A number of teachers are honorary or full members of important institutions, both in the Czech Republic and abroad. Prof. Jan Firbas is the chairman of honour of the Circle of Modern Philologists of the Czech Republic, Prof. Josef Hladký is the chairman of the Czech Association of English Scholars, Dr. Thomas Donaldson Sparling is the chairman of the Central European Network for Canadian Studies, and Dr. Jitka Vlčková is a member of BASA (the British Association for the Study of Australia). Prof. Richard Jeřábek is an elected representative of the Czech Republic on the board of SIEF (Société Internationale d’Ethnologie et de Folklore), which is a part of UNESCO and is based in Vienna, a member of UISAE (Union Internationale des Sciences Anthropologiques et Ethnologique), and a foreign member of DGV (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Volkskunde); Prof. Dušan Holý is a member of the Society for Ethnomusociology in the USA; Prof. Antonín Bartoněk is a committee member of CIPEM (Centre International Permanente 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; Assoc. Prof. Lubomír Slavíček is the chairman of the Society for the History of Arts in the Czech Lands and a member of the national committee for the history of arts of CIHA; Prof. Jiří Kroupa is the chairman of the Czech Society for 18^th Century Studies, itself forming a part of the ISECS international society; and Dr. Milada Rabušicová is a member of the Czech Committee of the World Organization for Pre-school Education (OMEP).

Out of the many scholarly conferences, symposiums, workshops and seminars held by departments of the Faculty in 1999, let us mention the following: the Department of Czech Literature, backed by the Open Society Fund, continued to organize the lecture series entitled Czech Literature in a Central European Context, in which leading Czech literary scholars and theoreticians took part; the Department of Czech Language organized a conference entitled The Czech Language – Universal Features and Specific Traits 2; the Department of Germanic and Norwegian Studies, in co-operation with the Austrian Institute for Eastern and South-Eastern Europe organized a series of lectures and discussions called The Brno Encounter, with the participation of more than 40 students from Brno, Fulda, Mannheim and Vienna, on the subject of the common history and future co-operation of the Czechs, Germans and Austrians; the Department of Archaeology and Museology organized a conference to celebrate the 80^th anniversary of the founding of MU and to commemorate the 50^th anniversary of the beginnings of archaeological research in the Znojmo region (an MU initiative) and the 40^th anniversary of the beginnings of systematic archaeological research of the Slavonic high-ground settlement of Břeclav-Pohansko; the Department of Musicology of the Faculty of Arts held an international musicological colloquium entitled The Sense (or Non-sense) of the History of 20^th Century Music and a conference called Museums of Music at the End of the 20^th Century; the Department of Theatre and Film Studies took part in organizing a symposium entitled Václav Havel, Playwright; the Department of Slavonic Studies organized an international scholarly conference called Alexander Sergeyevitsch Pushkin in a European International Context and the third international Czecho-Slovak symposium entitled Czech and Slovak Mutuality and Non-Mutuality; the Department of History of the Faculty of Arts, together with Matice Moravská (the Moravian Society for Popular Education), the Moravian Regional Museum in Brno and the Austrian Institute for Eastern and South-Eastern Europe organized an international conference entitled The History of Moravia and Matice Moravská: Problems and Prospects, etc. Special attention is paid to the research work students and younger faculty members: the Department of Classical Studies held a conference of Ph.D. students in Latin medieval studies and related fields; the Department of History organized at faculty level a student scholarly research conference entitled History 99, and the Department of Theatre and Film Studies, in collaboration with the Austrian Institute for Eastern and South-Eastern Europe organized the third symposium of theatre students of theatre entitled The Contemporary Drama in Crisis?

The Faculty played host to a number of important Czech and foreign guests, who took part in discussions with students and get-togethers with teachers: the ambassadors of South Africa, the USA, Canada, Norway, Algiers, Switzerland, Mexico and other members of diplomatic corps; the writer and playwright Pavel Kohout; the directors Vojtěch Jasný and Saša Gedeon; the writers Jan Trefulka and Ludvík Kundera; the Minister of Culture Pavel Dostál; Prof. Zdeněk Mathauser (who received the Gold Medal of MU); Dr. Daničle Monmarte from France (director of the National Centre for Scholarly Research of the Theatre and vice-president of the Eastern Europe Solidarity Committee); Prof. François Marčs (the director of CEFRES); Prof. Dr. Ewald Kislinger (University of Vienna); Prof. Roderick Beaton (King’s College); Prof. Bruno d’Agostino (Instituto Universitario Orientale, Naples); Frank Boldt, Ishmael Reed, Hanif Kureishi, and many others.

Our teachers published a large number of original scholarly works and essays in Czech and foreign almanacs and journals. The Faculty published 21 monographs. To name a few: Czech Compound Words from the Point of View of Diachrony by D. Šlosar, Ancient Socio-Religious Architecture in Moravia by V. Podborský, The Stage Works of Ludwig van Beethoven by R. Pečman, The Economic Rise of Moravia, 1740 – 1918 by J. Janák, The Moravia of the Luxembourgs 1310 – 1423 by J. Mezník, The Holocaust of the Czech Roma by C. Nečas, Nothing Permanent and Present by M. Kopecký, British Women Writers at the End of the Millennium by Milada Franková, Numerals Comparative – Etymological Analysis and Its Implications by V. Blažek, Chapters in the History of Russian Democracy: Alexander Kerensky by V. Goněc, Vergleichende stilistische Untersuchungen zum Ackermann aus Böhmen und Tkadlec by S. Stanovská, An Examination of the Domestic Management of Subjects in Western Moravia in the 16^th and 17^th Centuries by B. Chocholáč.

A number of teachers received important awards both in the Czech Republic and abroad: on Prof. Radoslav Večerka was conferred the degree of honorary doctor from the University of Freiburg; the Dean of the Faculty Assoc. Prof. Ivan Seidl was awarded the Knight’s Order of the Republic of Italy for promoting the cultural relationship between Italy and the Czech Republic and for his scholarly work in and translations of Italian literature; Prof. Jiří Fukač was nominated a member-correspondent of the Austrian Academy of Sciences in Vienna; Prof. Bořivoj Srba received the Prize of the Minister of Education for Lifetime Achievement; Prof. Josef Šmajs and Prof. Jiří Vysloužil were awarded the Memorial Silver Medal of the Ministry of Education; Prof. Jiří Šrámek received the Gold Medal of the Rector of Masaryk University; Prof. Miloš Štědroň obtained the Prize of the Rector of Masaryk University for his book Leoš Janáček and 20^th Century Music, as did Prof. Jaroslav Hroch for his book Philosophical Hermeneutics in History and the Present; Assoc. Prof. Ludmila Urbanová received the Prešov University Medal for her promotion of English studies at the Faculty of Arts at the University of Prešov.