This week, we were pleased to once again welcome our long-standing colleague and esteemed friend Dr. Dagmar Pichová from Masaryk University in Brno to Paderborn – a visit that also marks a special anniversary: 10 years of Erasmus partnership between our institutions.

Since her first visit in 2015 for the workshop “Émilie Du Châtelet: Laws of Nature – Laws of Morals”, our connection with Dr. Pichová has been defined not only by ongoing academic exchange, but also by a personal friendship and a shared vision to bring attention to often-overlooked women thinkers in Europe.

During this year’s visit, Dr. Pichová gave a lecture in the seminar Radical Feminism (led by Ana Rodrigues), introducing two important Czech women philosophers: Anna Pammrová (1860–1945) and Albína Dratvová (1892–1969).

Pammrová, largely self-taught and living in seclusion in the forest, translated works by major thinkers such as Tolstoy, Schopenhauer, and Nietzsche. Her philosophical reflections can be read today as an early form of ecofeminism. Dratvová, in contrast, was a pioneer of academic life in the Czech Republic – the first woman in the country to earn a habilitation in philosophy. Her work combines psychology, ethics, and the critique of science. In her 1940 book Smutek vzdělanců (The Sadness of Scholars), she examined the psychological strains of intellectual labor.

Dr. Pichová’s first visit to Paderborn took place in October 2015 for the workshop “Émilie Du Châtelet: Laws of Nature – Laws of Morals,” where she presented her analysis of the debate between Du Châtelet and Dortous de Mairan on the concept of living forces. She returned in 2018 as part of another Erasmus stay.

To many more years of collaboration, reflection, and shared commitment!
Thank you, Dr. Dagmar Pichová!

–>Would you like to be part of this exchange? You can find our Erasmus Partnerships here.