Fulbright Reality Czech

Sean McAneny is an English Teaching Assistant at the only Military High School in the Czech Republic, located in Moravská Třebová. As a former captain of the SUNY Geneseo track & field team, a tutor at his university writing center and with two life-long passions for literature and sports, Sean was placed at this unique high school that prepares young students for future studies at military colleges and careers in the Czech Army. The school has about 350 students, about 75 per cent are males. It is a boarding school with a strict schedule and a strong emphasis on athletics. During a Fulbright visit in November 2021, one of Sean's colleagues noted: "We are teaching future officers and commanders, and this year-long experience with Sean helps us to not only motivate our students to improve their communication skills in English, but it to strengthen their critical thinking."   There is a certain kind of person who goes away to Europe in order to “find himself.” He asks s

Vladimír Papoušek je historik literatury. V současné době vede Ústav bohemistiky Filosofické fakulty Jihočeské univerzity v Českých Budějovicích, působí jako proděkan pro vědu a výzkum a učí českou i světovou literaturu. Vladimír Papoušek vyrazil s Fulbrightovým stipendiem do USA v 90. letech. V akademickém roce 1994/1995 působil šest měsíců na Department of Slavic Languages na prestižní Columbia University v New Yorku. Jeho hlavním předmětem zkoumání v USA byl český prozaik a novinář Egon Hostovský, který strávil většinu života v americkém exilu. O svém oboru Vladimír Papoušek říká: "Kdo umí číst a interpretovat texty, chápat proměnlivost jejich smyslu, také dobře chápe proměnlivost a strategie lidské řeči ve veřejném prostoru, takže není lehké ho ošálit." S Vladimírem Papouškem hovořil Ladislav Loukota ze stránky  Vědátor . Rozhovor je devatenáctým dílem seriálu příběhů k 30. výročí Fulbrightovy komise. Videozáznamy najdete začátkem každého měsíce na našem  YouTube  kanále

Lenka Slavíková is an Associate  Professor of Public Economics at the Faculty of Social and Economic Studies of Jan Evangelista Purkyně University in Ústí nad Labem, North Bohemia. She has just finished her 9-month stay at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst as a senior research Fulbright-Masaryk grantee. Passionate about the environment, Lenka focuses her research on the role of landowners in adopting flood and drought risk mitigation measures on their land. As Lenka reflects at the end of her stay in the U.S., one of the greatest challenges of her international experience was the same thing that originally sparked the idea to submit her Fulbright application - the integration of her three sons, ages 7, 10, and 12, into a foreign language environment.  The idea to experience life in a foreign country came to us about three years ago. We wanted to expose our three kids to a foreign language and environment. To make it happen, there had to be, of course, eligibility for funding, a

Muriel Unseth is an English Teaching Assistant, a literature and poetry enthusiast and a marathon runner. Since September 2021, she has been teaching English at Gymnázium Rožnov pod Radhoštěm, in a town of 16 000, located in the Beskydy Mountains. From the main square in Rožnov, one can take a well-marked 6-mile trail or run to the top of the mountain Radhošť, 1129 meters or 3704 feet above sea level. Even though Muriel was attracted to the Czech Republic mostly because of the country’s excellence in literature and poetry, throughout her grant period, she has discovered another less-known passion shared by many members of her community and that is running, especially trail-running in the countryside. Muriel did not have to wait for this revelation too long, as her mentor Kateřina invited her to see the movie “Zátopek” during Muriel’s first week in the Czech Republic. The story sparked an interest in discovering more about the life and heritage of this exceptional Czechoslovak athlete w

Ondřej Novák působí jako výzkumný pracovník na Katedře jaderných reaktorů na Fakultě jaderné a fyzikálně inženýrské na ČVUT v Praze. V rozhovoru prozrazuje, že jádro ho přitahovalo už na gymnáziu: "...iracionálně se mi líbily jaderné elektrárny... zpětně viděno se mi na tom asi moc líbilo to spojení jaderné fyziky se špičkovou technikou, strojařinou a energetikou." V akademickém roce 2018/2019 Ondřej vyjel na šest měsíců jako stipendista Fulbrightova programu na Department of Nuclear Reactors na University of Tennessee ve městě Knoxville. Dnes kromě výzkumu také učí základy atomové fyziky, vede na reaktoru kurzy pro zahraniční studenty a pevně říká, že výběr mezi obnovitelnými zdroji a jádrem je špatně formulovanou otázkou. Do budoucna musíme spíš počítat s jejich spoluprací: "Ideální energetika, třeba pro Českou republiku, je založená na kombinaci jádra a obnovitelných zdrojů energie."  S Ondřejem Novákem hovořil Ladislav Loukota ze stránky  Vědátor . Rozhovor je o

Julia Mead is a historian who is most passionate about "the connection between macro-level politics and economics and people’s personal, intimate lives." In September 2021, Julia arrived in the Czech Republic as a Fulbright student grantee with a research project titled "Masculine Heroes: Gender and Coal Mining in the Czech Lands, 1968-2000." Julia grew up in Kentucky, in the Appalachian region, where coal mining has been on decline since the 1970s, with social and economic effects that are very similar to formerly proud coal mining hubs of Czechoslovakia. Coming from the Department of History at the University of Chicago, Julia landed at the Institute of Economic and Social History of Charles University in Prague, and she has been conducting detailed archival research for her PhD dissertation on the relationship of coal mining and masculinity. As a side-product of the research project, Julia notes that "I have become proficient in the Czech language and studie