The Memorial Fund was created as an expression of deep respect and gratitude for the work carried out by Dr Jan Dlask.

Dr Jan Dlask was one of the 14 victims of the tragic event at the Faculty of Arts of Charles University. His passion for Nordic studies began in secondary school and then continued with his studies in Finnish and Swedish. One of his students wrote the following about him: “He was a man who significantly changed the course of his life with his knowledge, kindness, humour, and enthusiasm. He was the kind of person who brought countries, cultures, and people together..."

The objective of the Memorial Fund is to continue the legacy of Dr Jan Dlask – to support the professional growth of students of Nordic Studies at the Faculty of Arts of Charles University and the overall development of the field in the Czech Republic.

This fund supports study and research stays, the organisation of workshops, seminars, and conferences, or professional publications.

About Dr Jan Dlask

Jan Dlask was born in 1973 in Pardubice. After graduating from the local grammar school, he enrolled in a master’s programme in Finnish and Swedish, which he completed in 2000 with a state final exam and the defence of his thesis.

Two years later he embarked on a PhD in Germanic Literature and defended his dissertation in 2010. As a result of his language combination, he had always academically straddled Finnish and Swedish or Scandinavian literature, but then found their ideal connection in Finnish-Swedish literature.

He published articles on modern Finnish literature, and in recent years, on the works of Mika Waltari, para-literature, especially the tradition of Swedish detective fiction, and the reception of Finnish literature in the Czech environment from the point of view of literary sociology.

Since 2002, Dr Dlask had been teaching Finnish literature courses and translation seminars in the Finnish Language or Finnish Studies section, first at the Department of Linguistics, and since 2015, at the Department of Germanic Studies. He was the head of the Finnish Studies section in the Department of Germanic Studies since September 2023.

He approached his students with the same honesty and openness as he did his own academic work. He was always systematic, meticulous and helpful, an empathetic colleague, and a popular teacher. Dr Dlask had always considered the promotion of his field of study to be a very important part of his work in the form of reviews relating to the translation of Nordic fiction and non-fiction and various current affairs and studies. In addition to literature and politics, this proud Pardubice native loved trains, the music of the band Mňága and Žďorp, Finnish tar-flavoured candy, and desserts of all kinds.