Slovenia: A land of resilience.
Channel: UBC Emeritus College
Date: 2023-08-01

with Barbara Bernhardt, Associate Professor Emeritus, School of Audiology and Speech Sciences and Joseph Stemberger, Professor Emeritus of Linguistics

Over the last couple of decades, we have been privileged to make several trips to Slovenia, where Joe has family ties and we both have academic collaborators. From our first visits there, it felt like we were in ‘old Europe’, where changes wrought by the influence of North American culture were less visible than elsewhere. Although only having 2 million inhabitants, Slovenia's south Slavic language and culture have survived centuries of domination. Using photos, video, and narration, we will journey from Joe’s family village of Jablanica (Ya-blan-tsa) to the western and eastern corners of Slovenia, a country of fields, mountains, small towns and villages. Our presentation will be an introductory guide to the geography, history and culture of this small EU nation. Although regretfully not able to share specialties through Zoom such as ‘potica' (po-TEE-tsa), ‘krofi' (Mardi Gras ‘donuts’) and slivovka (Slee-Vo-Ka), we can make a couple of recipes available for those with a culinary bent.