Publish Date: 13.12.2019
Category: News from the University
The University of Ljubljana’s Rector Igor Papič has appointed the third group of new full professors at the University of Ljubljana. At the proposal of member institutions, the University Senate has elected new full professors from various fields of research, art and education.
Title recipients were first addressed by the Rector: “Even though you have only received this title today, many of you are already performing the most demanding tasks at your faculties; for example, you are serving as programme, department or laboratory heads, you’re heading demanding domestic research programmes and international research projects, work closely with universities or institutes abroad and so on. You’re giving back to the university what it has given to you: invaluable knowledge and a spirit of research. And this is precisely what can ensure our development in the future.” He also added that by receiving this title, they have proven they can follow with the utmost success the path required from a professional educator in higher education.
The keynote speaker, Polonca Kovač from the Ljubljana Faculty of Administration, highlighted the fact that receiving the title of a full professor is an extremely important step in an individual’s career, which is also reflected at the institutional level and the level of individual disciplines. “Your achievements, my dear colleagues, benefit and increase the prestige of the University of Ljubljana and the faculties you work at, as well as the academic or artistic fields you specialise in. They say you become a full professor when nothing exceptional is expected from you anymore, but everyone present here today knows that’s not true,” Kovač said.
One of the new full professors at the University of Ljubljana, Mojca Smolej, expressed her thanks on behalf of her colleagues who have received the same title, highlighting the difficulties that women had to overcome to become established professors: “When in 1919 the Faculty of Medicine wanted to introduce a numerus clausus, it was proposed no foreigners and women be accepted. But this proposal was not accepted, and so six young women were able to study at the faculty. The first female students came from wealthy middle-class families, whereas others had considerably more difficulties. It was only in the 1930s that the number of female students increased to 300, of whom two thirds studied at the Faculty of Arts. As early as 1940, this faculty got the first female assistant professor of petrography in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia: Ljudmila Dolar-Mantuani, whose unfortunate fate after the war forced her to live in exile in the US, where she built many dams. However, the first assistant instructor at the Faculty of Arts, Alma Sodnik, only became an associate professor after the war. Later she became the first female dean and the only one in Yugoslavia at the time. In 1948, the Slovenian literature programme also got its first female assistant professor: Marja Boršnik.”
Photos from the event are available here.
All photos were taken by Foto Studio NORA.
The new University of Ljubljana full professors as of 13 December 2019 are:
FACULTY OF ARTS
Danica Čerče (English literature)
Jason Frederick Blake (English literature)
Lilijana Burcar (English literature)
Zdravko Kobe (philosophy)
Mojca Krevel (English literature)
Janko Lozar Mrevlje (philosophy)
Darko Ogrin (geography)
Mateja Pezdirc Bartol (Slovenian literature)
Agnes Pisanski Peterlin (translation studies)
Gregor Pompe (musicology)
Eva Sicherl (English language)
Mojca Smolej (Slovenian language)
Polona Vilar (information science)
Jernej Weiss (musicology)
FACULTY OF NATURAL SCIENCES AND ENGINEERING
Matejka Bizjak (textiles)