The Academic Senate of the Faculty of Theology of the University of South Bohemia in České Budějovice elected a candidate for the position of Dean for the period 2024–2028 at its meeting on 6 December 2023. The Dean will be Assoc. Prof. Michal Opatrný, Dr. theol., the current FTH USB Vice-Dean for research and strategic development. During the voting, 11 votes were cast, 11 senate members voted for Michal Opatrný and 1 abstained from voting. The Dean is appointed by the USB Rector on the proposal of the academic senate of the faculty.
Assoc. Prof. Michal Opatrný, Dr. theol.
Michal Opatrný was born in 1978 in Prague, where he graduated from the Josef Gočár Secondary School of Civil Engineering in the 1990s. In the years 1997-2002 he studied theology at the University of South Bohemia, and in 2008 he received his doctorate at the Catholic Theological University in Linz, Upper Austria. He completed his habilitation in 2013 at the Faculty of Theology of the University of South Bohemia in České Budějovice. Here, he works in the Department of Social Work and Caritas Studies, which he has led since 2013. He is professionally interested in topics on the border between theology and the social sciences, and he lectures on pastoral theology and social work. Since 2010, he has been the Vice-Dean of the Faculty of Theology at USB for Science, and since 2016 for Science and Development.
In 2018, he received a Humboldt scholarship for experienced researchers, which enabled him to undertake an internship at the Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg in Freiburg, southern Germany, in 2019.
In the position of the Dean, he considers his main task to be the preparation of the faculty for the renewal and expansion of institutional accreditations in 2027-2028. In the field of science, he wants to strengthen the partnership between the faculty and organisations in the application sphere (helping organisations, schools, leisure organisations, NGOs and associations). At the same time, he will strive for the creation of so-called scientific incubators, i.e., working groups bringing together experienced academics, postdoctoral fellows and doctoral students who will focus on new areas of research. He also plans to appoint its International Council for the first time in the history of the faculty, which should support the international dimension of pedagogical and scientific work. He understands the international activity of the faculty as part of the so-called third role of the university, which can support not only the development of the city and region where it is located, but also education, scientific cooperation, civil society and democratic values and ecumenical cooperation in less developed areas of Europe and the world.
