Johana Sedláčková

Absolventka 2013
Bakalářské studium International Relations

Narodila se v roce 1989 a původně si myslela, že je předurčena ke hře na klavír, protože absolvovala šest let na konzervatoři v rodných Pardubicích. Místo toho si však vytyčila jiný osud, a to v oblasti mezinárodních vztahů a akademické sféry. Když v roce 2010 zjistila, že ze zdravotních důvodů nemůže pokračovat ve hře na klavír, narychlo si vybrala jinou cestu, které se bude věnovat.

První vzpomínky na AAU?
I was really scared because my English wasn’t that good at the time, and I remember picking up all these readers for all six classes and thinking I wasn’t going to last more than two weeks!

Nezapomenutelné hodiny?
I think the most important class for me was Cold War with William Eddleston. It was a tough class, but it prepared me well for Oxford. I also realized I was interested in the Cold War era.

AAU ve třech slovech?
Přátelská, mezinárodní a přísná.

Nehmotné věci, se kterými jste opustili AAU?
Firstly, I met many great people there, such as my friends and my husband. Secondly, it also opened the opportunity for me to study at Oxford. 

Co vás vedlo ke studiu na Oxfordu?
One day I met a girl who was applying to Cambridge… and I thought: “Well, you can actually apply from the Czech Republic?” I never knew that it was possible for anyone from the Czech Republic to study at these schools. Then I began talking to professors at AAU, and I thought I could maybe just give it a try.

Between keeping up a straight A average and spending three to four months on her motivation letter, her efforts became a reality… 

Největší šok v Oxfordu?
The most shocking thing was the list of readings we were supposed to prepare for each week. I tried to do all the suggested reading my first couple weeks where I was reading 14 hours a day, then I realized it was impossible. So, I had to establish some kind of system to get through a lot of literature and how to learn what I needed and the most important points that I could use in class and what was most interesting to me. I never imagined something that intense before.

Témata diplomových prací na AAU a v Oxfordu?
I was working on the same thesis topic the whole time – at Oxford I just developed the topic I started at Anglo-American, which was about cultural exchanges between Czechoslovakia and Great Britain in the 1960’s before the Prague Spring. I was looking at the relationship between domestic liberalization processes in Czechoslovakia, starting in 1956 and leading to the Prague Spring of 1968, and the concurrent process of rejuvenating cultural dialogue between Czechoslovakia and Great Britain. So I spent basically five years researching in archives, conducting interviews, and putting it together since I was the first person to write about the topic.

Jaké byly tyto komunikační kanály?
The main channels of communication between the two countries were two-way cultural and academic exchanges, emerging and limited tourism, and an increasing inflow of British popular culture to Czechoslovakia. The ongoing academic debate about the origins of the Prague Spring often neglects the increasing transnational experiences of Czechoslovaks coming to capitalist countries from the country’s gradual opening, and the effects of the subsequent inflow of Western culture to Czechoslovakia. So that’s why I find the topic very interesting.

Co vás Poetizer naučil?
That people actually really like to write poetry! It just started off as a fun project and then more and more people kept on downloading it and using it – now we have almost 8000 users, and about 300 new poems a week which is awesome!

Souvislost mezi IR a poezií?
Poetry is an art, and art has a very important role in international affairs. In the late 1980s, Joseph S. Nye developed the concept of soft power that highlights the importance of culture in international relations. Simply put, he argues that a country’s soft power can shape relations with other countries through attraction and cooperation rather than coercion, and culture alongside with political values constitutes this soft power. I think he made a very important point, through culture we communicate with other people, cultures and nations, and we establish relationships through it – so as for myself, poetry and IR are certainly interrelated.

Od hry na klavír, přes výuku dětí v mateřské škole, studium francouzštiny v Grenoblu až po akademickou půdu... co si myslíte o své rozmanité minulosti? Je to důležité?
In the terms of my studies at Oxford, it was very important for me to have a background in arts because it was an interdisciplinary program. I wrote my thesis on cultural exchanges in the Cold War, so it was important that I knew a lot about music and cultural arts, along with international relations and politics, so that I could use my knowledge of both fields.

I also believe that if you do more diverse things it makes you more open minded and creative so you’re not scared of trying new things.

Nejlepší české kapely?
J.A.R. a Monkey Business.

Kdybyste se mohli vrátit v čase a navštívit jakýkoli koncert?
Freddy Mercury a skupina Queen.

Mozart ne?!
Směje se... "Ne, královna by byla zábavnější."