What role does education play in the spread of democracy? This question – especially relevant to NYU in recent years as the global network expands – was the main issue at the 19th Forum 2000 Conference in Prague, which brought together over 150 politicians, activists, diplomats, artists and student leaders from around the world to debate the topic at over 50 panel discussions. NYU Prague faculty played an active role in the organization of the annual event, hosting a panel exploring how the writings of Vaclav Havel resonate in Europe today.
According to NYU Prague professor Petr Mucha, „Forum 2000 is to human rights what Davos is to economics– it is the place where people of many different backgrounds and cultures come to share ideas about global issues that affect us all. It is a unique event that has an open atmosphere and welcomes to public. World leaders share ideas with human rights activitists who have struggled– and it happens thanks to the legacy of Vaclav Havel.“ Forum 2000 was founded by former Czech President Havel in the year 1996, and every year it creates a platform where delegates share experiences with each other and the public.
Speakers at this year’s forum included Nobel laureate Frederic de Klerk, renowned British philosopher Roger Scruton, and Alex Chow- one of the student leaders of the umbrella movement in Hong Kong, and dissidents from around the world.
NYU Prague student Oriana Mansur (CAS 17), a Politics and Middle Eastern Studies major, came to Prague knowing that she wanted to volunteer for the conference. She was chosen to be a reporter– assigned to attend 5 panels and write a one-page summary of each. „Forum 2000 is a great way to inform people about problems in the world and discuss solutions,“said Mansur. „The panelists – who are often activists, journalists or dissidents – have great ideas but might not have the power to change things. Forum 2000 can help their voices be heard.“
The former mayor of Caracas, Lopolodo Lopez, was notably absent from the conference, as he is in jail for allegedly conspiring against the authoritarian Venezuelan regime. „I was shocked to learn that someone is killed every 20 minutes in Venezuela – and that there are 78 political prisoners,“said Mansur, whose mother is Venezuelan. To highlight the atrocities around the world, the speakers at the opening ceremony were all dissidents who gave testimony about their personal experiences fighting against totalitarian regimes – including Lopez’s wife, who was speaking on his behalf.
Unsurprisingly the refugee crisis in Europe was a main topic in many discussions. At the panel at NYU Prague, speakers considered what Vaclav Havel would have said in light of the current situation. Irina Lagunina, the head of the Russian Department at Radio Free Europe, traced examples of how Russian media is influencing the media in Western Europe. „Demons can awaken other demons,“ wrote Vaclav Havel – words that she believes still resonate today, as populist leaders use fear and misinformation to incite extremist views.
Sister Cyril Mooney, an Irish nun who founded a school for underprivileged children in India, urged listeners at Forum 2000 to think about education of the heart, not of the brain. Petr Mucha agrees. „Education is becoming more compartmentalized – more about how to get a better job, and lacking an ethical, spirtual aspect. Education should be about love of knowledge –if that is missing, then democracy can be endangered.“
Video recordings of many panels of Forum 2000, including the opening ceremony, can be found here: http://www.forum2000.cz/en/projects/forum-2000-conferences/-2015/video-recordings/

Last year, Rob Cameron, Prague’s BBC correspondent, approached NYU Prague with the idea of launching PragueCast – a podcast with stories of Prague told through the eyes of our students. The plan was ambitious: to produce monthly 20-minute editions, each with a different theme chosen by students, and distribute it to an audience beyond NYU Prague. Students would write, record, produce, edit, and market the episodes – all as non-credit extracurricular program that would meet in the evenings.
One year later, the results surprise everyone. Two teams of students – one in the fall, one in the spring- have produced six high-quality episodes that tell stories in a sensitive, insightful and dramatic way. Last semester students recorded footage from the 25th anniversary celebrations of the Velvet Revolution, including interviews at a demonstration against the current Czech president. This semester, an episode entitled Survivors was inspired by the 70th anniversary of the end of WWII; there are stories about a Holocaust survivor, a WW2 pilot shot down over Nazi Germany, and a victim of the Communist era who was imprisoned in the 1950s.
