Freedom and Truth: Václav Havel’s Prague Leadership Walking Tour

Cultural Immersion

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Details:

Date: Wednesday 15 October
Time: 9:30 – 12:30
Cost: $65.00
Start Location: Starting at the Dancing House in the center of Prague, Rašínovo nábřeží 80 / Jiráskovo náměstí 6, 120 00, Nové Město, Praha 2 (coffee optional, not included in price. If you forego coffee, arrive at 10:00)
End Location: Tour ends in Wenceslas Square (Lunch Optional, not included in price)

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The life of the famous dissident-turned-President, Václav Havel, largely took place along the banks of the Vltava where he was born, performed his plays, met with other dissidents, protested, was interrogated, and was targeted by the communist regime. This interactive tour will take you to those places that shaped Havel and that he shaped in turn. This goes beyond tourist attractions to the dissident hangouts, the real places where Havel brought people together to in what he called “a conspiratorial sense of togetherness” under a repressive regime. We will draw on the leadership lessons that Havel and his collaborators can teach us today about “leading together.” Come and join us!

Schedule:

  • 9:30am: come for coffee at the top of the Dancing House (optional, go up elevator)
  • 10:00am: meet outside the Dancing House
  • 12:30pm: Tour ends in Wenceslas Square (lunch)

Places we’ll visit:

  1. Dancing House
  2. Manes Cultural Center
  3. Divadlo Na zábradlí (Theatre on the Balustrade)
  4. National Theatre (Havel Plaza) and Café Slavia
  5. Bartolomějská street (former Secret Police Headquarters)
  6. Knedlín (for coffee and Czech dumplings, purchases optional, IPO)
  7. November 17, 1989 memorial
  8. Adria Palace
  9. Wenceslas Square

Materials needed:

  • Walking shoes
  • A pen and a curious mind

Host:

Joshua Hayden, Department Chair of Social Sciences, and Lecturer in Leadership Studies at Anglo-American University in Prague. Dr. Hayden’s scholarly focus is on Václav Havel and Charter 77 in the frame of leadership ethics.

Josh Hayden earned his doctorate in higher education leadership and policy from Vanderbilt University in the U.S. and has published and taught in the field of leadership studies for the past ten years. His research interests are Václav Havel’s moral leadership, leadership ethics and change, self-awareness, and adaptive leadership theory and practice. Josh led the Quality Enhancement Plan on Scholarship, Learning, and Academic Mentoring at Cumberland University and built executive education leadership programs at Lipscomb University, both in Nashville, Tennessee. He has worked with community, educational and organizational leaders in Haiti, India, Kazakhstan, Ethiopia, Uganda, and Brazil. His wife and 4 children love the outdoors, the arts, sports, traveling, and he plays the banjo in his spare time.