Josef Jarab is a professor of English and American literature at Palacký University, Olomouc. He has written widely on cultural pluralism, African American culture, modern poetry and fiction, and issues of higher education. He was the first chairman of the Czech Fulbright Committee and the National Association for American Studies. He served as president of the European Association of American Studies (2000 to 2004). After the Velvet Revolution in 1989 he became the first freely-elected university administrator in the country and was rector of Palacký University for seven years. From 1977 to 1999 he was president of the Central European University in Budapest. As an independent he held a seat in the Senate of the Czech Parliament, where he chaired the Committee on International Affairs, Defense and Security. In the Council of Europe he vice-chaired the Committee on Culture, Education and Media. For a decade he was member of the Observatory of the Bologna Magna Charta. He has received honorary doctorates from Durham University, England; Moravian College and Mount Mercy College, USA; and became the first Czech recipient of the Woodrow Wilson Freedom Award. Currently he still teaches courses in American literature and culture at Palacky University. His focus has always been on the phenomenon of plurality of American literature, which he understands as one of the decisive features of US culture. He most recently attended SSASAA 07, To Honor Emory Elliott: 'American Literary History in a New Key,” in 2010. He is accompanied by his wife Ingeborg Flalova-Fuerstova.