Central
European Studies courses are offered in association with the Charles
University Faculty of Humanities. While many of our faculty
have appointments with Charles University, courses are held in the CET
center, a well-equipped building in the center of Prague. The
multi-disciplinary curriculum provides an
opportunity to examine Central Europe holistically. CET's emphasis on
experiential learning allows students to greet the local culture
hands-on and to use the entire region as a learning laboratory.
All CET courses are taught specifically for CET
students, although in some terms Czech students may be invited to
certain CET courses. Some courses may not be offered during certain terms. CET asks all applicants to submit course request forms, which are used to determine the final selection of electives.
Spring and Fall Terms
CET students attending the Central European Studies in Prague program for the fall or spring terms enroll in a total of five courses, including two required courses. There is no language prerequisite for the program. Central European Studies students may take up to one of their electives from the Jewish Studies program (those with a JS for the course number). Students also have the option of participating in a service learning internship.
During spring and fall terms, CET may be able to arrange for students to take one elective course at the Humanities Faculty of Charles University or a non-production course at FAMU, the Film and TV School of the Academy of Performing Arts. An additional fee of 150 Euros per credit applies to FAMU electives (most courses are 1.5-3 credits). A final elective course listing for FAMU and Charles University courses will be available when students arrive in Prague. Students interested in this option should contact CET upon acceptance into the program.
Summer Terms
During the summer program, CET students enroll in a total of three courses, including two required courses. Czech language meets for a total of 21 hours during the summer (3 hours/week), and all other courses meet for a total of 39 hours (about 6 hours/week).
Select a course name to be taken to the course description and syllabus. Please note that not all courses are available in all terms. Applicants submit a course request form, which is used to determine the elective courses offered for each term. Central European Studies students may select up to one elective from the Jewish Studies program.
Course Descriptions and Syllabi Please note that syllabi are revised each semester; your syllabus may differ from those listed below.
CE100-300 Czech LanguageRequired for All Students Students participate in a week-long Czech Language
Intensive (4 hours/day) at the beginning of the term to introduce
practical Czech. No other classes are taught during the first week.
Students continue to study Czech throughout the term. Students are
challenged to utilize their new language skills in everyday situations.
Students entering the program with previous Czech language study enroll
in a language course at their level of fluency. First week, 4
hours/day. Remaining weeks: 3 hours/week. Recommended credit: 3 semester hours fall and spring; 1 credit for summer (summer program does not include intensive Czech).
CE250 Political and Cultural History of Central Europe in the 20th Century Required for Central European Studies Students This
course provides an understanding of the important political, social
and cultural developments of the region during the 19th and 20th
centuries. Students explore the establishment of independent
nation states during the interwar period, Nazi occupation, resistance
and collaboration, the Holocaust and the expulsion of the Germans, the
nature of the communist system, its final collapse and the
post-communist transformation. Recommended credit: 3 semester hours.
CE310 Topics in Central European Film spring and fall only This course will vary in topic each semester. The most recent syllabi are provided below so that students can get an idea of what topics have been offered in the past. Recommended credit: 3 semester hours.
JS320 Jewish Literatures of East Central Europefall only This
course focuses on essential texts written by East Central European
Jewish writers of the 20th century. It also covers texts (in
translation) written by Jewish authors in German and texts offering
images of Central European Jewry written by non-Jewish writers. We look
at fiction after the turn of the century, the Holocaust theme, and life
under the Communist regime. Among the themes we explore are the notion
of the collective, communal, and individual identity and the image of
the city perceived as a metaphor of modern human existence. To situate
this class in its Prague context, students visit the Kafka Museum, view
films related to the themes of the course and take walks around the
sites of German-Jewish-Czech Prague memory. Recommended credit: 3 semester hours.
CE/JS321 An Introduction to the Works of Franz Kafka and His Historical Situationspring and summer only This
course focuses on Franz Kafka's short stories and two of his unfinished
novels within the context of Prague German literature, referencing the
framework of modernist culture of fin de siècle and early 20th century
Vienna as well as links with the expressionist and other Avant-garde
movements. Combining the methods of both literary and intellectual
history, it also provides a basic discussion of dominant and
thought-giving voices in the literature on Kafka -- from his
contemporaries up to the present day -- approaching Kafka's work as a
part of our time, as a possible "passage into modernity." This course
is cross-listed with Jewish Studies. Recommended credit: 3 semester hours.
