University of Ostrava,
Faculty of Science
Department of Human Geography and Regional Development (KSGRR) https://prf.osu.eu/ksg/
KSGRR provides three main study programmes: 1. Teaching of geography for primary and secondary schools, 2. The political and cultural geography, 3. The economic geography and regional development. Geography teaching benefits from borderland knowledge, when a borderland is an educational model. The borderland studies have a disciplinary overlap with political geography e.g. border setting on political map, the trans-border initiative on political incentive or political history. The cultural geography provides tools to approach the border region reflecting cultural values and forms that capture intersection of two and more border ethnic groups. The economic geography studies development of borderland regions as such, from the view of its economic and complementary trans-border functions.
Apart from educational activities KSGRR runs two research institutes. The Centre for Urban and Regional Management (CURM) which contributes to the good governance of the city and border region of Ostrava. It aims at specific areas from shrinking towns to smart city, brown-field restoration, transformation and structural changes in the regional development, including the border regions that may suffer from depopulation and the loss of original economic functions of border areas. Urban and regional analyses are key for development strategies.The Centre for Political and Cultural Geography>(CPCG) is devoted to topics related to geopolitical, geo-cultural and geo-economic factors in international relations and cooperation, as particular border regions in Central Europe and in the Balkans are also being shaped by such factors, mainly in the Balkans where the influences from East Europe, EU and Asia create some challenges to integration. Border regions ask for particular attention and complex analysis.
If interested see more: Publications ,Current research and grants, International cooperation
CEEPUS Coordinator – Lukáš Laš, PhD (lecturer and exchange coordinator at the Department of Human Geography and Regional Development within the Faculty of Science)
Lukáš Laš is an interdisciplinary political geographer with educational, professional and empirical experience from Asia and Europe, dealing with modern political geography, critical geopolitics and the geo-economics of the emergent Asian powers in the context of transition processes and development in Indo-Pacific Asia. The main focus is on India, ASEAN countries, China and Japan.
To find out more about Lukáš see: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Lukas-Las