Checking out Czech culture

The Department of History was brought face to face with the delights of 'Baroque and becherovka' during a recent study-trip to Prague.

Thirty students from the Department visited the city in order to explore Czech history and culture. The party was led by Dr Mark Cornwall, who teaches a course on modern Czech history in the Department, and accompanied by architectural historian Professor Charles McKean and early modern specialist Dr Martine Van Ittersum. Highlights of the trip included a walking-tour of the Old Town, a visit to Prague castle, and a better understanding of High Baroque architecture of which the city has some of the best examples in Europe. Students were also treated to an illuminating lecture by American historian, Dr Nancy Wingfield, on nineteenth-century Czech prostitution, and sampled local Czech fare such as pork and dumplings and the medicinal liqueur becherovka. Student Clare Swan commented, "I thoroughly enjoyed it, we definitely did the Czech experience. It is such a beautiful and mesmerising place."

The study-trip was subsidised by the 'Scottish Czech and Slovak Summer Scholarship Fund' and is one of a series of recent initiatives to develop contacts between the University and the Czech Republic. In 2002, Mark organised at Dundee the first international conference of the 'Forum of British, Czech and Slovak Historians'.

A second conference will take place in Pardubice (Bohemia) this spring. University archivist Patricia Whatley is also establishing formal links with several key archives in Prague, including the archive of the 14th century Charles University.

While the Prague study-trip will now become an annual event, the Department of History is building on the success this autumn with a tour of historic Amsterdam, led by Dutch specialist Dr Van Ittersum.

Mark Cornwall explains, "The purpose of these European trips is to bring students face to face with the history and culture which they are reading about in Dundee.

It not only opens up their horizons, but gives them a grassroots understanding of why history is such a live subject on the European continent. With EU expansion, the history of these regions becomes ever more relevant for us."