Featuring Special Guest:
Martin Palouš is trustee and director of international cooperation of the Remembrance Society and a member of the Council of the Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes (Ústav pro studium totalitních režimů).
He was one of the original signatories of Charter 77, served as its spokesperson in 1986 and was among the founders of the Civic Forum in November of 1989. After the fall of communism was a member of Parliament, Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs, Ambassador of the Czech Republic to the United States and to the United Nations.
Meet the Hosts:
Miroslav (Mirek) Konvalina is a seasoned public diplomacy professional with extensive experience in the Czech Republic and the U.S. He served as director of Czech Center New York and led the American Center at the U.S. Embassy in Prague for seven years. Konvalina studied journalism in both countries and holds a degree in economics. He has worked in government communications, as a Czech Radio correspondent in Washington, D.C., and as director of Czech Radiojournal. He also held a marketing leadership role at Newton Media. An author, documentarian, and curator, Konvalina has hosted a talk show in Prague and is fluent in Czech, English, Russian, and basic German.
Pavol Demeš is an independent foreign policy analyst, civil society expert, photographer, and TV anchor based in Bratislava, Slovakia. Before the 1989 Velvet Revolution, he was a biomedical researcher at Comenius University. He later served as executive director of the Slovak Academic Information Agency, Slovakia’s minister of international relations (1991–1992), and foreign policy adviser to the president (1993–1997). From 2000 to 2010, he directed Central and Eastern Europe programs at the German Marshall Fund of the United States. He hosted a TV program on international relations for TASR and has authored numerous works on civil society and diplomacy.
About the Series:
Voices of the Homelands Webinar is presented by the National Czech & Slovak Museum & Library with hosts Dr. Pavol Demeš and Miroslav Konvalina. The bi-monthly webinar is available free to the public on Zoom. Future topics include the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II, Czech Parliamentary elections, the Cleveland Agreement, and International Students’ Day. The webinar is free and open to the public. During the virtual discussion, viewers are encouraged to participate in the conversation by submitting questions.
To watch previous webinars, visit https://ncsml.org/voices-homelands
