We are going to have a reading week. How to benefit from it?
There will be no regular classes in the week of 17 April 2023. Instead, we will have a reading week for the first time. A common part of the semester abroad, it will open up opportunities for students and faculty to engage in activities that will deepen their professional competencies but are difficult to fit into the regular schedule.
Students can read the entire novel to discuss it in a relevant way the following week. While reading, they can try the double-journal method. They can work with their classmates on a concentrated day-long project that they couldn't do in the limited time in their schedule. They can read their classmates' art texts or professional translations and prepare formative feedback for them to work with in future lessons. They can immerse themselves in the intensive study of sources in libraries and archives, comparing different historical sources, searching for answers to unanswered questions, or discovering the benefits of the more common reading of the past. Finally, they can attend special lectures, for example, as part of Teachers' Week.
However, Reading Week is also an opportunity for teachers to immerse themselves in reading, attend one of the upcoming training seminars or meet with colleagues and devote a whole day to conceptual work. They can organize extraordinary workshops, prepare smaller conferences, and organize (inter)disciplinary meetings. In short, they can devote themselves to anything that does not fit the rhythm of regular teaching or for which space and time are hard to find during the semester.
Some faculty departments have already incorporated reading week periods into the teaching schedule for students of their study programs in the past. In contrast, other departments will try this format for the first time. By introducing the reading week in a common term, the faculty aims, in particular, to allow all actors to plan their activities better and make the most of the events prepared across the faculty.
Reading Week will become a fixed part of the semester from now on. It will take place in the autumn term of 2023 from 13-17 November and will be linked to Humanities Week.
On behalf of the MU Faculty of Arts Zuzana Šalamounová, Josef Šaur and Zdeňka Jastrzembská
