The first lectures in the history of Slovenian literature were held in 1880, when Fran Celestin introduced F. Prešeren to his students. Very prominent professors of Slovenian were Professors Fran Ilešič and Fran Petrè (who mostly taught Slovenian literature and organized the Slovenian Chair in its modern form). Slovenian literature was taught for a while by Jože Pogačnik and Krešimir Nemec, and for a longer period of time by Professor Aleksandar Šljivarić and the too-early-deceased Ivan Cesar. What is characteristic of their teaching and their scholarly work is the overviews of chosen chapters of Slovenian literature and the critical seminars on different authors, especially the writers of modern Slovenian literature. The Slovenian language has been taught continuously for several decades (the chair’s language instructors were linguists who are famous even today – e.g., Jože Toporišič), and since 1974, Milojka Jakomin-Granić has had a permanent position as the Slovenian language instructor. In the new organization of Slavic studies, since 1996, the head of the Slovenian Chair has been Zvonko Kovač. He has taken responsibility for the further development of Slovenian studies and for the seminars and lectures in Slovenian literature. Zvonko Kovač is a historian of South Slavic literatures, and in his research he is particularly interested in the problems of the interpretation of literature and the methodology of South Slavic comparative and intercultural literary history. Associate professor Anita Peti-Stantić has been a member of the Chair from academic year 1999/2000 and is also the current head of the Chair, with special interest in grammar of Slovene language and comparative South Slavonic linguistics. In 2000/2001 external associate lector for Slovene language Mateja Tirgušek became a member of teaching staff, who remains for five years an active Chair member and contributed immensely to establishing a new field of studies. Andreja Ponikvar has been an external associate lector for Slovene since 2005/2006, the same year when young assistant for Slovene literature Ivana Latković was employed. In academic year 2006/2007 Ivana Tarle was employed as an external associate and lector. External associates, professors, and assistant lecturers from universities in Ljubljana and Maribor frequently give guest lectures and one-term courses in undergraduate program of Slovene language and literature.

After studies reform in 2005 linguistic-translating course of Slovene language is being implemented in graduate program, while themes in Slovene literature are integrated in literary-intercultural course within South Slavonic graduate studies.