Events / Program: Jan Patočka Fellowship

	Title	Date	Type	Speakers
	Junior Visiting Fellows' Conference Winter 2020	Thu, 17.12.2020	Conferences and Workshops		Junior Visiting Fellows' Conference Winter 2020 Thu, 17.12.2020 Speakers: Series: Conferences and Workshops Morning Session Moderator: Iryna Sklokina Read more

	A New World (Dis-)Order	Wed, 02.09.2020	Panels and Discussions	Timothy SnyderLubomir Zaoralek, Dagmar Rychnovská	A New World (Dis-)Order Wed, 02.09.2020 Speakers: Timothy SnyderLubomir Zaoralek, Dagmar Rychnovská Series: Panels and Discussions The Czech Embassy in Vienna, in cooperation with the Institute for Human Sciences (IWM) generously supported by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic, invited for an evening discussion at the Czech Embassy in Vienna. The debate addressed the growing geopolitical insecurity and the new challenges posed by the global pandemic. Read more
A New World (Dis-)Order Wed, 02.09.2020 Speakers: Timothy SnyderLubomir Zaoralek, Dagmar Rychnovská Series: Panels and Discussions The Czech Embassy in Vienna, in cooperation with the Institute for Human Sciences (IWM) generously supported by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic, invited for an evening discussion at the Czech Embassy in Vienna. The debate addressed the growing geopolitical insecurity and the new challenges posed by the global pandemic. Read more
	Social and Ecological Movements in “Apocalyptic Times”	Mon, 15.06.2020	Seminars and Colloquia	Adam Ramsay Ludger Hagedorn Matyáš Křížkovský	Social and Ecological Movements in “Apocalyptic Times” Mon, 15.06.2020 Speakers: Adam Ramsay Ludger Hagedorn Matyáš Křížkovský Series: Seminars and Colloquia Ecological discourses are in upheaval once again. After the 2018 IPCC report made clear that the timeframe to avoid the worst scenarios is rapidly shrinking, new societal groups have taken the streets. Discerning different strategies for social transformation and their respective relations to utopian/dystopian ecological imaginaries, the paper outlines three ideal types of social movements. This framework is then used to analyse Extinction Rebellion as the best known and most revolutionary newcomer – but also the most controversial, even for many ecological activists. What are the promises and possible dangers of this new attempt to revolutionize ecological issues? Read more
Social and Ecological Movements in “Apocalyptic Times” Mon, 15.06.2020 Speakers: Adam Ramsay Ludger Hagedorn Matyáš Křížkovský Series: Seminars and Colloquia Ecological discourses are in upheaval once again. After the 2018 IPCC report made clear that the timeframe to avoid the worst scenarios is rapidly shrinking, new societal groups have taken the streets. Discerning different strategies for social transformation and their respective relations to utopian/dystopian ecological imaginaries, the paper outlines three ideal types of social movements. This framework is then used to analyse Extinction Rebellion as the best known and most revolutionary newcomer – but also the most controversial, even for many ecological activists. What are the promises and possible dangers of this new attempt to revolutionize ecological issues? Read more
	Kidnapped from Nazism, or the Greek Tragedy of Central Europe	Mon, 18.05.2020	Seminars and Colloquia	Aspen Brinton Ludger Hagedorn Tomáš Korda Vlasta Kordová	Kidnapped from Nazism, or the Greek Tragedy of Central Europe Mon, 18.05.2020 Speakers: Aspen Brinton Ludger Hagedorn Tomáš Korda Vlasta Kordová Series: Seminars and Colloquia The paper recalls the essay The Tragedy of Central Europe, written by the Czech novelist Milan Kundera. Vlasta Kordova and Tomas Korda criticize the unhistorical cold-war image of the West that Kundera employs. In his reading, the Second World War just did not take place. They do not mean this objection as an external critique. Since why should someone be interested in Kundera’s omission, after all. They mean their criticism as immanent in the sense that ignoring the WWII, as the “truth” and result of the severe nationalism that was then spread across the continent, precludes the very possibility to apprehend the moral equality or equal legitimacy of the “socialist” East and the “capitalist” West. Since a tragic collision of two powers is set up only by their equal essentiality, Kundera cannot grasp the tragical dimension of the Cold War, and Central Europe respectively. Underpinned by the WWII and thereby elevated into the genuine Greek tragedy, the Cold War cannot know any victors, losers or pure victims and, moreover, both powers of equal essentiality must experience their own respective demise. Read more
Kidnapped from Nazism, or the Greek Tragedy of Central Europe Mon, 18.05.2020 Speakers: Aspen Brinton Ludger Hagedorn Tomáš Korda Vlasta Kordová Series: Seminars and Colloquia The paper recalls the essay The Tragedy of Central Europe, written by the Czech novelist Milan Kundera. Vlasta Kordova and Tomas Korda criticize the unhistorical cold-war image of the West that Kundera employs. In his reading, the Second World War just did not take place. They do not mean this objection as an external critique. Since why should someone be interested in Kundera’s omission, after all. They mean their criticism as immanent in the sense that ignoring the WWII, as the “truth” and result of the severe nationalism that was then spread across the continent, precludes the very possibility to apprehend the moral equality or equal legitimacy of the “socialist” East and the “capitalist” West. Since a tragic collision of two powers is set up only by their equal essentiality, Kundera cannot grasp the tragical dimension of the Cold War, and Central Europe respectively. Underpinned by the WWII and thereby elevated into the genuine Greek tragedy, the Cold War cannot know any victors, losers or pure victims and, moreover, both powers of equal essentiality must experience their own respective demise. Read more
