COURAGE

connecting collections

It was after the Velvet Revolution in the year 1989 that possibilities arose for the creation of CU in Slovakia. The Slovak bishops endeavoured to form a Faculty of Pedagogy which would educate Catholic teachers. The charter of the Pedagogical Institute of St. Andrew in Ružomberok was signed on 29 June 1995, in Dolná Krupá, and the first director was prof. RNDr. Jozef Ďurček, CSc.

The Academic Council of the University of Trnava created a Catechetical-pedagogical Faculty of St. Andrew (KPF) in 1996, through the transformation of the Pedagogical Institute of St. Andrew. The KPF was incorporated into the University of Žilina in 1997. Its statute, with the right of Church audit, as is usual for theological faculties, was registered at the Ministry of Education of the Slovak Republic. The first deans of KPF were prof. RNDr. Jozef Ďurček, Csc. (1996-1998) and prof. RNDr. Pavol Kluvánek, CSc. (1999-2000).

Later, on the basis of KPF, CU came into existence. The Law of the National Council of the Slovak Republic from 10 May 2000, concerning the establishment of the Catholic University in Ružomberok (CU) (this is the official name), established the creation of CU from 1 April 2000, with two faculties: a Faculty of Pedagogy and a Faculty of Philosophy. The Faculty of Theology, with its seat in Košice, was established on 1 July 2003, and the fourth, the Faculty of Health, on 1 July 2005. Although Law 167/2000 created CU as a non-governmental university, with the Law of the National Council of the Slovak Republic about universities, CU became a public university with religious character from 1 April 2002. 

The Research Centre traces its roots to the Archive for Small Press & Communication (ASPC), founded in 1974 by Anne Marsily and Guy Schraenen, and it incorporates more than 40 individual archives and special collections, including the PLG Friesländer’s Mail Art Archive, the Klaus Groh Collection, the Kunstradio Archive, and the Soft Geometry Archives.

The Research Centre’s fundamental task is to collect, develop, and explore artists’ publications since the 1950s. The mediation of the substantial works in the collections and archives also plays a significant role. The medial diversity of the artistic publications is brought to a wide audience through exhibitions, publications, and events.

The Center for Research of the Liberation Movement in Ukraine is an independent, not-for-profit scholarly nongovernmental organization that studies various aspects of Ukraine's struggle for liberation in the 20th Century. The organization is also engaged actively in Ukraine's present day memory politics, in particular, the legacies of totalitarianism in the former USSR and Central and Eastern Europe.

The Center for Women’s Studies is a non-profit, non-governmental organization based in Belgrade. It is autonomous and independent from political structures or groups. The fundamental task of the Center for Women’s Studies is to support and improve theoretical models that embrace differences and plurality. The most important aim of the Center is the theoretical examination of the possibility of resistance and of political action against social practices of discrimination and exclusion based on sex, skin color, class, gender, sexuality and ethnic, national, religious affiliation.

The foundation of Women’s Studies in Belgrade was initiated in 1991 by the Belgrade feminist group Woman and Society. The first experimental, one-semester course, began symbolically on March 8 (International Women’s Day) in 1992. From 1992 to 2012, a library was developed that contains more than 6,000 books and 400 magazines. During this period collaboration took place with 70 organizations throughout the country, the region and beyond. It is also important to note that over 1,500 students have attended its lectures.

The Center’s long-term strategy is to develop and establish academic programs that are based on the right to be different; that is, to think and act differently.

The Center’s activities cover different fields, but the they have been arranged together to create a sophisticated alternative educational program. The Center’s primary focus is on lectures, supporting research projects, further expanding the library and information center and publishing. The Center also organizes workshops, courses and conferences.