
Prof. Snježana Prijić-Samaržija is the rector of the University of Rijeka. She is a tenured full professor at the Department of Philosophy, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences.
An expert in social philosophy, epistemology, and applied ethics, she has assumed the role of an expert in numerous national and international committees, advisory boards, and higher education bodies in strategic management and leadership in HE, social responsibility of HE, and community-oriented learning and research.

Petar Bojanić is a founding Director of the Center for Advanced Studies Southeast Europe. He is a Principal Research Fellow at the Institute for Philosophy and Social Theory of the University of Belgrade, and serves as the Executive Director of the Institute for Democratic Engagement Southeast Europe. Bojanić has held visiting professor positions at esteemed institutions worldwide, including Cornell University, the University of Aberdeen, Birkbeck University, and the University of Turin. He specializes in social ontology, ethics of war, theory of architecture, and various projects surrounding Jewish political thought. Among his numerous publications are “Violence and Messianism: Jewish Philosophy and the Great Conflicts of the 20th Century” (Routledge, 2017) and “In-Statuere: Figures of Institutional Building” (Vittorio Klostermann, 2022).

Dr. Vedran Džihić is currently a Senior Fellow at the Austrian Institute for International Affairs, a Non-Resident Senior Fellow at the Center for Transatlantic Relations, School of Advanced International Studies, John Hopkins University, Washington D.C..
Lecturer at the University of Vienna and various universities in the Western Balkans (Sarajevo, Zagreb, Belgrade).

THE NEW INSTITIUTE / Maximilian Glas
Sanja Bojanić is a researcher immersed in the philosophy of culture, media, and queer studies, with an overarching commitment to comprehend contemporary forms of gender, racial, and class practices, which underpin social and affective inequalities specifically increased in modern societal and political contexts.
She is an associate professor at Rijeka’s Academy of Applied Arts.

Sarah Czerny is a social anthropologist and works as an Associate Professor at the Department of Cultural Studies, University of Rijeka. She is interested in human/animal relations, particularly human/microbial relations, and anthropological knowledge practices.