Alma Zupanec was born in Ljubljana on 23 March 1896. She was one of the first girls to attend a gymnasium (a general upper secondary school for the academically gifted). After passing the school-leaving examination in 1915, she married Alojz Sodnik, a teacher at the technical secondary school. Following the death of
her son and her wounded husband’s return from the First World War, she decided to study philosophy. The particular focus of her scholarly interest was the history of philosophy from early antiquity to Kant.
Her research set the standard for the study of the history of Slovene philosophy. In 1923 she successfully defended her doctoral thesis and became the first female doctor
of philosophy at what was then Slovenia’s only university. She would, however, have to wait until the end of the Second World War before obtaining a paid position at the university. Although she did become a private assistant professor of the history of philosophy in 1933, this only entailed unpaid research and teaching work, meaning that she had to rely on her husband’s pension to survive.
After the Second World War she took over as head of
the philosophy seminar. In 1946 she became an associate professor and then, in 1951, a full professor. In the 1952/53 academic year she was elected dean of the Faculty of Arts of the University of Ljubljana, becoming, it is believed, the first female dean of any university faculty in Yugoslavia. She took voluntary retirement in 1959 but continued
to give occasional lectures until her death. She died in Ljubljana on 13 February 1965.
Irena Selišnik
