logo_arts.gif (3536 bytes)

  FACULTY OF ARTS

   Dean’s Office, Arne Nováka 1, 660 88 Brno
 
   phone: ++420–5–41 121 111
   fax: ++420–5–41 121 406
   http://www.phil.muni.cz/


     until February 15, 2000 from March 29, 2000
   Dean:    Assoc. Prof. Dr. Ivan Seidl Dr. Jan Pavlík
      
   Vice-deans:    Prof. Dr. Jana Nechutová

Prof. PhDr. Jana Nechutová (until June 30, 2000)

     Prof. Dr. Miloš Štìdroò Assoc. Prof. Milada Franková
     Assoc. Prof. Dr. Jan Zouhar.

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Jan Zouhar.

     Dr. Jan Pavlík   
     
   President of the Academic Senate:   Assoc. Prof. Dr. etislav Horyna, CSc. 

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Bøetislav Horyna, Ph.D.

      
   Secretary:   Ing. Otakar Vaòura Ing. Otakar Vaòura

The Faculty of Arts (FA) of Masaryk University provides courses in philological studies (language and literature of over 20 languages and general linguistics), historical studies (archaeology, archive studies, history, museology, auxiliary historical disciplines), the study of liberal arts (history of visual arts, drama history, aesthetics, film studies, musical studies and classical archaeology), human and social sciences (ethnology, philosophy, pedagogy, psychology, religious studies, social pedagogy and counselling, and information and library sciences).

In the year 2000, 4088 people applied to study at the Faculty of Arts. In the academic year 2000/2001, there were no changes in the study regulations. The study is credit-based and organised in cycles, whereby the first cycle of study is completed by passing a comprehensive or Bachelor’s exam.

A number people of the departmens of Faculty of Arts are honorary or full members of important institutions both in the Czech Republic and abroad. Dr. Thomas Donaldson Sparling, B.A. is the chairman of the Central European Network of Canadian Studies; Dr. Jitka Vlèková is a member of the British Association for Study of Australia (BASA); Prof. Dr. Richard Jeøábek is an elected representative of the Czech Republic on the board of the Société Internationale d´Ethnologie et de Folklore of the UNESCO based in Vienna, a member of the Union Internationale des Sciences Anthropologiques et Ethnologiques (UISAE) in the USA, and the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Volkskunde (DGV) in Göttingen. Prof. Dr. Dušan Holý is a member of the Society for Ethnomusicology in the USA; Prof. Dr. Antonín Bartonìk is a member of CIPEM (Centre International Permanent des Etudes Mycénéennes) in Paris, the chairman of the Brno branch of the Union of Classical Philologists, and an honorary member of the Greek Scholarly Society in the Czech Republic. Prof. Dr. Jaroslav Støítecký is a member of the International Expert Council of the Commission for Culture Sciences and History of Theatre of the Austrian Academy of Science, and a member of the Commission for the Social History of the Austro-Hungarian Empire of the International Expert Council of the Austrian Academy of Sciences. Prof. Dr. Masaøík is a committee member of the Academy in Mannheim and the chairman of the Czech Association of German Scholars. Prof. Dr. Josef Hladký is the chairman of the Czech Association of English Scholars. Prof. Dr. Josef Švancara is an honorary member of the Czech and Moravian Psychology Association. Prof. Dr. Jiøí Kroupa acts as chairman of the Czech Association for Research on the 18th Century, which is a part of the ISECS. Prof. Dr. Vladimír Podborský acts as chairman of the Regional Archaeological Committee, an advisory body to the director of the Historical Monument Institute in Brno, and also a member of the Archaeological Committee of the Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic. Assoc. Prof. Dr. Lubomír Slavíèek is chairman of the Society for the History of Arts in the Czech Lands and a member of the National Committee for the History of Art of CIHA. Dr. Milada Rabušicová is a member of the Czech Committee of the World Organisation for Pre-School Education (OMEP). Dr. Alena Køížová, Ph.D. is a member of F.I.D.E.M., the international medal design and engraving organisation. Dr. Július Gajdoš, Ph.D. is a member of the executive council of the European Network of Cultural Administrators Training Centre (ENCATC) in Copenhagen.

