On the occasion of its 10th anniversary, the Consortium remembers…

…our first institutional partner, with whom we established cooperation in December 2015: Zakład Slawistyki Zachodniej i Południowej Instytutu Slawistyki Uniwersytetu Opolskiego. The first opportunity to specialise in Czech studies had the students of Polish studies in the 1980s. In the early 1990s, an independent Department of Czech Studies was founded in Opole, led by prominent Slavonic and Czech scholars such as Władysław Lubaś, Julian Kornhauser, Jiří Damborský, Jacek Baluch, and Joanna Czaplińska. Linguists Grażyna and Mieczysław Balowski also left a lasting mark on the development of Czech studies in Opole. Thanks to the efforts of further literary and linguistic specialists, Czech studies became an independent study programme in the academic year 2006/2007.

At the turn of June and July 2015 (during the 5^th Congress of World Czech Literary Studies), Professor Joanna Czaplińska participated in a discussion among representatives of Czech studies abroad. During this meeting, the idea of founding a Consortium of Czech Literary Studies was raised. The Opole academic community responded by joining the newly formed consortium and becoming actively involved in activities of the Institute of Czech Literature. The Opole Department also plays a significant role in the direction of the Czech Literary Bibliography, with Prof. Czaplińska currently chairing its Scientific Board. In 2019, the separate Department of Slavonic Studies was integrated into the Institute of Literary Studies of the University of Opole, where Dr hab. Aleksandra Pajak-Głogiewicz now serves as deputy director.

In our databases, you can find not only records of scientific publications authored by our Opole colleagues, but also excerpts from Czech and Slavonic journals published in Opole – including Studia et Documenta Slavica, Stylistyka, and Studia Slavica (until 2017). For further updates on Czech studies in Opole, follow the “Język czeski na Uniwersytecie Opolskim” Facebook page.

Contributions to the history of Czech Studies at the University of Opole:

• BALOWSKA, Grażyna: Bohemistika v Polsku. Jazyk – literatura – komunikace, Roč. 1, 2012, č. 1, s. 1–5.
• BALOWSKA, Grażyna – BYČKOV, Jiří – MALANOWSKA-STATKIEWICZ, Marta – PAJĄK, Aleksandra: Zajímavosti z historie a činnosti lektorátu českého jazyka a literatury Opolské univerzity. Krajiny češtiny. R. 2018, č. 10, s. 34–37.
• BALOWSKI, Mieczysław: Ośrodki bohemistyczne w Polsce. Bohemistyka. Roč. 8, 2008, č. 1/4, s. 449–456.
• MAKSYM-BENCZEW, Joanna: Stan i perspektywy opolskiej bohemistyki. Bohemistyka. Roč. 8, 2008, č. 1/4, s. 495–497.
• MAKSYM-BENCZEW, Joanna: VII Ogólnopolskie Dni Bohemistów w Opolu. Bohemistyka. Roč. 5, 2005, č. 1, s. 79–80.

This series of posts marks the 10th anniversary of the Consortium of Czech Literary Studies, founded in 2015 and active under the Czech Literary Bibliography and the Institute of Czech Literature, Czech Academy of Sciences. We will continue to highlight key moments and future developments throughout the year.