Dr. Mela Žuljević

Mela Zuljevic is a design researcher with a PhD in architecture (UHasselt, Belgium). In her doctoral thesis, she explored the uses of the past in design – by engaging with postcolonial and critical development studies to address how the past is mobilised in staging visions of development. She is currently a postdoctoral researcher at the Leibniz Institute for Regional Geography, working at the intersection of design, cartography and landscape research. Her research project looks at cartographic legacies of international diplomacy and peace-making in Bosnia and Herzegovina, focusing on how they materialise in the landscape. Besides her research project, she coordinates the Multi-Perspective Visualisation Laboratory for Peace and Conflict Cartography (VisLab) of the KonKoop network.

Previously, she studied Design and Visual Communications at the University of Sarajevo. She worked as an assistant professor at the Interior Design Department of the ‘Dzemal Bijedic’ University of Mostar. As a co-founder and coordinator of the Abart art collective, she explored artistic and curatorial practices in public space, focusing on the post-war division and reconstruction of Mostar. Through her participation in various design projects and artistic collaborations, she gained significant experience in visual, artistic and curatorial practices and methodologies (for example, see Transition Landscape Atlas​).