CURRICULUM / COURSE LISTING

*Course description (and syllabus) can be viewed by clicking the course title.

Central Europe: Shaping a Modern Culture
[HISTORY/CULTURAL STUDIES/SOCIOLOGY, 3 credits]
Instructor: Tomáš Hříbek
This course will discuss the emergence of major modernist movements and ideas in the three Central European cities: Prague, Vienna and Budapest. In the period between the late 19th century and the beginning of the WW2, these cities were the main centers of the then disintegrating Austrian-Hungarian Empire and, later, the capitals of three independent states—Czechoslovakia, Austria and Hungary, respectively. Despite the political turmoil, all the three cities became a watershed of the ideas that remain to be the sources of the Western culture even today, including the dominant trends in the current North American culture. Thus, we shall see how the dominant ideas in the fields as diverse as religion, philosophy, science, economics, psychology, art and architecture that have shaped the 20th century culture in the West can all be traced back to the works of the Austrian, Czech or Hungarian intellectuals such as Franz Brentano, Sigmund Freud, Adolf Loos and Georg Lukács. We shall have the extraordinary opportunity to study the fermentation of these ideas “on site,” in the very places in which these ideas originated.

Economics in Transition
[ECONOMICS, 3 credits]
Instructor(s): Kresimir Zigic, Vilem Semerák
Prerequisite: Macroeconomics, Microeconomics, or Political Economy
The course deals with main economic issues related to transition from centrally-planned economies of Soviet block, Yugoslavia, and China to market economies. Compared to other similar courses, this course will be less descriptive and more analytical, we will use economic models and results of econometric studies where appropriate. We will also try to apply experimental approach in order to provide the students with direct experience with asymmetric information markets and soft-budget constraints. The course is trying to focus on aspects of transition which can be used to shed light on more permanent problems of economics systems and which can help reduce future exposure to similar errors. The first part of the course analyzes functioning of central planning and selected topic related to corporate governance under central planning (e.g. Yugoslavian self-managed firms) and provides explanation of the gradual economic decline and main structural problems experienced by the countries. The second part focuses on main transition steps and their economic logic. We will also deal with basic theoretical models that attempt to explain problems experienced by transition economies. The last part will deal with performance of firms and the role of corporate governance, ownership and institutions.

Elementary Czech (Mandatory)
[CZECH/FOREIGN LANGUAGES, 4 credits]
Instructor(s): Silvie Poevrátilová, Zuzana Svibková
The elementary Czech course will introduce students to the spoken and written language and the use of it in everyday situations (both formal and informal). The course is designed to establish a basic understanding of Czech in everyday communication and provide students with the basic knowledge of Czech grammar, which itself is the foundation of successful communication in Czech. The course will be built upon four main areas of focus: listening comprehension, reading comprehension, and the speaking and writing skills. Special attention will be paid to conversation practice – the ultimate purpose of this course is to enable students to lead a meaningful and problemless conversation with Czech natives.

European Integration from Central European Perspective
[POLITICAL SCIENCE/INT’L RELATIONS/ECONOMICS, 3 credits]
Instructor: Marek Skovajsa
This course provides a broad overview of the development of European cooperation and integration since 1945 with a specific emphasis on the accession of the post-communist countries of Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) to the European Union. The course consists of two parts of almost equal length: the first traces the history of European integration from 1945 onwards and analyzes the institutional set-up of the European Union, its main policies, and the challenges it is facing at present. The second part of the course is concerned with the efforts of CEE countries to join the EU, the obstacles to this process, and the impact an enlargement to the East is likely to have on both CEE countries and the EU.

Prague as a Living History: Anatomy of a European Capital
[HISTORY/CULTURAL STUDIES/ART/ARCHITECTURE, 3 credits]
Instructor(s): Jan Sokol, Odnoej Skripnik, Pavel Soukup
This course and accompanying excursions will introduce students to the history of the Czech Republic and its capital city, Prague, while also showing the development of its urban structure and main social functions. By using the city of Prague as a classroom, students will gain a deeper understanding of the particularities and intricacies of urban life as it evolved through centuries. Excursions to other urban sites in the Czech Republic will allow students to compare various types of cities and their development, typical of continental European culture.

Romanticism and National Identity in Central Europe
[LITERATURE/HISTORY, 3 credits]
Instructor: Martin Procházka
This course will focus on Romanticism and related movements in art, literature, and philosophy in the past two centuries within Central Europe. From its origins in the late Enlightenment period through its manifestations in folklorism, Panslavism, utopias, nationalist epics, or titanism, Romanticism played a key role in the development of Central European culture. In addition, we will also examine Romanticism in literary works of twentieth-century Central European writers, including Franz Kafka, Karel Eapek, Milan Kundera, and Václav Havel.

