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Curriculum / Fall 2009
Czech Culture and Civilization The course traces essential events and periods of Czech history and culture. It provides students with a deeper insight into the Czech mentality and character by dealing with issues, which have determined modern Czech identity, as well as with current political and cultural events and issues. Moreover, students get familiarized with the city of Prague. Through both these aspects, the course will help students to integrate into and experience the Czech society from within. The course consists of in-class lectures and discussions, multimedia presentations, and field trips. Instructors: Ivana Doležalová, film theorist, and publicist; Dr. Petr Bílek, Associate Professor, Chair of Department of Czech Literature, Charles University, Prague; Dr. Václav Cílek, Director of the Institute of Geology, Academy of Sciences of Czech Republic; and Dr. Pavel Sládek, Researcher and Lecturer, Institute for Near East and African Studies, Charles University Intensive course designed to develop, at a very basic level, the proficiencies of comprehension and speaking, and introduce the students to everyday culture of Czech life. The focus is on achieving elementary conversational skills covering various elementary topics. In addition to this, practical excursions out of the classroom are organized. Instructors: Dr. Marie Auerspergová, Lecturer, Prague School of Economics, Jitka Kauerová, Lecturer of Czech, Dr. Karel Kučera, Professor of Czech Language, Charles University; Dr. Zuzana Vanišová, Prague School of Economics.
Political Dimension of the European Union The course explains the origins and current structure of the European Union. It examines the role of politics in the functioning of the EU. The course describes political effects of the European Integration and the role Member States, EU Institutions and European citizens play in the whole process of the European integration. The course examines to what extent the EU limits the power and sovereignty of EU Member States. Special attention is paid to the EU citizen’s rights, both political and „economic“. Instructor: Dr. Michal Mocek, Consultant on European Affairs; Martin Moravec, EU affairs consultant and project manager
Challenges to European Politics The main goal of this course is to familiarize the student with European political systems and the main challenges to European politics. It is designed to promote a deeper understanding of European politics, to highlight the tendencies of development and to facilitate prediction of future problems of the region. Instructor: Dr. Vladimíra Dvořáková, Professor of Political Science, Department of Political Science, Prague School of Economics, Petr Vymětal, Junior Researcher, University of Economics, Prague CEE Economies and the EU Enlargement In 2004 Czech Republic, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia, and Slovenia became part of the enlarged EU. This had an economic impact on both the new entrants and the EU itself. The first part of this course deals with issues related to the economic transition from centrally planned economic system into the market economy. The second part tackles topics related to the EU enlargement. Instructor: Tomáš Jelínek, Senior Public Affairs Consultant and Chair of the Institute of Social and Economic Analyses Fragmentation and Reintegration of Europe This course compares the current stage of geographical patterning of ethnonational identities and political and economic transformation in democratic Western Europe and the democratizing post-communist Eastern Europe. Since the 1989 fall of the Iron Curtain, the continent is involved in modernization and reintegration largely orchestrated by the European Union. Nevertheless, the importance of ethnonational, political and economic diversity is enduring and increased by the fragmentation of former communist federations. The course proceeds from an interdisciplinary viewpoint and will acquaint the student with essential facts of the heritage of ethnonational identities, post-1989 state fragmentation and recent political and economic reintegration across Europe. Instructor: Dr. Petr Dostál, Professor of Social Geography, Charles University Societies in the New EU Member Countries: Related Topics in Social Change in the East Central Europe The course focuses on the complexity of social change in the East Central Europe (the Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary, and Slovakia) in the period between the fall of Communism and the accession to the European Union. The emphasis is on the mutual interrelations between political, social, economic, and regional development. Special attention is paid to the external influence of the EU accession on these processes. In the first block, students will be informed about the typical social structure of the Communist and post-Communist society in comparison with Western models. Then the changes of incomes, expenditures, poverty, social mobility, education, housing, national economy, regional development, and the systems of administration will be addressed. In the second block, voting behavior and party system development will be studied in relation to region’s history, cultural diversity, development of social structures, regional development, ethnic relations, and electoral laws. The gender issues and the value changes will be discussed vis-à-vis empirical data collected. Finally, the hypothesis of East - West convergence in political, social, economic and regional development will be tested. Instructor: Dr. Tomáš Kostelecký, Senior Researcher, Institute of Sociology, Czech Academy of Sciences
