Hrvoje Kekez
Full Professor at the University Department of History, Catholic University of Croatia. He obtained his MA and PhD degrees from the University of Zagreb, where in 2012 he defended his doctoral dissertation titled “The Noble Lineage of the Counts Babonići until the End of the 14th Century.”
He pursued further academic training at the Institute of Medieval Studies, University of Leeds, United Kingdom (2009–2010), and at the Nanovic Institute for European Studies, University of Notre Dame, Indiana, United States (2014). To date, he has published around fifty scholarly articles in various Croatian and international academic journals and collected volumes, as well as several dozen professional papers. He has delivered numerous presentations at international and domestic academic conferences held both abroad and in Croatia. He is also the author of three scholarly monographs and editor of four collected volumes of academic papers. Additionally, he has published ten popular-academic monographs, independently and in co-authorship. He has served as a visiting professor at nine foreign universities. In 2023, he received the Award for Excellence in Scientific Research from the Catholic University of Croatia for the academic year 2022/2023.
RESEARCH INTERESTS:
medieval nobility of Slavonia and Croatia; medieval urbanism; historical topography; Ottoman threat: Croatian heraldic heritage
COURSES TAUGHT:
Croatian Lands in the Early Middle Ages
Medieval History
Historical Topography of Medieval Slavonia
The Ottomans and Croatian Lands in the 16th Century
History of Institutions and Political Administration of Croatian Lands
History of Byzantium
Croatian Historiography
Introduction to Archival Studies
Urban History
Croatian Heraldic Heritage
The Medieval Church
PROJECTS:
Project manager:
2021–2025 – Topography of Medieval Zagreb County (14th–16th Century) – Croatian Science Foundation
2012–2025 – Career Development of Young Researchers – Training of New PhDs – Croatian Science Foundation
2017 – Perceptions of Croatian, Slavonian, and Dalmatian Elites in the Late Middle Ages and Early Modern Period – Catholic University of Croatia, Zagreb
2016 – Origins, Structures, and Perceptions of Social Elites in the Croatian Middle Ages and Early Modern Period – Catholic University of Croatia, Zagreb
Project Researcher:
2025–present – The Croats’ Battle – Archaeological Research of the Battle of Krbava Field (1493) – Ministry of Culture and Media of the Republic of Croatia and Croatian Conservation Institute, Zagreb
2025 – From Defensive Wall to 'Military Reservoir': The Evolution of the Frontier Soldier from the 16th to the 18th Century (Preliminary Research) – Catholic University of Croatia, Zagreb
2021–2025 – S(c)lavoni(j)a: Name, Extent, and Border Position in the Middle Ages and Early Modern Period – Croatian Science Foundation
2019–2021 – Family through History – Expressions and Bearers of Identity in Central and Northwestern Croatia from the Late Middle Ages to the Modern Age – Catholic University of Croatia, Zagreb
2009–2012 – International Medieval Bibliography – Institute for Medieval Studies, University of Leeds, United Kingdom
2007–2012 – Croatian Middle Ages: Nobility and Population, Authorities and Institutions – Croatian Institute of History, Zagreb
2007–2008 – Projects: Croatian Encyclopedia, Lexicon of Marin Držić, Croatian Bibliographical Lexicon – Miroslav Krleža Institute of Lexicography, Zagreb
2006–2007 – Croatian Noble Families, Their Estates and Fortified Towns – Croatian Institute of History, Zagreb
