Welcome to the May X 2022 course: Religious, ethnic and national identities. This travel study course will explore religious, national, and ethnic identities using the Czech Republic (Prague) as a “laboratory.” As we explore how those identities are socially constructed, we will reflect on our own identities and how our personal identities are influenced and constructed.
WHY CZECHIA?
The long history of the Czech lands provides numerous examples of religious influence (Protestant Hussites, Jewish, Orthodox, Catholic, and non-believers), and responses to political change (from Austrian empire to independent country, Nazi occupation, satellite of the Soviet Union, and returning to democratic independent country), and how those events shape ethnic and national identity. Its location at the center of Europe leaves it in a permanent intersection of cultures and concepts from both the West and East.
At the start of the 20th century, it was one of the most heterogenous and democratic nations in Europe. Since the 1989 Velvet Revolution and Velvet Divorce with Slovakia, it has become one of the most homogenous nations. Its membership in the EU and with migration and globalization, the 21st century has seen a return to diversity. Czechia is an excellent location to examine religious, ethnic, and national identities and how they change over time.