258 © Institute for Research in Social Communication, Slovak Academy of Sciences HUMAN AFFAIRS 23, 258–275, 2013 DOI: 10.2478/s13374-013-0124-6 SLOVAK SLAVISTICS: PAST AND PRESENT. INTERDISCIPLINARY DISCOURSES IN SLOVAK ACADEMIC SLAVISTICS PETER ŽEŇUCH, KATARÍNA ŽEŇUCHOVÁ Abstract: Slovak Slavistics has adopted the interdisciplinary research approach based on examining the processes involved in language, literature, history, culture, ethnics and religion. From a scholarly and investigative point of view, Slovak Slavistics is primarily concerned with researching Slovak and Slavic relations, and Slovak and non-Slavic relations. Although Slavistics at home and abroad has been affected by the recession, it maintains its role of accelerating systematic and comprehensive investigation. The priority of Slovak Slavistics, both in a domestic and international context, is to safeguard scholarly outputs and make them available in the competitive international arena. Ensuring continuity in Slavistic research is also important and is not merely a question of prestige, but is also a fundamental means of continually improving the quality of the academic discipline. Internationally recognised Slavistic research is conducted in collaboration with the Ján Stanislav Institute of Slavistics at the Slovak Academy of Sciences. The institute sees modern Slavistics in Slovakia as having currency and exigency. Slovak Slavistic research is indispensable, provides continuity and constitutes an inseparable component of wider Central European and international Slavistic research. Key words: Slavistics; interdisciplinary and comprehensive Slavistic research; identity of Slovak Slavistics; continuity in academic Slavistic research. Interdisciplinary model of Slavistic research in Slovakia Slovak Slavistics is an inseparable part of comprehensive interdisciplinary social scientific research, even though it does not rank among those scientific disciplines that are lucrative or immediately profitable. Conducting continual and systematic interdisciplinary research in Slavistics is primarily dependent on the stability of the scientific environment and therefore cannot be initiated merely by economic and commercial conditions, but responds to the current needs of society. Slavistic research in Slovakia has been systematically developed at the Slovak Academy of Sciences and at some university departments in Slovakia since 1993 (that is to say following the 11th International Congress of Slavists in Bratislava). The First Congress of Slovak Slavists was held at the Ján Stanislav Institute of Slavistics at the Slovak Academy of Sciences in collaboration with the Slovak Committee of Slavists, a scientific and Unauthenticated Download Date | 7/28/18 8:04 PM