Perkner: Building an Academic Career in Europe and America I first met Stanislav Perkner in 1986 when we both were working at the University of Illinois in Champaign-Urbana Summer Research Laboratory on Russia and Eastern Europe. At the time, he was the dean of the School of Journalism at Charles University in Prague, Czechoslovakia, and I was working on my dissertation at the University of Pittsburgh. A few weeks later, after I began a year of archival research in Czechoslovakia, then under communist rule, we began to meet on a regular basis. Our friendship had several bases. Dr. Perkner was enamored with the English language and American society, and I was equally curious about the world in which he lived. Dr. Perkner's academic interest in Czechoslovak journalism included the years between the two world wars, which was the time frame of my dissertation, and he assisted me in obtaining some research materials. Furthermore, we discovered that we had several mutual friends, including some graduates of the Charles University journalism program who had emigrated to the United States. After the 1989 Velvet Revolution, Dr. Perkner emigrated to America and was an adjunct professor of history at several institutions in California. In 2001, he took a permanent position with Humphreys College in Stockton, CA, as a professor of social sciences, and he became the director of the Humphreys College Library and Learning Center. Dr. Perkner has written a five-part autobiographical memoir, "Forty Years in Education," for the Humphreys College Newsletter Supplement as part of its "Meet Your Teacher" series: First Installment (Summer Quarter, September 2012, pp. 1-5) Second Installment (Fall Quarter, December 2012, pp. 1-8) Third Installment (Winter Quarter, March 2013, pp. 8-12) Fourth Installment (Spring Quarter, June 2013, pp. 1-10) Fifth Installment (Summer Quarter, September 2013, pp. 1-9)  Dr. Stanislav Perkner, Professor of Social Studies and Director of the Library and Learning Center at Humphreys College, Stockton, CA. |
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