This voluntary, non-credit program is very popular – and not just among journalism majors. Students of all disciplines apply, and it is becoming increasingly competitive to join. The podcast includes original theme music composed by Dalton Corr, a music student who was at NYU Prague when the program started in the fall.
According to Tom Ishizuka a sophomore in CAS studying economics environmental studies, „we were able to work on every aspect of podcast production: recording, interviewing, script writing, sound editing, and presenting. I decided to participate on a whim due to my personal interest in podcasts, and I’ve found that I now possess a greater appreciation for some of the shows that I listen to. .. I felt the quality of programming we were able to produce was exceptionally high.“
Winona Rinkacs agrees. “The PragueCast was a great experience for me. It allowed me to interact with locals and explore parts of Prague I would not have seen otherwise. Thanks to the PragueCast, I was able to talk to an elementary student, a gulag survivor, and a matchmaker about what life in the Czech Republic is like…. I enjoyed co-writing the script to string all the individual stories together and presenting in Rob’s fancy sound studio.”
Is Rob Cameron satisfied with the project? “I’ve been genuinely impressed with what we’ve been able to achieve in less than a year. This is thanks to the incredible dedication and energy shown by the PragueCast teams. Every Tuesday night we’ve hunched over our laptops and the occasional pizza, turning vague ideas into broadcast-quality audio. It’s been a delight to work with them.I can’t wait to meet a fresh bunch of PragueCasters in the fall of 2015.”
You can download all episodes at https://soundcloud.com/nyupraguecast.
Photos by Laura Zablit

On Friday night, Czech Radio is launching the world premiere of four unusual electroacoustic compositions that combine audio from New York City with recordings from Prague, exploring both cities through their sounds. The project was created under the umbrella of the Citigram – a program started by NYU Steindhardt – and produced for Czech Radio by NYU Prague professor Michal Rataj. The program can be heard around the world Friday, April 24 at 10 p.m. Prague time (4 p.m. EST) at http://www.rozhlas.cz/radiocustica_english/portal/
Professors Michal Rataj at NYU Prague and Tae Hong Park at Steindhardt are both are composers of electroacoustic music – a relatively new field that incorporates, manipulates and experiments with digital sounds in compositions. These two professors joined forces thanks to Evan Kent, an NYU music student who was in Michal Rataj’s composition class in 2013 suggested the two should meet.
The project of Citigram started a few years earlier in New York in 2011, when Professor Park became interested in the idea of digital maps like Google maps. There were so many surrounding us, but none of them had any sound. This seemed wrong – how can you understand a city without sound? Collaborating with colleagues, he decided to build sound maps, creating compositions that, using new recording technology, could represent a place in a way that that is not dependent on visuals –often using abstract compositions to evoke the rhythms of the city. According to Professor Park, “Citigram aims to look at ways of using sound maps as an interactive map for users. Anyone with a computer with a microphone could stream data from our server and create their own musical pieces – as has been done for the radio project in Prague.“
Former NYU Prague student and musician Evan Kent, who studied under Michal Rataj in 2013, has created one of the compositions that will be premiered on Friday. Evan has taken soundscapes from New York and Prague. “Navigating space between the documentation and the composition has been important for me lately. Speech scapes allowed me to work with text in a semantic way, as one might hear in instrumental music.“
Current NYU Prague students Jack Bandarenko, Austin Guerrazzi, Darien Henshaw, Georgia Mills, Evan Wardel are all taking Michal Rataj’s class and were also involved in the project, making recordings of a Prague soundscape that were used in the pieces.
Another piece premiering on Friday is called “Aggressive City Rhythms” and uses urban sound data collected in Prague and New York. Composer Michael Musick explains that “The piece invokes the excitement and controlled aggression that soundscapes of these cities offer their citizens.“
The possibilities of Citigram are huge, and the Center for Urban Science and Progress at NYU has been involved in analyzing the urban spatio-acoustic noise. Citigram has also been collaborating with CalArts and including soundscapes of LA. The involvement of another NYU campus on another continent offers an exciting new dimension to the project, especially as the world is becoming increasingly urban. Profesor Park notes that “this is the first time in human history that 50% of the entire population is living in cities – and it should be 70% in 2050. The number one complaint of New Yorkers is noise pollution. The maps that are being developed can explore this, serve as a utility for people.“
We hope you join us here in Prague on Friday!
