University news

Former US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright visited the University of Glasgow to launch a new PhD scholarship in Czech and Central European Studies.

The Madeline Albright Scholarships will run for four years and are being supported by the Czech Foreign Office.

Secretary Albright, who was born in Prague, met Czech Studies students and toured the University library library with the Czech Ambassador to the UK, Dr Michael Žantovský and Professor Anton Muscatelli, Principal & Vice-Chancellor of the University of Glasgow.

The €15,000 scholarship will cover student fees and subsistence. The Czech government provided the funding in recognition of the excellent global reputation of Czech Studies at Glasgow. It did so on the recommendation of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Parliament of the Czech Republic.

Speaking at the launch of the scholarship, Secretary Albright said: “I am deeply honoured to be involved with this fantastic scholarship. There is a strong tradition and heritage between the University of Glasgow and the universities of the Czech republic and I am humbled to form part of that connection.

“The University of Glasgow is clearly a university which places great emphasis on its academic breadth and depth and the study of Slavonic languages and cultures plays an important part in that.

“I will be following the progress of these scholars with great interest in the coming years and I am proud to be a small part in the connection between the University of Glasgow and the Czech Republic.”

Professor Anton Muscatelli, Principal of the University of Glasgow, said: “It is an honour to have Secretary Albright in Glasgow launching this new PhD scholarship.

"We are indebted to Secretary Albright for lending her name to these scholarships and it is a fitting and special acknowledgment of her achievements in politics and her deep interest in her Czech heritage.

“Scholarships add to the richness and vibrancy of research cultures and we know the capacity they have to raise the aspirations and unlock the potential of talented young people from any background, from anywhere in the world. ”

Current research in the area of Czech Studies at the University concentrates primarily on social self-examination and myth-making in Czechoslovakia/Czech Republic since 1989, using literature and cinema as material culture.

The University also conducts research on contemporary Czech media, society and politics.

Glasgow has expertise in the area of Czech literature published in the diaspora during the times of the communist regime in 1948-1989. Research proposals are welcome in all these areas. Proposals from other areas of study, relating to the Czech republic, will be also considered.

To be eligible for the scholarship students must undertake PhD research in one of the areas of Czech Studies – either history, literature, politics, media, or cinematography.

Madeleine Albright was born Marie Jana Korbelová in Prague in 1937 and grew up there before moving to the US as a child in 1948 with her family. She attended Wellesley College in Massachusetts, graduating in political science in 1959. Jobs at Encyclopaedia Britannica and Newsday followed before she went to John Hopkins University in Washington DC, and latterly Columbia University, to study international relations and Russian.

Before becoming the US’s first female Secretary of State, her career has spanned working as a National Security Council congressional liaison, as an academic staff member at Georgetown University, Democratic Party foreign policy advisor, and US ambassador to the United Nations. She is fluent in English, French, Czech and Russian.

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First published: 10 September 2010