Other Activities

CEFRES Platform Inauguration on 7-8 October 2015

On 7 and 8 Octobre 2015 CEFRES Platform and its new premises within the Czech Academy of Sciences were inaugurated. In 2015, the AV ČR built a brand new library in order to host CEFRES’s more than 6,000 volumes along with its team and Prague’s Francophone readers.

IMG_0571The new library was inaugurated during a ceremony on 7 October at 5PM, in the presence of French Ambassador Jean-Pierre Asvazadourian,  president of AV ČR, Prof. Jiří Drahoš, and rector of Charles University, Prof. Tomáš Zima. Representatives from CNRS, Pascal Marty and Diane Brami, as well as Philippe Devaud from the French MFO, had also made the trip to Prague. Colleagues from the three partners of CEFRES Platform were many to attend, including Pro-rector in charge of European Affairs Prof. Lenka Rovná, and Vice-President of the Czech Academy’s section III in Social Sciences and Humanities, Prof. Pavel Baran.

IMG_0743Na Florenci 3’s courtyard has therefore turned into a space and a symbol of the strengthened alliance between France and the Czech Republic, since CEFRES’s library now faces the library of the Institute of Czech Literature! After developing its scientific network and trained two generations of researchers in the heart of Europe, our center is anchored in the midst of the Czech academic milieu, and the neighbor of the Institutes of Czech Literature and Ethnology, of the Institute of Classical Studies and of the Masaryk Institute.

CEFRES’s team will move in its new premises—the new library, and two offices on the 4th floor—in December 2015. The AV ČR also granted CEFRES with additional offices for its researchers in a second building on Národní 18, within the Institute of State and Law—ten minutes away from its new main house!

IMG_0965The Platform’s inauguration was held on its three partners’ sites: at 6 PM, the French Embassy greeted many partners of CEFRES, including colleagues from the Masaryk University in Brno, the Institute of International Relations in Prague, and from the universities of Pardubice, Hradec Kralové and Ostrava, as a reminder of the non-exclusive feature of the Platform in its action of scientific cooperation. The presence and speech of Vice-Prime Minister of the Czech Republic Pavel Bělobrádek, were a strong token of the commitment of the Czech government to supporting social sciences and humanities and their development within the Czech-French relationship.

See the reports on:

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On 8 octobre at 4 PM, French sociologist Bernard Lahire from École normale supérieure in Lyon, gave an inaugural lecture in the beautiful Patriotic Room of Charles UniverBernard_Lahire_1sity.
He stressed the inputs of the interdisciplinary methodology in the research on the social sphere, from art history to biology and neurosciences. You can  to watch his lecture on our new Youtube channel!