Ivan Cankar was a Slovene writer, playwright, essayist, poet, and political activist. Together with Oton Župančič, Dragotin Kette, and Josip Murn, he is considered as the beginner of modernism in Slovene literature. He is regarded as the greatest writer in Slovene, and has sometimes been compared to Franz Kafka and James Joyce.

The University of Vienna is a public research university located in Vienna, Austria. Founded by Duke Rudolph IV in 1365, it is the oldest university in the modern German-speaking world and among the largest institutions of higher learning in Europe. The university is associated with 16 Nobel Prize winners and has been the home to many scholars of historical and academic importance.