The Project

This SSHRC-funded collaborative project investigates the public articulation and contestation of collective memory in an empirical study of the commemoration of Jan Hus in context of the 600th Jubilee of the Council of Constance, and related events. The project explores the representation of history in public rituals as well as memory practices in Czech and German museums. The research aims to make an empirically grounded contribution to current debates, methods, and theories in the field of cultural memory.

Who was Jan Hus?

Jan Hus was a priest, scholar and reformer of the early 15th century. Inspired in part by the thought of the English reformer John Wycliff, Hus became a provocative figure in and around Prague, as a result of his public sermons, writings and liturgical innovations. The Emperor Charles IV had made Prague his capital city, […]

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Hus 600

Mobilizing its historic and cultural resources, the city of Konstanz, in parternship with various organizations, launched, on the occasion of the 600th anniversary of the Council of Constant (Konziljubilaum), a multi-year long jubilee (2014-2018), comprised of museum and art exhibits, music and theatre performances, worship services, and guided tours. The jubilee is branded as “Europa zum […]

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Cultural Memory

This research draws on two inter-related theoretical perspectives: cultural memory and ritual/festival studies. Although the majority of research in the field of memory studies deal primarily with discourses and textual data, there is a growing awareness of collective memory as a locally enacted, performed phenomenon. Our research then is framed and informed by the concept […]

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The Questions

General Questions How and by whom is the cultural memory of Jan Hus and the Council of Constance locally performed in ritual and discursively represented in media How is the story of Constance and Hus ritualized, performed and represented in museums in Constance and Tabor? What are the fundamental questions and tensions informing the commemoration […]

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Partners

munlogo Department of Religious Studies, Memorial University of Newfoundland and Labrador, St. John's, Canada

marsaryklogo Department of Sociology, Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic

sshrclogo

This research is supported by a grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada
Women as caretakers of the memory of Jan Hus – Fida Pfister
Oct 19, 2016

Women as caretakers of the memory of Jan Hus – Fida Pfister
  During the celebrations of the anniversary of Jan Hus we met a lot of people in different roles. At the places of memory of Jan Hus, politicians from Czech Republic as well as from Konstanz, members of different associations, academics and historians held speeches. At church celebrations participated politicians as well as the members […]
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The “After Ceremony” or a Lesson in Ritual Flexibility 
Jun 23, 2016
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The “After Ceremony” or a Lesson in Ritual Flexibility 
Constance, May 30, 2016: Dozens of people have gathered in the Luther Church to attend an ecumenical church service in commemoration of Jerome of Prague, who had been burned the very same day, 600 years ago. Among the participants are members of the churches, including the Czechoslovak Hussite Church and the Catholic Church, politicians, notably the […]
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Hieronymus of Prague: a middle-age intellectual “of flesh and bone”
May 30, 2016
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Hieronymus of Prague: a middle-age intellectual “of flesh and bone”
During the weekend 27th to 29th of May occurred commemoration festivities of 600 years since the burning of Hieronymus of Prague. After last year’s diverse and generous activities remembering martyrdom of Jan Hus it was rather a modest and narrowly focused program. The reasons are several. The story of Jan Hus seems to be more […]
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