Author: Jessi Amason Major: Anthropology, International Studies Country: Czech Republic

For most of the time during the school year, I study the Middle East. A student of International Studies, Middle Eastern Studies, Anthropology, and Arabic, I arrived in the Czech Republic on a rainy Sunday in May, trying to remember the reason that I found myself in the center of Europe. However, my foray into a largely unfamiliar region of the world was not a vain attempt to quell some hidden Europhilic tendencies, but rather an attempt to grasp a broader view of the world that I study, the Middle East, with a more global and nuanced context. With advancements in technology and a rapidly globalized economy, it is naive for someone in my field to singularly commit themselves to an “isolated” region of the world; there is no such thing anymore. My choice to spend this time in Europe added new depth to my previous understandings of the world, and gave insight to the complex web of linkages between states, cultures, and ultimately, people. My visit was more an exercise in comparative politics, as I closely observed key similarities and differences in styles of governance, cultural relations, and attitudes of European-style states to those of the Middle East.  

While in Prague, I took a course called The Rise and Fall of Totalitarianism in Central Europe which supplemented my experiment in comparative politics. This course gave so much insight into the tumultuous history of totalitarianism that left still-visible marks on the European political landscape, and allowed me to understand totalitarianism as an all-encompassing phenomenon, rather than a purely governmental one. While totalitarianism varies between regions in the fine details, the core tenets remain the same. This course, based in Europe, allowed me to understand so much more about the region of the world that I have studied for the past two years by lending me this fresh perspective. The most important lesson that I took from this course was that the most efficient way to understand political movements is to understand the people that initiate them, a fact that overjoyed my budding-anthropologist heart.  

In addition to being in the center of the action, a major plus of a study abroad program based in Prague was accessibility to travel. European public transit systems are incredibly efficient (step up, America!) and with the European Union, travel between Schengen Area states is as easy as a $30 bus ticket. Through excursions and travel, I was able to see the very sites of historical importance that I was studying in my Totalitarianism course. Berlin, Germany, was uniquely important for its role in the rise of facism and nazism in Central Europe, an increasingly relevant topic with the rise of modern nationalism and the rising Neo-Nazi movement. In recent years, Central Europe has seen an influx of asylum-seeking refugees, largely originating from Syria. This has prompted somewhat of a nationalist backlash, with rising Islamophobic sentiments seen in grafitti, political rhetoric, and daily communications. This was shocking, as I had always viewed Europe as the land of liberal tolerance. Yet, no society is immune to the diseases of intolerance, those which if not properly remedied, can lead to totalitarian takeover.  

In summation, my time in Europe was all things incredible, with beautiful architecture, quaint cafes, and an incredible foundation of historical significance. However, it also left me with a simultaneous inspiration and urgency to promote a culture of global tolerance as worlds once considered inaccessibly isolated continue to collide.