ESHS/HSS Annual Meeting

Between Merit and Morality: Political Transformations and the Self-Presentation of Scholars in Slovenia

• In Event: Self(re)presentation of a European Scholar Across Political Regimes 3

English Abstract

The curriculum vitae, while a standardized instrument of professional self-presentation, also reflects the moral and political codes of its time. This paper explores how political transformations in Slovenia throughout the twentieth century reshaped the writing and evaluation of scholars’ CVs, turning them into complex sites of negotiation between scientific merit, moral character, and political conformity.
Drawing on archival personnel files, appointment records, and evaluative reports, the paper traces how self-presentation practices adapted to shifting ideological frameworks—from the interwar monarchy and socialist Yugoslavia to the post-socialist transition. During these changes, moral–political assessments (characteristics) became a key category of scholarly evaluation, blurring the boundaries between academic competence and ideological reliability. Categories such as “social engagement,” “national awareness,” and “political maturity” functioned as moral signifiers that could legitimize—or delegitimize—a scholar’s standing within the academic community.
Focusing on Slovenian scholars, the paper shows how they strategically redefined their career narratives in response to new political expectations, rewriting or omitting earlier affiliations, and emphasizing traits aligned with current ideological and institutional norms. The CV thus emerges as both a bureaucratic form and a moral text, shaped by changing definitions of loyalty, citizenship, and intellectual virtue.
In dialogue with the panel’s broader inquiry into the (self)representation of European scholars, this study argues that the Slovenian case—marked by successive regimes and a strong culture of moral-political evaluation—offers a revealing lens for understanding how political systems leave lasting imprints on the scholarly self.

Author

• Željko Oset, Alma Mater Europea, Maribor, Slovenia