The Department of South Slavonic and Balkan Studies came into being on February, 1st, 2011 after the split of the former Institute of Slavonic and East Slavonic Studies. The Department organises BA and MA study programmes for South East Slavonic Studies and it also ensures the completion of the former MA programmes entitled Slavonic Studies with specialisation on Bulgarian Studies, Croatian Studies, Macedonian Studies, General and Comparative Slavonic Studies, Serbian Studies and Slovenian Studies.
The Department organises BA and MA study programmes for South East Slavonic Studies with specialisations in Bulgarian, Croatian, Serbian, Slovenian, Romanian and Albanian Studies.
In our department, we offer the following study programmes: BA study programme, MA follow-up study programme and the PhD study programmes in Slavonic Philology and Slavonic Literature.
The BA programme consists of three years of study combining a mandatory A-level language (languages offered: Albanian, Bulgarian, Croatian, Romanian, Slovenian, Serbian) with a socio-cultural and historical module of the corresponding region in the South East Europe. The emphasis is mainly put on the development of the area in question, especially during the 19th, 20th and the beginning of the 21st century. The programme is designed as a study of philology covering Foreign language(s), its/their cultural background and studies of the Balkan region. It basically offers practical languages, linguistics, literary science, history and socio-cultural knowledge in the framework of the region in question.
The conditions to be fulfilled at the entrance examination are: basic knowledge of linguistics, national literatures of the region and basic facts about the history of the region.
In the year 2017/2018 candidates entering our BA study programme are invited to choose between three specialisations: Croatian, Slovenian and Albanian. In the year 2018/ 2019 we will offer BA program with specialisations in Bulgarian, Romanian and Serbian studies.
The MA study programme consists of the following parts: common subjects and three modules (MODULE 1 linguistics, MODULE 2 literary and historical and MODULE 3A-E another regional language – B level). It combines one A-level language (offered: Albanian, Bulgarian, Croatian, Slovenian, Serbian, Romanian) with specialised focus on the geography and geopolitics of the South-East European region, its cultural and social development. In accordance with the BA study programme, the follow-up MA programme consists of a mandatory A-level language, literature, history and socio-cultural knowledge of the region in question.
The MA follow-up study programme is offered not only to the former BA graduates in South-East European Studies, but to anyone holding a BA degree (in or outside the Czech Republic).
The conditions to be fulfilled at the entrance examination are: advanced knowledge of one of the languages of the area in question (at least B2 level according to CEFR), detailed knowledge of national literatures and historical background of the South-East European region.
The PhD programme in Slavonic Philology, along with the programme in Slavonic Literature, is one of the two PhD programmes carried out in a cooperation by three departments of the Faculty of Arts, Charles University: the Department of Central European Studies, the Department of East European Studies and the Department of South Slavonic and Balkan Studies. The study programme focuses equally on particular Slavonic languages and on comparative Slavonic linguistics in general, in synchronic and diachronic perspectives. It includes a wider Slavonic and general linguistic (methodological) basis. It shapes the specializations of doctoral projects primarily towards one of the Slavonic languages, either national (Belarusian, Bulgarian, Croatian, Macedonian, Polish, Russian, Serbian, Slovak, Slovenian, Ukrainian, etc.) or a regional or minority language (Kashubian, Rusyn, Sorbian, etc.), Paleo-Slavonic linguistics or comparative Slavonic linguistics.
Another research approach is the description of the linguistic situation in countries with a Slavonic language as the state language or with a Slavonic ethnic component. Attention is given equally to the regional Slavonic-non-Slavonic (especially Baltic) context and to the problem of Slavonic-Slavonic language contact and the acquisition of Czech as a foreign language in speakers of other Slavonic languages.
The comparative approach is a methodological basis of all doctoral projects, with Czech as a key context, both material and methodological.