Slovenia, a country steeped in history and located at the crossroads of Central Europe and the Mediterranean, recently welcomed UWinnipeg geographers Dr. Joni Storie and Dr. Christopher Storie, along with eight students, for an experiential learning trip as part of the Topical Regions in Geography course offered at UWinnipeg.
Drs. Storie have made connections with geographers in Slovenia over the past three years, and these connections were incorporated into the course.
The students, guided by their professors and local geographers, toured the country through a multidisciplinary geographic lens with an emphasis on history, politics, socio-economics, culture, demographics, and urban-rural development.
It was honestly one of the first times when history stopped feeling distant and instead felt personal and connected to real people and their lives.
Kyla Hanchar
“Slovenia in particular, a young nation, has a long history that the students can walk and engage with,” said Dr. Joni Storie. “It is a small country which allowed us to experience rural and urban, mountain and coastal, and a range of historical and regional landscapes, primarily in western Slovenia.”
Participating student Kyla Hanchar said the trip was an unforgettable experience.
“Travelling to Slovenia was much more than a geography field course for me,” Hanchar said. “As someone who had never travelled outside of North America, the experience pushed me far beyond my comfort zone and exposed me to perspectives that I could not have gained in a classroom.”
Hanchar, a University of Manitoba student, stumbled on the class by coincidence. Talking to her advisor, she was looking to make more connections and gain more experience in her field of study. A couple of weeks later, she received an email about the course and knew was exactly what she was looking for.
“It was definitely one of the best decisions I have made in university,” Hanchar said.
UWinnipeg student Theresa Gehman, who is completing a Bachelor of Science honours degree, saw the course as “a perfect storm of opportunity.”
Gehman enjoyed previous classes with Dr. Christopher Storie and Dr. Joni Storie, and was excited to learn more on this European class tour. Like Hanchar, she also had never ventured outside of North America. Gehman said she enjoyed the different perspectives shared by the academics and experts throughout Slovenia.
Lectures and landscapes
The course included lectures by Dr. Botsjan Rogelj (University of Ljubljana), Dr. Natasa Ravbar (Head of Karst Research Institute, Nova Garica), Simon Skvor (Soca Valley Development), which covered a variety of geographic perspectives. The students also experienced the beauty of the Slovenian landscape, which included caves, swimming in a glacial river, waterfalls, Potoroz salt flats and birdwatching, and the Julian Alps.
The course also included rural Slovenia, where they stayed at the Skvor Holiday House (SHH) in Robidišče, a village of 10 permanent residents. The group learned about alpine cheese-making and the history of the most western part of Slovenia from Stasa Mesec (geographer, inn manager, and Ministry of Education).
Two highlights for Gehman were the few days spent in the village of Robidišče and the visit to Velika Planina, a summer herding settlement located at the top of a cable car and chairlift that ascends about 1,300 metres. Gehman found Robidišče quiet and picturesque, and Velika Planina stunning.
“Due to the history of Robidišče, it facilitated some interesting discussions with our hosts, who were also geographers,” Gehman said. “They provided a lot of contexts for the history and geography of the region.”
The students, through experiences, developed a hands-on approach to the physical landscapes, culture, and history that shape the everyday life of Slovenians.
Seeing and feeling the effects of war
The students also went to an outdoor First World War museum and the Kolbarid museum located on the Isonza Front, where the students could walk through the trenches. This war memorial is a reminder of the significant effects the war has on the history of the region, both Slovenian and Italian, and the people who lived there.
Learning about the war in Canada felt completely different than learning about it in Slovenia, especially after visiting the Kobarid Museum. Hanchar found landscapes that were physically altered by the war affected her emotionally.
“It was honestly one of the first times when history stopped feeling distant and instead felt personal and connected to real people and their lives,” she said.
As an Environmental Studies student on this trip, Hanchar learned “that in order to understand our world, it is important to step into it and explore it.”