Multiculturalism, Ethnicity and Collective Memory in Central and Eastern Europe
[ANTHROPOLOGY/SOCIOLOGY/CULTURAL STUDIES, 3 credits]
Instructor: Elena Soler
The course will offer a set of conceptual tools for understanding problems of multiculturalism, ethnicity and collective memory in Central and Eastern Europe since 19^th century till present. Some of questions with will be discussed are: What is the relationship between ethnicity and other types of identity? What is collective memory? Does the European identity exist? How do ethnic groups remain distinctive under different social conditions? What is multiculturalism? Under which circumstances does ethnicity become important? In which ways can collective memory be important in the creation of ethnicity? What is the relationship between ethnicity and collective memory? Is nationalism always a form of ethnicity? What happens to ethnic relations in the today’s world, in particular, in Central and Eastern Europe?

Human Relationships in Czech and American Films
[FILM/ANTHROPOLOGY, 3 credits]
Instructor: Daniel Shanahan
This course operates from the premise that change has been and will continue to be the dominant mode of the last and the coming centuries, and that the effects of constant change can be seen in the way cinema portrays human relationships on a variety of levels: the personal (romantic relationships, “buddies”and companions), the social (individuals alienated from society, the “morbidly dependent”), and the historical (coloniser and colonised, consumers in mass society). While the course treats relationships as a fundamental given in human experience, it will focus on the ways in which relationships both trap and liberate us, and special attention will be given to contrasting features of relationships in times of change in the US and the Czech Republic.

Czechs, Germans, and Jews in Bohemian Lands
[HISTORY/CULTURAL STUDIES, 3 credits]
Instructor: Michal Frankl
This course will reflect on Jewish-German-Czech relations in Prague (and the territory of the Czech Republic) during the last two centuries and further explore the outcome of these ties. Students will have the opportunity to discuss historical events particular to the region and visit these important sites to fully comprehend the past. The course will explore the changing position of the Jewish minority in modern Czech society in the age of rapid social changes: modernization, democratization and growing nationalism. Specifically, the situation of Jews in a multi-ethnic region and the impact of the Czech-German national conflict on the Jewish assimilation will be analyzed. We will also deal with the topics of Czech and German antisemitism and the Holocaust.

Political History of Czechoslovakia
[HISTORY/CULTURAL STUDIES, 3 credits]
Instructor: Juraj Hvorecky
This course examines the movement behind the development of the Czechoslovak state from the ashes of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the emergence of the “First Republic” (1918-1938), during the Second World War, as the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic, and finally the federal governmental structure that emerged in 1969. This course focuses both on the essential characteristics of the Czechoslovak nation and the differences which emerged in 1989 between the existing federal states -- which eventually led to the “velvet divorce” in 1993.

Defining Themes and Personalities of Central European Cinema
[FILM, 3 credits]
Instructor: Tereza Brdeckova
For much of the 20th century, the concept of Central Europe was in crisis. With the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the rise and fall of the Germany’s Nazi, and other fascist regimes, and the spread of the Soviet sphere of influence deep into Europe, the national identities of the region were put into question. Even in the West, what was formerly known as Central Europe was considered Eastern, or at best, East-Central Europe -- conceding to the Soviet viewpoint not just the political but the cultural status of the region. Considered “the most important art” in the words of Lenin, cinema as well became an instrument designed to subjugate the cultural status of central Europe. Through proscriptive modes of propaganda and by the state-run monopolies that operated centralized studio production systems, the ultimate intent was to employ cinema as tool to transform regional thought and expression to conform to the dictates of the East. Ironically, however, some of Central Europe’s most creative and relevant cultural voices emerged despite these conditions to create distinct national cinemas that not only impacted world film, but also contributed to the rehabilitation of their respective national identities. In this class, we will explore the diversity and clarity of these individual cinematic voices, born of contradictions of their societies, and often encompassing their own. All of the filmmakers we will examine, have found ways to fully express their individual creative visions, while struggling with and reconciling the contradictory forces that helped shape them. .

