The Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences or the Faculty of Philosophy in

Zagreb Zagreb ( ) is the capital (political), capital and List of cities and towns in Croatia#List of cities and towns, largest city of Croatia. It is in the Northern Croatia, north of the country, along the Sava river, at the southern slopes of the ...

( Croatian: ''Filozofski fakultet Sveučilišta u Zagrebu'') is one of the faculties of the

University of Zagreb The University of Zagreb (, ) is a public university, public research university in Zagreb, Croatia. It is the largest Croatian university and one of the oldest continuously operating universities in Europe. The University of Zagreb and the Unive ...

History

The Faculty of Philosophy is the oldest faculty of the

, which dates its founding to 1669.

Philosophy Philosophy ('love of wisdom' in Ancient Greek) is a systematic study of general and fundamental questions concerning topics like existence, reason, knowledge, Value (ethics and social sciences), value, mind, and language. It is a rational an ...

and

humanities Humanities are academic disciplines that study aspects of human society and culture, including Philosophy, certain fundamental questions asked by humans. During the Renaissance, the term "humanities" referred to the study of classical literature a ...

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: *

History History is the systematic study of the past, focusing primarily on the Human history, human past. As an academic discipline, it analyses and interprets evidence to construct narratives about what happened and explain why it happened. Some t ...

* Croatian history * Slav philology * Classical philology – Latin * Classical philology – Greek The faculty also served as the general

scientific Science is a systematic discipline that builds and organises knowledge in the form of testable hypotheses and predictions about the universe. Modern science is typically divided into twoor threemajor branches: the natural sciences, which stu ...

faculty, and from 1876 it taught geology, botany, physics, mathematics, and chemistry; from 1877 zoology; from 1882 pharmacy; from 1883 geography. In 1893, the Chair of

Pedagogy Pedagogy (), most commonly understood as the approach to teaching, is the theory and practice of learning, and how this process influences, and is influenced by, the social, political, and psychological development of learners. Pedagogy, taken ...

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, and transformed into the Study of Indology in 1962. The Seminar on Romance Philology first started in 1920. The Chair of

Ethnology Ethnology (from the , meaning 'nation') is an academic field and discipline that compares and analyzes the characteristics of different peoples and the relationships between them (compare cultural, social, or sociocultural anthropology). Sci ...

was created in 1924/1927. The

Art History Art history is the study of Work of art, artistic works made throughout human history. Among other topics, it studies art’s formal qualities, its impact on societies and cultures, and how artistic styles have changed throughout history. Tradit ...

Seminar was created in 1928. The Chair of

Psychology Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Its subject matter includes the behavior of humans and nonhumans, both consciousness, conscious and Unconscious mind, unconscious phenomena, and mental processes such as thoughts, feel ...

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 to 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 Phonetics is a branch of linguistics that studies how humans produce and perceive sounds or, in the case of sign languages, the equivalent aspects of sign. Linguists who specialize in studying the physical properties of speech are phoneticians ...

was founded in 1954. The Chair of General Linguistics and

Comparative Literature Comparative literature studies is an academic field dealing with the study of literature and cultural expression across language, linguistic, national, geographic, and discipline, disciplinary boundaries. Comparative literature "performs a role ...

was created in 1956. The Chair of

Sociology Sociology is the scientific study of human society that focuses on society, human social behavior, patterns of Interpersonal ties, social relationships, social interaction, and aspects of culture associated with everyday life. The term sociol ...

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, dubbed ''Blokada''. The peaceful occupation started on April 20, 2009, and ended on May 24. The second occupation started on November 23, 2009, and ended nearly two weeks later.

