On Monday, the 54th annual edition of the Studia Academica Slovaca (SAS) summer school, which offers studies of Slovak language, culture and local geography starts in Bratislava at Comenius University. This year, it will be attended by 157 foreigners hailing from 33 countries across the world, said SAS director Jana Pekarovičová. "These are predominantly foreign students of Slovak or other Slavic languages, translators, people involved with culture, managers, foreign language lectors and descendants of expats living abroad," said Pekarovičová.
She also added that "the overarching theme of the curriculum reflects the relevant historical watersheds of the 19th and 20th centuries in language, literature, art, culture and society, with a special emphasis on "magical eights" (the years 1848, 1918, 1948, 1968 and 1988)," stated Pekarovičová. "As part of the summer school events, we'd like to commemorate the anniversaries of noteworthy events and historical figures in both Slovak and Czechoslovak context, in particular the centenary of the founding of the Czechoslovak Republic and the 50th anniversary of August 1968 (invasion of Czechoslovakia by Warsaw Pact armies)."