Last year, the Faculty of Arts suffered the loss through death of several outstanding personalities: Prof. Dr. Jan Firbas, an internationally acclaimed English scholar, Doctor Honoris causa (Leeds, Leuven, Turku) and member of many academic societies, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Ivan Seidl, Romanist and Italian Scholar who in 1999 was awarded the Knight's Order of the Republic of Italy for promoting cultural relationship between Italy and the Czech Republic, Dr. Libor Štukavec, an outstanding translator specializing in Swedish literature for children, bearer of the Honour of the Swedish Queen, and Prof. Dr. Zdenìk Kudìlka, one of the most important Czech art historians and experts on Modern and Baroque architecture.

Of the many conferences, seminars and colloquia organised by the Faculty of Arts institutions and departments in 2000, let us mention the following:

Institute of Czech Literature organised the conference Arne Novák – Literary Historian and Critic. This conference focused on Novák’s works on literature, his work as a university teacher, dignitary and journalist, and his activities as a personality of cultural and social life. The Institute of the Czech Language organised the symposium Czech  – Universal Features and Specific Traits 3 (in support of work on the linguistic dictionary with working title Czech in Linguistic Terms). At the International Music Festival in Brno, the Institute of Musicology organised the international musicological colloquium entitled Musicology on the Threshold of the New Millennium. The Institute of Slavonic Studies organised the fourth Brno Slovak Studies Symposium devoted to the Czech and Slovak language and literature relationships.

In co-operation with the Brno branch of the Austrian Institute for Eastern and South-Eastern Europe, the Institute of Theatre and Film Studies of the Faculty participated as a co-ordinator in the organisation of the international theatre conference Theatre as a Place of Cross Cultural Exchange in Eastern and Central Europe, and it organised Days of Japanese Film in co-operation with Tokai University. The FA Institute of Pedagogy organised the seminar Consultancy in the Context of School Development on the need of comprehensive consultancy services. In co-operation with the Hellenika Foundation, the Institute of Classical Studies introduced traditional Greek culture to the general public at the Brno Greek Days. Continuous attention is given to the creative activities of students and young staff members: the Institute of Slavonic Studies organised a student conference on the best academic work in Slavonic studies in the following sections: literature, linguistics, culture and translation. The Institute of Theatre and Film Studies organised the fourth International Symposium of Young Theatre Scholars – Theatre Directing on a New Road? .

Lectures, meetings with students and meetings with colleagues were also held by the many foreign guests at the Faculty:

With the participation of Embassy of Iran diplomats, the Institute of Theatre and Film Studies organised a special screening of the Iranian film "Covered in Blue", attended by Mr. Abbas Noruzi, the filmmaker Ms. Rachsan Bani-Etemad and Ms. Fateme Motamed-Aria, the main female protagonist. Assoc. Prof. Alexander Cizek gave a lecture on medieval rhetoric; Prof. Konrad Vollman (Germany) gave a lecture on the Medieval Latin epic poem; Otto Braasch from Germany gave a lecture on aerial archaeology and carried out an aerial archaeological survey of Moravia; Prof. Juergen Martini from Germany organised an intensive course on South African literature The Faculty of Arts was also visited by the leading Italian professor of neo-Greek studies Constantino Nikas; by leading Viennese professor of Slavonic studies Vintr; Prof. Grigorij Pivtorak from Moscow, a specialist in the history of the Ukraine and in Ukrainian; Assoc. Prof. Tatiana M. Nikolajeva from Russia gave a series of lectures on Pushkin; leading experts in the early Middle Ages – Dr. Andrej Ploterski (Slovenia), Dr. Erik Szameit (Austria) and Dr. Hans Losert (Germany) – gave lectures and took part in seminars on issues of the early Medieval period in Central Europe.