Literature and Society: Central European Writers
[LITERATURE/SOCIOLOGY, 3 credits]
Instructor: Josef Fulka
This course of selected works in English translation will sample significant contributions of 20th Century writers from Austria, the former Czechoslovakia (and its successor states), Germany, Hungary and Poland. It will introduce students to the major ideas and themes that have made Central European literature a distinct and vital genre in the pantheon of world literature, one that in particular has left a lasting mark on modern consciousness via-?-vis the moral answerability of individuals and societies.
                                                                               
Constitutionalism in Central and Eastern Europe                                               
[POLITICAL SCIENCE, 3 credits]
Instructor: TBA
The course is an attempt to exploit the recent transition in Central and Eastern Europe from the totalitarian society to democracy. This great experiment gives us the opportunity for systematic revival of the main principles on which democratic society is based. On the examples of concrete changes of the political economics and legal systems we can revise and reconsider the importance and sequence of the various reforms and changes.

Ideas behind Politics: Communism, Post-Communism, and Civil Society in Central Europe
[PHILOSOPHY/POLITICAL SCIENCE, 3 credits]
Instructor: Josef Zielenec
Students will learn recent Czech and Central European political history and will become familiar with the various ways in which the predicament of these countries was reflected upon in the minds of the most prominent political theorists from the region. In the middle section of this course we will discuss two key figures of the movement of civic resistance to the Czechoslovak communist regime in the 1970s and 1980s; philosopher Jan Patocka and playwright Vaclav Havel. We will investigate the work of both thinkers, learn the context from which their thinking grew and attempt a reconstruction of the political reality to which they  responded.  From the analysis of their thought, we will move to the political action in which they took an active part: the dissident movement, a rare example of society’s resistance to the totalitarian regime. We will follow the course of history well beyond the so-called Velvet Revolution and touch upon some of the problems of a newly emerged democracy.

Czechs, Americans and Europeans: Cultural Contrasts and Common Ground
[ANTHROPOLOGY/CULTURAL STUDIES, 3 credits]
Instructor: Daniel Shanahan
This course is a practicum, designed to allow students to put their experience of living abroad in a sociological and anthropological context. Cross-cultural communication is an area of increasing importance in all areas of modern life, and in this course students will be introduced to the basic concepts which underlie that discipline, with special attention paid to cross-cultural interactions between Czechs, Americans and other Europeans. Students are put in teams (typically composed of one or two Czechs, one or two Americans, and an Erasmus student from another European country) and interview expatriate Americans living in Prague, as well as Czechs who have lived abroad, to develop a profile of the kinds of differences and similarities between their cultures. Some time will spent, near the end of the course, discussing how all these cultures may be drawing together under the umbrella of consumer culture.

Central European Philosophy
[PHILOSOPHY, 3 credits]
Instructor: Juraj Hvorecky
This course introduces ways of philosophizing in Central Europe in the second half of the 20th century. The emphases are put on non-Marxist thinking and liberal Marxist ideas as well as the opposing dogmantic state-endorsed philosophy of the soviet-style Marxism-Leninism. The effort will be made to underlie similarities and distinctions in ways in which harshness of political regimes, ever-present ideological dominance, courage, and personal stance of individual thinkers shaped the way they adopted and developed Western style philosophizing.

Comprehending The Holocaust
[PHILOSOPHY, 3 credits]
Instructor: Michal Plzák
Comprehending the Holocaust (Shoah) goes beyond understanding the historical fact that six million Jews and other innocent victims were brutally murdered in Nazi-occupied Europe. The Holocaust is a lesson in what happened in our modern rational technological society and in what can happen again in spite of all trusted safety measures. What does it mean to comprehend the Holocaust – is it possible at all? In Spring 2010 we will concentrate more on the nature of modern genocides, their underlying ideological patterns and their modern features. The Holocaust as a significant and unique event in history continues to have universal implications. This mass murder has specific features that make it different from all other genocides. It is not only a historical event but rather turning-point of our history. We will go through the rise and history of Christian antijudaism, its transformation into modern forms of antisemitism, we will discuss what is exceptional and what is normal about the Holocaust and define the role and responsibility of the individual in modern democracy. We will learn about the role of intellectuals during the Holocaust and discuss why can good people kill other people so easily. We will also try to understand the function of Nazi propaganda and its major themes. We will touch the phenomenon “denying the Holocaust”, that is a modern form of antisemitism.

Environmental Policy in the Central European Context
[POLITICAL SCIENCE/ECONOMICS, 3 credits]
Instructor: Andreas Ortmann, Jana Krajcova
The aim of this course is to introduce students to some basic economic principles and theories
explaining environmental issues and problems today and to explore existing policies at the
national, international, and world level. Students will learn about the concepts such as
externalities, the tragedy of the commons, enforcement as a public good, interventionalist
solutions to the externality problem such as taxes and marketable pollution permits, as well as
non-interventionalist solutions to the externality problem such as the Coasian solution and selfregulation.
Students will also review the debate over the environmental Kuznets curve. Because
experimental evidence complements theoretic insights, field data and simulating models nicely,
we will do a couple of in-class experiments
( http://home.cerge-ei.cz/richmanova/TeachingUPCES.html) and also review some research articles
that draw on the experimental methodology.

