Cows and landscapes co-constituting rural childhoods in Slovenia
Wednesday 8 th October 2025, 10.15-11.45
Venue: Linna, 6th floor, room 6017
This talk examines childhood memories of participation in the domestic agricultural
economy in Southeastern Slovenia during the second half of the 20th century. It traces
how more-than-human relationalities emerged through daily practices of working and
living together, as children cared for grazing animals and for the land. While also
engaging with other plots of extensively farmed land, I give particular attention to
steljniki—distinctive patches of land associated with grazing and the harvesting of
bracken for stable bedding. Incorporating photography, video, walking ethnography,
and short animations, the lecture reflects on how multimodal ethnography can bring to
life the textures of memory and the entanglements of children, animals, and landscapes.
Bio: Barbara Turk Niskač is research fellow at the Institute of Anthropological and Spatial
Studies in Ljubljana, Slovenia. She holds a PhD in Ethnology, Cultural and Social
Anthropology from the University of Ljubljana and has recently completed Marie
Sklodowska Curie postdoctoral fellowship at the Faculty of Education and Culture in
Tampere. Her main research interests lie at the intersection of the anthropology of
childhood, the anthropology of work, environmental anthropology, visual and
multimodal anthropology.