Perceptions and Images of Islam and The Orient

Dragan Potocnik was born in Maribor, Slovenia. He went to school there and in 1998 obtained his PhD in cultural history at the Department of History, Faculty of Arts, University of Mari-bor, where he now works as an associate professor of history. Dragan is a Founding member and President of Vagant socie-ty, which organises cutting edge talks and discussions on cul-tural, social and travel related topics. He is widely considered to be the leading expert in Asian History in Slovenia, and is Direc-tor of the Centre for Intercultural collaboration with Asian, Afri-can and Latin American countries at the Faculty of Arts, Univer-sity of Maribor. In that role, he has organised and participated in a number of international conferences and symposia on the topic of intercultural dialogue. Dragan's interest in both academic and applied history and philosophy of Asian and African cultures led him to extended travels, which he started as a student and has continued with throughout his life. His unique amalgamation of academic knowledge and practical, lived experience is evident in many travel reports, essays and research studies. In addition to Dragan's extended research and travel writings, he is a prolific writer of poetry and prose, that are inspired by travels and cultural, personal, and political historical events.