Heart of Europe: Memory & Culture

Professor Jody Russell Manning
Year: 2023
Students: 19 (Graduate and Undergraduate)
Accompanying Faculty: Jennifer Rich and Stephen Hague
Countries Visited: Hungary, Poland, Czech Republic, and Austria

Have you taken a moonlit boat ride down the Danube? Strolled along the Charles Bridge eating ice cream after shopping in the center of Prague? Enjoyed a Viennese communal meal in the shadow of a Baroque palace in the old town?  Have you ever stood below a giant Communist statue of Lenin in a park outside of Budapest?  No longer trapped behind the Iron Curtain – the vibe and life in the Heart of Europe remains intoxicatingly upbeat and its cities are moving fast toward the future. With stays in Austria, the Czech Republic, Poland, and Hungary and taking in numerous cities and sights, we unpack how culture and memory is shaped and influenced politically, regionally, and internationally. We will also discuss linguistic prose and discover delicious regional cuisine. A once in a lifetime experience, this course enables students to understand why local and global, mass violence and peace, history and memory, inclusion and exclusion, as well as dictatorship and democracy often coincided: “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. (Dickens)”