JS322 Golems and Ghosts in Legendary Central Europesummer only This course is a special offering taught by University of Maryland Professor Miriam Isaacs for summer 2010. This course looks at Jewish civilization with a focus on Central Europe and
especially on This course looks at Jewish civilization with a focus on
Central Europe and especially on legends of the golem and of ancient Jewish cemeteries,
which are interconnected themes. The golem
legends involve issues surrounding the creation of life, its limits,
possibilities and dangers. The most important version of the legend
takes place in Prague, where a clay man-creature was made by a mixture
of divine and human action. Many legends surround its creator, the
rabbi and sage, Judah Leyb ben Bezalal, (d.1609) known as the Maharal, a
man of both science and religion. Surrounding legends form a Jewish
cultural motif, crossing national and linguistic boundaries. The
Maharal's grave, in the ancient Jewish Quarter of Prague is an
important cultural locus and itself spawns legends. All of this is set
within a larger tradition of Jewish mysticism and mythology. The course
draws from Jewish folk and rabbinic sources, examines how the legend
was transformed through Jewish literature in the nineteenth, twentieth
and twenty-first centuries. This course has 39 contact hours;
Recommended credit: 3 semester hours.
CE330 Modern Art in the Czech Lands: 19th-21st Centuries spring and fall only This
course is an introduction to various aspects of contemporary arts and
architecture in Czech culture. Examine the relationship between the
construction of memory and the construction of contemporary art,
architecture, and writings through lectures, discussions, and visits to
galleries and architectural sites within the city of Prague. Recommended credit: 3 semester hours. This course was previously titled as "Czech Art, Architecture and Memory;" the content remains the same, but the title has been updated to reflect the course content more accurately.
CE340 Czech Republic in Transition: From Communism to the European Union This
course explores how the Czech Republic has managed the transition from
communism to market economy and democracy since the Velvet Revolution.
Topics range from classical socialism to the current political
structure to membership in the European Union. The class mixes
lectures, discussion, debates, case studies, site visits to businesses
and NGOs, and student research presentations. Recommended credit: 3 semester hours. This course was previously titled as "Transitional Economies: The Czech Republic and the EU;" the content remains the same, but the title has been updated to reflect the course content more accurately.
CE/JS342 Nationalism, Minorities and Migrations in Europespring and fall only Since
the French revolution, nationalism has become one of the leading forces
in European politics and culture. It has progressively transformed all
European states and societies into nation states and national
societies. The core of the nationalist project lies at the intersection
of two claims--the claim to self-government of a people and the claim
to its distinct national identity. This course explores these two
claims and delve deeper into historical conditions and the
transformation of current European multiculturalism. There is a
focus on two minority groups, the Jews and the Roma (Gypsies). This course is cross-listed with Jewish Studies. Recommended credit: 3 semester hours.
JS351 Destruction of European Jewryfall only Why
did Jews become the subject of genocidal hatred? This seminar
investigates German Nazism, differences between the Holocaust in
Western
and Eastern Europe, the Terezín case, issues associated with the
perpetrators of the Holocaust, Jewish resistance, and the psychological
impact of the Holocaust on first and second generation survivors.
Discussions with Czech survivors are an essential component of the
course. Recommended credit: 3 semester hours.
CE352 Resistance and Dissent: Punk and Alternative Culture from Nazism to Communism in the Czech Landsspring and fall only Please
note that this course will have a different professor for spring 2010.
Stay tuned for a revised syllabus. The linked syllabus is from a previous version of the course. This course provides critical insights into the Czech expressions of resistance: underground, dissident and contemporary bohemian. Starting from the World War II movement against German occupation (Jesenská, Fucík, Kuderíková), students will continue to learn about the 1950s underground embodied by the free-wheeling trio of graphic artist Boudnik, philosopher Bondy and writer Hrabal. In the sixties the rebel role is taken up by the "bigbeat" of The Plastic People of the Universe and their later connection with Charter 77, the civic rights movement headed by the then dissident Václav Havel. The role of the Czech "alternative scene" of the 1980s is discussed in music (UJD, Psí vojáci, MCH Band, etc.), theatre and film (Prague 5). Post-89 trends will be traced in anarchism, the alterglobalisation movement, hip hop and graffiti, squatting and other current phenomena.
The focus is on the "politics" of resistance and disclosures of power mechanisms. Visuals and field trips are a part of this course.
Recommended credit: 3 semester hours.
CE353 Feminism and Gender in Post-Communist Societyspring and fall only This
course analyzes contemporary phenomena shaping our everyday existence
in this world as men and women. Starting with the debate of the
"communist gender experiment" students move into political and
sociological arenas to debate registered partnership, transgender
issues, reproduction rights (including sterilization of Roma women),
sex trafficking, pornography, and representation of sexes in public
life. Youth subcultures will be presented from a gender viewpoint.
Other major cultural myths upholding traditional concepts of
masculinity and femininity--film, media and advertising will be studied
and compared to the new virtual possibilities of
cyberspace, "reformed" spirituality and post-feminist readings of
popular culture and cartoons. This course is
heavily supported with visual documentation, field-trips, and stars
exciting Czech guest-speakers from the field of arts, politics and
religion. Recommended credit: 3 semester hours.
CE/JS354 Prague, Vienna and Budapest: An Intellectual and Cultural History This
course discusses 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 WWII, 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 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.
