Academy Members

Grbavac Branka

Academic titles:

• Doctor of Science

Institutions:

• research-coordinator – Department of History, the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Zagreb

Membership in Academy:

• associate member – Department of Social Sciences (5/21/2026 – …)

Branka Grbavac was born in 1978 in Prozor (Rama). She finished elementary school and the XVI Language Gymnasium in Zagreb. In 2002, she graduated history at the Faculty of Croatian Studies of the University of Zagreb. In 2006, she defended her master’s thesis entitled “Zadar Notaries in the 13th and 14th Centuries” at the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences of the University of Zagreb. At the same Faculty, in 2010, she obtained her Ph.D. with a dissertation entitled “The Notariate on the Eastern Adriatic Coast from the Second Half of the 12th to the End of the 14th Century”. Since 2002, she has been employed at the Department of Historical Sciences of the Institute for Historical and Social Sciences of the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts in Zagreb, where works at the position of a research-coordinator since 2024. She has collaborated on several research projects funded by the Ministry of Science, the Croatian Science Foundation and the University of Zagreb. As a researcher, she also participated in the international project Conex II, Geschäftsleben und Frauenrechte / Business Life and Women’s Rights (Institut für jüdische Geschichte Österreichs) including researchers from Austria, the Czech Republic and Croatia and financed by the Austrian Ministry of Science within the Sixth Framework Programme of EU. She also participated in the joint project of the Ministry of Culture of Montenegro and the Holy See entitled Monumenta Montenegrina Vaticana. Currently, she is a collaborator on the Croatian Science Foundation project entitled Sources for Croatian History – Research, Critical Editing and Analysis. Throughout her scholarly career in 2004 and 2007 she attended scholarship programmes in Spoleto, Como and Varese (Italy). During 2010 she undertook a study visit within the framework of inter-academy exchange programmes at the Russian Academy of Sciences in Moscow and Saint Petersburg.

Her scholarly work focuses on social, legal and political relations in medieval Dalmatia, with particular emphasis on the development of the institution of notariate in the Eastern Adriatic Coast, as well as on the publication of sources for Croatian medieval history. This primarily refers to the publication of charters and notarial records of medieval Dalmatian communes as well as the publication of philosophical and historical manuscripts of Croatian medieval scholars (Hermannus Dalmata, Martinus de Iadra) and medical manuscripts preserved in Croatian libraries and archives (Avicenna). She is the author or co-author of four books and many scholarly and professional papers. She is co-author and co-editor of the Lexicon of Croatian Medieval History (together with Franjo Šanjek, FCA), which is the first specialized lexicon for medieval studies in Croatian lexicography. She has published her works in prestigious publications of domestic and foreign publishers (Routledge, Brepols, Brill, etc.).

As a speaker, she participated in numerous national and international scholarly conferences and congresses in Croatia and abroad (Vienna, Leeds, Koper, Sofia, Dubrovnik, Brno, Lisbon, Salerno, Osijek, Maribor, etc.). She was peer-reviewer of large number of articles for various publications in Croatia and abroad, evaluated scientific projects, and written numerous book reviews.

She was also active in teaching, lecturing from 2007 to 2019 at all three levels of study (undergraduate, graduate and postgraduate) at the Croatian Studies of the University of Zagreb, the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences in Rijeka, the Catholic Faculty of Theology of the University of Zagreb, and the Catholic University of Croatia. In 2020, she was elected to the title of Associate Professor at the University of Zagreb. Her teaching work has been primarily connected with courses in auxiliary historical sciences (palaeography and diplomatics). She has supervised several undergraduate and graduate theses.

She has collaborated with numerous scientific institutions (Hampshire College; University of Missouri; Institut für jüdische Geschichte Österreichs; Utrecht University; Masaryk University; Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, etc.). She is also a contributor to the editions of the Miroslav Krleža Institute of Lexicography in Zagreb. In 2025 she received Award of the Matica hrvatska – Ogranak Skradin.