Canadian Studies from Brno

In our debut episode, Dr Denisa Krásná sits down with Don Sparling—the scholar, educator, and cultural ambassador who helped bring Canadian Studies to life in the Czech Republic. They talk about the founding of the Canadian Studies Centre at Masaryk University, the importance of studying Canada today, and Don’s decades of work promoting Canadian culture and scholarship across Central Europe.

What do Canadian cities feel like in literature and film? Dr Denisa Krásná sits down with Professor Eva Darias-Beautell to explore the “liquid city” of contemporary Canada—its shifting identities, precarious spaces, and resilient communities. Join us for a conversation on emotion, urban life, and finding love for and in Canada.

Eva Darias-Beautell is a Professor of Canadian Literatures in English at the University of La Laguna, Spain. Her research focuses on contemporary Canadian fiction and film, urban studies, and cultural theory. She is the author and editor of several books, including Unruly Penelopes and the Ghosts and The Urban Condition. She currently leads the international research projects ⁠The Premise of Happiness⁠ and ⁠TransCanadian Networks⁠. You can follow her and her research projects on Instagram at ⁠@evadariasbeautell⁠ and ⁠@projectreshap⁠.

In this episode of Canadian Studies from Brno, host Dr. Denisa Krásná speaks with Paul von Blum—historian, activist, educator, and lifelong advocate for social justice. Paul von Blum is a Senior Lecturer at UCLA in African American and Communication Studies. Active in the civil rights and anti-war movements since the 1960s, he has spent decades exploring the intersections of art, politics, education, and resistance. He is the author of nine books and numerous articles on political art, culture, and activism, including his memoir A Life at the Margins: Keeping the Political Vision (2011), which chronicles nearly fifty years of political engagement. Currently in Brno as a visiting professor, Paul is teaching an intensive course on North American political art. In this conversation, we discuss political and Indigenous art in Canada, Paul Robeson’s connections to Canada, activism across borders, and the contemporary political moment in North America—past and present. 🎧 A wide-ranging discussion about art as resistance, teaching activism, and thinking across borders.

Le professeur Petr Kyloušek, co-directeur du Centre d’études canadiennes à l’Université Masaryk, nous emmène dans l’univers du Canada francophone. Dans cet entretien consacré à la littérature québécoise, à l’identité et aux échanges culturels, il partage ses expériences, ses débuts académiques ainsi que sa vision de l’avenir des études canadiennes.

Le professeur Petr Kyloušek est l’une des figures majeures des études canadiennes en République tchèque et en Europe centrale. Spécialiste reconnu de la littérature canadienne-française et québécoise, il est l’auteur d’une œuvre de référence de plus de 500 pages, Histoire de la littérature canadienne-française et québécoise (2005), ainsi que d’études consacrées à des écrivains tels que Michel Tremblay, Jacques Ferron, Noël Audet, ou aux auteurs autochtones. Son travail interdisciplinaire explore également des thèmes plus larges liés à la culture, à l’américanité et à la question identitaire au Canada francophone.

In this episode of Canadian Studies from Brno, host Dr. Denisa Krásná speaks with Lucie Altmannová, a doctoral candidate at Masaryk University whose research explores contemporary writing by Indigenous women in Canada and the US, examining how literature engages with colonial histories, gender, sexuality, and the regulation of the female body. In this episode, we explore the concept of embodiment, the role of storytelling in Indigenous healing, and the challenges of conducting decolonial research from a Central European perspective. We also discuss Lucie’s experience as an emerging scholar, including her participation in the Canadian Summer School in Toronto and her work with the Central European Association for Canadian Studies (CEACS), where she contributes to building academic networks across regions.