PLEASE NOTE: The student housing starts (and thus is available) from noontime on Saturday, March 27, 2010. Classes start on Monday, March 29, 2010. Students are expected to arrive in Prague on the weekend before classes begin (i.e. March 27-28) in order to be present for the beginning of the semester. If students want to arrive before March 27, they need to secure their own accommodations for those dates! (For hostels and other accomodation options please go to Useful Links...) The last day of instruction on the Prague Spring program is Thursday, June 3! The program student housing ends on Saturday, June 5, 2010. (If students will wish to stay in Prague longer after the program is over, they will need to find their own accommodations after this date.)
General Description of the Program:
The Spring 2010 CHID Study Abroad Program in
Prague, Czech Republic explores the dramatic social, cultural and political
transformations of the 20th century in Central and Eastern Europe. The 15-credit
program surveys Central and Eastern European history, politics, art, architecture
and film, examining such themes as resistance to authoritarianism, gender
equality and human rights, nationalism and ethnic violence, globalization
and environmental justice, and the role of the European Union in shaping discourse
in these areas.
The program consists of three core classes (5
credits each), complemented by international and domestic field trips and
cultural events. The History course "East European Communism and Everyday
Life" taught by the program director, Prof. Vera Sokolova,
is an intensive introductory course to the contemporary history of East Central
Europe with a special emphasis on Czechoslovakia. Through visual culture,
personal memoirs, oral history and site visits the class concentrates on issues
of collaboration and resistance, complicity and responsibility, legacy and
change, memory and forgetting, in order to see how these shape and complicate
the notion of a national history, collective identity and individual agency.
By examining the relationships between the state, society and the individual
in various countries, the class works against the simplistic binary of "regime"
vs. "people" and "East" vs. "West" to see what
these reveal about the nature and reality of the Communist regimes in Eastern
Europe. An integral part of this class is a Film Seminar,
exploring and contrasting contemporary post-1989 cinematography with the (New
Wave Czech) cinema of the 1960s and the mainstream communist regime films
of the 1970s and 1980s.
The Political Science course "Democracy and
Development", taught by Prof. Michael Smith, examines
the interaction between democratization and the politics of economic development
in Central and Eastern Europe. After the collapse of communism, democratic
and economic reforms took place simultaneously and rapidly, leading to a host
of urgent problems and consequences their designers did not always predict,
such as increases in economic inequality, unemployment and an increased sense
of insecurity by large segments of post-communist societies. These phenomena
have, in turn, provided a base of support for reinvigorated communist parties
and nationalist movements, as well as provoked disillusionment with the democratic
process. In exploring the complex intersections of recent social, political
and economic transformation, we will pay particular attention to the role
of civil society and membership in the European Union in shaping the democratic
futures of post-communist societies. An integral part of our class are visits
of and from important Czech NGOs.
The third class, an Art History course "Prague
Art and Architecture" is taught by Prof. Pavlina Morganova.
This course examines the key developments in Czech visual art and architecture
from the early medieval to the contemporary period. Slide-based lectures are
supplemented by visits to representative monuments, art collections and museums
in Prague. The primary objective of the course is to provide students with
an overview of the history of art and architecture in Prague. In this respect,
the course intends to have students acquire knowledge of the main characteristics
of artistic and architectural styles by observing and analyzing paintings,
sculptures, and architecture first-hand. The goal of the class is to understand
the development of main historical styles and to identify their elements on
the walks through the town.
In addition to the core classes, the program
includes two 4-day international trips to Berlin
and Budapest. At the moment, we are looking into the possibity to
also go on a third 3-day international trip to Krakow (instead
of our usual bike trip through the Czech countryside in Southern Bohemia).
At the end of the program, we go on an additional domestic 3-day trip
to Cesky krumlov, a renown UNESCO town close to Czech-Austrian border.
The courses will also be supplemented by visits to important Prague historical
and cultural sites, visits by Czech NGO activists,
exhibitions and other current cultural events
in Prague.
- More detailed information for all three classes
is available in the section "Courses".
- More detailed information for housing, transportation
and life in Prague is available in appropriate sections.
