Monika Balija

Monika Balija was born on November 5th 1993 in Koprivnica. After graduating from elementary and high school, she enrolled in the Integrated Undergraduate and Graduate University Study in History and Geography (course: education) at the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Zagreb, Department of History. She graduated from the Faculty of Science, University of Zagreb, Department of Geography, on September 29th 2017, thereby completing the Integrated Undergraduate and Graduate Study Programme and earning a master’s degree in history and geography; course: education (mag. educ. hist. et geogr.). The title of her thesis was The Historical and Demographic Development of Koprivnica.  Later that same year, in 2017, she enrolled in the Postgraduate University Doctoral Study in Geography: Space, Region, Environment, Landscape at the Faculty of Science, University of Zagreb, Department of Geography. In accordance with her primary field of scientific interest, she attended the Population Studies study module, where she directed her intellectual curiosity toward population migrations, i.e. the recent trend of emigration from Republic of Croatia. She successfully graduated from University of Zagreb on December 22nd 2020, thereby completing the Postgraduate University Doctoral Study Programme and earning a PhD in the Interdisciplinary sciences; Scientific Field of Geography. Her doctoral dissertation was titled The New Croatian Emigration Paradigm. She was elected an associate by the Faculty Council of the Faculty of Croatian Studies, University of Zagreb, on May 26th 2021, thereby filling the postdoctoral position in the Demographic Field of Social Sciences at the University of Zagreb, Faculty of Croatian Studies, Department of Demography and Croatian Diaspora. The wider scope of her scientific activity encompasses demography, i.e. application of scientific cognitions on population in different areas (demographic dynamics and structural changes in the population, population research methods, spatial planning, regional development, etc.). She has published several journal articles and held several lectures at national and international scientific conferences during and after her postgraduate studies.