UPRAGUE COURSES SPRING 2011

The following three core courses are mandatory and worth 3 credits each:

• Czech Language and Culture Boot Camp

This two-week intensive Czech language course is part of the orientation program, meeting before the semester begins for five hours a day, five days a week.  Students are assigned to either morning or afternoon classes. The course is a combination of Czech language instruction, cultural activities, and excursions throughout Prague. This intensive immersion course is taught in small groups (maximum 13 students per group) by highly qualified faculty members of Charles University.  Students will be introduced to basic Czech language and structure, as well as Czech history and culture, giving them the necessary foundation to build their semester experience.

• Classroom Europe

This unique and dynamic class will focus on Central Europe after 1918, giving participants an overview of the significant events in recent political history that shaped the modern-day nation states they will be visiting.  Framed against this historical backdrop, students will analyze the issues surrounding the expansion of the European Union and the ramifications it will have on Europe’s future.  Students are expected to prepare for each trip by reading assigned materials and attending mandatory lectures, which will help them maximize the learning outcomes.  As a travel course, the planned excursions are meant to enhance the overall learning experience and students must actively participate in all of the programmed activities.  There will be limited free time for students to pursue their own interests. Taking place over four long weekends during the semester, students will visit the following places: Austria (Salzburg, Vienna), Czech Republic (Cesky Krumlov), Germany (Berlin, Potsdam), Poland (Warsaw , Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp), and Turkey (Istanbul).  This course is taught by former Czech Ambassador to Italy, Jiri Holub, who speaks five European languages fluently. 

• The World in Prague

This interdisciplinary course looks at Prague’s influence on the development of European culture and history.  By examining the fields of Literature, History, Art and Architecture, beginning with the 10th century and ending with the present day, students will understand Prague’s role in the world and the impact that Czech people, from monarchs to artists, have had and on European civilization.  The class will be team-taught by experts in each discipline.  Professor Petr Bilek specializes in Czech Literature and History of the 20th century , Dr. Jan Parez is the head of the manuscripts  collection at the Strahov Monastery in Prague, and Dr. Josef Zaruba is a Charles University faculty member specializing in medieval religious wall paintings, and currently conducting research in the US as Fulbright Visiting Scholar.

The following courses are offered as electives in conjunction with the Charles University ECES program and worth 3 credits each:

• Global Crises (Economics)

Dr. Pavel Hnat

This class helps students understand the current global economic environment and crisis.  Students will learn about European integration from an outside and an inside perspective, as well as exploring the problems besieging the economies of the Eastern Europe and Asia.  Dr. Hnat is an assistant lecturer in the World Economy department of the Faculty of International Relations at the University of Economics in Prague.  He has published many articles in his research areas of governance in the context of a globalized economy, society and regionalism, multilateralism, recent economic developments. 

• Jewish History in Central and Eastern Europe (History)

Dr. Gaelle Vassogne

This course focuses on Jewish History in Central and Eastern Europe with an emphasis on the 19th and 20th centuries. The primary goals of the course are to study the political, cultural and economic  situation of the Jews in Central and Eastern Europe and analyze the different forms of Jewish cultural and political identity.  Special attention will be paid to the history of Central and Eastern European countries at the beginning of the 20th century when Prague was home to the diverse ethnic groups and cultures of Czechs,  Germans and Jews.   Dr. Galle Vassogne, a French historian, is the author of the recently-published book “Max Brod in Prague: Identity and Mediation.”

• Hollywood and Europe (Film Studies)

Dr. Richard Nowell

Through lectures, seminars, and screenings, this course offers students insight into the ways in which Hollywood has functioned as a global institution, with particular emphasis placed on its historical relationships to Europe. Respecting Hollywood’s multifaceted character as a transnational economic, political, social, cultural, and aesthetic institution, the course encourages students to position the analysis of popular mainstream film texts within the range of contexts they have operated.  Accordingly, a case study approach will be employed that will see students reflect upon the roles Hollywood has played in, and towards, Europe at different historical junctures at the levels of production, distribution, exhibition, reception, and consumption. Key debates relating to conglomeration, Americanization, globalization, the national, cultural imperialism, and appropriation will be engaged by way of topics such as genre, stars, and marketing; documents such as US State Department memos, movie trailers, and popular press coverage; and films such as The Four Feathers (1939), Casablanca (1942), Notting Hill (1999), The Bourne Identity (2002).  Dr. Richard Nowell has taught at the University of Heidelberg in Germany and at the University of East Anglia in the UK. He is the author of the monograph Blood Money: A History of the First Teen Slasher Film Cycle. 

• Czech and European Art and Architecture (Art History)

This course is an introductory survey of styles, trends and movements focusing on the fine arts and architecture in Prague and the Czech Republic and how European influences have affected their development.  It covers Medieval, Renaissance, and Baroque times, up to Modernism and the contemporary art scene. Special attention is given to the unique characteristics and achievements of Czech art (Prague Castle, Baroque churches, Czech Cubism) and the most glorious periods of Czech history.  Tours, field trips and visits to museums are a substantial part of the course.  Students will gain an understanding of the different historical styles presented in the in the classroom and then have the opportunity to explore them first-hand by walking through the narrow streets of Prague.  By examining the history of art and architecture as a consequence of historical events and movements, students will acquire a critical lens for viewing and understanding the arts that will benefit them throughout their lifetime. 

• Snapshots of a Changing Landscape: Currents in Contemporary Czech (Literature)

Professor Bernie Higgins

This course aims to explore some of the diverse currents and personalities on the contemporary Czech literature scene, focusing solely on post-velvet revolution literature.  Students will be exposed to an overview of contemporary literature based on authors whose work is available in English. The course will focus on a number of genres, such as short stories, novel extracts, poetry, performance poetry, song lyrics and graphic novels and will look at popular literary forms like science fiction and the work of best -selling  Czech authors.  Some of the authors will participate in the class as special guest lecturers.  Professor Bernie Higgins is a lecturer of Gender Issues in Contemporary Literature and British Literature at Charles University in Prague and a Member of the Gender Studies Centre in Prague.

• European Languages

Advanced: Students must already be proficient in the target language in order to participate.  Interested students will only be placed in advanced language classes if they can pass the entrance exam, which will be administered before departure.  Advanced language classes are taught entirely in the target language and students are expected to interact with their professor and classmates in that target language.  English will not be spoken.

Beginners: If five or more UPrague students are interested in forming a beginning-level class, this can be arranged for Spanish, French, German, Italian and Russian.