The Center for French Studies at the University of Warsaw and the French Research Center in Humanities and Social Sciences are glad to invite you to its roundtable on security issues in Post-Brexit Europe.

Date: Friday 18^th June 2021, 15h – 17h
Place: Online, link of the webinair: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86944135144
ID: 869 4413 5144
Language: English

Organizer: Amélie Zima (Center for French Studies, University of Warsaw, Poland)

Welcoming remarks:

• Jérôme Heurtaux (Director of CEFRES)
• Nicolas Maslowski (Director of Center for French Studies at the University of Warsaw, Poland)

Speakers:

• Monika Brusenbauch-Meislova (Brno University, Czech Republic): Choppy Seas, or Calm Waters? Brexit Challenges for Czech Security and Defence policy
• Delphine Deschaux-Dutard (Grenoble Alpes University, France): France, Germany and European Strategic Autonomy after Brexit: Squaring the Circle
• Amélie Zima (Center for French Studies, University of Warsaw, Poland): Polish Defence Policy in Post-Brexit Era: Back to Atlancism?

Chair: Marek Madej (University of Warsaw, Poland)

Credits: European Takuba Task Force, DICOD/EMA

An International webinar organised by Institut du genre, CEFRES and CEMCA (French Center for Mexican and Center American Studies)

This webinar will focus on the relationship between academia and political struggle, with an emphasis on gender studies and the critical knowledge associated with them. We will first discuss the current terms of the conservative backlash against gender studies, the forms of pressure and censorship against them depending on the powers and political contexts, and the political and economic issues of academic autonomy.

We also aim to re-anchor this reflection into the historicity of the debates that the institutionalization of gender studies has aroused over the past thirty years. In different places, this field has arised in conjunction with democratic-liberal transitions. It also has been accused of depoliticizing feminist studies dissolving them in a scientific “new empire” strongly marked by the intellectual influence of the USA, or by the neoliberal globalization. This field of knowledge supposedly homogeneous in the eyes of its detractors continues to span across various and sometimes divergent approaches. It is on this basis that we will question the current forms of social resistance and the reorganization of this field of study.

Finally, by looking beyond the European perspective, we will consider the role of academic space and gender studies as a base for feminist demands (about gender-based violence in Mexico). And, we will ask how the efforts to constitute or consolidate this field of study are currently being carried out in academic spaces that still unwilling to give them a place in their own right, except under the unique angle of “development” (about gender studies in Cameroon).

This international webinar is organized in partnership with the Institute of Gender in France (IDG), the Center for Mexican and Central American Studies (CEMCA) and the French Research Center for Humanities and Social Sciences (CEFRES) in Prague on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the latter.

Date: 15 June 2021, 3–5 pm
Language: English
Place: online on Zoom: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81104662184 ID: 811 0466 2184

Program

Welcome and introduction:

• Jérôme Heurtaux, CEFRES, Prague
• Marième N’Diaye & Delphine Lacombe, CNRS, Institut du genre : Introduction

Moderation:

• David Paternotte, Université Libre de Bruxelles

Speakers:

• Andrea Pető, Central European University, Vienne
  Science policy of illiberal polypore state
• Patrick Awondo, Université de Yaoundé
  What academic freedom does to gender as a subject of research in Cameroon
• Verónica Rodriguez Cabrera, Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana-Xochimilco (Mexique)
  Academic freedom and gender studies: the question of violence against women 

Featured photograph: Marek Madl, Warsaw, October 2020

Part 1 of CEFRES 30th Anniversary Conference

The French Center for Research in Humanities and Social Sciences (CEFRES) is celebrating its thirtieth anniversary this year. CEFRES has been both an actor and an observer of the reshaping of research in Central Europe after 1989. It has first accompanied the remarkable restoration of academic freedom and the takeover of its destiny by the academic world. Thirty years of activity in the heart of Central Europe have made CEFRES a witness to the growing importance of the European level in the structuring and financing of the research sector, to the internationalization and the intensification of international competition, and to the structural transformations that affect the social sciences and humanities. This is the reason why CEFRES and its privileged partners, the Czech Academy of Sciences and Charles University, as well as the CEFRES Alumni Association, are devoting this thirtieth anniversary conference to the great transformation of the academic world from the point of view of the recompositions of the relationship between academic knowledge and power, as well as to academic freedom.

