On Friday, Oct. 28, Elizabethtown College hosted Dr. Martin Nekola to discuss the true meaning of democracy, the importance of having a democratic system and the current volatile political state in non-democratic regimes. 

Nekola is a renowned political scientist with a doctorate from the Charles University in Prague, Czech Republic. The topic of discussion was also the research he had focused on as a PhD candidate. Non-democratic regimes, the rise and fall of communism in Europe, Czech communities globally and the Eastern European anti-communst exiles in the United States during the Cold War have always been of interest to Nekola. 

Nekola also spends time focused on election observation missions that are arranged by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). He is a member of the Association for Slavic, East European and Eurasian Studies (ASEEES) and the author of more than 300 published articles and 20 published books.

To tie in the focus on democracy with Nekola’s roots in Czechoslovakia, he is also the Czechoslovak Talks Project coordinator (https://www.czechoslovaktalks.com/en). The Czechoslovak Talks project was created in 2016 by the Dotek Endowment Fund. This fund was meant to support the development of relations between Czech and Slovaks all over the world since 2008.

The Czechoslovak Talks project made it possible to remember Czechoslovaks living abroad and their life stories. This independent project, which Nekola heads, collects the memories and creates inspirations and lessons for others using those memories. By collecting and preserving life stories of Czechoslovaks internationally, the narratives are able to be told in the form of stories that can be distributed widely and remembered in publications. 

Dr. Nekola told the story of how Czechoslovakia was liberated from the Nazi party in 1945, and there was the gradual sovietization and dominance of communism in the country after the Nazis’ demise. The communists in that era fully took over the country by 1948, and there was a period of totalitarian dominance that lasted more than forty years.

The focus of the narrative came during this climate. In a time where totalitarian regimes played a big role in Eastern Europe, Czechoslovakia tried to bring back the promise of freedom and democracy. In this fight for freedom, there were a lot of people that were displaced and exiled. These are the people that Nekola focuses on during his talk and in his work with the Czechoslovak Talks project.

This event comes at a time when the Bowers Writers House is trying to become a main venue hosting guests from various backgrounds and fields. The House, which was founded in 2010, has become an interdisciplinary venue for “expression, study, presentation, and performance,” according to the House’s official website. The House was established on the basis of supporting a culture of growing literary and creative curiosity. The hope is that this will result in a new sense of excitement for intellectual diversity for both on- and off-campus communities.

Though the House is an unlikely venue for such events, as it is a four-bedroom, three-bathroom house, Jesse Waters was able to transform it into a creative outlet for the Etown community. Waters, who is the Director of the Bowers Writers House, has been advocating for more usage of the house and invited many community members to increase the house’s participation on-campus.

The House offers between 12-15 events during each academic semester with the promise of these events always being free. However, seating is limited, and it is recommended that visitors arrive there 15 minutes early. Water has continued to advocate for the House to be used for a number of multidisciplinary, creative events.

For more information about the Bowers Writers House, visit https://www.etown.edu/centers/writershouse/