Current organization

There are two models of study programs: single majors and double majors. The faculty currently enrolls students in 9 single major and 36 double major programs. The faculty's single major programs include Archaeology, Psychology, Philosophy, Sociology, Pedagogy, Information Science, History, Comparative literature, Italian language and literature (though no more students are being enrolled as of the 2024 reform), and Croatian language and literature. The double major programs are Philosophy, Archaeology, History, Art History, Sociology, Ethnology and Cultural Anthropology, Comparative literature, Croatian language and literature, Pedagogy, Linguistics, Phonetics and several languages and literature studies (English, French, German, Dutch studies, Hungarian, Italian, Portuguese, Romanian, Spanish, Swedish and Scandinavian studies, Classic Greek and Latin, Turkish, Indology, Sinology, Japanese studies, Judaic studies, South Slavic studies, Ukrainian, Russian, Slovakian, Czech and Polish). 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: *Department of

English studies English studies (or simply, English) is an academic discipline taught in primary, secondary, and post-secondary education in English-speaking countries. This is not to be confused with English taught as a foreign language, which is a dis ...

**Chair of Scandinavian studies *Department of

archaeology Archaeology or archeology is the study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of Artifact (archaeology), artifacts, architecture, biofact (archaeology), biofacts or ecofacts, ...

*Department of

ethnology Ethnology (from the , meaning 'nation') is an academic field and discipline that compares and analyzes the characteristics of different peoples and the relationships between them (compare cultural, social, or sociocultural anthropology). Sci ...

and

cultural anthropology Cultural anthropology is a branch of anthropology focused on the study of cultural variation among humans. It is in contrast to social anthropology, which perceives cultural variation as a subset of a posited anthropological constant. The term ...

*Department of

philosophy Philosophy ('love of wisdom' in Ancient Greek) is a systematic study of general and fundamental questions concerning topics like existence, reason, knowledge, Value (ethics and social sciences), value, mind, and language. It is a rational an ...

*Department of

phonetics Phonetics is a branch of linguistics that studies how humans produce and perceive sounds or, in the case of sign languages, the equivalent aspects of sign. Linguists who specialize in studying the physical properties of speech are phoneticians ...

*Department of

German studies German studies is an academic field that researches, documents and disseminates German language, literature, and culture in its historic and present forms. Academic departments of German studies therefore often focus on German culture, German h ...

*Department of

information Information is an Abstraction, abstract concept that refers to something which has the power Communication, to inform. At the most fundamental level, it pertains to the Interpretation (philosophy), interpretation (perhaps Interpretation (log ...

and communication sciences *Department of classical philology *Department of

comparative literature Comparative literature studies is an academic field dealing with the study of literature and cultural expression across language, linguistic, national, geographic, and discipline, disciplinary boundaries. Comparative literature "performs a role ...

*Department of Croatian studies *Department of

linguistics Linguistics is the scientific study of language. The areas of linguistic analysis are syntax (rules governing the structure of sentences), semantics (meaning), Morphology (linguistics), morphology (structure of words), phonetics (speech sounds ...

*Department of Asian studies **Chair of indology **Chair of

sinology Sinology, also referred to as China studies, is a subfield of area studies or East Asian studies involved in social sciences and humanities research on China. It is an academic discipline that focuses on the study of the Chinese civilization p ...

**Chair of

Japanese studies , sometimes known as Japanology in Europe, is a sub-field of area studies or East Asian studies involved in social sciences and humanities research on Japan. It incorporates fields such as the study of Japanese language, history, culture, litera ...

*Department of turkology, Jewish and Hungarian studies **Chair of turkology **Chair of Hungarian studies **Chair of

Jewish Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...

and Holocaust studies *Department of

pedagogy Pedagogy (), most commonly understood as the approach to teaching, is the theory and practice of learning, and how this process influences, and is influenced by, the social, political, and psychological development of learners. Pedagogy, taken ...

*Department of

history History is the systematic study of the past, focusing primarily on the Human history, human past. As an academic discipline, it analyses and interprets evidence to construct narratives about what happened and explain why it happened. Some t ...

*Department of

history of art The history of art focuses on objects made by humans for any number of spiritual, narrative, philosophical, symbolic, conceptual, documentary, decorative, and even functional and other purposes, but with a primary emphasis on its aesthetics ...

