On the 28th of March 2018, Professor Chet Van Duzer from the Stanford University (California, US) presented the guest lecture “With Savage Pictures Fill their Gaps: Cartographer’s Fears of Blank Spaces” at Charles University’s Faculty of Arts‘ central library.

On March 21, 2018, a public debate was organised by Charles University’s Centre for Philosophy, Ethics and Religion to discuss the political role of universities. Three speakers were present, each demonstrating similar opinions on the role of universities in the political sphere. Universities are ambivalent in their nature, successful in their growing appeal to more students each year and yet they are often still undermined by the public sphere. The discussion emphasised how in a time of polarisation, new political challenges in society would undoubtedly affect how universities operate.

On the 16th March 2018, and supported by the Kingdom of the Netherlands, the Faculty of Humanities of Charles University was host to a screening of the 2012 film Peace vs Justice, followed by a Q & A with the director Klaartje Quirijns (NL).

As part of the recently formed partnership between Charles University and Brown University (Providence, Rhode Island, United States), Dr Shiyanthi Thavapalan paid a visit to the Czech Institute of Egyptology at the Faculty of Arts. On the 26th of March she delivered a talk based around her PhD dissertation topic: “The Meaning of Colour in Ancient Mesopotamia”.

In the final of a series of lectures on approaches to ‘Classical Hollywood’, Prof. Richard Maltby focussed on the production, distribution and exhibition of entertainment films on an industrial scale. During the lecture Warner Bros film, Jezebel (1938, Director William Wyler), was showed as an example of the role of ‘star vehicles’ in Classical Hollywood’s system.

Students from across Europe flock to study for a semester or a year at Charles University in the magnificent city of Prague through the Erasmus project which proudly celebrates its 30th anniversary this year. Alex Leadbitter from De Montfort University in Leicester, England, discovers just what it is that has attracted another group of students who will shortly be arriving in the city to start their Erasmus year at the university.

Professor Howard Hotson criticizes the British government reforms of higher education. He is a co-author of manifesto In Defence of Public Higher Education which was published by Charles University in czech translation. Professor Hotson visited Prague in November and now you can read an interview with him.

Twenty-five years after it was founded, the Faculty of Social Sciences at Charles University finally has its own insignia. So far, the students making their matriculation and graduation wows had to swear on the scepter borrowed from the Faculty of Arts.