Life and Culture in a Totalitarian Regime  
[POLITICAL SCIENCE, 3 credits]
Instructor: Barbara Day
How was it possible to live freely under a totalitarian regime? How could an independent spirit survive when every part of life – education, work, leisure, travel, even one’s innermost self, was subject to control by the Party? This course will explore some of the ways in which the Czechs preserved their independent (alternative, unofficial, underground) culture through the years of Communism. It will start by tracing the historical patterns which shaped the Czechs’ resistance to ideology, and follow with a look at everyday life under “really existing Socialism” (including the activities of the StB, or secret police). It will continue by examining some of the Czech ways of resistance, such as a close (but exclusive) family life; the rejection of career ambitions; refuge in the countryside; curiosity about Western cultural fashions; jazz, rock’n’roll and beat (including the Jazz Section); theatre (including amateur theatre); unofficial concerts, exhibitions and festivals; home seminars (the “underground university”); samizdat publication and distribution; Charter 77 and “classic” dissidence. Guest speakers will also talk about their own role in the “unofficial culture”.

Kafka in Prague
[LITERATURE, 3 credits]
Instructor: Richard Stock
Franz Kafka (1883–1924) has become recognized as one of the leading figures in world literature. Perhaps more than any other major author, Kafka is associated with one geographical location, which happens to be the city of Prague, currently in the Czech Republic. Kafka’s works themselves are not explicitly about Prague, nor are they set in Prague. But we cannot say that Prague is irrelevant to Kafka’s works, for Kafka spent almost all of his life in the city. Therefore, we cannot “read” Prague through or into Kafka’s works, but comparing the two would surely be fruitful. The most obvious connection between Kafka’s works and the city of Prague is Franz Kafka the person. While one always wants to be cautious about biographizing creative work, this course will take into consideration Kafka’s life and times in reading and analyzing his fiction. Such an adventure is best undertaken in the city of Prague itself. The course will focus on several of Kafka’s many short stories and, depending on student interest, also his most important novel, The Trial. Critical material to provide context and insight on Prague, Kafka’s works, and Kafka himself will also be studied. Kafka’s works will be studied in the best English translations available; they were originally written in German
The course will be decidedly student-centered. The mode of the course will be question-asking and discussion, rather than lecture. To this end, it will be necessary for students to be prepared for class and be ready and willing to participate in class. Students are expected to attend each class meeting. Two main course papers are planned. The first will be the major paper of 2000 to 4000 words, due about three-quarters into the semester (after midterm exam week and before final exam week). The second will be shorter, 1500 to 2000 words, and will be a bit more informal. Specific assignments for each paper will be given in class.

Gothic, Baroque, Modern: Arts in Bohemia
[HISTORY/CULTURAL STUDIES/ART/ARCHITECTURE,3 credits]
Instructor: Tomáš Hríbek
This course will survey the visual arts—including some photography and film—and architecture in the Czech Lands since the Middle Ages through the 20th century, with an emphasis on the last 150 years or so. That is still a lot of material, so we shall concentrate, as far as possible on the artifacts available in Prague that we can go and see for ourselves. Throughout, we shall not cover only the Czech artists, but also other nationals who either worked in the Czech Lands, or were highly influential here. Thus we shall cover the work of the French, Bavarian and Italian artists and architects during the Gothic and Baroque times, such as the Dientzenhofers or Arcimboldo; the influence of the Norwegian painter Edward Munch on the Czech art around the 1900; the relations between the Czech and the French surrealists; etc. etc. We shall also situate art within a larger context of social and intellectual history, seeing, in particular, how nationalism, religion and ideology shaped the development of Czech art and architecture. Last but not least, we shall notice the specificities of stylistic developments in the Czech art, such as the recurrences of the elements of Gothic and Baroque in the Czech versions of Art Nouveau and Cubism.

