Aleksandra Kanjuo Mrčela is a professor of sociology at the Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Ljubljana, where she heads the Organisations and HR Research Centre. She teaches the sociology of work, economic sociology, social theory, and gender, work and organisations. Her research focuses on gender and the economy, industrial relations, ownership, post-socialist transition and economic democracy.

International collaboration has shaped her career. After two years as a visiting scholar at the London School of Economics (1999–2001), she joined numerous European and global research projects on topics ranging from gender inequality in post-socialist Europe to precarious work, social dialogue and economic democratisation in Peru and Mexico. She now coordinates a project on gender-based violence involving seven institutions in Europe and Latin America. Since 2003 she has led Slovenia’s national centre for Eurofound, and since 2004 she has served on a European Commission expert network on employment, social inclusion and gender equality.

She has held many leadership roles: Vice-Dean of her faculty, Head of the University of Ljubljana Doctoral School, President of the Slovenian Sociological Association and, since 2022, Chair of the Steering Committee of the European University Association’s Council for Doctoral Education. She is an editor of Social Politics (Oxford University Press) and co-founded both the Institute for Economic Democracy and the Academy for Sustainable Development of Slovenia.

She has taught and lectured worldwide, from China and Morocco to Latin America. In 2023 the University of Ljubljana awarded her its Gold Plaque for outstanding merit.