See what’s coming up on on the BCSA’s Events Calendar.

Events Search and Views Navigation
November 2020
Ambassador Nigel Baker webinar
Circumstances prevent us from holding our special 30th anniversary dinner this year but you can meet our keynote speaker from the comfort of your home on Zoom. It also offers an opportunity to say a fond farewell to L’ubomir Rehák, the Slovak Ambassador, who is leaving his post in London for Moscow and to welcome his successor Róbert Ondrejcsák. At the end of the programme, the winner of the 2020 BCSA writing competition will be announced. Nigel Baker was appointed…
Find out more »March 2021
The Czech Lands through the eyes of Dan Cruickshank
Dan Cruickshank, a well-known television art and architecture historian, will share his impressions of the Czech Lands online via Zoom. Dan's travels have taken him to the Czech Lands where he filmed two of his television broadcasts. It might have been his friendship with Jan Kaplický, as well as with Eva Jiřičná, that inspired his curiosity in their homeland. In addition, post-communist countries have always intrigued him. As a child he lived for three years in Poland and attended a…
Find out more »May 2021
The Black Death in Bohemia: a medieval pandemic
A Zoom lecture by Dr Mark Whelan. The coming of the Black Death to Europe was a defining epidemiological event, killing anywhere between twenty-five and eighty percent of the continent’s population in the years 1347-1351. With Covid-19 sweeping the globe, interest in past pandemics and the historical comparisons they may provide has never been higher. This talk examines the impact of plague on Bohemia in the medieval and early modern periods, surveying recent advances in the scholarship and understanding of…
Find out more »October 2021
Czech protest music past & present
An online Zoom talk by Daniel Majer about the political role Czech protest music has played in Czech and Slovak history from the Austro-Hungarian empire until today. Following the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968, Karel Kryl composed ‘Bratříčku, zavírej vrátka’ (Keep the gates closed, little brother) as his reaction to the occupation. In 1972 the Slovak dissident Ján Ladislav Kalina was given a two-year prison sentence for, among other things, playing a record of Kryl’s songs to friends…
Find out more »November 2021
The life and legacy of Alexander Dubček
A roundtable discussion to commemorate the birth of Alexander Dubček (1921-1992) online via Zoom. 27 November 2021 marks one hundred years since the birth of Alexander Dubček, icon of Czechoslovakia’s political reform movements in 1968 and 1989 and one of the most important figures in twentieth-century Slovak politics. SPEAKERS: MUDr. Pavol Dubček is the son of Alexander Dubček - the most prominent figure in modern Slovak history and icon of the Prague Spring (1968). Pavol Dubček studied medicine at the…
Find out more »December 2021
BCSA Christmas social evening
As the festive season approaches, we thought our last regular "get to know you" meeting this year should be special. Join us to exchange your stories and experiences of Christmas, past and present, sample some traditional Christmas cookies and sing a few songs and carols. Everybody with Czech or Slovak connections or interests is welcome Food and drinks are available for purchase. It would help if we could all have our meal together at the same time. We shall aim…
Find out more »February 2022
A youthful view of Czech elections and populism
A talk on Zoom by Nina Fořtíková, a sixteen-year old Prague schoolgirl, about the attitude of her generation towards Czech political life. She is not an average Czech teenager; when she was thirteen Nina joined a debating club which required wide reading on political matters. Nina submitted an essay Why people prioritise optimism over their freedom to the BCSA writing competition in which she analyses why right-wing nationalist politicians are becoming ever more popular. She attends one of Prague‘s international…
Find out more »March 2022
Anne of Bohemia
Anne of Bohemia, the eldest daughter of Charles IV, married King Richard II of England in 1382 at the age of 16 . The speaker will be Dr Shubhankar Reddy, who will be giving the talk from his home in India, such is the wonder of Zoom. He is a doctor of medicine who has an interest in history, and will tell us about this remarkable lady who until her early death joined together the English and Bohemian royal houses.…
Find out more »April 2022
Czech immunisation history & Covid contribution
Literature suggests that communist dogmas and public health practices drove immunisation and science innovation. During the Covid pandemic Czechs created biosensors, coronavirus-killing paper and researched the relationship between smoking and the virus. Joseph Black will join us on Zoom from Sydney, Australia to share his views on topics covered in his essay that was awarded second prize in the 2021 BCSA writing competition. If you wish to participate, please register at bcsa@bcsa.co.uk Login details will only be shared with those…
Find out more »May 2022
NHS versus Czech healthcare and why people emigrate
An online Zoom event. If you wish to participate please register at bcsa@bcsa.co.uk. Login details will be shared only with those who confirm their attendance. Czech-born British GP, Dr Eva Hnízdo will introduce her book Diagnosis London, published in Czech in Prague in 2020, and her novel Why didn’t they leave?, which was published in London in English in 2021. Dr Hnízdo was born in Prague in 1953. After studying medicine at Charles University she worked at a Czech hospital…
Find out more »