CEE Economic Growth and Development
[ECONOMICS, 3 credits]
Instructor: Gurgen Aslanyan
Why are some countries poor and other countries rich? What are the factors of growth? What is the role of political and economic institutions in the development process? How can aid foster growth and development? These questions are of central interest not only for academics, but also for policy makers and international organizations shaping policies for sustained growth and development. Providing the answers is particularly relevant for countries undergoing strong transition and development process, such as the former Soviet Union countries. It is however also important for the European Union, whose member countries vary significantly in their original economic environments. This course aims to address these questions in view of the theory and empirics of economic growth. This course is divided in two parts. The first part overviews the facts of growth and presents the main theories that try to account for them. Special attention is given in understanding the central role of institutions in this process. The second part analyzes the role of foreign aid and also discusses the role of international organizations, such as the World Bank and the IMF. Throughout, the course puts emphasis on the growth experience across the European and former Soviet Union countries.
Prerequisites: This course mainly addresses to students with economics background, rather at an advanced stage of their studies. Intermediate microeconomics and basic calculus are prerequisites for this course. Knowledge of econometrics and intermediate macroeconomics are a plus. Students without any economic background are advised to consult professors before enrolling.

In Love with Power: Non-Democratic Regimes in Central and Eastern Europe After 1945
[POLITICAL SCIENCE, 3 credits]
Instructor:Uroš Lazarevic
This course introduces the traditional and very modern theoretical views on non-democratic regimes in Central and Eastern Europe in the second half of 20th century, confronted with historical and political experience of this part of Europe after the year 1945 until the present. The end of the Second World War and following “iron curtain” across Europe, which divided the continent for a long 44 years, was the period of Soviet Union domination in Central and Eastern Europe and the decades-long rule of communist regime in this part of the world. Political science most often defines these kinds of regimes as “totalitarian”, however, the reality is more complex, with many variations and “specific paths” (Yugoslavia, Romania), and the totalitarian “core” of most communist regimes including former Czechoslovakia during the whole period of Soviet dominance, is questioned by some authors. The year 1989, “annus mirabilis”, the year of the downfall of the Soviet Union and communistic regimes across Central and Eastern Europe, was however not the end of non-democratic rule in the whole region. In those unstable times, when the hopes were high and democracy was not established, new leaders came to power and created very specific non-democratic regimes; Meciar´s short rule in Slovakia , autocratic regimes that played the main role in Balkan wars in the 90s (Miloševic in Serbia, Tudjman in Croatia) , Kuchma´s Ukraine and one of the last and still surviving non-democracies in Europe (Belarus under Lukashenka). The theory of non-democratic regimes and its tools, combined with knowledge of modern history and nowadays reality of concrete countries, will help us to analyze and characterize these repressive and bizarre regimes, a rarity in today’s Europe.
Influence of Czechs Composers on World Classical Music
[MUSIC/CULTURAL STUDIES/ART, 3 credits]
Instructor: Bojana Kljunic
The place of Czech music in the Classical music history. Introducing students with the Czech classical music culture and where it stands in the world. The course aims on Czech composers and their influence on world music. Prague – an important location for classical music in 18th century. Prague from a different perspective – its place in world classical music and opera production. Introducing with the main music terms. The main music composition components on some chosen pieces of music in epochs from the 15th to the beginning of 20th century The course will be accompanied with visual and audio presentation as well as visits of selected music institutions.

Housing Market in Central and Eastern Europe
[ECONOMICS, 3 credits]
Instructor: Petr Zemcík
Bursting property bubbles around the world are often cited as the initial trigger of the on-going global recession. This raises the question of whether current real estate prices correspond to economic fundamentals and if not, how much (more) they are likely to fall. This question is highly relevant not only for the housing markets in the United States but for real estate markets in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) and elsewhere. Property prices more than doubled between 2003 and 2008 in majority of countries in CEE.  This course discusses these issues by looking at the determinants of real estate prices. The focus is on the comparison of the US real estate markets with markets in CEE. The objective is to learn standard tools used in real estate economics and to apply them in this region. The real estate market will be viewed both from macroeconomic and microeconomic perspectives. The macroeconomic perspective consists of the market analysis of supply and demand for housing. The latter perspective concentrates on the cash-flows related to a real estate purchase (i.e. a rent) and their impact on price according to a present value model. This also leads to the view of a consumer (as opposed to an investor) who needs to decide between renting and owning an apartment or a house. Tax considerations related to property purchase will be discussed as well. The economics presented in class will have a strong sociological flavor, with a thorough discussion of topics such as the impact of various public housing policies and affordability of housing.

Migration in Central Europe
[ANTHROPOLOGY, SOCIOLOGY, POLITICAL SCIENCE, 3 credits]
Instructor: Petra Ezzeddine
The aim of the course is to develop student` s knowledge of contemporary migration and immigration policy trends in Central Europe. The course will combine  knowledge of general theoretical and empirical development of migration study with more specific analyses of concrete cases in Czech Republic.  The purpose is to perceive multidimensional and dynamic character of migration from the perspective of social anthropology and sociology, including micro and macro level of the movement of people.