Czechoslovak Society of Arts and Sciences
Encyclopedia
Czech Republic
The Czech Republic is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Poland to the northeast, Slovakia to the east, Austria to the south, and Germany to the west and northwest....
and Slovakia
Slovakia
The Slovak Republic is a landlocked state in Central Europe. It has a population of over five million and an area of about . Slovakia is bordered by the Czech Republic and Austria to the west, Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east and Hungary to the south...
, their history, peoples, or their cultural and intellectual contributions.
The SVU was established in 1958 in Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
. Local chapters of SVU have been functioning in major cities around the world. After the peaceful 1989 "Velvet Revolution
Velvet Revolution
The Velvet Revolution or Gentle Revolution was a non-violent revolution in Czechoslovakia that took place from November 17 – December 29, 1989...
", the SVU expanded its activities to Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia or Czecho-Slovakia was a sovereign state in Central Europe which existed from October 1918, when it declared its independence from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, until 1992...
and its succession states, the Czech Republic and the Slovak Republic.
Governance
The general membership meets each year at the annual General Assembly, the highest statutory body of the Society. Its governing bodies, the Executive Board and the Council, are elected every two years. All SVU officers work as volunteers and receive no compensation from the Society.SVU Presidents
- 1958-62 Václav HlavatýVáclav HlavatýVáclav Hlavatý was a noted Czech-American mathematician, who wrote on the theory of relativity and corresponded extensively with Albert Einstein on the subject. In particular, Hlavatý solved some very difficult equations relating to Einstein's Unified field theory, which was featured in the news...
- 1962-66 René WellekRené WellekRené Wellek was a Czech-American comparative literary critic. Like Erich Auerbach, Wellek was an eminent product of the Central European philological tradition and was known as a vastly erudite and "fair-minded critic of critics."René Wellek was born and raised in Vienna, speaking Czech and German...
- 1966-68 Václav HlavatýVáclav HlavatýVáclav Hlavatý was a noted Czech-American mathematician, who wrote on the theory of relativity and corresponded extensively with Albert Einstein on the subject. In particular, Hlavatý solved some very difficult equations relating to Einstein's Unified field theory, which was featured in the news...
- 1968-70 Jaroslav Nemec
- 1970-72 Jan V. Mladek
- 1972-74 Francis Schwarzenberg
- 1974-78 Mila RechciglMila RechciglMiloslav Rechcigl, Jr., or Mila Rechcigl, is a trained biochemist, nutritionist and cancer researcher, writer, editor, historian, bibliographer and genealogist. He was one of the founders and past President for many years of the Czechoslovak Society of Arts and Sciences.-Biography:He was born on...
- 1978-80 Jan F. Triska
- 1980-84 Leopold J. Pospisil
- 1984-88 Jiri Nehnevajsa
- 1988-90 Igor V. Nabelek
- 1990-92 Jan F. Triska
- 1992-94 Zdenek J. Slouka
- 1994-2006 Mila RechciglMila RechciglMiloslav Rechcigl, Jr., or Mila Rechcigl, is a trained biochemist, nutritionist and cancer researcher, writer, editor, historian, bibliographer and genealogist. He was one of the founders and past President for many years of the Czechoslovak Society of Arts and Sciences.-Biography:He was born on...
- 2006- Karel F. Raska
World Congresses
The Society held its First World Congress in Washington, D.C. in 1962, attended by more than 200 scholars, scientists, and artists from all over the world. There were sixty papers read at these meetings, their subject ranging from linguistics to sociology and science. This was followed by the Second World Congress in 1964, on the campus of Columbia UniversityColumbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
in New York City. This time, about 120 papers were presented by scholars - not just by the Society members but also by a number of invited guests from all over the United States, Canada, South America, Australia and Western Europe. The papers covered most major fields of intellectual endeavor, including history, literature
Literature
Literature is the art of written works, and is not bound to published sources...
and linguistics
Linguistics
Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. Linguistics can be broadly broken into three categories or subfields of study: language form, language meaning, and language in context....
, music and fine arts, social sciences
Social sciences
Social science is the field of study concerned with society. "Social science" is commonly used as an umbrella term to refer to a plurality of fields outside of the natural sciences usually exclusive of the administrative or managerial sciences...
, and the biological and physical sciences.
Since then, every even year, the Society has convened a world congress. The program includes presentations of scholarly papers, discussion panels, concerts, artistic exhibits and social events. The lecture program covers a wide range of subjects and disciplines, providing platforms for exchanges of views. The lectures, seminars and symposia, as well as printed materials are generally presented in English.