Last year a total of 234 Faculty teachers went abroad to study, lecture and participate in congresses and symposia. Some of the most interesting include the following: Assoc. Prof. Pol took part in the international conference Civitas Kosovo in Pristina as an expert of the European Council; Dr. Dalibor Papoušek took part in the 18th Congress of the International Association for the History of Religion in Durban (South Africa); Dr. Køížová was the Czech delegate at the international medal design and engraving organisation F.I.D.E.M. congress in Weimar, for which she prepared the Czech collection; Assoc. Prof. Vašina took part in the 2nd International Somatic Psychotherapy Congress in Brazil; and Assoc. Prof. Zouhar attended the international conference on Globalisation and Integration Processes in Central and Eastern Europe.  

Interest among foreign students in the study at the Faculty of Arts has continued to grow. This year, Faculty accepted over 100 foreign students, including Ministry of Education fellowship students, compatriots, visiting students and students within the SOCRATES/ ERASMUS/ CEEPUS programmes (which involves more fields every year). There was also an increase in interest in bilateral agreements with other universities (e.g. Chattanooga, Kiev, Plovdiv and Naples). Faculty of Arts and the Department of Czech for Foreigners offer every year semester-long fellowships for 8 to 10 foreign students of Czech studies. Between 28 July and 25 August 2000, 127 students from 29 countries attended the 33rd Summer School of Slavonic Studies, which regularly represents the most important foreign student event organised by the Faculty. Throughout the year, the Department of Czech for Foreigners offered several types of intensive courses of the Czech language at various levels.

On 1 September 2000, the Department of the Czech Language opened the Centre of Linguistics Czech Studies for Foreigners, which offers specialised courses to foreigners based on their individual requirements.

In 2000, the Faculty staff worked on a total of 36 grants, of which 18 were for the Czech Grant Agency and three for the Development Fund for Higher Education of the Ministry of Education of the Czech Republic. The Institutes of Musicology, Archaeology and Museology continued to work on extensive three-year projects awarded by the Ministry of Education in 1999. A total of 13 small-scale grants were obtained from, e.g., the MoEYS, OOSI, CEEPUS and AKTION. Twenty-eight Faculty of Arts teachers were active on committees of various grant agencies.

 The Faculty of Arts teachers and research workers published many treatises, papers and articles in proceedings and journals, both at home and abroad. They were, among others, Jan Zouhar (The Previous End of the Century), Ivan Dorovský (Slavs and Europe), Jana Nechutová (Latin Literature in Medieval Bohemia Until 1400), Dušan Lužný (Green Bodhisattvas: Socially and Environmentally Involved Buddhism, Bøetislav Horyna (Myths of One Word), Milan Pol (Intervision and Supervision as Challenging Options for Co-operation), Krystyna Kardyni-Pelikánová (Spotkania literackie), Zdeòka Hladká (Figurative Names of Plants in Czech Dialects), Eva Lukavská (Ernesto Sábato: Labyrinth Journey), Antonín Bartonìk (Handbuch des mykenischen Grieschisch), and Ludmila Urbanová and Jana Chamonikolasová (Chapter I. Phonetics and Phonology).

Last year, Faculty of Arts teachers received ten prizes, three of which were international (Prof. Dorovský). The others are listed below:

Prof. Dr. Vladimír Podborský – Medal of the Ministry of Education For Long-Term Outstanding Pedagogical and Organisational Work at MU FA in Brno; Prof. Dr. Jaroslav Mezník – Prize of the Rector of Masaryk University; Prof. Dr. Dušan Šlosar – Medal of the Ministry of Education, Gold Medal of MU; Assoc. Prof. Dr. Miloš Mendel – Prof. Karel Petráèek Award "For the Popularisation of Arabic Culture", Opus Arabicum, Praha; Prof. Dr. Ivan Dorovský, Golden Plume of the Macedonian Association of Translators, the Jovan Kukuzela Cross of the MZ of Macedonia and Honourable Mention by the Serbian Ministry of Science and Culture; Helena Spurná, Ph.D. – Prize of the Rector of Masaryk University for Outstanding Achievements in Ph.D. Studies, granted on the occasion of the Dies Academicus Brunensis celebration; Jiøí Macháèek, Ph.D. – the Jan Rulf Prize, First Place in the 1998 – 1999 contest for the best work by an archaeologist up to the age of 36.