The first part of the conference will be held in Prague in a hybrid format (face-to-face/remote) on May 27th and 28th 2021. It will be opened on Thursday, May 27th at 5 pm by an inaugural conference moderated by Mr Jérôme Heurtaux, Director of CEFRES, and introduced by Mr Clément Beaune, Secretary of State for European Affairs of the French government (by video), Ms Eva Zažímalová, President of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Mr François-Joseph Ruggiu, Director of the Institute for Humanities and Social Sciences at CNRS and Mr Tomáš Zima, Rector of Charles University, with, as guest of honour, Mr Michael Ignatieff, Rector and President of the Central European University. On Friday, May 28th, the conference will gather 26 representatives of the academic and diplomatic world, former directors and researchers of CEFRES, who will discuss past and future of the Czech-French relationship in the European context, the challenges of knowledge transmission and internationalization.  The day will begin with a keynote lecture by Mr Pierre-Michel Menger, Professor at the Collège de France.

Dates: Thursday 27 may and friday 28 may 2021
Organizers: CEFRES, Czech Academy of Sciences, Charles University, CEFRES Alumni Association
Place: Prague and online (the conference will be streamed at this address: https://www.facebook.com/cefres)
To join the different sessions, please see the links below.
Languages: French, English, live interpretation in English
Participants: download the complete list of participants here.

Program

Thursday, May 27th 2021, 5:00 pm – 6:30 pm

Inaugural Round Table
Place: Czech Academy of Sciences – online
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84680097684
Language: English
Please find the login code here: 846 8009 7684

Chair: Jérôme Heurtaux, Director of CEFRES

• Clément Beaune, Secretary of State for European Affairs of the French Government (by video)
• Eva Zažímalová, President of the Czech Academy of Sciences
• François-Joseph Ruggiu, Director of the Institute for Humanities and Social Sciences (InSHS), CNRS
• Tomáš Zima, Rector of Charles University

Guest of Honour:

• Michael Ignatieff, Rector and President of the Central European University

Friday, May 28th 2021 

Place: Karolinum, Charles University rectorate, Prague  & online
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86543574454
Please find the login code here: 865 4357 4454

9:00 am – 10:30 am : Keynote Lecture (in English)

Chair: Tomáš Kostelecký, sociologist, member of the Academy Council of the Czech Academy of Sciences

• Pierre-Michel Menger, sociologist, Professor at the Collège de France, holder of the Chair “Sociology of creative work”: Scientific research: A matter of resources, performance, competition and collaboration

10:45 am – 1:30 pm: From Bilateral to European Level: CEFRES in its History

Chair: Nicolas Maslowski, sociologist, Director of CCFEF (Warsaw)

• Marie-Elizabeth Ducreux, historian, emeritus research Director at CNRS, former Director of CEFRES (1991–1993)
• Yves Saint-Geours, diplomat, former deputy Director of archeology and social sciences at the MEAE (1990–1993)
• Antoine Marès, historian, emeritus Professor at the Pantheon-Sorbonne University, former Director of CEFRES (1998–2001)
• František Šmahel, historian, medievalist, former Director of the Institute of History, then of the Center for Medieval Studies  of Czech Academy of Sciences
• Pavel Baran, philosopher, President of the Scientific Council of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Vice-President of the Research, Development and Innovation Council of the Czech Republic
• Lenka Rovná, political scientist, Vice-Rector for European Affairs, Charles University
• Christian Lequesne, political scientist, Professor at Sciences Po, former Director of CEFRES (2004–2006)

Lunch

3:00 pm – 4:45 pm: Intergenerational Dialogues

Chair: Georges Mink, political scientist, emeritus research Director at CNRS, holder of the Chair of European Civilization and History in memoriam Bronisław Geremek at the College of Europe, Natolin, President of the ICCEES, former Director of CEFRES (2001–2003)