The first fifteen world congresses were held in the U.S. or Canada, usually on university campuses. The Sixteenth SVU World Congress in 1992 was held for the first time in Prague and Bratislava, a major event bringing together more than 400 active participants from overseas and some 1,000 from Czechoslovakia. Practically all subsequent world congresses were held in the Czech Republic or Slovakia.
Regional conferences
The SVU has established the practice of convening a special Regional Conference every other year, usually in between the World Congresses. These conferences are smaller than the World Congresses and are usually focused on one specific topic.In November 2003, the Society sponsored "Working Conference on Czech & Slovak American Materials and their Preservation", held at the Czech and Slovak Embassies
Embassy of Slovakia in Washington
The Slovak Embassy in Washington, D.C. is the main diplomatic mission of Slovak Republic to the United States.It is located at 3523 International Court NW in Washington, D.C..The Ambassador is Peter Burian.-External links:**...
in Washington, D.C. The conference led to establishment of the new Czech & Slovak American Archival Consortium (CSAAC).
Society publications
For its members, the SVU publishes a newsletter SVU NEWS/ ZPRÁVY SVU. In addition, the SVU members, as well as others, may subscribe to an English periodical of scholarly and literary substance, the semi-annual KOSMAS - Czechoslovak and Central European Journal.During the communist era in Czechoslovakia, the Society published a Czech language
Czech language
Czech is a West Slavic language with about 12 million native speakers; it is the majority language in the Czech Republic and spoken by Czechs worldwide. The language was known as Bohemian in English until the late 19th century...
and Slovak language
Slovak language
Slovak , is an Indo-European language that belongs to the West Slavic languages .Slovak is the official language of Slovakia, where it is spoken by 5 million people...
literary and humanistic periodical: PROMĚNY - PREMENY/ METAMORPHOSES for nearly thirty years, which frequently included articles by forbidden authors.
Society's monographs include René Wellek's Essays on Czech Literature
Czech literature
Czech literature is the literature written by Czechs or other inhabitants of the Czech state, mostly in the Czech language, although other languages like Old Church Slavonic, Latin or German have been also used, especially in the past. Modern authors from the Czech territory who wrote in other...
, the Anthology of Czech Poetry, edited by Alfred French, the voluminous SVU Congress Proceedings, edited by Mila Rechcigl
Mila Rechcigl
Miloslav Rechcigl, Jr., or Mila Rechcigl, is a trained biochemist, nutritionist and cancer researcher, writer, editor, historian, bibliographer and genealogist. He was one of the founders and past President for many years of the Czechoslovak Society of Arts and Sciences.-Biography:He was born on...
, under the title, The Czechoslovak Contribution to World Culture and the two-volume set Czechoslovakia Past and Present, Joseph Chada's The Czechs in the United States, Roman Jakobson
Roman Jakobson
Roman Osipovich Jakobson was a Russian linguist and literary theorist.As a pioneer of the structural analysis of language, which became the dominant trend of twentieth-century linguistics, Jakobson was among the most influential linguists of the century...
's Studies in Verbal Art, Matthew Spinka's English translation of Jan Amos Komensky's (Comenius) The Labyrinth of the World and the Paradise of the Heart, Peter Kussi's translation of Arne Novák
Arne Novák
Arne Novák, born as Arnošt Novák, was a Czech literary historian and critic, specialist in German and Czech studies.-Life:He was born as a son of the high school teacher Dr...
's Czech Literature, and Anthology of Czech Prose, translated and edited by William E. Harkins, Václav Havel
Václav Havel
Václav Havel is a Czech playwright, essayist, poet, dissident and politician. He was the tenth and last President of Czechoslovakia and the first President of the Czech Republic . He has written over twenty plays and numerous non-fiction works, translated internationally...
's essays Do ruznych stran,: Eseje a clanky z let 1983-1989 and Charta 77, 1977-1989, edited by Vilem Precan.
More recent titles include: On All Fronts: Czechoslovaks in World War II, edited by Lewis M. White; Zdenka Fischmann's Essays on Czech Music, edited by Dagmar White; The Taste of a Lost Homeland - An Anthology of Exile Poetry, edited by Vera Borkovec, Czech Americans in Transition, edited by Clinton Machann; Czech-American Historic Sites, Monuments, and Memorabilia and Czechoslovak American Archivalia, both edited by Mila Rechcigl
Mila Rechcigl
Miloslav Rechcigl, Jr., or Mila Rechcigl, is a trained biochemist, nutritionist and cancer researcher, writer, editor, historian, bibliographer and genealogist. He was one of the founders and past President for many years of the Czechoslovak Society of Arts and Sciences.-Biography:He was born on...
, and Rechcigl's Czechs and Slovaks in America.