Every year, students of Slovene (and occasionally members of staff) are given the opportunity to attend the Seminar of Slovenian Language, Literature and Culture (SSJLK), which takes place during the first two weeks of July at Ljubljana University’s Faculty of Arts.
Now in its 52nd year, the SSJLK has remained a constant through the political upheaval of the disintegration of Yugoslavia and Slovenia’s official declaration of independence on the 25 June 1991. Attendees come from all over the world – from as far afield as Japan, Argentina and the US – all with the single common factor of being able to, or having the desire to, speak Slovene.
Each year the Seminar selects a theme, and in addition to the varying levels of language classes which are given daily, lectures are organised which explore every layer of the theme in question. Then there’s the legendary excursion, where no mercy is spared. As postgraduate student and regular participant Olivia Hellewell recalls, “You may have just spent a week being mentally beaten up by complex grammatical structures, but they’ll be damned if they don’t put your body to the test by showing you how mountaineering is done in Slovenia too.”
Top left: Olivia Hellewell in class at the 2012 Seminar.
Bottom left: Piran Harbour
Top right: Dr Polly McMichael (left) and Olivia Hellewell (second from right) with Seminar assistants Nataša Medvešek and Anita Urbanija.
Bottom right: Students at the Seminar gather for a lecture.
Photographs courtesy of Olivia Hellewell and former seminar student Tobias Kavelar.