|
|
Going West: Czech Immigration to California (1960-1970)
West, Anna ; Wohlmuth Markupová, Jana (advisor) ; Krátká, Lenka (referee)
The construction of human identity involves various aspects of self-definition, often involving an interplay between ethnic, national, and personal identities. In the case of emigrants, their self-concepts about their identities can undergo a profound transformation when they leave their home country. This oral history research project studies the experiences of emigration, arrival, integration, and identity among Czech immigrants in California who emigrated from Czechoslovakia in the 1960s. While contemporary research has centered primarily on Czechs in New York, Illinois, Nebraska, and Texas, where large Czech communities have historically existed, this study intends to fill a gap in our knowledge about Czechs who settled in California, of which less is known. Through oral history interviews with five narrators, this study examines their decisions to emigrate; their experiences of arrival and integration in California; their participation in the Czech community in California; and their perspectives on their identities before and after the fall of communism in Czechoslovakia in 1989. The presence of transnational identities and behaviors was found among the narrators, whereby they existed in social worlds that spanned their home country, Czechoslovakia (and the Czech Republic after 1993), and...
|
|
|
The beginning of the end of shoe production in Zlín The transformation of the shoe manufacturer SVIT Gottwaldov in the period 1989-1991
Grác, David ; Krátká, Lenka (advisor) ; Wohlmuth Markupová, Jana (referee)
In my diploma thesis, I examine the contemporary history of the transformation of the socialist economy after November 1989, applying the oral-historical method. As an example of such a transformation, I am using the traditional shoe producer Svit Gottwaldov. The thesis focuses on a specific time frame that began with the Velvet Revolution in 1989 and ended on 26. 11. 1991, when the state enterprise Svit - the former direct successor of the Bata company - halted production, put one-quarter of its employees on forced leave, fell into secondary insolvency, terminated the negotiations on the entry of the Bata company, and essentially collapsed. In the first part of the work, the methodology on which the text is based is laid out. The basis is oral history interviews, which are supplemented by archival sources. The second, empirical part, describes the events of that time in the form of a story. The plot of our story begins with a description of the state of affairs before November 1989, the subsequent revolutionary events, the return of Tomáš Bata junior, his negotiations to take over Svit. The story ends with the management's not very successful attempt at transformation and privatization.
|
|
| |
|
|
Displacement of the German population from the Chřibská valley. The course, consequences and reflection in contemporary sources and the stories of witnesses.
Zdražilová, Hana ; Hlaváček, Jiří (advisor) ; Wohlmuth Markupová, Jana (referee)
The aim of this thesis is to map the course of the displacement of the German population from the Chřibská valley after the World War II. and its consequences for the development of the area's significance. The thesis is based on the study of archival sources, contemporary press, available scientific and regional literature and interviews with witnesses using the Oral History method. The interviews were conducted with those who were forcibly evicted or who could or had to stay, and those from among the new settlers. The aim of the work was also to get a general overview of the recorded testimonies from the region and the existing links between the current and displaced populations. The contribution of the project would be a micro-historical probe into the development of life in one valley against the backdrop of historical events, and to capture the experiences and stories of the memorialists for posterity. Keywords: displacement; marches; transports; settlement; demolition; micro-history
|
|
|
Establishment of Czech psychotronics as a science
Niekurzáková, Kateřina ; Franc, Martin (advisor) ; Wohlmuth Markupová, Jana (referee)
The diploma thesis strives to map the history of psychotronics in Czechoslovakia, that has been established at the end of the sixties as scientific discipline. The thesis aims to investigate and evaluate the rate of acceptance of psychotronics by the scientific community. The thesis encompasses the personalities of particular psychotronicists and relations between them. The rate of cooperation between the psychotronicists and the Secret State Police plays also a significant role for the means of the thesis.
|
|
|
The Beskydy Mountain Rescue Service in Memories of Witnesses
Novák, Tomáš ; Wohlmuth Markupová, Jana (advisor) ; Mücke, Pavel (referee)
My thesis deals with the history of the Mountain Rescue in the Beskydy. Its activity is incorporated into a broader perspective of the history of the Mountain Rescue in the Czech Republic. The thesis brings insight into the personal and professional lives of mountain rescue workers and describes the mutual interconnection of these areas. It investigates the personal motivation for participating in the organisation's operation. Based on memories of witnesses from the era of their service, the research describes milestones in the operation of the Mountain Rescue. The main research method was oral history. Narrators were selected so that their depictions provided the most complex view of the problem analysed. They are represented by both the volunteers and professional members from six districts of the Beskydy region. Their memories cover the period since 1966 until the present day.
|
|
|
About Freedom without Freedom: Meetings of Students in the U Bílého koníčka Club.
Mejstříková, Dorotea ; Vaněk, Miroslav (advisor) ; Wohlmuth Markupová, Jana (referee)
The diploma thesis "O svobodě v nesvobodě: Setkávání studentů U Bílého koníčka před rokem 1989." deals with the development of events in the student editorial boards of magazines and newspapers that preceded November 17th, 1989 from the perspective of beginning journalists, editors and graphic designers who teamed up in these magazines, who were able to quickly organize themselves, to inform peripherals about the intervention on Národní třída and to set up strike committees thanks to a network of contacts at faculties everywhere in Czechoslovakia. The work reflects the narratives of narrators about censorship, self- censorship, and the courage to write about otherwise forbidden topics. It deals with the role of the Czechoslovak Socialist Youth Union in the possibility of publishing magazines and the role of the students, who comment on their historical role several decades later. In addition to the testimonies of narrators who met at the Student Press and Information Centre in the U Bílého koníčka club, the diploma thesis also uses their diary entries and the periodical press analyses.
|
|
| |
|
| |
|
|
We are all descendants of Charles IV. - Post-war nobility in witness reflection of one family
Ševčíková, Markéta ; Hlaváček, Jiří (advisor) ; Wohlmuth Markupová, Jana (referee)
This aim of this thesis is to show how members of the former aristocratic families lived after 1945 on the basis of oral-historical interviews. The narrators are people who were born between years 1929-1962 and who lived in Czechoslovakia until at least 1968. Their memories are compared with each other in order to find out whether or not they differ due to their date of birth. The thesis deals with both personal topics in the life of each narrator and their memories of important events in Czechoslovakia, such as the period of August 1968 or the Velvet Revolution.
|
guest ::
