East Goes West. The International Student Mobility at Charles University During Late Socialism (1975–1989)

Was it even possible to study in the West before 1989? Under what conditions? That answers this project examining international student mobility at Charles University (CU) during the late socialism until 1989. In terms of internationalization of this most significant Czech university, it was a specific and before 1989 unique form of cooperation with the West. The project aims to analyse the student network's evolution in the socio-political situation and Czechoslovakia's position on the East-West edge. It studies creating a network of students traveling to those Western states which set an official partnership with CU before 1989. Specifically, West Germany and the U.S. Crucial hypothesis says that due to the gradual loosening of social conditions, there was an increase in student flow to the West, which proved its attractiveness and dominance. Thus, mobility is seen as part of the emerging East-West contact network and students from the West's perspective as potential democratization actors. Both the changing conditions and the motives to engage in the exchanges are examined. The project builds on transnational research, which stresses the East-West interplay, including the causes that led to the Eastern bloc's implosion. During the three-year investigation, research in the Czech, German, and U.S. archives is envisaged. Interviews with exchange participants will be utilized as a complementary source on the perception of the "world on the other side of the Iron Curtain".