Seminars for students
EVENTS FOR DOCTORAL STUDENTS AT THE UNIVERSITY OF NOVA GORICA:
- RCH bRunCH
- RCH seminar
- UNG scientific afternoons
Additional seminars may be organized during the academic year based on the consultation with students who wish to present their research or dissertation to peers prior to defense.
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In April 2025, students from France (CUID) were guests in our Humanities doctoral study programme. We were delighted to hold a seminar with them to discuss our perception of the border between Gorizia and Nova Gorica and to observe their image of Gorizia.
CUID (Cultures et Identités Européennes) is a student association with 16 members who carried out a cultural project as part of the international EURINSA programme at INSA Lyon. -
On Friday, 30 May 2025, doctoral students from the Austrian University of Innsbruck visited the University of Nova Gorica. After the introductory speeches given by Prof. Peter Purg, PhD, the dean of the School of Humanities of the University of Nova Gorica, and Prof. Ana Toroš, PhD, the director of the graduate study programme Humanities at the University of Nova Gorica, Prof. Jasna Fakin Bajec, PhD, gave a lecture on the cultural heritage of Nova Gorica. The lecture resulted in an interactive debate among the audience. After refreshments, we went to Nova Gorica, all the way to the railway station, guided by the interesting comments as well as the instructive explanations by Prof. Jasna Fakin Bajec, PhD. At the railway station, the student of the Master's study programme Humanities studies, Histories and Cultures of Cross-Border Spaces, Jani Toplak, took over the role of the guide and guided us through the exhibition "Državna meja na Goriškem 1945-2004".
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Visit by the students from the University of Washingtom, Seattle:
On 5 September 2025, the Humanities study programme of the Graduate School of the University of Nova Gorica, together with the School of Humanities of the University of Nova Gorica, hosted Michael Biggins, PhD, a professor and a librarian from the University of Washington, Seattle, who is one of the most important experts on the Slovenian literature in the United States of America as well as a renowned translator of the Slovenian literature. Among others, he also translated the Bartol’s Alamut. Michael Biggins brought with him to Slovenia a group of students from various disciplines, for example technique, politics, culture, literature and history, who are learning the Slovenian language and culture.
Within the framework of the visit, we organized a round table, where a lively discussion with our students on the differences between studying in the USA and studying in Slovenia took place. The visitors were especially interested in the life at the border, intercultural cooperation and the challenges with which the Slovenian minority faces in Italy.
Prof. Ana Toroš took the visitors to Gorica, Italy, where she explained the literary multilingualism in the city to them. The visitors went to the library of Damir Feigl in Gorica, Italy, where the lecture on the history of the Trgovski dom Aleksa Kame Devetaka took place.
The visit ended with a short cultural, historical and tourist walk through Nova Gorica, guided by Prof. Jasna Fakin Bajec. The biggest surprise? The Trg Evrope square, where the students could stand with one leg in Slovenia and with the other in Italy.
At the end, the students helped themselves to some home-made juice by the students of the School of Viticulture and Enology of the University of Nova Gorica.
We all decided to cooperate still in future.
Thanks to all of our students for helping organise the event!
- A joint doctoral seminar of the University of Nova Gorica and the University of Udine "Re-thinking Borders"
On Friday, 14th November 2025, a joint doctoral seminar titled “Rethinking Borders” took place at Xcenter in Nova Gorica. The doctoral seminar was co-organised by Prof. Dr. Peter Purg from the School of Arts at the University of Nova Gorica and Vice-chancellor Prof. Dr. Francesco Pitassio from the Department of Humanities and Cultural Heritage at the University of Udine. The seminar was held under the auspices of the ACROSS European Cross-border University Alliance, of which the University of Nova Gorica and the University of Udine are members, and as part of the Pixxelpoint Festival Symposium and the 2025 European Capitals of Culture Nova Gorica – Gorizia.
The seminar was the first pilot implementation of the Across Think Tank, established in October 2025 within the Team Task 4.3, which aims to promote cross-border cooperation in the fields of education, culture, economy and environment. The joint doctoral seminar also took place within the Team Task 3.2, which strives to promote cross-border projects among member universities and external partners in the field of research and science.
The seminar created a shared space for reflection on borders through an inter- and trans-disciplinary lens for students of the doctoral programs Humanities at the University of Nova Gorica, Cultural Heritage Studies at the University of Nova Gorica, Art History, Film Studies, Media Studies and Music at the University of Udine, as well as students from partner institutions of the University of Nova Gorica. No matter whether the term ‘border’ designates a physical, metaphorical, political, ethnic, linguistic entity, referring to temporal or spatial parameters, it always addresses a boundary prompting a comparison and/or confrontation between two distinct entities.
The seminar was divided in two parts. The morning session was moderated by Prof. Dr. Ana Toroš from the School of Humanities at the University of Nova Gorica and focused on cultural, political, and linguistic borders, The afternoon session was moderated by Assoc. Prof. Dr. Jasna Fakin Bajec from the School of Humanities at the University of Nova Gorica and explored border issues primarily through the prism of various media. The seminar was co-moderated by Prof. Dr. Cecile Sandten from the Chemnitz University of Technology, which is also an ACROSS member. Prof. Sandten contributed the opening lecture for the Pixxelpoint Festival Symposium titled Postcolonial Cities on Screen: Heterotopic Border Spaces, Diasporic (Un)Belonging, and Cinematic Experimentation. The seminar was attended by around 30 students and sparked a lively debate among speakers and the audience.
- At the end of January, Laure Keyrouz presented her doctoral research and her Chal project at the Doctoral Seminar for Higher-Year Students, part of the Humanities Doctoral Study Programme at the Graduate School UNG. This event offered an opportunity to meet some of our alumni, who were pleased to attend the presentation alongside first- and second-year doctoral students. We wish Laure success in the defence of her doctoral thesis in February.
Laure Keyrouz is currently a professor of Arabic culture, language and translation at Campus CIELS in Padova (Linguistic Mediation Science), as well as a PhD student in Literary Studies at the University of Nova Gorica (Slovenia). As a Lebanese artist and writer living in Italy, she works with various creative media, including artist books, paintings, video art, performances and installations, often incorporating Arabic script in public spaces.
Laure will defend her doctoral thesis, Mobility and Identity in Contemporary Lebanese Literature and Art, on 12 February at 12:00 in the main building of the University of Nova Gorica in Vipava, Lanthieri Mansion, Glavni trg 8, 5271 Vipava.
