On the occasion of Václav Havel’s seven week residence at Columbia University, Czech Studies and the Harriman Institute have organized several remarkable events that will be of interest to Habsburgers. Our marquee event will be a one-day symposium featuring appearances by some of President Havel’s closest associates from both his dissident and presidential years, and the leading North American experts on his literary and theatrical work. We look forward to seeing you at this event, and encourage you to visit Columbia’s Czech Studies website, at http://sipa.columbia.edu/regional/ECE/Czech.html for information on other events. For more information about the dozens of events surrounding President Havel’s residency, please see http://www.havel.columbia.edu.

A Symposium - The Examined Life:
The Literature and Politics of Václav Havel

Saturday, 11 November
Room 1501, International Affairs Building, 420 West 118th Street

Welcome and Opening Remarks by Catharine Nepomnyashchy: Director, Harriman Institute

Morning Session on Literature: 10:00-12:30
Moderator: Christopher Harwood, Lecturer in the Slavic Department, Columbia University.

Marketa Goetz-Stankiewicz: Professor Emerita in the Department of Central, Eastern and Northern European Studies at the University of British Columbia, author of The Silenced Theatre: Czech Playwrights Without a Stage, and co-editor of Critical Essays on Václav Havel.
“Václav Havel’s Theater: Plays for Our Times”

Paul Wilson: Freelance writer, editor (Havel’s Open Letters, among others), and translator of Škvorecký, Hrabal, and Klíma and many of Havel’s plays, letters, speeches and essays.
“Reading Havel: Remarks on a Life in Translation”

Peter Steiner: Professor in the Slavic Department, University of Pennsylvania, Director - Penn in Prague, and author of The Deserts of Bohemia: Czech Fiction and its Social Context.
"The Power of the Image: Vaclav Havel's Visual Poetry"

Carol Rocamora: Professor of Dramatic Writing at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts and author of the new biography Acts of Courage: Václav Havel’s Life in the Theater.
“Havel's Drama on the English-Speaking Stage”

Afternoon Session on Politics: 2:00-4:30

Moderator: Bradley Abrams, Associate Professor, History Department, Columbia University.

Ambassador Martin Palouš: Czech Ambassador to the United Nations, former Czech Ambassador to the United States and former spokesperson of Charter 77
“What Antipolitical Politics Is and What It Is Not”

Jiří Pehe: Director, NYU in Prague, former Director of the Political Department of Havel’s Presidential Office.
“Václav Havel: From a Political Dissident to a Dissident Politician”

Petr Pithart: First Deputy Chairperson and former Chairperson of the Czech Senate, former Prime Minister of the Czech Republic, and leading dissident in communist Czechoslovakia.
“The Dissident and Intellectual in Politics: The Three Roles of Václav Havel”

Reception: 4:30-6:00

RSVP to havelsym@harrimaninstitute.org