Dr Libora Oates-Indruchva (Gender Studies, Charles University, Prague)
Academic freedom and capacity building in former state-socialist universities: Case study of the Czech Republic
Academic processes in relation to the freedom of expression has been
the topic of my research for the past few years (Czech Science
Foundation grant to conduct the fieldwork in the Czech Rep. in
2002-2003; Mellon Fellowship to develop the method of writing about a
politically sensitive issue in 2004; Marie Curie Fellowship from the
Eur. Commission to conduct the fieldwork in Hungary in 2008-09). My
focus was on the institutional and personal strategies employed in the
production of knowledge between 1968 and 1989, i.e. during the period
of late state socialism. At the moment of writing this application, I
am at the stage of finalising the book manuscript from the project.
One of the issues the project revealed was the continuation of some of the barriers to academic freedom from the period before the fall of state socialism to the present, because they have so far not been challenged by a need to reform—although an examination of post-state-socialist academic processes was not included among the research objectives. The fact that contemporary comparative reflection was strongly represented in the research material suggests the importance of the lasting consequences of state-socialist practices in academia in the post-state socialist countries.
Thus the logical follow-up to the completed project is a case study examining the barriers to academic freedom in a former state-socialist environment and the consequences these barriers have on the shaping of university institutions and on capacity building in universities in the contemporary ‘New Europe’.
I propose to complete such a study during my fellowship. The objectives of the case study are, first, to identify the locations of barriers to academic freedom and capacity building inherited from the state-socialist past and, second, to conceptualise incentives and scenarios for change.
The source material for the study will include interviews and extant textual material. The interviews will be with young Czech university lecturers who either completed their research degrees abroad and now teach in the Czech Rep. or who obtained their advanced degrees in the Czech Rep. and are currently working abroad (mainly in the UK). Interviewing this group of people will enhance the comparative perspective element, because this group has the experience of a university environment established within a long democratic tradition and of the post-state socialist environment of a young democracy. The extant textual material will include policy documents concerning university education and academic research (a subject of current controversy in the Czech Rep. that reached also the communication channels of the international scholarly community—e.g., report in Social Science News published by the Leibniz Institute for the Social Science in Oct 2009).
I have already compiled a preliminary list of potential interviewees and plan to conduct most of the fieldwork in the Czech Rep. before the commencement of the fellowship. During the fellowship, I will focus on writing a publishable case study from the research.
One of the issues the project revealed was the continuation of some of the barriers to academic freedom from the period before the fall of state socialism to the present, because they have so far not been challenged by a need to reform—although an examination of post-state-socialist academic processes was not included among the research objectives. The fact that contemporary comparative reflection was strongly represented in the research material suggests the importance of the lasting consequences of state-socialist practices in academia in the post-state socialist countries.
Thus the logical follow-up to the completed project is a case study examining the barriers to academic freedom in a former state-socialist environment and the consequences these barriers have on the shaping of university institutions and on capacity building in universities in the contemporary ‘New Europe’.
I propose to complete such a study during my fellowship. The objectives of the case study are, first, to identify the locations of barriers to academic freedom and capacity building inherited from the state-socialist past and, second, to conceptualise incentives and scenarios for change.
The source material for the study will include interviews and extant textual material. The interviews will be with young Czech university lecturers who either completed their research degrees abroad and now teach in the Czech Rep. or who obtained their advanced degrees in the Czech Rep. and are currently working abroad (mainly in the UK). Interviewing this group of people will enhance the comparative perspective element, because this group has the experience of a university environment established within a long democratic tradition and of the post-state socialist environment of a young democracy. The extant textual material will include policy documents concerning university education and academic research (a subject of current controversy in the Czech Rep. that reached also the communication channels of the international scholarly community—e.g., report in Social Science News published by the Leibniz Institute for the Social Science in Oct 2009).
I have already compiled a preliminary list of potential interviewees and plan to conduct most of the fieldwork in the Czech Rep. before the commencement of the fellowship. During the fellowship, I will focus on writing a publishable case study from the research.
