Beyond Baltic Borders and Languages
is a student conference taking place on 10–12 November 2026 in the C.218 room (Meeting room of the Dean's Office, Arna Nováka 1, building C). Although organised by the Department of Linguistics and Baltic Languages, the conference is open to a wider academic audience. We warmly invite BA, MA, and PhD students from Baltic Studies as well as other philological disciplines to participate.
Whether your interests lie in linguistics, literature, translation studies, or cultural and historical topics, we would be delighted to hear about your research. Presentations may be based on a completed thesis, ongoing research, or simply a topic you are passionate about. Talks should be 15–20 minutes long and may be delivered in Czech or English.
The conference offers an excellent opportunity to gain experience presenting your work in a friendly and supportive academic environment, receive valuable feedback from fellow students and faculty members, develop your presentation skills, and find inspiration for your future studies or research.
Beyond the academic programme, participants can also look forward to a variety of social events, including a thematic excursion, a workshop, a pub quiz, and other activities designed to encourage networking and informal discussions outside the conference room.
In addition to the experience itself, participants will benefit from several tangible outcomes, including the publication of A conference abstract book. Students of Masaryk University may also enrol in an elective (C-type) course [course code: BA_KONF] associated with the conference and earn academic credits.
We look forward to welcoming you to Brno to present your research, exchange ideas, and discover how inspiring conversations across languages, disciplines, and cultures can be.
To participate, please submit an abstract* of up to 300 words to baltistika@phil.muni.cz by 18 October 2026.
*The abstract must include the author’s first and last name, study programme, faculty, and 3 keywords.
The Czech-written, modest complement to English or Czenglish about pronunciation, featuring the voices of Nikki Fořtová and Jeff Vanderziel, is out, though temporarily out of stock in Brno's bookshops.
Our first episode in the 2026/2027 academic year finds Don Sparling speaking with Dr Octavian More, the current President of the Central European Association for Canadian Studies, about his personal discovery of Canadian literature and the international Canadian Studies community, his experience in “teaching Canada”, and his own current work focused on the concept of “transcorporeality” – that the human body isn’t separate from the environment, but deeply interconnected with it – and why it has an important place in Canadian poetry and Canadian literature in general.
