Aleš Debeljak
ALEŠ DEBELJAK (1961-2016) graduated from the University Ljubljana in 1985 with a degree in comparative literature. He obtained his PhD in sociology of culture at Syracuse University in 1989. He became a Senior Fulbright Fellow at the University of California, Berkeley, and did research at the Institute for Advanced Studies Collegium Budapest, the Civitella Ranieri Center and the Bogliasco Liguria Study Centre for the Arts and Humanities. He is currently professor of Cultural Studies at the Faculty of Social Studies of the University of Ljubljana. Besides poetry and cultural criticism, Debeljak has also worked as a columnist for the most important newspaper in Slovenia, Delo. His works include Reluctant Modernity: The Institution of Art and its Historical Forms and The Hidden Handshake: National Identity and Europe in The Post-Communist World.