Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Zagreb

Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences
Filozofski fakultet
Motto None
Type Public
Established 19 October 1874
Rector Damir Boras
Dean prof. dr. sc. Vlatko Previšić
Students 7,800+
Undergraduates 3,000+
Postgraduates 4,500+
Location Zagreb, Croatia
Colors Blue and white
Nickname FFZG
Website ffzg.hr

Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences or the Faculty of Philosophy[1] in Zagreb (Croatian: Filozofski fakultet Sveučilišta u Zagrebu) is one of the faculties of the University of Zagreb.

History

The Faculty of Philosophy is the oldest faculty of the University of Zagreb, which dates its founding to 1669. Philosophy and humanities were taught at the University from the very beginning, while a separate Faculty first came into existence in 1776 when the University was divided into Faculties of Philosophy, Theology and Law.

In 1874 the modern University of Zagreb was officially established, with four faculties: Law, Theology, Philosophy and Medicine. The Faculty of Philosophy was called the Mudroslovni fakultet and had the following Chairs:

The Faculty also served as the general scientific faculty, and since 1876 it taught geology, botany, physics, mathematics, and chemistry; since 1877 zoology; since 1882 pharmacy; since 1883 geography.

In 1893, the Chair of Pedagogy was instituted. The Study of Archeology started in 1893. The Chair of German Philology was created in 1895. The Chair of Indo-Germanology was created in 1908, transformed into the Study of Indology in 1962. The Seminar on Romance Philology first started in 1920. The Chair of Ethnology was created in 1924/1927. The Art History Seminar was created in 1928. The Chair of Psychology was created in 1929. The English Seminar was created in 1935.

Mathematics, pharmacy and other sciences started to split off in several stages, with the creation of separate mathematics and pharmaceutical departments in 1928, when the faculty was renamed into its current name Filozofski fakultet, and the splitting off of individual departments into separate faculties in 1942, 1946 and finally in 1963.

The Institute of Phonetics was founded in 1954. The Chair of General Linguistics and Comparative Literature was created in 1956. The Chair of Sociology was created in 1963 (the Faculty of Law had one since 1906). The Study of Swedish started in 1985. In 1989, the Institute for Information Sciences was founded. In 1994, the Study of Hungarology started.

In 2009, the faculty was occupied by students who demanded free education. The peaceful occupation started on April the 20th 2009 and ended on May 24. The second occupation started on November the 23rd 2009 and ended nearly two weeks later.

Current organization

There are two models of study programs: single major (all courses belong to one program) and double majors (student studies in two equally important programs for equal degrees in both):

The faculty has more than 700 employees, with more than 500 academic staff as well as more than 600 part-time lecturers.

Departments

The Faculty consists of following departments:[2]

Library

The Faculty Library[3] moved into a new building opened in March 2009, becoming the second largest library in Croatia (after the nearby National and University Library in Zagreb). It includes 24 department libraries with more than 600 000 books. The library consists of the ground floor, 6 upper floors and a closed repository. The ground floor is mainly intended to be used for reading and writing, while the five upper floors contain books from all departments.

As of 2010, the sixth floor does not function yet. Books which have not been processed yet and are not available for public use are stored in the closed repository, located in the basement.

There are 750 working places and 250 computers available for use. The library is open to all students and employees of the Faculty for borrowing books, while members of the public may use books and other resources within the library building. All members and library employees use Koha – a library software which has several interfaces depending on the type of user. The catalogue is open access. It is possible to search for particular books by title, author, ISBN, subject, publisher and call number.

The entire library system is highly technically advanced and equipped with models for supply, catalogization, public borrowing and statistics. One of the main advantages of the library is the 3M RFID system of electronic chips, which enables self-check, allowing users to borrow books by themselves.

2016 riots

During 2016, many students and professors became dissatisfied with the current dean, prof. dr. sc. Vlatko Previšić (specifically his organization of the university). Previšić planned to connect Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences (famous for its many agnostic and atheist students) with Catholic Faculty of Theology, offering a double major in Theology and another field of the students' choice.

Students at the Faculty of Humanities protested against this, claiming they don't want to be associated with a religious institution. They started posting memes of the dean Previšić online, as well as putting them up at various locations across the university (such as public halls, library, and the toilet). The dean responded by hiring personal security guards, who would tear up all the posters across the university. The security was given bad working conditions by the dean, which resulted in students helping the security by bringing them food and water.

The dean has also made many public appearances during September, calling his students "liars" and "terrorists" on national television. Many professors and staff members of the university supported the students and joined the boycott, claiming they won't return to work until the dean Previšić as well as rector Damir Boras don't leave for good.

Many Croatian universities, institutions and charities also offered their support to the protesting students. Zagreb School of Textile Technology continued putting up posters and 'memes' od the dean once they were removed from Faculty of Humanities; Faculty of Political Science published a public letter, stating that they fully support the students and offering them help; Zagreb School of Law also showed their support.

Many celebrities who are former students of the university made public appearances and spoke about the importance of protests. Bruno Šimleša, Croatian book author and a former Sociology graduate at the university, joined the students and showed up at the protests. Another book author and a former Croatian language & literature student, Korana Serdarević, won a national book awards during the protests. She dedicated the award to the current students for standing up against the dean.

Notable faculty and alumni

References

  1. ↑ Organizational Units of the University of Zagreb
  2. ↑ http://www.ffzg.unizg.hr/odsjeci.html
  3. ↑ "Knjižnica Filozofskog fakulteta" (in Croatian). Retrieved 2010-11-19.

Coordinates: 45°47′48″N 15°58′16″E / 45.79673°N 15.97104°E / 45.79673; 15.97104

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