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.

“Tavi” More is a Senior Lecturer at the Department of Anglophone and Scandinavian Studies at Babeș-Bolyai University of Cluj-Napoca, Romania, where he teaches courses in English literature and language, Canadian Studies, British Cinematography and Cultural Studies. His main research interests include Canadian literature, Victorian literature, modernist poetry and popular culture, with a special focus on environmental issues an questions of identity and embodiment. He has written and published extensively both in Romania and abroad, has participated in numerous scientific conferences, seminars and workshops, and has also taught courses and delivered lectures at universities in the USA, Hungary, Italy and the UK.

🎙️ Canadian Studies from Brno is the official podcast of the Canadian Studies Centre at Masaryk University, featuring conversations with scholars from around the world about Canadian literature, history, politics, Indigenous Studies, culture, and society.

🔗 Learn more about the ⁠Canadian Studies Centre⁠.

📸 Follow us on ⁠Instagram⁠.

How do novels shape the way we think about growing older? Why have older women so often been portrayed as invisible, passive, or stereotypical—and how are contemporary Canadian writers challenging these narratives?

In this episode of Canadian Studies from Brno, host Dr Denisa Krasna speaks with Dr Pavlína Studená, whose research explores representations of aging women in contemporary Canadian fiction. Drawing on feminist literary criticism and age studies, Pavlína discusses how Canadian literature presents older women as complex, active, and resistant protagonists whose experiences challenge dominant cultural assumptions about aging, gender, power, and identity.

🎙️ Canadian Studies from Brno is the official podcast of the Canadian Studies Centre at Masaryk University, featuring conversations with scholars from around the world about Canadian literature, history, politics, Indigenous Studies,
culture, and society.

🔗 Learn more about the Canadian Studies Centre.

📸 Follow us on Instagram.

In Episode 6 of Canadian Studies from Brno, Denisa Krásná speaks with Magdalena Fiřtová from Charles University in Prague, a specialist in Canadian politics, climate policy, and North American political economy. The conversation focuses on contemporary Canada–US relations during the second Trump administration, including political asymmetry, border politics, nationalism, and Trump’s rhetoric about Canada as the “51st state.” The episode also explores climate conflict in Alberta, Canadian migration policy, teaching Canadian Studies in Central Europe, and the challenges of communicating complex political issues to the broader public.

🎙️ Canadian Studies from Brno is the official podcast of the Canadian Studies Centre at Masaryk University, featuring conversations with scholars from around the world about Canadian literature, history, politics, Indigenous Studies, culture, and society.🔗 Learn more about the Canadian Studies Centre.

🔗 Follow us on ⁠Instagram.

In this episode of Canadian Studies from Brno, host Dr. Denisa Krásná speaks with Lucie Altmannová, a doctoral candidate at Masaryk University whose research explores contemporary writing by Indigenous women in Canada and the US, examining how literature engages with colonial histories, gender, sexuality, and the regulation of the female body.

In this episode, we explore the concept of embodiment, the role of storytelling in Indigenous healing, and the challenges of conducting decolonial research from a Central European perspective. We also discuss Lucie’s experience as an emerging scholar, including her participation in the Canadian Summer School in Toronto and her work with the Central European Association for Canadian Studies (CEACS), where she contributes to building academic networks across regions.

🎧 A thoughtful conversation about literature, power, and the future ofCanadian Studies through the lens of a new generation of scholars.

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Le professeur Petr Kyloušek, co-directeur du Centre d’études canadiennes à l’Université Masaryk, nous emmène dans l’univers du Canada francophone. Dans cet entretien consacré à la littérature québécoise, à l’identité et aux échanges culturels, il partage ses expériences, ses débuts académiques ainsi que sa vision de l’avenir des études canadiennes. Le professeur Petr Kyloušek est l’une des figures majeures des études canadiennes en République tchèque et en Europe centrale. Spécialiste reconnu de la littérature canadienne-française et québécoise, il est l’auteur d’une œuvre de référence de plus de 500 pages, Histoire de la littérature canadienne-française et québécoise (2005), ainsi que d’études consacrées à des écrivains tels que Michel Tremblay, Jacques Ferron, Noël Audet, ou aux auteurs autochtones. Son travail interdisciplinaire explore également des thèmes plus larges liés à la culture, à l’américanité et à la question identitaire au Canada francophone.

In this episode of Canadian Studies from Brno, host Dr. Denisa Krásná speaks with Paul von Blum—historian, activist, educator, and lifelong advocate for social justice.

Paul von Blum is a Senior Lecturer at UCLA in African American and Communication Studies. Active in the civil rights and anti-war movements since the 1960s, he has spent decades exploring the intersections of art, politics, education, and resistance. He is the author of nine books and numerous articles on political art, culture, and activism, including his memoir A Life at the Margins: Keeping the Political Vision (2011), which chronicles nearly fifty years of political engagement.

Currently in Brno as a visiting professor, Paul is teaching an intensive course on North American political art. In this conversation, we discuss political and Indigenous art in Canada, Paul Robeson’s connections to Canada, activism across borders, and the contemporary political moment in North America—past and present.🎧 A wide-ranging discussion about art as resistance, teaching activism, and thinking across borders.

🔗 More about Paul von Blum: https://www.paulvonblum.com/

🔗 Follow us on ⁠Instagram⁠, where we post updates about the Centre, the podcast, Canadian studies events, and much more!

What do Canadian cities feel like in literature and film? Dr Denisa Krásná sits down with Professor Eva Darias-Beautell to explore the “liquid city” of contemporary Canada—its shifting identities, precarious spaces, and resilient communities. Join us for a conversation on emotion, urban life, and finding love for and in Canada.

Eva Darias-Beautell is a Professor of Canadian Literatures in English at the University of La Laguna, Spain. Her research focuses on contemporary Canadian fiction and film, urban studies, and cultural theory. She is the author and editor of several books, including Unruly Penelopes and the Ghosts and The Urban Condition. She currently leads the international research projects The Premise of Happiness and TransCanadian Networks. You can follow her and her research projects on Instagram at @evadariasbeautell and @projectreshap.

Follow us on Instagram, where we post updates about the Centre, the podcast, Canadian studies events, and much more!

Founding Canadian Studies in Central Europe with Don Sparling In our debut episode, Dr Denisa Krásná sits down with Don Sparling—the scholar, educator, and cultural ambassador who helped bring Canadian Studies to life in the Czech Republic. They talk about the founding of the Canadian Studies Centre at Masaryk University, the importance of studying Canada today, and Don’s decades of work promoting Canadian culture and scholarship across Central Europe.