	1989 in a Day	Wed, 06.11.2019	Panels and Discussions	Aleksandra Głos Andrzej Waskiewicz Holly Case Ivan Vejvoda Kateryna Ruban Philipp Ther Volodymyr KulykErhard Busek, Vuk Velebit, Ralf Beste, Dagmar Rychnovská, Georgi Pirinski, Jana Tsoneva, Jennifer Bergerova, Raluca Alexandrescu	1989 in a Day Wed, 06.11.2019 Speakers: Aleksandra Głos Andrzej Waskiewicz Holly Case Ivan Vejvoda Kateryna Ruban Philipp Ther Volodymyr KulykErhard Busek, Vuk Velebit, Ralf Beste, Dagmar Rychnovská, Georgi Pirinski, Jana Tsoneva, Jennifer Bergerova, Raluca Alexandrescu Series: Panels and Discussions This is a series of conversations spanning various Eastern and Central European societies between someone, who was an active participant, or a close observer, of an event on a crucial date in 1989, and a person, who was still very young in 1989. Both speakers will start with personal reflections that will be followed by a debate about the relevance of this date/event today. Read more
1989 in a Day Wed, 06.11.2019 Speakers: Aleksandra Głos Andrzej Waskiewicz Holly Case Ivan Vejvoda Kateryna Ruban Philipp Ther Volodymyr KulykErhard Busek, Vuk Velebit, Ralf Beste, Dagmar Rychnovská, Georgi Pirinski, Jana Tsoneva, Jennifer Bergerova, Raluca Alexandrescu Series: Panels and Discussions This is a series of conversations spanning various Eastern and Central European societies between someone, who was an active participant, or a close observer, of an event on a crucial date in 1989, and a person, who was still very young in 1989. Both speakers will start with personal reflections that will be followed by a debate about the relevance of this date/event today. Read more
	Which Future for Democracy in a Post-political Age	Thu, 20.06.2019	Panels and Discussions	Chantal Mouffe Pavel Barsa	Which Future for Democracy in a Post-political Age Thu, 20.06.2019 Speakers: Chantal Mouffe Pavel Barsa Series: Panels and Discussions The lecture analyzed the current conjuncture in Western liberal democracies and the reasons for the increasing success of right-wing populist movements. It elaborated the thesis that the only way to fight against those movements is to develop left populist alternatives. Specifically, it shall be argued that it is a lack of understanding for the dynamics of politics and the role of affects in the formation of collective identities that explains the failure of social democratic parties in offering an appropriate answer to the right-wing populist challenge. Read more
Which Future for Democracy in a Post-political Age Thu, 20.06.2019 Speakers: Chantal Mouffe Pavel Barsa Series: Panels and Discussions The lecture analyzed the current conjuncture in Western liberal democracies and the reasons for the increasing success of right-wing populist movements. It elaborated the thesis that the only way to fight against those movements is to develop left populist alternatives. Specifically, it shall be argued that it is a lack of understanding for the dynamics of politics and the role of affects in the formation of collective identities that explains the failure of social democratic parties in offering an appropriate answer to the right-wing populist challenge. Read more
	The Future of Work	Mon, 03.06.2019	Panels and Discussions	Ludger Hagedorn Robert SkidelskyMichal Pechoucek	The Future of Work Mon, 03.06.2019 Speakers: Ludger Hagedorn Robert SkidelskyMichal Pechoucek Series: Panels and Discussions In contemporary discussions about the future of artificial intelligence we often lose our heads. While economists offer bleak predictions of mass job losses and a deepening of already widespread precarity, Silicon Valley utopians insist that new technologies are bringing us ever closer together and will one day deliver us from work, disease and poverty. But when human life is reduced to a set of rational processes waiting to be optimized, we risk losing sight of the irreducible quality of human experience. With his characteristic attention to the subtleties of the human condition, Robert Skidelsky offers a challenging account of what it means to pursue the good life in the age of the machines. Read more
The Future of Work Mon, 03.06.2019 Speakers: Ludger Hagedorn Robert SkidelskyMichal Pechoucek Series: Panels and Discussions In contemporary discussions about the future of artificial intelligence we often lose our heads. While economists offer bleak predictions of mass job losses and a deepening of already widespread precarity, Silicon Valley utopians insist that new technologies are bringing us ever closer together and will one day deliver us from work, disease and poverty. But when human life is reduced to a set of rational processes waiting to be optimized, we risk losing sight of the irreducible quality of human experience. With his characteristic attention to the subtleties of the human condition, Robert Skidelsky offers a challenging account of what it means to pursue the good life in the age of the machines. Read more
