Head of the Department of Finnish Studies, Institute of General Linguistics, CU

(50 years old)

A native of Pardubice, Jan Dlask enrolled in the Finnish-Swedish master's programme which he completed in 2000 with a state final exam and the defence of his thesis. Two years later, he embarked on his doctoral studies in Germanic Literature, focusing on a comprehensive mapping and analysis of the debate between two Finnish-Swedish authors, Christer Kihlman and Henrik Tikkanen. He defended his dissertation in 2010.

Since 2002, Jan Dlask taught Finnish literature courses and translation seminars at the Department of Finnish Language and Finnish Studies, initially at the Institute of General Linguistics and, since 2015, at the Institute of Germanic Studies. As of September 2023, he has been the head of the Department of Finnish Studies. He approached his students with the same honesty and openness as he did his research. Always systematic, meticulous, and helpful, he supervised dozens of Bachelor's and Master's theses on a variety of literary and cultural topics, and he also acted as a thesis referee on numerous occasions.

He contributed editorially to two highly successful student anthologies of short stories, Forest Foxes and Other Disturbing Stories (2016) and On Summer Nights You Don't Sleep Easy Here (2019). He was also part of a wider team that translated and prepared for publication an anthology of Finnish lyric poetry, White Delusions on the Waves (2022), under the direction of his former pupil, Michal Švec. Popularising his field was also a crucial part of his work; he regularly published reviews of translations of Nordic fiction and non-fiction, as well as various current affairs and studies, in Tvar, the review Souvislosti, and the online magazine iLiteratura.cz.

Aside from literature and politics, the proud Pardubice native was fond of trains, music by the band Mňága a Žďorp, Finnish tar pastilles, and desserts of all kinds. From the many tributes, condolences, and memories that continue to pour in, not only from the Czech Republic but also from colleagues at numerous Finnish, Swedish, Polish, and German universities, as well as from long-time alumni and current students, it is clear that he will remain and be remembered as an important member of the Finnish family and the broader North Germanic (and not only academic) community.

On behalf of colleagues and friends,

Lenka Fárová, Michal Kovář, Viola Parente-Čapková