Projects / Programmes
History of Doctoral Dissertations by Slovene Candidates in the Austro-Hungarian Empire (1872-1918)
| Code |
Science |
Field |
Subfield |
| 7.00.00 |
Interdisciplinary research |
|
|
| Code |
Science |
Field |
| H260 |
Humanities |
History of science |
| Code |
Science |
Field |
| 6.02 |
Humanities |
Languages and Literature |
history of science, Austro-Hungarian universities, formative biographies, construction of cultural space, Slovene scientific terminology
Researchers (18)
Organisations (3)
Abstract
The interdisciplinary research project History of Doctoral Dissertations by Slovene Candidates in the Austro-Hungarian Empire will analyse and evaluate, on three levels, the role and significance of intellectuals from the Slovene ethnic area who in the late 19th century studied in Vienna, in Graz (Charles and Francis University) and in Prague (the Czech Charles and Ferdinand University, from 1882). The project will evaluate all available materials on approximately 150 doctors who got their degrees there at the philosophical faculties. Based on partly collected materials (e.g. Cindrič 2010; Smolej 2014; Vidav 1973; Suhadolc 2011), available primary and secondary literature, archival materials in Graz, Ljubljana, Prague and Vienna, and eyewitness accounts (diaries, notes, letters, forewords, and press stories), the project will explore a) how the Slovene intellectuals connected with each other and with intellectuals from other cultural environments inside and outside the state, in cultural centers and peripheries; b) how they found their place in the cultural and scientific space of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy; c) how they represented the Slovene lands abroad; and how they contributed to the development of scientific terminology in various fields in Slovenia.
As part of the project, we will reconstruct the candidates’ intellectual formation and place their work within their European space and time. The project will enhance our understanding of the past flow of knowledge and persons (migrations: for financial, scientific, family or health reasons), and look for the biographical elements that enabled individuals to succeed and attain a prominent place in their society. Attention will be paid both to canonical and non-canonical authors; regarding the latter, the project will explore whether they have been overlooked, have seemed unimportant to the formation of national identity, or were lost in the crowd of superior competitors from other Habsburg lands.
We focus on how students from the periphery, and mostly from a lower social stratum (Cindrič 2010), asserted themselves in the center, that is, in Viennese society, as well as in the “semi-periphery”, in Prague and in Graz. We hypothesize that center and periphery are dynamic concepts dependent on our point of view (Miladinović Zalaznik and Žigon 2014). The project will study the role of Slovene intellectuals and their work in the development of Slovene science, and particularly the Slovene terminology of particular scientific fields. Many dissertations, namely, were published in Slovene in Izvestije (yearbooks) for gymnasiums (high schools). The project will shed light on the vertical and horizontal ties between the humanities and the natural sciences (cooperation with linguist colleagues in the translation of dissertations in the natural sciences, who defines the norm for the vocabulary, the shaping of Slovene phraseology, etc.) The project starts from the hypothesis that the flow of ideas and cooperation among scientific fields of that time could be successfully transferred to science today, when interdisciplinary ties are often forgotten and optimal results therefore not achieved. The results could contribute to the development of today’s higher education.
The project findings will be presented on a web platform showing the network connections between Slovene intellectuals in various fields and doctoral students from other cultural environments. The web platform, which will allow the exchange of views and scientific discourse on the topic, will make available a detailed list of all the doctoral theses (in the fields of linguistics, philosophy, history, art history, mathematics and physics), as well as the papers and case studies. As part of the project, we will hold an exhibition about doctors of science from Slovene lands in the years 1872–1918, organize an international scientific symposium, and publish a survey as a scientific monograph.
Significance for science
Familiarity with the history of the field and its most important representatives is essential in any scientific discipline. In this regard, this project is a major advance, as it deals with the area of science and education, which is still poorly studied and documented in Slovenia, some notable achievements notwithstanding. The history of elementary and secondary education has already been the subject of somewhat more complex surveys, but much remains to be done in the history of higher education in the period before the founding of the University of Ljubljana. The project has been designed to be highly inter-disciplinary, gathering specialists from both humanities, social sciences and natural sciences and technical subjects, so as to offer a holistic and complex survey of the studies of the most eminent Slovene educated persons, who were important – and often the first – leaders of many scientific fields and studies in secondary and higher education. The period considered (1872–1918) was in many ways a turning point in Slovene history, language and culture. The young intellectuals and doctors of science who, with their doctoral studies, dissertations, later work, scientific achievements, and contacts with important contemporaries at home and across Europe, form the subject matter of this project, were important actors and drivers of the development of science, various fields of study, education, art, literature and culture. The project and its results will assess, evaluate and present their scientific, professional, intellectual and linguistic contribution to the development of Slovene science, education and culture, and tie them to the broader European area of their time, particularly that of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy. The online presentation of the project with materials and relevant information will keep specialists continuously informed about its achievements, and give representatives of all the scientific fields included insight into the materials and the history of their field, while also serving as a valuable source for all further research on the history of higher education, individual disciplines, and their representatives, that might supplement the work begun with this project.
Significance for the country
In every society, especially among smaller nations, language and culture are the mainstays of national awareness, education is the pillar supporting them, and educated persons are the connecting links. Familiarity with the most important educated persons and their achievements, as the founders and main leaders of numerous studies, and in many cases also as the first professors and chairs at the University of Ljubljana, especially during such a turning point in every respect as the turn of the 19th and the 20th centuries, is not just part of the study of individual fields and the domain of just a few researchers on higher education and its disciplines; it belongs to the scientific and cultural legacy of the nation as a whole. A complex presentation of the Slovene doctors of science and their dissertations in the 1872–1918 period, and the materials gathered, will be an important contribution to the history of Slovene science, and will simultaneously shed light on many aspects of cultural and social developments in the period of intensive formation of Slovene national awareness and cultural identity, as these intellectuals also shaped Slovene higher education and were the founders and leaders of science and scientific progress, were often closely tied to the contemporary European scientific and cultural currents, and had a wide network of connections across the wider Europe. The online project presentation and collection of materials, the international scientific symposium and the lectures presenting the project will let us present the results as widely as possible. The project findings will be useful in elaborating models for the development of higher education in Slovenia, with a particular stress on interdisciplinary cooperation – if the different fields formed ties and listened to each other, it could give a fresh impetus both to the economy and society. We understand the importance of the economy and the politics of markets, but if business drew on the experience of the past and the cultural specificities of society, assisted also by knowledge from the humanities, when presenting itself in the international markets, it would surely be a more successful approach.
Most important scientific results
Interim report,
final report
Most important socioeconomically and culturally relevant results
Interim report,
final report
