Dr. Denis Ljuljanović

02/2024- present

Research and Teaching Assistant at TU Darmstadt, History of Technology, Darmstadt

Activities: Researching on Manufacturing (CIM, Industrie 4.0) and Digital Factories (automated factory, smart factory, factories of the future)

Teaching course: How the Factory Entered the Computer – The (Pre)History of Industry 4.0

Scholarship: Ernst Ludwig Mobility Scholarship – TU Darmstadt

Research Stay at La Sapienza, Rome (2024/2025) & UTC, Paris (2025/2026)

08/2022- 02/2024

Program Director at we.Conect Global Leaders GmbH, Berlin

Activities: Researching and organising scientific/B2B conferences on topics such as Manufacturing, Innovation, Disruptive Technologies, AI and IIoT

02/2017- 04/2021

Research and Teaching Assistant at Justus Liebig University, Institute of History – History of (South)Eastern Europe, Gießen

Activities: Conducting research (PhD) on the intellectual, political, and social history of the Ottoman Empire and Southeastern Europe.

Teaching courses:

1. Ottoman Rumelia from a Postcolonial Perspective

2. Nationalism and Anarchism in the Ottoman Empire: South-East Europe in Focus

Current Project:

Cultures of Malfunctioning: The long and difficult History of the Digitally networked Factory (1980-2025) at TU Darmstadt, History of Technology

In 2011, the concept of Industry 4.0 debuted at the Hannover Messe, heralded as a transformative force in industrial production. However, its similarities to the earlier framework of Computer Integrated Manufacturing (CIM) ignited debates about its true revolutionary character. Critics coined terms like “CIM-reloaded,” revisiting the perceived failures of CIM in the 1990s and questioning whether Industry 4.0 represented a genuine disruption or merely an evolutionary continuation. This research builds on such discussions by shifting the focus away from the traditional “drivers” of technological progress to examine the digitally connected factory through the lens of repair and malfunction. Instead of depicting a seamless evolution, this study highlights the often slow adoption of technology and the persistent challenges that define industrial digitalization.

The primary aim of this research is to reframe narratives surrounding digital transformation by emphasizing its historical context and the significance of addressing non-functionality. While prevailing discourse typically examines the outcomes of digitization, this project redirects attention to the socio-technical conditions underpinning its “penetration, accessibility, and perpetuation.” By interpreting the digitization of the working world as a prolonged and complex process of malfunction, this study offers a counterpoint to mainstream narratives of smooth progress. In addition to reinterpreting the history of CIM, the research pursues two key objectives. First, it seeks to explore the mechanisms of digital transformation through the prism of dysfunction, drawing on the concept of “broken world thinking” (Jackson 2014). Second, it endeavors to establish a historiography centered on non-functionality, underscoring the importance of overcoming obstacles in the journey toward a digitally connected factory. Through this approach, the project aims to provide a nuanced understanding of industrial digitalization as an iterative and contested process.

Past Project (LOEWE-Projekt Hessen):

Imagining Macedonia in the Age of Empire: State Policies, Network and Violence (1878-1912), at Justus-Liebig University Gießen, Institute of History, Department of History of (South)Eastern Europe,

This project examines the complexity of the Macedonian Question(s) at the turn of the 20th century, focusing on the interplay between various actors: local revolutionary committees, Balkan states, the Great Powers, and the Ottoman Empire. During this period, these actors projected competing visions onto a part of the Ottoman territories increasingly referred to as “Macedonia.” Diverse state authorities and intellectual circles developed conflicting strategies to incorporate these provinces into their broader national narratives and state-building agendas. The thesis analyses these dynamics within the timeframe stretching from the Congress of Berlin (1878) to the Balkan Wars (1912–1913). Drawing on a wide range of regional sources—including Ottoman, Bulgarian, Macedonian, Serbian, and Albanian—as well as European reports in English, French, German, Italian, and Russian, the study highlights the multiplicity of interpretations and claims at international, regional, and trans-regional levels.

Importantly, the research also engages with developments at the local level to challenge the tendency to treat ethno-national identities as fixed or monolithic. Instead, it foregrounds the complex and often ambiguous nature of local affiliations and experiences, which frequently diverged from the national narratives imposed from above. While the thesis critically assesses these nationalizing projects, it does not dismiss the agency of local actors whose perspectives and actions have the potential to disrupt and complicate dominant state-centered narratives.

Book:

Imagining Macedonia in the Age of Empire: State Policies, Networks and Violence (1878-1912), Berlin: LIT Verlag, 2023.

Published Articles:

Between States: Macedonia as a Contested Terra Sancta (1878–2023). In Sacralization of History: Actors – Networks – Topics in (contemporary) Eastern Europe, edited by Liliya Berezhnaya and Heidi Hein–Kircher. 185–212. New York: CEU Press, 2025,

Young Turk Policy and Albanian Uprisings in Ottoman Macedonia: From Revolution to Balkan War(s) (1908-1912). In The Balkan Wars: Ottoman Perspectives (The War, The Struggle, The Nation), edited by Ercan Karakoç and Ali Serdar Mete, 171–199. Bern: Peter Lang, 2024.

Seeking a Homeland, Serving the Empire: Muslim Migrants from Montenegro and Their Integration within the Ottoman Bureaucracy (1870-1914). In From Empire(s) to Nation-States: Population Displacements and Multiple Mobilities in the Late Ottoman Empire, edited by Catherine Horel and Bettina Severin-Barboutie, 35–57. Leiden: Brill, 2023.

“Geç Osmanlı Döneminde Vlora (Avlonya) Ailesi ve Vlora Ailesinin Makedonya Meselesine Dair Görüşleri (1878-1912)” [The Vlora (Avlonya) Family in the Late Ottoman Period and Their Viewpoints on the Macedonian Question (1878-1912)], Toplumsal Tarih Akademi Osmanlı-Türkiye Çalışmaları Dergisi 1 (2022): 22–40.

Entangled Trajectories: From Unity of Islam to Albanian Nationalism. In Osmanlı İdaresinde Balkanlar 1-2 [The Balkans under the Ottoman Rule], edited by Alaattin Aköz and Slobodan Ilić, 495–513. Konya: Selçuk Üniverstesi – Osmanlı Tarihi ve Medeniyeti Araştırma ve Uygulama Merkezi Yayınları, 2020.

‘Turkonegrins’ between Montenegro and Ottoman Empire: Brothers or Others?. In Etnické komunity – Neviditelní, přehlížení, zapomenutí [Ethnic Communities – The Invisible, the Overlooked, the Forgotten], edited by Dana Bittnerová and Mirjam Moravcová, 35–59. Praha: Fakulta humanitních studií Univerzity Karlovy, 2019.

Published Texts:

“Damat Ferit Paşa – Karadağ asıllı bir sadrazam [Damat Ferit Pasha – a Grand Vizier of Montenegrin Origin],” Muhacirin Sesi, Istanbul, 2016.

“Prošlost budućnosti – od konflikta do saradnje [The Past of the Future – from Conflict to Cooperation],” Podgorica Info – Information Booklet of Capital City, Podgorica, 2012.