• Marie-Claude Maurel, geographer, Directrice d’études at EHESS, former Director of CEFRES (2006–2010)
• Taťána Petrasová, art historian, member of the Academy Council of the Czech Academy of Sciences from 2013 to 2021
• Gábor Sonkoly, historian, Professor at Institute of Historical Studies and Atelier, Department of Interdisciplinary History, ELTE University, Budapest
• Petr Horák, philosopher, emeritus Professor of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Professor at the University of Pardubice
• Milena Lenderová, historian, former Dean of the Faculty of Arts at the University of Pardubice
• Michel Perottino, political scientist, Professor at the Faculty of Social Sciences of Charles University, former General secretary of CEFRES
• Mátyás Erdélyi, historian, post-doctoral fellow at CEFRES

5:00 pm – 6:30 pm: Researchers Without Borders? Internationalisation and Research Trajectories, 1991-2021
Roundtable of the CEFRES Alumni Association (English)

Chair: Clara Royer, senior Lecturer at Sorbonne University, former director of CEFRES (2015–2018)

• Florence Vychytil-Baudoux, historian, doctoral student at EHESS, associated with CEFRES
• Pascal Marty, geographer, Director of the Maison française d’Oxford, former deputy Director of InSHS of CNRS
• Jana Vargovčíková, political scientist, junior Professor at INALCO
• Gilles Lepesant, geographer, research Director at CNRS
• Hana Fořtová, political scientist, translator, researcher at the Institute of Philosophy of the Czech Academy of Sciences
• Luděk Brož, anthropologist, researcher at the Institute of Ethnology of the Czech Academy of Sciences
• Eloïse Adde, historian medievalist, Marie Curie researcher at the Saint-Louis University in Brussels

You can download the program here.

The French Institute of Slovakia and the French Centre for Research in Social Sciences (CEFRES) invite you to a round table during which we will focus on the world of higher education and research in Slovakia, particularly in the field of humanities and social sciences, as markers of the country’s history since 1989.

Date: April 15th, 2021 at 5 pm
Location: Online on Zoom (see link below)
Languages: SK-FR with simultaneous translation
Organizers: IFS, CEFRES
Registration:  Google forms

With the participation of Christophe Léonzi, French Ambassador to Slovakia.

Moderator:
Jérôme Heurtaux, Director of CEFRES

Speakers:

• Etienne Boisserie, professor-researcher, Institut national des langues et civilisations orientales (INALCO) / co-director of the CREE (Europe-Asia Research Center)
• Adam Hudek, researcher, Institute of History, Slovak Academy of Sciences (SAV)
• Dagmar Kusa, professor-researcher, Bratislava International School for Liberal Arts (BISLA)
• Peter Terem, Vice-Rector for Science and Research, Matej Bel University (UMB)

The world of higher education and research has undergone many changes since 1989, as has the whole of Slovakia. The most salient of these are the end of the socialist bloc, the splitting of Czechoslovakia and the entry into the European Union. How has academic research and the world of ideas been impacted by the ordeal of communism and then by the hope born of the transition to democracy? What effect did Slovakia’s European integration have on Slovak higher education and research institutions, and on the content of research, while at the same time a process of liberalization and internationalization was taking place? More recently, the academic community has been impacted by other developments such as the growth and tertiarization of the economy, globalization and demands for more rule of law. Universities and research institutes have thus been both actors and witnesses of the changes in Slovakia during the last decades and the question of their autonomy and the freedom of researchers has been raised again in the spring of 2021.

In this round table, we will focus on the world of higher education and research, particularly in the humanities and social sciences, as markers of the country’s recent history. Partner of Slovak academics since its creation in 1991, the French Centre for Research in Social Sciences (CEFRES) celebrates its 30th anniversary in 2021. This is an ideal opportunity to analyze thirty years of Slovak research and international cooperation and to consider their future.

Please click on the link below to join the webinar:
https://zoom.us/j/94054349216 .