In 1989, the Sir Robert Menzies Centre in London sent out a circular letter inviting European Australianists to express their interest in the creation of a „European Association for Studies on Australia.“ The response was largely positive, and in March of that year eight Professors of Australian Studies from eight countries met there to create EASA. Mirko Jurak, Professor of English at the University of Ljubljana, was one of them. The University of Klagenfurt was also presented.
Mirko Jurak studied English and German at the University of Ljubljana, where he took his first degree and his Ph.D. He then went on to do post-doc research at the University of Sussex, where his investigations into Modern English literature were supervised by David Daitches. Returning to Ljubljana, he was soon appointed Full Professor. In his long career, he was also Head of the English department, Dean and Deputy Dean of the Philosophical Faculty and Deputy Vice Chancellor of his university. He was the first instructor of his department to teach all of his classes in English and he became a mentor to generations of Slovenian, but also some American and Austrian students. [From the journal's webpage]
