Category Archives: Other Activities

Other Activities, seminars

Modernization in 19th century Central Europe

A seminar hosted by CEFRES young researcher Mátyás Erdélyi

Department of Historical Sociology of the Faculty of Humanities (HISO FHS UK). Open to BA and MA students.

Where and when: Tuesdays, from 3:30 to 4:50 PM, Jinonice, room  Y2083.

See the Syllabus and bibliography here

Full description

The aim of the course is to familiarize students with the main topics and problem areas in the history of Central Europe in the long nineteenth century. The course follows a topical arrangement focusing on central themes at the intersection of social history and historical sociology; it is neither chronological, nor comprehensive. Each section starts with the presentation of basic theoretical concepts, followed by the discussion of selected readings. The course focuses on problem areas in connection with the social and economic changes that took place in Central Europe during the long nineteenth century. The key concept of our discussion is ‘modernization theory’ and the different facets of modernization understood as a process of social and economic change in the period under scrutiny. Here, instead of interpreting ‘modernization’ as a normative developmental model, the course demonstrates how modernization could be analyzed as a heterogeneous and non-linear process, which always infers the possibility of fallbacks, as the history of Central Europe demonstrates it, and contains a mixture of ‘traditional’ and ‘modern’ elements.

Assessment

Active class participation, one in-class presentation on a chosen topic (ca. 10-15 minutes), a position paper based on the presentation (ca. 1500 words) at the end of the term.

Other Activities

Diversity Week

 From 23 to 26 November 2015
Changing Point of View to Reposition
PROGRAM

Monday 23 November

Opening

2 PM
Place: Patriotic Hall, Carolinum, Ovocný trh 3-5, Prague 1.

Jean-Pierre Asvazadourian, French Ambassador in the Czech Republic.
Martin Kovář, vice-rector of Charles University (UK).
Mirjam Friedová, dean of the Faculty of Arts (FF UK).

Diversity: the Role of Institutions

Forum conducted by representatives of various sectors of activities (in Czech)

2:30 PM
Place: Patriotic Hall, Carolinum, Ovocný trh 3-5, Prague 1.

Participants                                                                                                        State: Petr Pavlík (ministry of Education, Youth and Sports).
Media: Jaroslav Šonka.
Private Sector: Kristina Kosatíková (IBM).
NGO: Zdenek Sloboda (PROUD—Platform for equality, recognition and diversity).
Moderator: Jan Bičovský (vice-dean, FF UK).

Concert: PKF — Prague Philharmonia

Under the patronage of Karel Schwarzenberg
7:30 PM
Place: St. Salvator Church, University Parish, Křižovnické náměstí, Prague 1.

  1. Martinů: Serenáda č. 2 pro dvoje housle a violu, H 216.
  2. Debussy: Danse Sacrée, Danse Profane pro sólovou harfu a smyčce.
  3. Suk: Meditace na staročeský chorál Svatý Václave, op. 35.
  4. Dvořák: Serenáda pro smyčce, op. 22.

Tuesday 24 November

Thinking Diversity, Diversity of Thinking

Czech-French Round Table (with simultaneous translation)

11 AM-2 PM
Place: Patriotic Hall, Carolinum, Ovocný trh 3-5, Prague 1.

Plenary Lecture:
Catherine Wihtol de Wenden (sociologist and political scientist, CERI Sciences Po, Paris): Diversity and Autochtony in the History of France and Europe.

Discussants:
Pavel Barša (political scientist, FF UK)
Daniel Sosna: The Value of Diversity (anthropologist, Western Bohemia University—FF ZČU, Plzeň)
Lukáš Friedl: Biological Human Diversity: an Accident or the Outcome of an Adaptation? (anthropologist, FF ZČU Plzeň)
Moderator: Pavel Sitek (anthropologist and sociologist, FF UK).

Today’s Idea of University

Round Table

5 PM
Place: Aula, Faculty of Arts (FF UK), nám. Jana Palacha 2, Prague 1.

Participants
Jaroslav Miller (Rector of Palacký University, Olomouc)
Daniel Frynta (socio-biologist and ethologist, Faculty of Natural Sciences, UK)
Jaroslav Nešetřil (mathematician, Faculty of Mathematics and Physics, UK)
Tomáš Petráček (theologian, Hradec Králové University)
Rut Bízková (administrator, Technology Agency of the Czech Republic)
Moderator: Mirjam Friedová (dean, Faculty of Arts, UK).

Prague As a Host Venue for Refugees Fleeing from Nazism (Commented Walk in Prague)

From 3:30 PM
Meeting Point: Malostranská nám., next to the tree.                            Guide: Thomas Oellermann (Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung).

Wednesday 25 November

Migration & Public Discourse

Scientific Forum (in English)

9:30 AM–12:30 AM
Place: Aula, Faculty of Arts (FF UK), nám. Jana Palacha 2, Prague 1.

Plenary Lecture:
Ruth Wodak (linguist, Lancaster University): Language of Walls.

