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Curriculum / Spring 2005
Clinical Psychology: Suicidal Behavior This course is focused on the topic of suicide. It is based on the latest knowledge about the suicide in clinical psychology. The goal of this course is to teach students to understand suicidal behavior and to gain knowledge about the assessment of suicidal person, about crisis intervention and psychotherapy process of suicidal patient. This course will also discuss differences between Europe and America and should reveal the European view on this topic.
Political Aspects of functioning of the European Union This course explains the origin and the current structure of the
European Union and examines influence of political factors on the
functioning of the European Union as such. The course explains effects
of the process of European Integration and of the activities of
EU institutions on the functioning and activities of all remaining
EU institutions (Commission, Council, Parliament). Special attention
is paid to what extend the EU limits the power of EU members countries
and their state institutions. Special attention is paid to EU citizen's
rights and to the EC law influence on EU business.
CEE Economics and the EU Enlargement In 2004 Czech Republic, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia, and Slovenia become part of the enlarged EU. This will have 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.
Fragmentation and Reintegration of Europe: Explaining Fragmentation, Ethnonationalism and Reintegration. This course compares the current stage of geographical patterning of ethnonational identities and political and economic transformation in democratic Western Europe and postcommunist 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 it is increased by the fragmentation of former communist federations. The course proceeds from an interdisciplinary viewpoint and acquaints students with essential facts of the ethnonational heritage, post-1989 state fragmentation and recent political and economic reintegration across Europe.
This course explores the concept of gender and deals with, conscious and unconscious, social, cultural, and psychological constructions of ,femaleness' and ,maleness'. The existing paradigms of western feminist and men's movements and their influence on public discourse, social sciences, and arts are studied and compared with the Czech Republic, where the postmodern epistemological conceptual tool of gender has been applied only since the 1990's and grass root movements has remained practically non-existent. Classical gender related texts as well as current Czech materials are used for an analysis of origins and reproduction of the asymmetry between men's and women's worlds. Students have opportunity to visit Gender studies center in Prague. Instructor:
Rise of Modern Europe: Thousand Years of Conflicting Unity The course builds on the very successful Cultural memory course.
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:
Czech History of the 20th Century: An Oral History Project The main goal of this course is to familiarize students with development of the Czech society in the 20th century and to provide thus a necessary background for the oral history project students will participate in. The course focuses on the key crossroads of modern Czech history (emergence of an independent state, Nazi occupation, establishment of the Communist regime, Prague Spring, Velvet Revolution). The oral history project, which constitutes an integral part of the course, is organized by the Institute of Contemporary History of the Academy of Science of Czech Republic. The thematic focus of the project is the late sixties in the U.S.A. and Czechoslovakia - parallels and differences and/or Czech exiles in America who returned back home after 1989. American students will participate on the project together with Czech students and young assistants of the Institute of Contemporary History. Instructor:
Roads to Europe. Anthropological Perspectives The course focuses on anthropological approaches to Europeanization.
We begin by outlining a conceptual anthropological approach to the
delimitation of place and culture, in general, and to Europe, in
particular. The central areas we will subsequently cover are: a)
important works in the anthropology/sociology of European integration;
b) construction of Czech exceptionalism and their Europeaness; c)
construction of European space in everyday life; d) delimitations
of Europe in the integration process. Instructor:
Jews in Central Europe: Political and Spiritual Development is a survey of the position of the Jewish population in Europe from the Middle Ages to the present. Special attention is paid to conditions of Central European Jewry. Instructor:
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 trans-formed 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 perspec-tives. Special attention
will be given to different interactions between these religions
cultures in given historical and geographical context, applied to
individual historical periods of Euro-pean 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 com-pleted
with an assessment of the nowadays situation, with the emphasis
on examination of possible ways to a dialogue rather than to a confrontation.
Readings from Central European Literature: Meeting Points, Diverging Lines In this course we will walk a full circle: from the days of Austro-Hungarian empire to the very presence, the moment when nowadays independent countries belonging once to one larger unit are to be re-united in an even larger unit. While reading texts of authors representing the canon of modern Central European literature, we will be looking for uniting themes and diverse paths taken up in the turbulent common past of this territory. Instructor:
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:
The course provides a deeper insight into 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 to create the phenomenon of the Czech New Wave (Academy Award Laureates Milos Forman and Jirí 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.
is designed to give students the ability to handle everyday situations in Czech. Emphasis is on listening and reading comprehension, speaking, beginning writing skills, and an introduction to Czech grammar. Instructors:
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