Vita Zalar

Vita Zalar is a Max Weber Fellow at the Department of History, European University Institute, specializing in the history of capitalism, racialized and gendered primitive accumulation, and racialized labour regimes.

Dr. Zalar earned her PhD at the Postgraduate School ZRC SAZU at the Research Centre of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts, where her dissertation focused on anti-Roma racism during the transition to capitalism in the Habsburg and Yugoslav monarchies from the 1840s until the 1940s. Prior to joining the EUI, she worked as an assistant at the University of Ljubljana and the Research Centre of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts, was a doctoral fellow at the Leibniz Institute of European History in Mainz, and served as a visiting researcher at the University of Graz and the Hungarian Academy of Sciences.

Her research bridges historical analysis with contemporary labor organizing, critically examining how economic transitions in Central and Eastern Europe have been intertwined with systems of racial oppression against Roma communities. Dr. Zalar's methodology combines archival research with critical race theory to uncover patterns of exploitation across centuries.

Dr. Zalar is currently developing two major research projects: her first monograph titled 'The Political Economy of Anti-Roma Racism: Habsburg and Post-Habsburg Perspectives,' and a comparative study examining the abolition of slavery and serfdom in Central Europe, exploring connections between different forms of unfree labor.

• 2023 Prize for Best First Book Proposal awarded by the BASEES Study Group for Minority History

As a Max Weber Fellow mentored by Professor Monika Baar, Dr. Zalar contributes to interdisciplinary scholarly dialogues at the EUI while maintaining active engagement with labor movements, reflecting her dual commitment to academic rigor and social justice advocacy.