Discussants:
Matěj Spurný (historian, FF UK): Long Shadow of 1945 (The Post War Ethnic Cleansing in Bohemian Lands and its Aftermath).
Alena Pařízková (anthropologist and sociologist, FF ZČU): Metaphors We Live with the Refugee Situation.
Eva Lehečková, Michal Hořejší (linguists, FF UK): The Role of Political Correctness in Public Discourse on Immigration.

Listening to Landscape (Commented Walk in Prague)

2 PM
Meeting Point: FF UK, nám. Jana Palacha 2, Prague 1, r. 1.                  Guides: Kateřina Svatoňová, Libuše Heczková.

A Wood in the Nape of Prague (Commented Walk in Prague)

2 PM
Meeting Point: Staroměstské nám. (next to Jan Hus statue).       Guide: Albert Šturma.

Screening: Deepan

4 PM
Place: Lucerna, Vodičkova 36, Prague 1.

Borders of Communities

6 PM
Place: Municipal Library (Mariánské náměstí 1, Prague 1).

Round Table moderated by Tomáš Samek (anthropologist), with: Lubica Kobová (philosopher), Jan Blažek (IR analyst).

Thursday 26 November

Diversity According to Students. Diverse Culture, Subversive Culture

4 PM–10 PM
Place: FF UK, nám. Jana Palacha 2, Prague 1.

Diversity an sich (World Cafés: Discussion Forum & Food Festival)

4 PM–6 PM
Place: FF UK, nám. Jana Palacha 2, Prague 1, r. 104.

Diverse Culture, Subversive Culture. Art and Self-Expression—Creative Workshop

6 PM–7 PM
Place: FF UK, nám. Jana Palacha 2, Prague 1, r. 104.

The Idea of University Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow. A Debate between Students and Non-Students

7:30 PM–9 PM
Place: FF UK, Jan Palach Library, nám. Jana Palacha 2, Prague 1.

Gig

9 PM
Place: FF UK, Jan Palach Library, nám. Jana Palacha 2, Prague 1.

Additional Program

Presentations of NGOs, Film Screenings, Phonetic Quizz, Plastic art Creations

Buffets will be served by the Association Kuchařek bez domova (Homeless Cooks).

All week long
Place: in the corridors of the Faculty of Arts, nám. Jana Palacha 2, Prague 1.

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.

Continue reading CEFRES Platform Inauguration on 7-8 October 2015 →

Other Activities, seminars

Between Disciplines and Areas – Monthly Research Seminar IMS FSV UK-CEFRES

Untitled

Academic work has long been divided according to disciplines, which can be considered as the major reference frame of the university. Despite this long-lasting management of scientific activities, many researchers consider such a frame a contrived constraint, especially since scientific objects themselves proceed from the defining of a specific problematic, to which a proper methodology is to be applied to solve it. The uneasiness surrounding the debate on disciplines is increased by two factors: their growing fragmentation into subdisciplines and the rise of the new paradigms of trans- and interdisciplinarity within all research fields.

The research seminar Between Disciplines and Areas aims at discussing this development through the presentation of the research with which scholars of IMS and the French Research Center in Humanities and Social Sciences (CEFRES) are engaged. Indeed, they are used to working within two frames: the area (or “territory”), which places the research object in a specific context, and the discipline, which constitutes the theoretical backbone of the inquiry. Traditionally area and discipline are divided along the line drawn between empirical and theoretical approaches. This border prompts two main questions: To what extent does a theoretical frame fit to objects in context? And on the other hand, can empirical outcomes provide a more comprehensive understanding?

These are some of the questions that will be addressed at our seminar. By presenting their research in situ, scholars are invited to reflect upon the connection between their discipline(s), object and research field. They should therefore elaborate on the methodological inputs and theoretical framework of their researches.

See the Seminar programme on CEFRES agenda.

Other Activities, seminars

Czech-French Seminar in History – FF UK & CEFRES

Since 2007, CEFRES has teamed up with the Institute of Czech History of the Faculty of Arts (Charles University in Prague) around  a weekly seminar in history. Open to Prague’s French-speaking  students and to Erasmus students from France, the seminar hosts French historians around a unifying theme chosen every semester.

The theme for Winter Semester 2015-2016 is: “Travel and  Communication”.

See the program for the seminar and the workshop.

See the program of CEFRES sessions.

See on FF UK’s website.

Other Activities

Research Forum in the Czech Republic

In April and May 2015 the “CEFRES Platform” organized a

RESEARCH FORUM IN HUMANITIES AND SOCIAL SCIENCES IN THE CZECH REPUBLIC.

The forum contributed to draft the CEFRES’s scientific policy and to set in motion European scientific cooperations.
The CEFRES is writing a new page of its history in the wake of the Cooperation Agreement signed on 21 November 2014 between the Embassy of France in the Czech Republic, the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS), the Charles University (UK) and the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic (AV ČR). A Czech-French cooperation platform in the humanities and social sciences, the “CEFRES Platform” was thus initiated between the CEFRES, the UK and the AV ČR. The CEFRES’s scientific policy, that is, its three research orientations, needed be defined after close consultation with its partners in the Czech Republic. Continue reading Research Forum in the Czech Republic →