To be ready means to keep an open mind.
Radim Palouš (6 November 1924, Prague – 10 September 2015)
Philosopher, teacher, expert of Jan Amos Komenský, graduate of CU FA, Spokesman of Charter 77, and Rector of Charles University in 1990–1994.
The humanities and social sciences never cease to prove their value to society, and the research and teaching of the researchers from the Faculty of Arts, Charles University, play a fundamental role. They conduct their work in considerably demanding conditions, yet they do it with excellent results. The number of prominent awards given to several faculty members this year is a testament to that. We have selected five to wish you a Happy New Year.
Czech for Nurses and Other Medics
(Léčíme česky / Лікуємо чеською)
“Do not give a hungry man a fish; give him a rod and teach him how to fish.” When the wave of Ukrainian refugees arrived in the Czech Republic, we offered the Czech language for medical practice to thousands of medics amongst them – a fishing rod, a way to get a job in Czech hospitals. We are delighted that there are now many more fishermen and even more fisherwomen thanks to this.”
Prof Petr Čermák, Department of Romance Studies, Laureate of Miroslav Petrusek Award for the textbook Léčíme česky (Czech for Nurses and Other Medics)
A team of students and teachers from CU FA and the Third Faculty of Medicine, Charles University, prepared the textbook Léčíme česky. The book is intended for nurses and other medics who arrived in the Czech Republic from Ukraine and are interested in learning Czech. Its primary aim is to help students master the basic vocabulary and phraseology used in the hospital environment for communication with patients and medical staff.
The Hlavák Initiative
“By providing humanitarian aid to refugees at the Prague Main Railway Station, we can ensure that they too will get a chance for a better future, regardless of where they came from, where they are going, and how they got into their current situation. Seemingly small things like donated food, water, or blankets make the refugees experience humanity and solidarity, which they bring along for their further journey.”
Mlada Hošková, Department of Middle Eastern Studies, Laureate of Jan Palach Award for The Hlavák Initiative
Mlada Hošková was finishing her BA studies when she was, like the rest of Europe, caught by surprise by the massive wave of refugees fleeing the war in Ukraine. As part of The Hlavák Initiative, she decided to help mothers with their children, who were streaming in a miserable state into the hall of the Prague Main Railway Station. She organized a section of volunteers that focused on helping refugees, mainly from Syria, whose migration wave began right after the refugee crisis from Ukraine subsided.
Philology
“Studying a foreign language back-to-back with your mother tongue gives you insight that would elude you if you were to study the foreign language by itself.”
Prof Libuše Dušková, Department of English Language and ELT Methodology, Laurate of Josef Hlávka Medal for her contribution to Czech science and education
Prof Libuše Dušková is the founder and the driving force of a new era of English language studies in the Czech Republic after the Velvet Revolution in 1989. She has made a deep mark in English linguistics and language studies with her significant professional contributions and tireless commitment. She represents a long-term European top of English syntax and linguistics and is an indisputable pillar of modern English linguistic studies in the Czech Republic.
A City in the Storm
“One of the beautiful things about being an art historian is that you actually have something like a time machine. But it can also have dangerous consequences: for example, while other people hear voices when strolling through a city, I see houses which used to be but aren’t there anymore, or which might have stood there… But it’s beautiful, nonetheless.”
doc. Richard Biegel, Department of Art History, Laureate of Bedřich Hrozný Prize for his monograph Město v bouři (A City in a Storm)
The publication is devoted to the changes in the historic city from the first metropolitan interventions to the declaration of the whole city as the Prague Conservation Zone. The text is supplemented by nearly a thousand illustrations: historical plans, projects, and photographs showing the transformation of individual buildings, streets, and districts in the 19th and 20th centuries.
Harmonious Coexistence
“We cannot keep patting ourselves on the back with stories of ‘successfully integrated’ Romani people. Emphasizing these ‘exceptions’ reinforces the convention about Romani as supposedly naturally ‘unintegrated’ or ‘nonintegrable,’ and it shifts, in the fight against Romani inequality, responsibility from anti-Roma racism (its primary cause) to Romani themselves.”
Dr Jan Ort, Institute of Ethnology and Central European and Balkan Studies, Laureate of Růžena Vacková Award for his monograph Facets of a Harmony: The Roma and Their Locatedness in Eastern Slovakia.
Jan Ort graduated from CU FA with a BA and MA in Romani Studies. He also graduated from an MA programme in general anthropology at the Faculty of Humanities, Charles University. Under the supervision of Dr Helena Sadílková from the Institute of Ethnology and Central European and Balkan Studies, he completed his PhD studies, in which he focused on Romani activism in the context of the social engineering policies of the communist regime in Czechoslovakia. His thesis, supervised by Dr Sadílková, was also awarded a prize by the Czech Association for Social Anthropology for the best student anthropological thesis. This thesis became the basis for the faculty-awarded monograph.
