Johana Sedláčková
Alumna de 2013
Licenciatura en Relaciones Internacionales y Diplomacia
El 24 de noviembre tuve el placer de sentarme a tomar un café con Johana Sedláčková Vamberská, justo enfrente de su oficina. Hacía algunos años que no la veía, desde que terminó su licenciatura en Relaciones Internacionales en AAU, pero su nombre y su presencia no se habían desvanecido, ya que había oído hablar de que continuaba sus estudios en Oxford y de que dirigía una nueva aplicación para compartir poesía llamada Poetizer . Así que pude enterarme de lo que ha estado haciendo, y también un poco sobre el origen de esta ex alumna.
Nacida en 1989, al principio pensó que estaba destinada a tocar el piano, tras cursar seis años en un conservatorio de su ciudad natal, Pardubice. Sin embargo, se ha labrado otro destino en el ámbito de las relaciones internacionales y el mundo académico. En 2010, tras enterarse de que no podía seguir tocando el piano por razones médicas, se apresuró a elegir otro camino.
Cuando tuve que dejar el piano, me disgustó mucho... Pero sabía que tenía que elegir otro camino lo antes posible, también para mantenerme ocupada. Siempre me interesaron los asuntos mundiales y el mundo de la diplomacia. Así que me matriculé en AAU para estudiar relaciones internacionales. Allí me di cuenta de que había elegido bien, porque la asignatura me obliga a aprender cada vez más.
¿Primeros recuerdos en 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!
¿Clases memorables?
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 en tres palabras?
Amigable, internacional y riguroso.
¿Cosas intangibles que te llevaste de 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.
¿Qué te empujó a estudiar en Oxford?
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…
¿La mayor sorpresa en Oxford?
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.
¿Temas de tesis en AAU y Oxford?
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.
¿Cuáles eran esos canales de comunicación?
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.
¿Qué le ha enseñado Poetizer?
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!
¿Conexión entre RI y poesía?
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.
Del piano a la enseñanza de niños de preescolar, pasando por el aprendizaje del francés en Grenoble, al mundo académico... ¿qué opinas de tu variada formación? ¿Es importante?
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.
¿Los mejores grupos checos?
J.A.R. y Monkey Business.
¿Si pudiera viajar en el tiempo para ver cualquier concierto?
Freddy Mercury y Queen.
¿No Mozart?
Se ríe... "No, Queen sería más divertido".
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