Reading Group

The Reading Group is a regular meeting designed for colleagues and doctoral students who wish to engage collectively in reading and discussing scholarly texts. Each session focuses on a pre-selected theme, for which we select relevant literature.

The aim of the Reading Group is to cultivate critical reading skills, foster academic debate, and provide a space for sharing diverse perspectives on both contemporary and classic texts within the field of art history. Meetings are open and informal – everyone who wishes to read, reflect, and discuss together is welcome.

In the past, the Reading Group has explored a variety of topics. In the spring of 2022, we focused on decolonisation, examining it through critical texts and case studies, with an emphasis on the Czech context and the ways debates about decolonisation resonate within Central European settings and contemporary art-historical practice. In the autumn of 2022, under the theme of art activism, we read texts addressing transformations in contemporary art in response to political and social issues, exploring its historical roots, theoretical tensions, and current controversies. In the spring of 2023, we turned to theoretical and ethical questions in global art history, particularly considering how to understand and aesthetically experience art across cultural boundaries and beyond European traditions. In the spring of 2024, we studied texts relating to modern architecture.