More information about the project is available on the website.

What is your school affiliation and what year are you? What is your major (if declared)?
NYU Senior, Class of 2015. Major: Russian & Slavic Studies
What inspired you to study in Prague?
As a Russian/Slavic Studies major I must study in a Slavic-speaking country and/or country influenced by Russia.
Several friends on the NYU fencing team, which I’ve been a member of throughout my undergraduate studies, studied abroad in Prague during their time at NYU and highly recommended it to me.
How has your experience been thus far?
My experience in Prague was amazing from day one. The first time I realized I felt so at home in Prague was in September at the beginning of the Fall semester when my friends and I were on our way back from a weekend trip to Berlin. My friends were very sad to be leaving Berlin and wished they could’ve spent more time there and even said that they wished they had chosen Berlin as their study abroad site rather than Prague. I, however, was so happy and relieved to be coming back to Prague, although like my friends I certainly enjoyed my brief time in Berlin. Other than the obvious beauty of the city, I find the people in Prague exceedingly polite and helpful, although in a different way than in the US. Most of all being in Prague has taught me to not impose my own cultural views, such as friendship, courtesy, and respect, onto another culture that is in no way connected to my own, and to take one day at a time. For example, being competitive means one thing in the US and another thing entirely in the Czech Republic. This applies to almost anything, and especially to the things I’ve mentioned above (friendship, courtesy, etc.).
Are you interning and, if so, how have you found the internship experience?
Although I am not interning here in Prague, I have had the opportunity to take classes that are very specific to my major/interests and which arguably have taught me more than my classes back in New York. Last semester I took a class on Sociology of Communist Czechoslovakia, History of Nationalism in Central/Eastern Europe, and Politics of the European Union, and this semester I’m taking Czech Literature, Law + Human Rights in Central/Eastern Europe. These classes have taught me so much about the Czech Republic and also about its relationship to the East and to the West.
I understand that you are from a fencer and are training with the national fencing team in the Czech Republic. Can you describe that experience?
I started training shortly after I arrived in Prague, in September, at Sports Centrum Praha in Letňany, a neighborhood in the Northeast corner of the city. This club is recognized as the best club in the Czech Republic and is the main training facility for the members of the men’s epee national team, as well as the majority of the junior and cadet fencers who represent CR (there are three official age groups in fencing: cadet, junior, and senior). The head coach of the national team is also the head coach of the club.
I think training at SC was the best decision I made during my time in Prague and it was definitely a huge part of my decision to stay in Prague for a second semester. The fencers and the coaches have been so welcoming and are happy to have a fencer from abroad training with them on a regular basis. think they also like having another female fencer at their club as women’s fencing is several steps behind men’s fencing in the Czech Republic and the majority of young girls who start fencing stop by the time they are looking to go to college.
The fencers at SC are a very tight-knit group and really make huge efforts to include me in that group; they always invite me to events such as holiday parties, birthday celebrations, tournaments, training camps, and even after-practice drinks. The national team members in particular are a huge inspiration to me as a fencer and as a person. They work very hard, in some cases training up to three times in a day, with a private lesson with their coach in the morning, followed by strength and conditioning training, followed by fencing in the evening. hey are very impressive when it comes to their mindset/mentality toward fencing. They never refuse to fence with someone just because they are younger or at another level with their fencing. They approach each bout (what a match is called in fencing) with the same amount of effort and know that something can be gained/learned by fencing with any fencer regardless of their age or their ability. Also impressive is their dynamic as a team. Fencing is an individual sport and as such can create serious problems for the “team dynamic” and for the success of its members, because as a fencer you are a member of the team but are competing against your team members just as you are competing against fencers from other countries. However, the Czech fencers really support each other and are genuinely happy to see each other succeed, even if one fencer is having a particularly bad day while another is doing exceptionally well. They know that doing well personally is important, but being successful at a tournament or competition is also important for the country and for representing the Czech Republic.
How did you come to train with them? What advice would you have to other students studying away who may be keen to pursue athletic or other interests overseas?
