abstracts of presentations in booklets of abstracts and 15 unpublished contributions from the conference.

From 2020 to 2024 he worked as a research associate in history at the Scientific Institute of the Faculty of Croatian Studies, after which he was appointed to a scientific-teaching position of Assistant Professor at the Department of Croatology and the Department of History of the Faculty of Croatian Studies, University of Zagreb.

From 9 July 2024 to 30 September 2025 he served as Assistant to the Rector and Acting Dean for Business Affairs, as well as Acting Vice-Dean for Business Affairs. Since 1 October 2025 he has held the office of Vice-Dean for Business Affairs for a three-year term (academic years 2025/2026–2027/2028).

Since 1 June 2025 he has been Director of the King Sejong Institute in Zagreb, a centre for Korean language and culture.

• Identification number of the scientist 405162
• Croatian Research Information System (CroRIS)
• Google Scholar
• ORCID 0000-0001-9835-0591
• Scopus Author ID 57202045211
• Web of Science Researcher ID HLX-6047-2023

• 2024 Dean's Award to Meritorious Teachers for Scientific and Teaching Work
• 2024 Faculty Award for scientific work of high international visibility published in 2023
• 2020 Dean's Award - the best student in the final year of graduate studies
• 2019 Rector's Award for individual scientific work
• 2019 Dean's Acknowledgment for the academic year 2017/2018
• 2018 Dean's Award - the best student in the final year of undergraduate studies
• 2018 Dean's Acknowledgment for the academic year 2016/2017
• 2017 Dean's Acknowledgment for the academic year 2015/2016

Professional interests

•      Croatian modern and contemporary history
•      Croatology
•      history and culture of science and education
•      history and culture of Virovitica (place-based/local history)

Memberships

•      Croatian academic community
•      Croatian National Committee for Historical Sciences
•      Croatian Pan-European Union
•      Matrix Croatica
•      Native society of Virovitica in Zagreb
•      Society for Croatian history
•      The Society of University Professors and other Scientists in Zagreb

• 2025 - 2028 Institutional research project "Climate change and security challenges" (leader: Assoc. Prof.  Andreja Sršen), member of the research team

• 2025 - 2028 Institutional research project "Perception and ways of presenting history in modern and contemporary culture" (leader: Prof. Mladen Tomorad), member of the research team

• 2025 International scientific and professional conference "Croatian Language and Culture Abroad: A Look into the Past, Present, and Future", Faculty of Croatian Studies, University of Zagreb, Macquarie University, Faculty of Teacher Education, University of Zagreb, University of Pécs, Universität Regensburg, Croatian Catholic University, University of São Paulo, Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts, Croatian Heritage Foundation, York University, 3-4 November 2025 (member of the Organizing Committee) - in progress
• 2024 International Scientific Conference "Intellectual History and Croatian Historiography: State and Perspectives II", Faculty of Croatian Studies, Zagreb, December 13, 2024 (member of the Organizing Committee)
• 2024 Scientific and expert's Conference "Virovitica 1234 - 2024: Church, culture, society, heritage - selected topics", Virovitica Franciscan Monastery, Faculty of Croatian Studies, University of Zagreb, Institute of Social Sciences "Ivo Pilar", Croatian Catholic University, Croatian Institute for History - Branch for the History of Slavonia, Baranja and Srijem, 21-22 November 2024 (Chairman of the Organizing Committee)
• 2024 International Scientific Conference "The Importance of European Memory for the European Future: Communist Crimes III", Faculty of Croatian Studies, University of Zagreb, Lietuvos istorijos institutas, 20-21 June 2024 (member of the Organizing Committee)
• 2023 Institutional project "Digitalization of documentation-archival materials of the Croatian studies" (coordinator)
• 2023 Institutional scientific project "Humanist in an inhumane age - life and works of Don Filip Lukas 1871 - 1958", Department of History and Research Institute (member of the project)
• 2023 Scientific manifestation and scientific conference with international participation "Ante Starčević: figure - deed - historiography", Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Zagreb, Croatian State Archives, Center for Comparative History and Intercultural Studies, Ivo Pilar Institute of Social Sciences, Miroslav Krleža Lexicography Institute, Matrix Croatica, Research Institute of the Faculty of Croatian Studies, May 25 and 26, 2023 (member of the Preparatory Committee)
• 2022 International Scientific Conference "Intellectual History and Croatian Historiography: Status and Perspectives", Faculty of Croatian Studies, Zagreb, December 15, 2022 (member of the Organizing Committee)
• 2020. Scientific Conference "The importance of European memory for the European future: communist war crimes", Faculty of Croatian Studies, Zagreb, June 19, 2020 (member of the Organizing Committee)
• 2018 - 2020. Scientific project "Historical development of applied psychology in Croatia - Work of the Counseling Center/Institute for choosing a profession from 1931 to 1948." (young researcher)
• 2018 Scientific Conference "1918-2018: Historical Controversies and Croatia Today", Croatian Studies of the University of Zagreb, Zagreb, October 29, 2018 (Member of the Organizing Committee)