Using Bourdieu's and Halbwachs' concepts, we studied the beginnings of the University of Ljubljana in the year 1919. We explored Slovene Society (Slovenska matica) during the years between 1900 and 1914, the University Committee, the University Council and Mihajlo Rostohar. We dealt in great detail with collective memory and agents in different fields and observed how they passed between these institutions. Our main question regarded the university and its role in social reproduction, as well as the intellectual field it was a part of, and the extent of its autonomy. On the basis of archival material and newspapers, we studied the Slovenian intellectual field in the times of transition to a Yugoslav state. We showed that the intellectual field had little autonomy. Furthermore, we showed that the Slovene Society, University Committee and University Council carried out the role of gatekeepers and censors on the basis of standards which cannot be described as scientific, since they were based on nationalism and other nonprofessional criteria. Due to this poor selection process, Mihajlo Rostohar was not able to become a lecturer at the University. The Slovene Society and the University perceived themselves as the stronghold against Germans, and their role was recognized as such by others as well. The continuity of struggles between agents in the intellectual field in all three institutions was represented by the opposition between Yugoslav and Slovene understandings of a nation.
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