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Dr Jana Kujundzic

Lecturer

Department: Social Sciences

Jana joined Northumbria University in September 2022 as a Lecturer in Criminology. Before that, she was a Lecturer in Criminology at Kingston University as a module lead for a level 6 criminology module that explored case studies, concepts and debates focusing on sexual offences and violent crimes, drawing on critical criminology, alongside gender, sexuality, and socio-legal studies. At the same time, she was also a Research Assistant in Criminology at the University of Hull, providing research support on the AREDAA study (‘Audio recording-enabled domestic abuse alarms (AREDAA) to reduce DVPN violation: A feasibility study and process evaluation’), gathering literature review on DVPNs and DVPOs, liaising with the police and interviewing victims in the Humberside region.

She was awarded a PhD in Criminology in March 2022 and her thesis was titled: Marital Rape in Croatia: Law, Economic Precarity and the Politics of Professional Judgment. She has taught sociology and criminology undergraduate modules (2019-2021) at the Department of Sociology, University of Essex. She holds two Master’s Degrees: one in Gender Studies from Central European University and the other in Sociology from the University of Zagreb. Her BA was in Philosophy and Sociology. Jana is a long-term member of various grassroots feminist, anti-fascist and LGBTIQ movements in the ex-Yugoslav region.

Jana Kujundzic

Jana's doctoral project explored the socio-legal structures and power dynamics that affect the perception, prosecution, and penalisation of marital rape in Croatia. Drawing on in-depth interviews with a diverse range of professional actors – including lawyers, judges, prosecutors, social workers, coordinators of feminist NGOs, women’s shelters’ workers, psychologists, journalists, and academics – and the first-hand observation of a rape trial, her thesis developed new insights into the legal, political and social implications of marital rape in a post-conflict, post-socialist context. 

She has presented her research at more than a dozen local and international conferences. She is currently developing publications exploring the specific broader aspect of the state's responses to domestic and sexual violence. This includes problematising carceral responses and feminist carceral activism; mapping the devastation of the social welfare system following the privatisation process in Croatia and the increasing demands on the CSO and SWC to prevent domestic violence; and the erosion of the progressive socialist legacy of community responses and solidarity in former Yugoslavia.

Her research interests also include gender-based violence, the political economy of violence, mainstream feminist activism against sexual violence, decolonial feminism, anti-carceral feminism, and queer Marxism.

  • Please visit the Pure Research Information Portal for further information
  • Social Work and Domestic Violence in Croatia Through a Gendered Lens: Between Power and Precarity: Socijalni rad i obiteljsko nasilje u Hrvatskoj kroz orođeni pogled: između moći i prekarijata, Kujundzic, J. 31 Jan 2023, In: Croatian Sociological Review
  • Sexual Violence and New Forms of Religious Traditionalism in the Croatian Post-Conflict Context, Kujundzic, J. 13 Sep 2019, In: Facta Universitatis, Series: Law and Politics
  • Silovanje u braku kao politička ekonomija nasilja, Kujundzic, J. 9 Mar 2023, Radovi sa znanstvenog skupa „Marija Jurić Zagorka – život, djelo, naslijeđe / Rizici i resursi: rod i politika raspodjele“ , Zagreb, Croatia, Zagreb: Centre for Women's Studies
  • Security technology and domestic abuse prevention: offering solutions or creating new problems?, Rowlands, D., Kujundzic, J., Brennan, I., O'Leary, N. 3 Mar 2023
  • Ankica Čakardić: Sablasti tranzicije. Socijalna historija kapitalizma, Kujundzic, J. 31 Dec 2020, In: Croatian Sociological Review

  • Criminology PhD March 23 2022
  • Women's Studies MA June 20 2014
  • Sociology MA July 26 2013
  • Philosophy BA July 20 2011


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