through espionage
About the project
This project dives into thousands of archival records—surveillance reports, informant notes, and interrogation files—revealing how deeply the state intruded into private lives. At the same time, it asks who these people were. Most Eastern European spouses were women, often highly educated, whose choices to migrate and marry defied the state’s suspicions.
FAQ
- Host institution: Faculty of Arts, University of Maribor
- Principal investigator: Assoc. Prof. Ana Šela, PhD
- Project code: Z6-60180
- Project duration: 2025–2027
- Funding: Slovenian Research and Innovation Agency (ARIS)
Further details about the project are available in the SICRIS:
👉 https://cris.cobiss.net/ecris/si/sl/project/22772
This project highlights how private lives became entangled with state security during the Cold War. By examining surveillance of mixed marriages in 1980s Slovenia, it reveals both the reach of the State Security Service and the personal experiences of those caught in its gaze. The research contributes to Cold War history, migration studies, and surveillance studies, offering new insights into how states sought to control intimacy and movement across borders. Its findings resonate today, as questions of security, personal freedom, and cultural integration remain pressing. The project thus bridges past and present, history and contemporary debate.
Project lead
Doc. dr. Ana Šela is a historian of contemporary Europe with expertise in political and cultural history of the 20th century, particularly the operations of intelligence and security services. She earned her PhD in Contemporary History at the University of Maribor with a dissertation on the surveillance of intellectual opposition in 1980s Slovenia. In 2024 she was appointed Assistant Professor of History at the University of Maribor, Faculty of Arts.
Project is funded by the Slovenian Research and Innovation Agency – ARIS.
Contact information:
- Project lead: doc. dr. Ana Šela
- Email: ana.sela@um.si
- Address: Univerza v Mariboru, Filozofska fakulteta, Koroška cesta 160, 2000 Maribor