AAU Faculty Receive Visegrad Fund Grant!

A team of AAU Faculty (led by Prof. Milada Polišenská) has received a grant from the International Visegrad Fund for their project “Comparing Responses to the COVID-19 Pandemic: Alternative Leadership Styles in the V4“. The Visegrad Fund* annually provides grants and scholarships for academic and artistic projects across the V4 states and neighbouring regions. The funds go to further the stated aims of the projects as well as to build and reinforce cooperation and connections across the region.

The institution coordinating this project is Anglo-American University, the AAU team members are George Hays II, Joshua Hayden, and Prof. Milada Polišenská (coordinator). Peter Bolcha joined with a team from Slovakia (Matej Bel University), experts from Poland (Warsaw University) and Hungary (Corvinus University and Hungarian Academy of Science) are partners as well. We would like to congratulate the team and especially thank Prof. Polišesnká for leading the team and to George Hays II and Josh Hayden for their help and cooperation in designing this project.

What is the project about?
The project addresses two questions: What has the response been to the COVID pandemic among the V4 leaders?; and How can an adaptive leadership approach better aid the V4 societies to navigate the health and societal effects of this and future pandemics? The team’s approach will be interdisciplinary in terms of sources, theories and methods.

Why is it significant?
The project analyzes one of the most important crises of contemporary history and examines the political and social methods of engaging with and attempting to resolve the problem. This means that the project looks at both the effectiveness of leadership in the current crisis as well as the context for how future crises may be dealt with. In addition, the project will pass along its findings to the academic and professional community, as well as to the broader public and next generation of students, engaging broad swathes of the societies in the V4. 

What are the expected outcomes?
The expected outcomes will be of interest to both academic and practical fields, directed at experts, the professional and NGO environment (research studies, Colloquium), the greater public (media articles), and high school and university students (on-line lectures, Thesis Awards).

Who is involved in this project?

In Czech Republic/AAU:

  • PhDr. Milada Polišenská, CSc. and Dr. George Hays II and Dr. Joshua M. Hayden, Ed.D.

In Poland: 

  • dr hab. Tomasz Ochinowski and dr hab. Izabella Łęcka – University of Warsaw, Faculty of Management (Uniwersytet Warszawski, Wydział Zarządzania)

In Slovakia:

  • Doc. JUDr. Ing. Ján Šebo, PhD. and Ing. Daniela Danková, PhD. – Matej Bel University, Faculty of Economics (Univerzita Mateja Bela, Ekonomická fakulta) 

In Hungary:

  • Zoltán Gábor Szücs, PhD. and Anna Ujlaki, PhD. candidate – Centre for Social Sciences, Hungarian Academy of Sciences (Társadalomtudományi Kutatóközpont)
  • Tamás Tóth, Ph.D  – Corvinus University of Budapest, Institute of Communication and Sociology (Budapesti Corvinus Egyetem, Kommunikáció és Szociológia Intézet)

*The project is co-financed by the Governments of Czechia, Hungary, Poland, and Slovakia through Visegrad Grants from International Visegrad Fund. The mission of the fund is to advance ideas for sustainable regional cooperation in Central Europe.