*Department of

psychology Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Its subject matter includes the behavior of humans and nonhumans, both consciousness, conscious and Unconscious mind, unconscious phenomena, and mental processes such as thoughts, feel ...

*Department of Romance studies *Department of

East Slavic languages The East Slavic languages constitute one of three regional subgroups of the Slavic languages, distinct from the West Slavic languages, West and South Slavic languages. East Slavic languages are currently spoken natively throughout Eastern Europe, ...

and literatures *Department of

South Slavic languages The South Slavic languages are one of three branches of the Slavic languages. There are approximately 30 million speakers, mainly in the Balkans. These are separated geographically from speakers of the other two Slavic branches (West Slavic la ...

and literatures *Department of

West Slavic languages The West Slavic languages are a subdivision of the Slavic language group. They include Polish, Czech, Slovak, Kashubian, Silesian, Upper Sorbian and Lower Sorbian. The languages have traditionally been spoken across a mostly continuous re ...

and literatures *Department of

sociology Sociology is the scientific study of human society that focuses on society, human social behavior, patterns of Interpersonal ties, social relationships, social interaction, and aspects of culture associated with everyday life. The term sociol ...

*Department of Italian studies *Independent chair of

kinesiology Kinesiology () is the scientific study of human body movement. Kinesiology addresses physiological, anatomical, Biomechanics, biomechanical, Pathology, pathological, neuropsychological principles and mechanisms of movement. Applications of kines ...

Library

The Faculty

Library A library is a collection of Book, books, and possibly other Document, materials and Media (communication), media, that is accessible for use by its members and members of allied institutions. Libraries provide physical (hard copies) or electron ...

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. , 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 The International Standard Book Number (ISBN) is a numeric commercial book identifier that is intended to be unique. Publishers purchase or receive ISBNs from an affiliate of the International ISBN Agency. A different ISBN is assigned to e ...

, 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 Radio-frequency identification (RFID) uses electromagnetic fields to automatically identify and track tags attached to objects. An RFID system consists of a tiny radio transponder called a tag, a radio receiver, and a transmitter. When tri ...

system of electronic chips, which enables self-check, allowing users to borrow books by themselves.

The 2016 protest

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 join the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences (famous for its many agnostic and atheist students) with the 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 did not want to be associated with a religious institution. They started posting images online ridiculing dean Previšić, 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. Many Croatian universities, institutions and charities also offered their support to the protesting students.

Notable faculty and alumni

* Nadežda Čačinovič (b. 1947) * Zlatko Crnković (1931–2013) * Vesna Girardi-Jurkić (1944–2012) * Albert Goldstein (1943–2007), intellectual, writer, publisher, poet and translator * Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović (b. 1968), fourth President of Croatia * Mirela Holy (b. 1971), politician * Tvrtko Jakovina (b. 1972), historian * Hrvoje Klasić (b. 1972), historian * Julijana Matanović (b. 1959) * Predrag Matvejević (1932–2017), writer and scholar * Ante Peterlić (1936–2007) * Nenad Puhovski (b. 1949) *

Žarko Puhovski Žarko Puhovski (born 15 December 1946) is a Croatian professor, political analyst, philosopher and intellectual, former president of the Croatian Helsinki Committee. Biography Puhovski was born in Zagreb on 15 December 1946. He was born to a J ...

(b. 1946) * Milorad Pupovac (b. 1955), linguist and politician * Vesna Pusić (b. 1953), sociologist and politician * Nino Raspudić (b. 1975) * Zvonimir Richtmann (1901–1941), physicist, philosopher, and publicist * Milivoj Solar (b. 1936) * Tom Sunic (b. 1953), university professor * Milena Žic-Fuchs (b. 1954) * Rudolf Arapović (1937–2007) writer and dissident

References

External links

Homepage

Alumni
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Humanities Humanities are academic disciplines that study aspects of human society and culture, including Philosophy, certain fundamental questions asked by humans. During the Renaissance, the term "humanities" referred to the study of classical literature a ...

Educational institutions established in the 1690s 1874 establishments in Austria-Hungary