From July 6 to 25, 2026, the Faculty of Education of the University of South Bohemia in České Budějovice hosted the three-week international project "univie: summer school for Czech-Austrian Language Tandem: Sommerkolleg České Budějovice 2026," supported by the AKTION Czech Republic – Austria program. Building on the long-standing cooperation between the Department of German Studies at the Faculty of Education, USB and the Department of Slavic Studies at the University of Vienna, and led by Mgr. Jana Kusová, Ph.D. and Dr. phil. Naděžda Salmhoferová, the project brought together students from the Czech Republic and Austria for joint studies in Czech and German language, literature, history, and culture.
In addition to intensive language courses, meetings with contemporary Austrian and Czech literature formed a significant part of the program. This year featured author readings by Peter Waterhouse, Radka Denemarková, and Josef Winkler. An extraordinary event was also a panel discussion on the literature of Franz Kafka Prize laureates Radka Denemarková and Josef Winkler, moderated by Assoc. Prof. Dana Pfeiferová, Ph.D., with the participation of the Austrian Ambassador, Dr. Bettina Kirnbauer. The literary section of the college offered not only contact with prominent personalities of contemporary literature but also specialized seminars on their work and a space for questions and discussion in a foreign language.
The framework theme of this year's edition was devoted to beer and the brewing industry in České Budějovice as a transcultural site of memory. Students engaged with the history of České Budějovice, the history of brewing, and the Budvar and Samson breweries. Their interests included regional and national identity in connection with the cultural memory of the city, the professional vocabulary of brewing, and the reflection of beer culture in Czech and German. The program was complemented by specialized guided tours of locations related to the researched topic and professional excursions to the Museum of Brewing at the Faculty of Agriculture and Technology of USB, the university microbrewery, and the Budvar brewery. The result of this intensive study was a highly successful student conference during which students presented the results of their research work very creatively, thoroughly, and from various perspectives.
The college also included professional excursions to Landštejn Castle, Slavonice, Maříž, the vanished village of Leštnice, Tábor, and Vyšší Brod, which connected language learning with the exploration of history, literature, and the landscape within the Czech-Austrian cultural space.
For many years, the Sommerkolleg České Budějovice has been creating a space for intensive Czech-Austrian academic cooperation, enabling students to deepen their linguistic, professional, and intercultural competencies through direct contact with the language, literature, and culture of the neighboring country.
