FACULTY OF ARTS

Dean's Office, FA, Arne Nováka 1, 660 88 Brno

tel. 41 121 111

fax. 41 121 406

Prof. PhDr. Jana Nechutová, CSc.

Dean 

Vice-deans: 

Doc. PhDr. Ivo Plaňava

Prof. PhDr. Ivo Možný, CSc.

PhDr. Jan Pavlík, CSc.

Doc.PhDr. Jan Zouhar, CSc.

Chairman of the Academic Senate: 

Prof. PhDr. Jiří Fukač, CSc.

Secretary: 

Ing. Otakar Vaňura

In 1996 the scientific and educational activity of the Faculty of Arts brought a lot of positive results. The scientific activity of tuition and research staff was supported by a higher number of grant projects. The total number of projects were 74, out of which 43 were grant-aided and 31 project contracts, 27 grants were awarded by the Grant Agency CR (7 projects were launched in 1996) and 8 grants were received from the Fund of university development of the Ministry of Education.

Besides creative research activity, important were activities connected with science development and organisation. Eighteen workers were members of branch grant agencies, 96 were on the committees of professional societies, 12 were members of foreign societies and 68 were members of editorial boards. Many of them were chief editors or executive editors of scientific and research journals. In 1996 a lot of conferences were prepared by the institutes and departments of the Faculty. Let us mention at least the international musicologic workshop in Brno. The scientific and research activity of students was also greatly supported The Institute of History and the Institute of Musicology organised a student scientific conference.

In 1996 the number of applications for full-time study rose to 6649 (compared with 4904 in 1995 and 4434 in 1994). The number of admitted students was 620 and the first-year enrolment was 598. The total number of full-time students was 3160. They studied 40 subjects either as a single subject or in combination with others. There are some subjects which cannot be studied in combination but a great majority can be freely combined. The result is 228 study combinations. This fact raises demands for organisation of tuition and requires a good cooperation with the office of studies. A credit system was introduced. The syllabuses of some subjects were altered. A dynamic development was the School of Social Studies (Prof. I. Možný, director) which includes sociology, political science, journalism, social policy and practice. This is considered a project of a new faculty of social science. The gradual introducing of the credit system and continuous changes in the internal structure of some courses did not encourage stabilisation of study rules. Stabilisation is the objective of a new Senate elected in November 1996 which consists of 17 tuition staff and 16 students. The re-elected chairman is Prof. PhDr. Jiří Fukač, CSc. 

An important part of the curriculum is post-graduate studies. Till 31 October 1996 there were 393 students studying 30 subjects, 54 of them were full-time postgraduate students. The spectrum of studies covers also distance education courses and specialisation courses run predominantly by the Institute of Educational Science and the Institute of Archeology and Museology. 

A broad international co-operation brought more than one hundred invitations to present lectures abroad. A lot of Faculty staff made study trips and during their stay abroad they participated in the organisation and management of international congresses and conferences. They were active co-organisers of the workshop "T.G.Masaryk - a university teacher and a visionary politician. which was held on the occasion of the unveiling of a bust of TGM in the courtyard of the University in Vienna on 21 November 1996. Co-operation continued and new contacts were established with a number of departments of foreign universities. Immensely valuable was the role of some faculty staff in the 18^th congress of the Society for Science and Art, which was held in Brno in August 1996 (Prof. Fukač, Prof. Smékal, doc. Suchomel and others). 

The research undertaken at the university gave rise to a large volume of publications. Twenty monographs (6 of them published abroad), 234 articles in bulletins (46 of them published abroad), 127 articles in journals (24 of them published abroad), 18 teaching materials, 9 textbooks (2 of them published abroad) and a number of other original studies. Increased interest was provoked by monographs published in the Czech Republic (e.g. J. Válka: Moravia - Reformation, Renaissance and Baroque, J. Malíř: From clubs to modern political parties, J. Hladký: The Czech and the English Names of Mushrooms, J. Šmajs: Culture versus nature, J. Keller: Sociology of bureaucracy and organisation, M. Suchomel: What was left from the reviewer, J. Trávníček: Poetry of the last chance, P. Fiala: German political science, I. Pospíšil - M. Zelenka: René Wellek and the inter-war Czechoslovakia, etc.) and abroad (P. Kurfrst and others). 

Traditionally and naturally, the Faculty of Arts has been one of the most important cultural centres in the broadest sense of the word. This is the outcome of extensive popularisation and cultural activities of a number of faculty staff in press, TV and radio broadcasting, in organising film, theatre, music, ethnographic, literary and visual arts projects, exhibitions and other events. The prominent figures who contributed to the prestige of the Faculty were, for example, Prof. Válka, Prof. Fukač, Prof. Srba, Prof. Podborský, Prof. Smékal, Prof. Kopecký, Prof. Štědroň, Prof. Jelínek, Prof. Pospíšil, doc. Librová, doc. Keller, doc.Šmajs and others. It is also necessary to direct attention to a bulk of editorial and translation activities (one of J. Jungmann Prizes for the Best Translation went to PhDr. P. Kyloušek from the Institute of Romance Languages and Literature), preparation of language manuals and dictionaries (Prof. Bartoš, Prof. Dorovský, etc) some of which were published abroad (doc. Čejka, dr. Fišer). 

A grievous loss for the Faculty and University staff was Prof. PhDr. Jaroslav Kudrna, DrSc, a prominent historian and philosopher, a recognised expert in the history of the Italian Renaissance, German, French and Italian historiography and philosophy of history, and Prof. PhDr. Lubomír Nový, CSc, a well-known philosopher and sociologist, head of the Department of Philosophy, member of the International Institute of Philosophy in Paris, an outstanding expert in Masaryk personality and contemporary Czech, French and German philosophy, an organiser of scientific life and a founder of the Cabinet for studies of TGM work under the Department of Philosophy.