Guest Lectures and Conferences
Guest lecture series at NYU in Prague
Since January 1, 2006, when NYU in Prague founded the Prague Institute for Democracy, Economy and Culture (PIDEC), guest lectures at NYU in Prague have been held under the Institute's auspices. For more information about recent events organized by PIDEC, please click here.
Conferences
NYU in Prague students are invited to Forum 2000's annual conference every year, held during the Fall semester. Forum 2000 was founded in 1996 as a joint initiative of the Czech President Václav Havel, Japanese philanthropist Yohei Sasakawa, and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Elie Wiesel; it aims to identify the key issues facing civilization and to explore ways in which to prevent escalation of conflicts that have religion, culture or ethnicity as their primary components..
From October 15-17 2003, for example, NYU in Prague students had the honor of attending Forum 2000's Annual conference, entitled “Bridging Global Gaps” .
Conference delegates included former US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, Frederik Willem de Klerk, the former President of South Africa, Mats Karlsson of the World Bank, Polish dissident Adam Michnik, among many others. In the glorious setting of the Municipal House, NYU in Prague students followed debates on international trade, corporate accountability, and debt management. The conference ended with an inter-religious meeting led by H.H. The Dalai Lama and other religious world leaders.
The conference was immediately followed by 'NATO and the Greater Middle East,' a conference which took place from October 17-19 at NYU in Prague. Professor Michael Žantovský, who organized the conference in partnership with Forum 2000, selected six NYU in Prague students to work as volunteer helpers with Czech students from Charles University. In their “behind the scenes” role, students heard the opinions of Henry Kissinger, Madeleine Albright and many others - as well as having the chance to meet delegates informally at receptions and cocktail parties.
Click here to read the reflections of Elizabeth Parr, a student at NYU in Prague
Other conferences that students have attended include:
Ten Years After conference (November, 1999) honoring the 10th anniversary of the fall of communism in Czechoslovakia. Speakers at the event included George Bush, Helmut Kohl, Mikail Gorbachev, Margaret Thatcher, Lech Walesa and Czech President Václav Havel.
The Creation of History in Art Seminar (March 2001) Held at NYU in Prague in cooperation with the Terezin Initiative of Sweden and the Swedish Ministry of Culture. A gathering of prominent artists and intellectuals from Sweden, Germany, France, Russia, the United States and the Czech Republic.
International conference on the Holocaust (October 1999).