In this course, students see how the dominant ideas in fields as diverse as religion, science, art and philosophy
have shaped the 20th century culture in the West; these ideas can all
be traced back to the works of Austrian, Czech or Hungarian
intellectuals such as Sigmund Freud, Adolf Loos or Georg Lukácz. Students have the extraordinary opportunity to study the fermentation of
these ideas "on site," in the very places in which they originated, since the CES program takes place in Prague and includes visits to Vienna and Budapest. A wide range of learning tools are used,
including different kinds of literature, photographs and reproductions
of modernist art and architecture. This course is cross-listed with Jewish Studies. Recommended credit: 3 semester hours.
JS355 Anti-Semitism and the Holocaust in the Czech Lands: History and Memoryspring only This course will explore the history of
Jews in the multi-ethnic setting of the Bohemian (or Czech) Lands and guide
students through different aspects of the cohabitation of the Jewish minority
with Czechs and Germans in the 19th and 20th Centuries.
One of the major questions addressed is to what degree the course of modern
Jewish history in this region took a different path due to the intensifying
nationality conflict between Czechs and Germans. We will also look into the life of Jews under the Communist regime and
deal with the commemorative practices as well as historical narratives of the
Shoah in Czechoslovakia.
While the course will focus on
Jewish history and anti-semitism, it will attempt to locate these topics in the
broader context of Central European history and the rise of nationalism in this
region. Recommended credit: 3 semester hours.
JS356 Special Topics in Holocaust Studiessummer only Why
did Jews become the subject of genocidal hatred? This seminar
investigates various topics in connection with the Holocaust, including
German Nazism, differences between the Holocaust in Western and Eastern
Europe, the Terezín case, issues associated with the perpetrators of
the Holocaust, Jewish resistance, and the psychological impact of the
Holocaust on first and second generation survivors. Each summer may
have a particular lens or set of lenses from which the course is
presented, which could include films, site visits and discussions with
Czech survivors. This course has 39 contact hours; Recommended credit:
3 semester hours.
JS357 Judaism: Thought and Practice (*stay tuned for syllabus in October 2009*) spring 2010 only This course is a special offering taught by Wheaton College Professor Jonathan Brumberg-Kraus for spring 2010. This
course seeks to introduce the major religious and cultural dimensions
of the Jewish world, both those that express its diversity and those
that express its continuity. Emphasis will be given to the development
of classical Jewish institutions and ideas as well as the diverse forms
of Jewish religious and cultural life. We will be looking at important
trends in Jewish thought, such as Biblical poetry, narrative, and law;
rabbinic Midrash and medieval Kabbalah, Hasidism and its opponents,
modern Zionism, and other secular expressions of Judaism, as well as
distinctive Jewish practices, particularly Jewish meals and foodways,
like the Passover Seder. The course has two major purposes: (1) to
provide students with a better and deeper understanding of the
importance of the Jewish past upon the Jewish world today and (2)
contemporary Jews' own self-understanding of their system(s) of
religious faith and practices, and ethnicity. While we will study
Jewish thought and practice chronologically in its historical contexts,
this course will not duplicate what is covered in JS250, but rather
will explore the Jewish worldviews shaping that history.
CE201 Service Learning Internshipspring and fall only Students
who are excited about immersing themselves in the local environment and
are interested in participating in an individual volunteer opportunity
may choose to participate in a Service Learning Internship.
Students choose a volunteer opportunity which may include volunteering at a local
school or offering assistance to one of the many international
organizations in Prague. This course is in addition to the basic
curriculum of five classes and requires a minimum commitment of 3
hours/week. Recommended credit: 1 semester hour.
Upon written request, CET and Charles University issue official transcripts listing each course taken and the number of hours attended. Credit for the program must be requested from the student's home institution and will be granted at the institution's discretion. CET students generally receive a full semester's worth of credit for their semester abroad. Transcripts for any CET program that a student has attended will not be issued if the student has a remaining account balance.
The Central European Studies program was designed in consultation with CET's Advisory Board, comprised of a group of leading professors and experts in the fields of Czech Studies, Political Science, History, and Photography.
CET wishes to thank the Advisory Board for their dedication and vision. By giving their time and expertise in advising CET on the curriculum design, they have made an outstanding contribution to international education and Central European Studies.
CET's Central European Studies in Prague Advisory Board members include:
Sara Dumont Director, AU Abroad, American University
Nicholas Sawicki Assistant Professor of Art History, Lehigh University
Hubert Tworzecki Associate Professor, Political Science, Emory University
Bronislava Volkova Professor, Slavic Languages and Literature, Indiana University
1920 N Street, NW, Suite 200 - Washington, DC 20036 - (800) 225-4262 - cet@academic-travel.com
CET students attending the Central European Studies in Prague program for the fall or spring terms enroll in a total of five courses, including two required courses. There is no language prerequisite for the program. Central European Studies students may take up to one of their electives from the Jewish Studies program (those with a JS for the course number). Students also have the option of participating in a service learning internship. 
