East-Central Europe, 1989: the History and Philosophy of the Peaceful Revolutions

FAIN: FV-50330-12

University of Northern Colorado (Greeley, CO 80639-6900)
Christiane Olivo (Project Director: March 2012 to April 2016)

A four-week seminar in Berlin and Prague for sixteen school teachers on the background of the anti-communist movements leading to the peaceful revolutions in East-Central Europe in 1989.

This seminar will explore the history of dissident movements in East-Central Europe, including East Germany, Hungary, Poland and the Czechoslovakia. It will examine the history of communism in these countries and the growth of dissident movements under communism as well as the events (including the role of dissident groups) that led to the fall of communism in 1989. There are three main questions that the seminar will address: What role did democratic opposition movements play in the fall of communism? What were the philosophical ideas developed by dissidents in the civil societies of these communist countries? And, what is the ongoing significance of these political philosophies? It will take place over four weeks in Berlin, Germany and Prague, Czech Republic.