FACULTY OF ARTS

Děkanát FF Arne Nováka 1 660 88 Brno tel. 41 121 111, fax. 41 121 406

In 1997, both the academic research and the pedagogical activities of the Faculty of Arts were marked by a number of positive trends. The number of grants showed an increase over the number awarded in 1996, marking an ongoing trend. A total of 79 grants were obtained, of which 39 were budgetary grants and 40 were non-budgetary. This amount included 20 grants from the Grant Agency of the Czech Republic (GA ER) and 14 from the Development Fund of the Ministry of Education. In addition to these, the Faculty received nine grants from abroad.

Next to academic research, activities at the level of academic organization also played an important role in the Faculty's visibility. A total of 21 members of the Faculty sit on academic boards of various grant-awarding agencies, 75 on the boards of academic organizations, 75 on editorial boards, whilst 12 belong to academic associations abroad. A number of members of the Faculty act as editors-in-chief or editors of academic or professional journals, chairs of international commissions or scholarly associations. For example, Prof. Jioí Fukae is Chair of the Czech branch of the IASP [the International Association for the Study of Popular Music], Chair of the Academic Council of the Institute of Musicology of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic [AV ER] in Prague and Vice-Chair of the Czech Council of Music of UNESCO in Prague; Prof. Antonín Bartonik is a member of the CIPEM Comité based in Paris and Dr. Martina Pavlicová a member of the CIOFF international cultural committee.

Among the many academic conferences organized and held by the Faculty's departments in 1997 were the following: the "Czech and Slovak" international conference held by the Department of History together with the Department of History of the MU Faculty of Education in October; the "Fifty Years of Moravian-Dutch Studies in the Context of a Thousand Years of Relations between Moravia and the Netherlands" held by the Dutch section of the Department of Germanic and Nordic Studies, the "Juvenile Deliquency and Its Prevention" conference held by the Department of Educational Sciences; the "Development of Music after 1968/1969: is it characterized by the 'Philosophy of Survival' of new Music?" held by the Department of Musicology and Aesthetics and the Brno branch of the Österreichisches Ost- and Südeuropa Institut at the Moravian Museum; and finally, the "Brno Slavonic Studies and Czech-Slovak Relations" international conference to mark the beginning of a five-year master's course in Slavonic Studies at Masaryk University. The academic research activities of our students were also a focus of attention. The "History 1997" academic conference held under the auspices of the Association of Historians in the Czech Republic had local and national meetings at the Faculty of Arts of MU attended by representatives of ten faculties of various universities and other institutions of higher education in the Czech Republic. The Faculty also held the "Phenomenon of Evil in Czech Literature" conference focusing on a particular issue of literary studies. This conference was attended by students of departments of Czech language from virtually all faculties of arts and education in the Czech Republic.

The number of applications for day-time (full-time) study increased once again in 1997. A total of 7,335 applicants submitted applications for study in the 1997/1998 academic year (for comparison, in 1996, the number was 6,649). A total of 693 students were admitted to the first year, 613 of which actually registered. In the 1997/1998 academic year, a total of 3,421 students were registered for full-time study. These students study in 42 academic disciplines, either in single-subject studies or in a combination of two subjects. Given that the combining of subject is more or less open, a total of 231 different combinations are currently being studied in five-year programmes and as a result the demands placed on the organization of entrance exams or on the organization of the academic year have increased continually.

As of January 1998, the newly established Faculty of Social Studies separated from the Faculty of Arts. The new faculty focuses on the fields of sociology, social policy and social work, mass-media studies and journalism, political science, environmental studies for the humanities and social psychology. Professor Ivo Mo?ný was assigned as Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences.

Post-graduate doctoral studies are an important part of the study programme at the Faculty of Arts. As of October 31 1997, a total of 445 students were studying in 31 academic disciplines. Of these students, 72 were enrolled in internal (full-time) studies. During the course of the year, 19 students successfully completed their doctoral studies. The various types of study at the Faculty are supplemented by part-time studies in a number of disciplines, and by specialised courses organized by the Departments of Educational Sciences, Musicology and Aesthetics, Archaeology and Museology, etc.

International contacts of the Faculty of Arts are also very diverse. In 1997, 75 guests from abroad visited the Faculty and presented lectures, led seminars or conducted research as part of both short-term and long-term stays. These included teachers from the United States, Canada, Great Britain, Germany, France, Austria, Albania, and Croatia.

