Recently I attended two lectures where guest speakers, Tomáš Klvaňa and Dennis Smith, gave insight into their perspective on Brexit and the European Union. And though both topics have already been heavily discussed, its relevance remains. 

'The route to democracy is difficult,' explained Tea Tsulukiani, Minister of Justice for Georgia. On Friday 21st November, the Faculty of Law was pleased to host Ms Tsulukiani for a short but detailed account of the changes taking place in Georgia in light of relations with the European Union.

The Map Collection at Charles University was established in 1891 and was moved to Albertov 6, Prague 2, in 1913 where it still remains today. Following this, the Faculty of Science was created in 1920 and with it, the state map collection. Alice Warner, a Journalism student from the De Montfort University, Leicester, England, visited its latest exhibition, which highlights the historical globes produced by a prominent Czech company.

25 years on from the Velvet Revolution in the Czech Republic (back then Czechoslovakia), Charles University was honoured to host the international conference 'For Your Freedom and Ours' highlighting the responsibility of those who have fought successfully for democracy in their countries to continue to support those nations still in the midst of their own endeavours for freedom.

On Friday April 4, Charles University in Prague hosted a lecture by the General Secretary of the United Nations, Mr Ban Ki-moon. The lecture, entitled "The Czech Republic and the United Nations: Peace, Development and Human Rights in a Changing World", was held in the Magna Aula of the Carolinum, the hall used for Charles University's official ceremonies and graduations.

Malach Centre for Visual History is located at the Faculty of Mathematics and Physics of Charles University in Prague. The Centre provides local access to vast Visual History Archive of interviews with Holocaust witnesses and survivors. The archive is administered by the Shoah Foundation at the University of Southern California and fully accessible through an on-line interface. Almost 52 000 interviews have been conducted between 1994 and 2000 in 56 countries and 32 languages.

Charles University remembered Dr. Aleš Hrdlička, one of the founding fathers of Czech and American Anthropology and the founder of the Museum of Anthropology in Prague, on the 17th October with a commemorative lecture. The lecture was delivered by Prof. Jane Buikstra from Arizona State University who is well respected in her field of Bioarchaeology and was part of workshop „Building of Czechoslovakian Anthropology“ (Budování československé antropologie) held on 17th and 18th October 2013.

For many outside observers, the Erasmus exchange programme appears to be a pleasant stay abroad involving a lot of partying paid for by the EU – and, consequently, our taxes. While this may be true of some Erasmus students, there are also hard workers who are aiming to enrich their CVs not only by participating in the exchange itself but also extracurricular activities offered to them at their host university and in their host country.

Having first travelled to the Altai Republic, a land in the middle of Siberia with wild landscape and idiosyncratic inhabitants, Mgr. Luděk Brož, M.Phil., Ph.D. was so enchanted by the genius loci and culture of the region that he abandoned his chemistry studies and became a social anthropologist.

The world premiere of Czech Vigil (České Vigilie) composed by Tučapský, the previous Professor of Composition at Trinity College of Music, London was performed by The Charles University Artistic Ensemble on September 29th - 2013.

On the 23rd and 24th January this year I attended a conference focusing on migration issues in the Czech Republic, organised by the Multicultural Centre in Prague and hosted by the Faculty of Humanities at Charles University. With such an international community at our university, I believe that the event could not have had more of an attentive and keen audience, and it succeeded at raising some very relevant and fiery discussions through a series of talks, presentations and debates.

For the official 2014 Charles University Calendar (sadly not on sale to the general public or students); it was decided to accompany the dates with beautifully designed high quality prints taken from theses and dissertations submitted by students  of the university from centuries ago.

University representatives as well as numerous dignitaries and invited guests marked the 671st anniversary of the founding of Charles University at the school’s historic heart, the Carolinum, on Thursday. Esteemed guests included the Speaker of the lower house of Parliament Radek Vondráček, Deputy Speaker of the Senate Miluše Horská, and the Apostolic Nuncio to the Czech Republic Charles Daniel Balvo....

The pyramid necropolis at Abusir (EAR), which the Czech Institute of Egyptology, Faculty of Arts, Charles University has been excavating for almost 55 years, proved once again that it is one of the most important sites in Egypt. During autumn, members of the Czech Mission explored a tomb, which is part of a small cemetery to the south of the funerary complex of King Raneferef. In the cemetery, members of the court elite of the middle of the Fifth Dynasty (about 2450 B.C.) were buried.

On a typically-British, grey September morning in 1978, Bulgarian Cold War defector Georgi Markov was poisoned in a mysterious attack which would eventually claim his life. On March 24th 2015 in the Faculty of Law of Charles University, Markov's presiding physician Dr. Bernard Riley explored the details behind the assassination of the well-known Bulgarian dissident writer.

The CU Faculty of Arts has come top nationwide and second in Europe in the Charlemagne Youth Prize, awarded by the European Parliament for projects supporting European unity and understanding. Gathering plaudits in Brussels was the concept of presentations about individual countries, which has been organised since the 2008/09 academic year by the Erasmus Club of the Faculty of Arts under the title ‘Evropa dělá školu’ (‘Europe Meets School / Europa macht Schule’).

When I was told that Charles University had its own theatre company called Shakespeare Production, I was desperate to find out more. I met up with Teata Binar, a member of the theatre team, and she told me all about the company which has been up and running since 1993.

Some people say that Erasmus life is like marmite: you either love it or hate it. It is the once in a lifetime opportunity, the decision that everybody told you you were ‘so brave’ to make. It is the year that you can’t predict, the year that will always surprise you at every turn.

William O’Reilley, a senior lecturer in Early Modern History at the University of Cambridge presented a lecture on November 6 on his upcoming book ‘Selling Souls. Trafficking German migrants, Europe and America, 1648–1780.’

Introducing secondary-school pupils to the fascinating world of geology is the aim of the CU Faculty of Science’s Internet-based correspondence seminar Kamenožrout (‘Rockbiter’, after the Neverending Story character). Apart from the Czech-language version of the course, the organisers are now preparing versions in English and Russian. The most successful participants do not have to sit university entrance exams.