CENTER FOR SLOVENE AS A SECOND FOREIGN LANGUAGE, LJUBLJANA; The Centre has its origins in 1965, when the then Department of Slavic Languages and Literature organised the first Seminar of Slovene Language, Literature and Culture (SSLLC), at which there were a few dozen enthusiastic foreign Slavists. By the eighth such seminar in 1972, this had risen to 120, a number which has been roughly maintained to this day. The Centre was still without a name back then, but the idea first appeared of an institution that would carry Slovene language, literature and culture into the international sphere.
At roughly the same time, within the framework of the Committee for International Relations at Edvard Kardelj University, later renamed as the University of Ljubljana, a special body was set up to monitor the work of Slovene language lecturers at foreign universities. In 1972/73 this responsibility was transferred to the Committee for Promoting Slovene at Non-Slovene Universities, at the University of Ljubljana's Faculty of Arts. The complicated but significant name was changed in 1992 to Slovene at Foreign Universities and it began to function under the aegis of the Centre. Slovene is currently being taught through 57 lectureships around the world, with financial support from the Ministry of Higher Education, Science and Technology.
In 1979, the Department of Slovene Language and Literature organised the first Obdobja Symposium, initially in conjunction with the SSLLC, the aim of which was to explore different periods in the development of Slovene language, literature and culture. In the 1990s, the symposium became an independent entity and began to focus more on key questions. The ideas shaping and arising at each symposium are debated both at symposium sessions and in the printed proceedings.