In the course of last year, more than one hundred students from abroad came to the Faculty of Arts to study, choosing from a wide variety of academic disciplines. The greatest level of interest was recorded in the study of Czech language, sociology, musicology and other Slavonic languages. The Department of Czech for Foreigners offers to those interested in Czech a wide range of courses at all levels. This Department is also currently preparing, together with the Department of Czech Language and Czech Literature, a bachelor's course in Czech language and literature for foreigners.

The Summer School of Slavonic Studies - held annually in August - is one of the most important international events held at the Faculty of Arts. This year marked the 30th anniversary of the Summer School. This year's session, which was opened in the presence of the Mayor of Brno and the Rector of Masaryk University, was attended by 110 students from 26 countries from around the world. The autumn course for students of the London School of Social Studies held by the Department of Social Policy and Social Work has already established a significant tradition.

During 1997, more than 180 trips abroad were made by members of the Faculty, mostly on the invitation of foreign universities (e.g. Prof. Nechutová - Lichtenstein and St. Gallen; Prof. Smékal - Belfast; Prof. Fukae - Copenhagen and Berlin; Prof. Bartonik - Athens; Assoc. Prof. Rabušic - Great Britain; Assoc. Prof. Zouhar and Assoc. Prof. Hroch - Washington). International contacts also intensified between the Faculty and countries such as Russia, the Ukraine, Belarus, Latvia, Croatia and Macedonia. Both governmental and bilateral agreements on co-operation were signed with major universities in the above-mentioned countries. At faculty level, cooperation is performed in the form of student exchanges. The reciprocal exchange of students between the Department of English and American Studies and the University of Tennessee in Chattanooga (USA) and with the University of Leeds (Great Britain) continues to expand, as do exchanges between the Department of Slavonic Studies and Universities in Bristol (Great Britain) and Kiev and between the Department of Social Policy and Social Work and the University of Lillehammer. Contacts with foreign language environments and with native speakers was also made possible by the presence of lecturers from abroad as organized by the Ministry of Education of the Czech Republic, of whom 18 taught at the Faculty of Arts in 1997.

In 1997, the wide-scale publishing activities of the faculty's members resulted in 30 monographs (11 of which were published abroad), 211 articles in reviewed festschrifts (43 of which abroad), 199 articles in other academic journals (39 of which abroad), 55 textbooks or other classroom materials and a whole range of other original research. Among these publications, the following received the greatest attention: D. Jeoábek, A. Novák [A.Novák] and Brninská romance [Brno Romance]; M.Suchomel, Jiné oei Jioího Mahena [The Different Eyes of Jioí Mahen]; B. Srba, Uminí režie (K tvurčí metodě reřiséra Miloše Hynšta) [The Art of Directing (Understanding the Creative Methods of the Director Miloš Hynšt)]; J.Šmajs, Konflikt přirozené a kulturní evoluce [Natural Conflict and Cultural Evolution]; P.Horák, J.Krob, I.Holzbachová, Toi studie o francouzské filozofii [Three Studies of French Philosophy]; J. Šrámek, Dějiny francouzské literatury v kostce [A Brief History of French Literature]; C. Neeas, T.G.Masaryk a východní Morava [T.G.Masaryk and Eastern Moravia]; H.Krmíčková, Studie a texty k poeátkum kalicha v Eechách [Studies and Texts on the Beginning of Utraquism in Bohemia]; D. Lu?ný, Nová náboženská hnutí [New Religious Movements]; M. Nekula, Text und Kontext am Beispiel der Konjunktionen; J. Fukae and J. Vysloužil (editors): Slovník české hudební kultury [Dictionary of Czech Musical Culture].

Teachers and students at the Faculty of Arts were also awarded a number of prizes in 1997. Prof. Rudolf Peeman was awarded a prize for lifetime achievement and public activities by the Czech Council of Music of UNESCO. Prof. Zdenik Ko?mín (for the publication Studie a kritiky [Studies and Criticism]) together with Prof. Booivoj Srba and PhDr. Eugenie Dufková (for the three-volume work Postavy brněnského jeviště [Figures of the Brno Stage]) received the City of Brno Prize. Prof. Josef Válka was awarded the E.E. Kisch Prize by the Community of Czech Authors, the Association of Organizations of Slovak Authors and the E.E. Kisch Foundation as well as with the Masaryk University Rector's Prize for his work Morava renesance, reformace a baroka [Moravia during the Renaissance, Reformation and Baroque]. The latter prize was also awarded to Sylvie Stanovská for her doctoral dissertation and to Bohdana Librová for her diploma thesis.