Jana Maresova
2014-2015
Jana Maresova, PhD Candidate in the Department of Anglophone Literatures and Cultures at the Faculty of Arts at Charles University in Prague, Czech Republic
I graduated from Charles University in Prague, Faculty of Arts in 2012 with a degree in British and Commonwealth Studies. The following year I spent teaching individual and group courses of English in companies. Missing academic life, I applied for a PhD program at the same university, specializing in Canadian Aboriginal literature and I started my PhD studies last year. In my research I concentrate on contemporary Canadian Aboriginal novel, with a special focus on storytelling and myth as used in particular novels. I am especially interested in the following three authors – Tomson Highway, Thomas King and Joseph Boyden. I also look at how writers combine Aboriginal and Euro-Canadian features together and question the power-based hierarchy of cultures.
Apart from my interest in literature, I am also an active musician. I studied playing the cello at Prague Conservatory and four years ago I started to play in a string quartet.
Stanislav Štěpáník
2013-2014
Stanislav Štěpáník, PhD Candidate at the Czech Language Department at the Faculty of Education at Charles University in Prague, Czech Republic
Stanislav Štěpáník is a PhD student at the Czech Language Department at the Faculty of Education at Charles University in Prague, Czech Republic. In his research he focuses on Czech language teaching and learning and innovations in this area with a special focus on implementing features of constructivism. He is also interested in concepts of mother tongue teaching abroad. He graduated from the Faculty of Education at Charles University in Prague with a degree in teaching Czech and English in lower- and higher-secondary schools. He has worked as a teacher and university tutor.
Klára Pinerová
2011-2012
Klara Pinerova PhD candidate at the Institute for Economic and Social History, Faculty of Arts, Charles University in Prague
As a PhD candidate at the Institute for Economic and Social History at Charles University, I focus on the long history of socialist dictatorship. My main interest is the postwar penitentiary system in Czechoslovakia and East Germany and the Czechoslovak tertiary educational system in the 1970s and 1980s. During my PhD study I was involved in several projects. Winning a doctoral research fellowship at the Wirth Institute gave me a great opportunity, not only to focus on my doctoral research and finish my PhD dissertation, but to experience a distant country, meet different people and learn about their customs as well. From a scientific point of view, I have broadened the international contacts in my field of research. I applied for several conferences in North America where I have the chance to meet colleagues dealing with Czech studies and or Central European history in general. Discussions of different topics with other doctoral research fellows from Central Europe provide both an inspiring environment and recognition of a common past arising from the end of the Austria-Hungary Empire and communism in our countries. One of the responsibilities as a Wirth fellow is the development of the Institute’s relationship with Czech and Slovak communities in Canada. I teach Czech language courses and keep in touch with the representatives to inform them about cultural and academic activities organized by the Wirth Institute that their members might be interested in.
Time for my doctoral research, exchanges with international contacts and conferences is an important part of my experience of the fellowship, however, not the only one. Canada, in the minds of many, is remarkable because of its natural beauty. I set out with a lot of knowledge about the Klondike Gold Rush and with images of a country full of snow, ice, lakes and bears and I have found almost everything (except the bears). The University of Alberta provides it all: lectures by internationally recognised experts, an excellent library, fully equipped sports centre, and a broad offer of leisure activities.