Dr. JOSEPH HASEK AWARD
The Czechoslovak Society of Arts and Sciences (SVU) is announcing a competition for the 2011 Dr. Joseph Hasek student awards. The names of the winners will be announced in the Society’s newsletters.
The main purpose of the Society’s awards is to generate and encourage scholarly interest in Czech and Slovak affairs among university students living outside the Czech and Slovak republics. There will be one prize for the best undergraduate and one for the best graduate study dealing with some aspect of Czech and/or Slovak history, politics, or culture. The winners will receive …read more
This program of an organized annual competition among undergraduate students and graduate students who have submitted the best essay dealing with some aspect of Czech and/or Slovak culture was initiated in 1987 by Professor Vera Borkovec, who was at that time SVU Vice President for Student Affairs (this action was reported by President Jiri Nehnevajsa in the January-February 1988 issue of Zpravy). The idea was to promote interest in things Czech and Slovak among college students and thereby attract the younger generation to join our ranks. …read more
The winner of the 2010 SVU Student Award is OLGA BUEVA, graduate student at Indiana University for her paper “The Joke by Milan Kundera: Ideologies of Disembodiment”.
The undergraduate student award was given to Jerrie Ceplina (U. of Wisconsin) for her study “Václav Havel’s Presidential Speeches as Hybrid: Reconciling Havel the Dissident and Havel the Politician”.
The graduate student award went to Ryan P. Kilgore (U. of Indiana) for his study “Avtorskaia Pesnia Through the Lens of Mukařovský’s Structural Aesthetics”.
The winner of the undergraduate Josef Hašek SVU Student award is Kathryn Wallace of the University of California at Berkeley. She was awarded the prize for her excellent and well documented study “ROCK ‚n‘ REVOLUTION: ROCK MUSIC AND CZECH POLITICS IN THE 1960s-1970s“. The title of her paper is provocative, but she makes her arguments clearly and convicingly, proving how the music of the „Second Culture“ was an important element of the dissident scene in Czechoslovakia.
The winner of the graduate award is Susana Hancock of the University of Tromso, Norway who wrote this paper for an MA-level course in cognitive linguistics. The study bears the title “AN ANALYSIS OF ASPECTUAL COERCION IN do-PREFIXED CZECH VERBS“. Susana Hancock’s paper is based upon and builds a significant extension of William Croft’s work on verbal aspect. This beautifully written paper is an original piece of research and truly deserves the award.
The SVU Student Awards Committee, composed of Prof. Ivo Feierabend (University of San Diego), Prof. Milan Hauner (University of Wisconsin) and Prof. Věra Bořkovec (American University) unanimously agreed that these two papers were exceptionally well written and showed thorough and exhaustive research, which made them worthy of the awards.
Each student will receive a check for $250 , a year’s free membership in the SVU and the bimonthly newsletter Zprávy SVU. They will also receive a diploma and the announcement of their awards will be made on September 12 at the General Assembly meeting of SVU in Ružomberok, Slovakia.
The Student Awards Committee and the SVU Executive Board congratulate Kathryn Wallace and Susana Hancock on their achievements and wish them all the best in their future studies.
- VB
This must be the year of Švejk !
HEIDI BLUDAU, graduate student at Idiana University for her paper “The Good Dissident Švejk: An Exploration of Czech Morality and Cultural Survival”.
The panel judging the graduate submissions consisted of Profs. Věra Bořkovec, Ivo Feierabend, and Milan Hauner. Heidi Bludau’s bold enterprise is thought-provoking and well-reserached, and the paper is written in an entertaining style. Whether or not one agrees with all she has to say in her paper, we admired her extensive reading, honest and positive thinking about the subject. The award is well deserved and we wish Miss Bludau much success in her further studies.
THOMAS HAUNER, undergraduate student at the University of Chicago for his paper “Švejk vs Cimrman: A Comparison in Satire”.
The panel judging the undergraduate submissions consisted of Drs. Věra Bořkovec, Ivo Feierabend, and Jana Švehlová. This was the second award given to a paper which dealt with the Good Soldier Švejk, albeit from an entirely different point of view. Thomas Hauner’s paper was the most original of the papers received and admirable in its daring to handle such a difficult topic as the analysis of humor and satire. His comparison of the two best-known humorous heroes in modern Czech fiction, namely Švejk and Cimrman, is fascinating, both from the point of view of their background and their legacy for the future. In addition to that, the writing style is excellent and the essay is a delight to read. Thomas has just received his B.A. from the University of Chicago and we all hope he will go on to graduate school.
Best of luck!
Věra Bořkovec
SVU STUDENT AWARDS FOR THE YEAR 2011