Hanna Stein is a post-doctoral researcher at the Section for Southeast European History and Anthropology/Department of History at the University of Graz. Her research interests encompass contemporary cultural and environmental history, visual analysis and methods, amateur media practices, and memory studies. Her interest in the subject of waste was initially piqued by her research on Yugoslav amateur films (book publication is scheduled for 2026) in which waste pollution emerged as a prominent subject of amateur practices during long sixties. You may get in touch with her by
email.
Waste in Yugoslavia: A Historical Political Ecology
We are delighted to announce that Hanna Stein, from the University of Graz, has been awarded the prestigious ESPRIT research grant by the Austrian Science Fund for her project entitled “Waste in Yugoslavia: A Historical Political Ecology”. CAS Rijeka is one of her cooperation partners on this four-years-project (2026-2030) and will host Hanna during her research visits to the region.
In her research project, Hanna Stein challenges two common perceptions of socialism: one as a political and economic system with a high level of pollution, and the other as a society where recycling and circular economy eliminated waste entirely. Instead, she takes a historical approach to examine the intricate reality of waste in Yugoslavia, exploring the politics, pedagogy, and management of waste and its environmental and societal ramifications. The project aims to unearth the explicit and implicit political ecology of waste by addressing the discourses, practices, social implications, and spatiality of its disposal. Despite the historical approach of her research, Hanna Stein addresses a highly topical and ever-present issue whose examination can yield profound insights into societal and environmental transformations.