	Making Sense of the Results of the European Elections	Tue, 28.05.2019	Lecture	Ivan KrastevMichael Zantovsky, Ondřej Ditrych	Making Sense of the Results of the European Elections Tue, 28.05.2019 Speakers: Ivan KrastevMichael Zantovsky, Ondřej Ditrych Series: Lecture “Democratic politics need drama,” the political analyst Ivan Krastev is convinced. Elections are a form of therapy session in which voters are confronted with their worst fears – a new war, demographic collapse, economic crisis, environmental horror – but become convinced they have the power to avert the devastation. If this assumption is correct, then in front of our eyes the European Union is turning into a true democracy. The traditionally uneventful and boring European Parliament elections have for the first time produced a drama usually reserved for the national stage. In this debate, Ivan Krastev provided a first analysis of the results of these historical elections and tried to make sense of the voters’ unsettling judgments. His remarks were responded to in a conversation with Michael Žantovský moderated by Ondřej Ditrych. Read more
Making Sense of the Results of the European Elections Tue, 28.05.2019 Speakers: Ivan KrastevMichael Zantovsky, Ondřej Ditrych Series: Lecture “Democratic politics need drama,” the political analyst Ivan Krastev is convinced. Elections are a form of therapy session in which voters are confronted with their worst fears – a new war, demographic collapse, economic crisis, environmental horror – but become convinced they have the power to avert the devastation. If this assumption is correct, then in front of our eyes the European Union is turning into a true democracy. The traditionally uneventful and boring European Parliament elections have for the first time produced a drama usually reserved for the national stage. In this debate, Ivan Krastev provided a first analysis of the results of these historical elections and tried to make sense of the voters’ unsettling judgments. His remarks were responded to in a conversation with Michael Žantovský moderated by Ondřej Ditrych. Read more
	European Universities	Mon, 15.04.2019	Seminars and Colloquia	Christian Rogler Jakub Jirsa	European Universities Mon, 15.04.2019 Speakers: Christian Rogler Jakub Jirsa Series: Seminars and Colloquia Universities all around the globe nowadays find themselves in an almost schizophrenic situation: highly successful and growing on one hand, yet suffering from pressure and uncertainty on the other hand. The presentation will explain how this situation is caused by problems of accountability that universities face in the age of popular democracy. Secondly, it will more specifically discuss the problems of humanities departments in Central Europe. These institutions share the global problems, but in addition face specific problems that originate from the troubled history of the region (both before 1989 and after). In many cases, this leads to the failure of local universities to enact their own legislation that would create a transparent and stable environment for research and education. The talk referred to particular cases that nicely demonstrate the tremendous impact that these problems have on concrete university life. Read more
European Universities Mon, 15.04.2019 Speakers: Christian Rogler Jakub Jirsa Series: Seminars and Colloquia Universities all around the globe nowadays find themselves in an almost schizophrenic situation: highly successful and growing on one hand, yet suffering from pressure and uncertainty on the other hand. The presentation will explain how this situation is caused by problems of accountability that universities face in the age of popular democracy. Secondly, it will more specifically discuss the problems of humanities departments in Central Europe. These institutions share the global problems, but in addition face specific problems that originate from the troubled history of the region (both before 1989 and after). In many cases, this leads to the failure of local universities to enact their own legislation that would create a transparent and stable environment for research and education. The talk referred to particular cases that nicely demonstrate the tremendous impact that these problems have on concrete university life. Read more
	Beyond the “Power of the Powerless“	Mon, 14.01.2019 - Mon, 14.01.2019	Seminars and Colloquia	Milan Hanys Muriel Blaive	Beyond the “Power of the Powerless“ Mon, 14.01.2019 - Mon, 14.01.2019 Speakers: Milan Hanys Muriel Blaive Series: Seminars and Colloquia A closer look onto the intellectual context of Havel’s famous essay reveals that, among Czechoslovakian dissidents, there were more serious critiques of his piece than outspoken supporters. The fact that Havel became an iconic figure of the 1989’s revolution and the successive road towards freedom makes it difficult to look impartially on the discourse of political thought in the 70s. However, does that fact imply that Havel‘s ideas on politics were practically better and theoretically more valuable than that of his critiques? The presentation tried to show that a study of this neglected and almost forgotten discourse may reveal something valuable for the political theory of power, authoritarianism, and dissent. Read more
Beyond the “Power of the Powerless“ Mon, 14.01.2019 - Mon, 14.01.2019 Speakers: Milan Hanys Muriel Blaive Series: Seminars and Colloquia A closer look onto the intellectual context of Havel’s famous essay reveals that, among Czechoslovakian dissidents, there were more serious critiques of his piece than outspoken supporters. The fact that Havel became an iconic figure of the 1989’s revolution and the successive road towards freedom makes it difficult to look impartially on the discourse of political thought in the 70s. However, does that fact imply that Havel‘s ideas on politics were practically better and theoretically more valuable than that of his critiques? The presentation tried to show that a study of this neglected and almost forgotten discourse may reveal something valuable for the political theory of power, authoritarianism, and dissent. Read more