Since the beginning of March 2021, Dr Adriana Mezeg has been working as a visiting professor and researcher at the University of Graz (her stay abroad is partly co-funded by the Erasmus+ program), at the Institute of Translation Studies and at the Institute of Slavic Studies. She has given several important public lectures presenting the results of scientific research work taking place within the Slovenian program group of Intercultural Literary Studies. During her visit to this foreign university, she established contacts with established Austrian researchers, with whom she agreed on mutual cooperation, which is extremely important for a better and lasting connection between the University of Ljubljana and the University of Graz.
B.05 Guest lecturer at an institute/university
COBISS.SI-ID: 61297411Igor Maver is professor of English and American literature and a long-standing Intercultural Literary Studies Research Group member and researcher. He has been elected a member of the London-based Academia Europaea, European Academy of Humanities, Letters, Law, and Sciences, is a member of the international network of university professors of English and American studies, is chief editor of indexed language and literary studies journal Acta Neophilologica and is also a member of the editorial boards of various international journals (Journal of Language, Literature and Culture from 2013, Il Tolomeo from 2010 and Transpostcross from 2012). On 6 June 2019 at the annual general meeting of the Slovene Academy of Science and Arts (SASU), Igor Maver was accepted as new associate member of the Academy in the section for Philological and Literary Sciences; this award represents a major recognition of his work as well as of his research within the Group.
F.29 Contribution to the development of national cultural identity
The Slovenska znanstvena fundacija (the “Slovene Academic Foundation”) awarded the Prometheus distinction for excellence in communication to Group member Professor Tone Smolej on 28 January 2021. The award recognised in particular his especially noteworthy contribution to the preservation of the memory of earlier Slovene scholars. He wrote a key chapter in the book “The History of the University of Ljubljana Faculty of Arts”, which was published on the occasion of the University of Ljubljana’s centenary in 2019 and has taken part in numerous events commemorating the centenary as well as in media interviews. A monograph on Slovene PhD students at the University of Graz is also being prepared as part of the Group’s ongoing research and will be published shortly. This volume will be a significant contribution to our understanding of the history of a number of disciplines covered by the Group (e.g. German, Slovene, Romance Languages and English). An interview with the recipient of the award was broadcast on 26 February in the radio programme Podobe znanja (“Portraits of Scholars”) on ARS Radio Slovenia (https://ars.rtvslo.si/2021/02/tone-smolej/).
E.01 National awards
COBISS.SI-ID: 54658563The Transfer of the Enlightenment in the German-Language Press of Alsace and Carniola in the Late 18th Century – The article examines the transfer of themes from the European High Enlightenment in the German-language press of Alsace and Carniola (today’s Slovenia) during the 1780s using two newspapers that can be considered representative of their respective regions, the Strasburgische Gelehrte Nachrichten and the Laibacher Zeitung. Despite obvious political and cultural differences between the two regions, there was a broad commonality in the content of the two papers. Both newspapers expected the realization of social reforms by energetic enlightened rulers, Joseph II of Austria and Karl Friedrich of Baden. Likewise, the celebrated representative of the young United States of America in Paris, Benjamin Franklin, was seen as the embodiment of the Enlightenment paradigm. Both newspapers warned with very similar arguments against unbridled liberty and exaggerated individualism. Around 1785–86, however, the High Enlightenment entered into crisis. The Strasbourg periodical disappeared from the market entirely, in part because the moderate German Protestant Enlightenment it represented proved to be inferior to the cultural and political paradigms of the capital, Paris. In the Carniola press, by contrast, the first stirrings of a nascent Slav national movement manifested themselaves, discernible in the success of the first Slovene-language theater production and the emerging historiography of the South Slav peoples. Two members of the Research Group, Professor Matjaž Birk and Dr Petra Kramberger took part in this research. The first author of the research, Professor Matjaž Birk was nominated for his part of the work on behalf of the “Centre Interdisciplinaire de Recherches sure les Langues et la Pensées (CIRLEP, EA 42999)” for a Chaires Gutenberg research grant. This is a prestigious French research grant awarded by the Strasbourg-based “Cercle Gutenberg” to internationally established researchers and lecturers.
F.02 Acquisition of new scientific knowledge
COBISS.SI-ID: 31379459