The Anna and Jaroslav Krejčí Research Endowment Fund

The Anna and Jaroslav Krejčí Research Endowment was founded in Prague in October 2006. The fund bears the name of Profesor Krejčí (b. 2/13/1916), who has worked at the University of Lancaster in the UK since the 1960s, and his late wife, who was his lifetime support and helped him create his main works. The Krejčí couple wanted to give more value to their work than just thier academic writings. Founding the Research Endowment Found seemed to be the best solution to them. They initially considered basing it out of the University of Lancaster, but after 1989 opportunities back home were opened up.

The members of the board of trustees of the research endowment fund are: Josef Tomeš of Masaryk’s Institute at the Czech Academy of Sciences in Prague, Miroslav Krupička of Czech Radio and Hana Katrňáková of Masayrk University in Brno. The Fund works in close collaboration with sociologist and co-owner of SLON publishing, Jiří Ryba.

The aim of the endowment fund is to support a holistic approach to the social sciences. Although the current boom in specialized fields is useful, a broader view of research is necessary for dealing with complex problems, in which not only differing, but opposing opinions, values, methods and life goals create a negative atmosphere for human life. This view should encapture the interplay between these contrasts The content and methodology of this approach are outlined in Jaroslav Krejčí’s main works from his atest phase of publishing, the following of which are in Czech: Postižitelné proudy dějin (Prague, SLON, 2002), Lidský úděl a jeho proměnlivá tvář a duchovní základy civilizační plurality (Karolinum, Prague 1996), and Civilizace Asie a Blízkého východu – Náboženství a politika v souhře a střetávání (Karolinum, Prague 1993). A further more detailed bibliography containing key articles can be found in the third revised edition of his memoirs Mezi demokracií a diktaturou, Domov a exil (Masaryk’s Institute – Archiv AVČR, Prague 2006) The Paths of Civilization (Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke – New York, 2004) is one of his most significant English works.

The aim of the Anna and Jaroslav Krejčí Research Endowment Fund is to support research, publishing and educational activities in the integrated social sciences and to make every effort for a synthetic view of historical periods, their structure and temporal-spatial relationships. It will also offer grants and scholarships, advertise competitions for papers and also announce and award prizes. The fund’s activities, which are fully financed by the founders’ private funds, are in their infancy. Therefore for the time being support will be aimed at publishing articles in academic journals.