I first came to know about SC Praha from a friend of mine who graduated from NYU in 2011 and also studied abroad in Prague. He was also a member of the NYU fencing team and fenced several times at SC to avoid getting rusty/out of shape; it is well known among fencers that taking a break from training even for 2 weeks can really hit hard. In this way it is quite the opposite from riding a bike. Luckily, my friend told me the name of the club where he had fenced at, so the rest of the process was very simple. I searched on Google Maps for the name and address of the facility and how to get there, and went. When I got there I sought out the coaches and asked them if I could train there, what days/times they hold their practices, and how much it costs to be a member. With that information, I left and returned the next day to start training. Everything really took off from there; I have been training at SC consistently Tuesdays through Thursdays at their practices. I also have participated in two training camps hosted by SC that are open to those fencers in the Czech Republic who are nationally ranked, and have fenced in two national tournaments (I am currently ranked 34th).
I regard training at SC as the best decision I made while abroad in Prague and would highly encourage any other student to pursue their interests while overseas, even if it is not necessarily an athletic interest. It can be really easy to feel out of place or like an outsider while studying abroad, and pursuing some personal interest is the best way to overcome this feeling, make new friends, and learn about a new culture. I admit that it is very intimidating to put yourself in a new situation; my first couple weeks at SC I was even nervous to ask people if they would fence a bout with me because I had no idea how they would react.
I think pursuing some personal interest is also a great way to overcome the sense of homesickness and the general strangeness of being abroad. Fencing was great for me because it is something I always did in New York, so even though I was in a completely different place I was able to maintain something from back home that I consider a huge part of my life. Pursuing an interest abroad teaches you more in general about any vocation. For example, with fencing, I was able to notice different attitudes toward things such as friendship, competition, and hard work. Plus, I was able to see differences in the fencing style and habits of Czech fencers versus fencers in the US. Getting another perspective is never a bad thing, in my opinion.
Has training with the Czech team changed or informed your experience in Prague? If so, how?
Training with the Czech team has really given me insight into what it means to be an athlete in CR and what it means to be Czech. I am certain that without fencing, I would not have been so enthralled by my experience in Prague and would not have decided to return to Prague for a second semester. There are so many things that fencing gave me access to that are not related to fencing but related to the great friendships I cultivated as a result of it; for example, going to pubs with other young fencers, going to birthday celebrations, and celebrating holidays such as Easter. Training with the Czechs has also given me such a sense of pride in the Czech Republic and in knowing so much about the country and its people.
I think it could be very easy to live in Prague for a semester and leave still a tourist. Luckily because of fencing, this was not the case for me. The friendships and hours of fencing in Prague will always stay with me and will continue to give me a sense of greater perspective when it comes to sports and life in general.

This coming November marks the 25th anniversary of the Velvet Revolution and the end of Communism in Czechoslovakia. How relevant is this anniversary to students who were born sevaral years after the Berlin Wall came down?
Very, according to NYU Prague, whose faculty includes many former leaders of the Velvet Revolution. Professor Jan Urban, one of the leading dissidents under the Communist regime, is dismayed by the current strength of the Communist party, which – unlike in most other former Eastern European countries – was not disbanded 25 years ago. „What’s there to celebrate today? The Communists in Parliament are in complete support of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and their popularity is growing. Czechs are forgetting what the Russians did to us.“
Many NYU students are still interested in this “ancient history.” Some of NYU Prague’s most popular courses are taught by former dissidents. Last semester, one student wrote a profile for the Prague Wandering Webzine on Monika Pajerova, our professor and one of the few female student leaders during the Velvet Revolution http://praguewandering.com/2014/05/20/2578/.
NYU Prague is marking the anniversary by a number of programs that reflect upon the past and the future Particularly in light of current events in Ukraine – which have been compared to the Russian invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968- the anniversary seems especially important.

During orientation, NYU Prague students met with young Czech people at a panel discussion entitled „The Velvet Revolution 25 Years Later: Views of Current Czech University Students.“ The Czech students on the panel described the lives of their parents and grandparents under Communism and discussed how that affected – and continues to affect- them. Several of them expressed their concerns about the rising popularity of the Communist party among young people, which currently is polled at over 15% of the national vote.
