Czech Republic

This is a beginning-level course that provides students with the basic skills needed to communicate on a daily basis, including grammar, conversation, listening, writing, and reading comprehension. The course is designed to develop practical knowledge of the Czech language, allowing for function in everyday situations and facilitating a degree of integration into Czech culture and society. The course focuses on correct pronunciation and the acquisition of pertinent vocabulary and phraseology. Grammatical topics are introduced and employed as tools allowing for the use of Czech in simple conversational situations. The course also includes topics related to the Czech culture as a basic introduction to Czech society and customs. This course is intended for students who do not intend to continue their study of Czech and desire an introduction to the fundamentals of Czech grammar, syntax, and vocabulary.

This course examines the role of ethnic and religious identity in group prejudice in a Central European context, along with its geopolitical, cultural, ideological, and ethical implications. The course explores the function of communication in large groups and in mass movements, and the opportunities it provides for social research. A comparison of the Anglo-American and Continental European traditions of social research provide insight into complementarities of the two approaches and potential richness for new methodological approaches in the field of communication research. Students explore the historical circumstances in which particular social research scholarship was developed in order to provide a more realistic understanding of the scientific process. The course also discusses the mutual influence of society and social research and the benefits and dangers of this dynamic for democracy. Students identify research problems and build adequate research methodologies. The course reviews topics including the role of ethnicity and religious affiliation in a Central European context, how stereotypes may lead to group prejudice, prejudiced group attitudes as they appear in media and other forms of public discourse, the importance of social research for policy planning, interpreting publicly disseminated messages, and comparing and analyzing approaches to social research from an historical perspective.

This course reacts to the latest developments in the Central European space in the dynamic process of the European integration. The migration situation since 2015, the threats of terrorism, and the decision of the United Kingdom to leave the European Union within the end of 2019, are largely influencing the political atmosphere in Central European countries. This class examines the interdependence of both the developments of five Central European countries (Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, Austria, and Hungary) after the historical changes in 1989, as well as those developments inside the EU caused by the enlargement of the EU into Central Europe. Special attention is paid to the results of the elections to the European Parliament in May 2019 and to the subsequent decisions of the British government.

This course discusses the most important trends and movements in the history of Czech cinema, to put the films within their historical, political, and cultural contexts, and to explore how Czech films capture the life of the Czech society during various epochs (1960s - 2010s). It explores how to analyze the film form and style and how to employ various approaches to film criticism. As the course focuses on practical application of concepts and theories on film material, it involves watching selected feature films in their entirety (with English subtitles) as well as short extracts illustrating the topic outside of class.

This social psychology course introduces theory, research methods and empirical findings of how people think, feel, and behave in social situations. It builds a contemporary understanding of the field and study of social psychology. Throughout the course, emphasis is placed on developing critical and integrative ways of thinking about theory and research in social psychology. Topics covered include: research methods, the social self, cognition, perception, persuasion, conformity, prejudice, aggression, intimate relationships, and group dynamics. Students cultivate skills to analyze social situations and events encountered every day. In addition, students explore how social psychology informs our understanding of culture and society, with special attention to comparative cultural influences.

This course is designed as introductory lecture on both theoretical and practical topics related to use of sound and music in film. Topics include: basic terminology of soundtrack aesthetics; René Clair and nostalgia in diegesis; Soviet school of montage and conceptual approach to sound; Fritz Lang, acousmatic use of sound, and exploration of diegetic space; classical Hollywood, the way mainstream is built; evolution after WWII, decline of paradigm, and Italian cinema; cinema of the 60s; New Hollywood and cinema of early 70s; restoration of classical paradigm and Hollywood in the late 70s; action in contemporary cinema; postmodern cinema; and the study of digressions: alternate approaches and falsification of previously stated.