Dr Ignacija Fridl Jarc

Dr Ignacija Fridl Jarc (born on 2 April 1968) graduated in comparative literature and obtained a PhD in philosophy in 2026 on the topic of Plato's theory of truth from the perspective of beauty and art. She established herself as a literary and theatre critic and received the Stritar Award in 2000 for her work. She worked as a journalist in the culture section of the newspaper Slovenec, as Teaching Assistant in the History of Philosophy at the Faculty of Arts of the University of Ljubljana, as Deputy Director and Head of Design in the private sector for ten years and, from 2018 onwards, as Secretary-Editor at the Slovenska matica cultural institution. She interrupted this work between 2020 and 2022 and, from September 2022 to 2026, again headed the programme and professional services of Slovenska matica. Between 2023 and 2024, she served as Dean of the New University's Faculty of Slovenian and International Studies, where she is a lecturer on Slovenian literature and culture. Her academic bibliography includes articles on Plato's philosophy and a monograph entitled Jezik v filozofiji starih Grkov (Language in the Ancient Greek Philosophy, 2001). As a translator from Ancient Greek, she collaborated on the Slovenian edition of The Fragments of the Presocratic Philosophers.

She has published more than 300 reviews, articles, papers and studies on Slovenian and world literature, culture and philosophy.

Between 2020 and 2022, she served as State Secretary at the Ministry of Culture in the 14th Government of the Republic of Slovenia. In 2025, she became the President of the Cultural Forum of the Slovenian Democratic Party.

In her public appearances, she emphasises the importance of culture in preserving the Slovenian nation and statehood, and highlights the fundamental role of the Slovenian language and cultural heritage in the further development and recognition of our national identity and our country in Europe and the wider world.