In October, NYU students will have the chance to meet meet Mikhail Gorbachev, the architect of perestroika, and over 150 other global leaders at the annual Forum 2000 Conference. The conference, inspired by the legacy of the late President Václav Havel, is entitled “Democracy and Its Discontents: A Quarter-Century After the Iron Curtain and Tiananmen” and will take place in Prague and other Central European cities.
NYU Prague is hosting another conference – this one focused on the media and the challenges of building the post-Communist media and communication industries over the past 25 years. NYU Prague Professor Jeremy Druker, director of the international news outlet Transitions Online, is organizing the event in cooperation with Keynote.cz and has invited other NYU faculty to speak .”The event should provide a rare opportunity for academics who have written about the media transition and journalists who actually were there to meet in person and debate the positives and negatives of what has taken place,” Jeremy said. Thanks to funding from the U.S. Embassy and the International Visegrad Fund, select participants from the U.S. and from Central/Eastern Europe will attend.
Keith Jones, a documentary film-maker and frequent lecturer at NYU Prague, will screen his new film that is focused on Generation X in Czech alternative culture. It is set for release in November, and the Velvet Revolution plays a central role in the story.
During the week of November 17 – the actual anniversary of the Velvet Revolution- students can get a feeling for what life was like under totalitarian during „Communism Week“ – part of NYU Prague’s culture program Kulturama. Students will visit a nuclear bunker, go to the KGB and the Communism Museums, and can even participate in a team-building game that puts them in the role of political dissidents „trapped“ by the KGB. We will also take them to the Czech-Austrian border where a section of the Iron Curtain has been preserved and a museum is dedicated to stories about Czech’s attempts to cross the border.
Of course students can celebrate the anniversary with locals on November 17 – a national Czech holiday – by leaving a candle at the Velvet Revolution memorial site on Narodni trida (National Street). Every year, people gather around a small, understated plaque decorated by fingers raised in the „V“ for victory sign, located at the place where brave Czech university students confronted the Communist police in 1989 and set off a series of events that led to the end of Communism.

The events of 1989 and the fall of the Iron Curtain may seem like ancient history to young people today. “Events that happened 25 years ago may seem like an old story to students who weren’t even alive at the time,” acknowledges NYU Prague Director (and former dissident) Jiri Pehe. “But when we see what is happening in the contemporary world and watch efforts in various countries to achieve democracy, it is clear that many lessons can be learned from this history.”

What is Kulturama? A complete guide to cultural life in Prague for our students, and a semester full of carefully-planned cultural programming created by NYU Prague Student Life Conselor Sarah Coffey.
From opera to cooking classes to puppets to politics to films – NYU Prague wants to introduce students to as many aspects of Czech culture as possible. Our goal is to immerse students in the cultural life of the city during their 3 months here and to help them see Prague in way that they, perhaps, couldn’t on their own.
NYU Prague has always offered rich cultural programming in Prague. Kulturama Praha will bring all of the diverse events under one umbrella, guiding students towards a better understanding of the events‘ relevance in European and Czech culture. It will include several theme weeks: Communism Week, which will coincide with the 25th anniversary of the Velvet Revolution, Culinary Week will include sessions on cooking Czech cuisine plus a visit to a gastronomy museum, and Alchemy Week will explore all aspects of mysticism in Prague and the legacy of Rudolf II, emperor during Renaissance times.
Already eighteen Kulturama Praha events are planned for this semester and more are in the pipeline. “Prague has a such a rich cultural life for the taking; here, culture is all around you,“ explained Sarah Coffey. “But it can be hard to find out about. I hope that students try things they’ve never been to before.“
So far, it seems like the sign-ups for events are filling up fast. What’s coming up in September? A staged reading of Vaclav Havel’s play Audience at the Vaclav Havel Library with well known Czech actors, a concert by little-known Czech composter Zelenka, lessons on how to make Czech dumplings, a concert by one of the best Czech Gypsy bands, a visit to an exhibition commemorating the 100-year anniversary of WWI. Some events are presented by NYU professors or leading Czech intellectuals.
Some Kulturama posters:
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