The course builds on the very successful Cultural memory and Rise of Modern Europe courses. It focuses on general understanding of European mentality viewed as a basic unity established on Christianity, urban culture and market economy. The extreme plurality and constant, often brutal discussion among individual kingdoms, states, political fractions, guilds, heretic sects, aristocracy and clergy, the never-ending flow of ideas, influences and technologies, may have created the seemingly uniform but in detail very complex European phenomenon. Can it last in contact with globalization, Americanization, Islam and its own internal conflicts and transformations? What is its heart and what potential can it bring to common future? Instructor: Dr. Václav Cílek, Director of the Institute of Geology, Academy of Sciences of Czech Republic Judaism, Christianity, and Islam in European Context: Confrontation, or coexistence? The ongoing process of so called globalization has led to more or less open confrontation between „universal“ transatlantic (originally European) culture (First World) and „particular“, local or national cultures of the underdeveloped countries (Third World). The outward conflict based primarily on economic inequality has been gradually transformed into ideological and religious antagonisms between „West“ and „East“, and „North“ and „South“. Basics of the three great monotheistic systems (Judaism, Christianity, Islam) are studied, both in phenomenological (religious philosophy) and historical perspectives. Special attention will be given to different interactions between these religions-cultures in given historical and geographical context, applied to individual historical periods of European history. Contributions of various religious systems to foundation of European culture will be examined and their role in this multicultural process will be evaluated. The historical-philosophical survey will be completed with an assessment of the nowadays situation, with the emphasis on examination of possible ways to a dialogue rather than to a confrontation. Instructor: Dr. Milan Lyčka, Assistant Professor, Institute of Philosophy and Religious Studies at the Charles University Prague “Baroque-Classicism” Polarity in the Art of Central Europe This course provides a comprehensive picture of the development of European architecture, sculpture, and painting from the Renaissance to the early 20th century in Central Europe. Stress is laid upon Baroque tradition and monuments in Prague. Lectures are not intended exclusively for students of art history. At the beginning of the course, students will receive a reading package. Lectures are accompanied by excursions to historical sites in Prague. Instructor: Dr. Jan Bažant, Deputy Director of the Institute of Classical Studies of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic and Associate Professor, Charles University Reading Prague: the City as a Metaphor of Human Existence is a literature course designed in an inter-disciplinary pattern. It focuses on interpretations of the image of Prague in the 19th and 20th century and Czech, German, and Jewish literatures. The relations between the image of Prague and the issues of identity in fiction (national, local, social, religious, personal) are examined. The interpretation of the images of Prague in literature is accompanied with presentation and representation of Prague in film, photography, music videos and other media. Instructor: Dr. Petr Bílek, Associate Professor of Czech Literature, Charles University The course provides a deeper insight into the issues of modern Czechoslovak history and socio-cultural developments as documented by both major feature films and documentaries. Viewed against the general backdrop of key historical events, the participants will gain more intimate knowledge and understanding of the unique modern Central European experience as interpreted by famous film makers many of which helped create the phenomenon of the Czech New Wave (Academy Award Laureates Miloš Forman and Jiří Menzel among them). Film screenings will include films covering World War II., the Stalinist Fifties, the period of political and cultural thaw of the Sixties, the most significant works of the post-1968 Soviet invasion years as well as post-1989 Velvet Revolution trends and controversies of the Czech film art. Instructor: Ivana Doležalová, film theorist, and publicist
is designed to give students the ability to handle everyday situations in Czech by focusing on listening and reading comprehension, speaking and beginning writing skills, introduction to Czech grammar. Instructors: Dr. Marie Auerspergová, Lecturer, Prague School of Economics, Jitka Kauerová, Lecturer of Czech, Dr. Karel Kučera, Professor of Czech Language, Charles University; Dr. Zuzana Vanišová, Prague School of Economics.
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