Professor Slavica Jakelic

Slavica Jakelić teaches religion and social thought at Valparaiso University’s Honors College. Her scholarly interests and publications center on religion and nationalism, religious and secular humanisms, theories of religion and secularism, theories of modernity, and interreligious conflict and dialogue. Jakelić has worked at or was a fellow of a number of interdisciplinary institutes in Europe and the United States: Erasmus Institute for the Culture of Democracy (Zagreb, Croatia), Institute for the Study of Economic Culture (Boston University), Institut für die Wissenschaften vom Menschen (Vienna, Austria), Institute for the Advanced Study in Culture (University of Virginia), Martin Marty Center (University of Chicago), Erasmus Institute (University of Notre Dame), The Notre Dame Institute for Advanced Studies (University of Notre Dame), Kroc Institute (University of Notre Dame), and Yale Divinity School (Yale University). She was a Senior Fellow of the national project “Religion & Its Publics,” placed at the University of Virginia, where she was a faculty member and co-director at the UVA’s Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture for several years. She was also a Senior Fellow of the international project "Orthodoxy and Human Rights," placed at Fordham University.

Jakelić edited or co-edited four volumes: The Future of the Study of Religion, Crossing Boundaries: From Syria to Slovakia, The Hedgehog Review’s issue "After Secularization," and the special issue of Religions “Nationalisms and Religious Identities.” She is the author of Collectivistic Religions (2010/2016), Both Freedom and Belonging: Essays on Religion, Nationalism, and Solidarity (in Croatian, 2024) and Pluralizing Humanism (2025). She is currently working on a book titled Ethical Nationalisms.