During the academic year 2012-13, the Faculty of Social Sciences at Charles University is hosting Judith Schüler from European university Viadrina (Frankfurt an der Oder), who is currently in Prague with her 2-year-old son Karl. I-Forum approached Judith to share her experiences of having a child whilst studying abroad.

There are numerous student associations at Charles University that organise extra-curricular (read free-time) activities for the international or Erasmus students. When I was studying abroad myself, the existence of such events appeared very logical to me – there are international students at the university so you offer trips, country presentations or cinema and theatre clubs to them.

Few topics are messier to discuss than the Greek economic crisis and the Eurozone. It’s one big interconnected, over-lapping, multi-dimensional, fuzzy and frustrating mess, with many bright minds currently engaged in untangling the layers. Amidst the brightest, and most highly respected is Professor Nikolaos Zahariadis of the University of Alabama, Birmingham, USA. 

As a politics student, the relentless coverage of the forthcoming elections in the United Kingdom have caught much of my attention as it looks to be one of the country’s most tightly contested and difficult to predict elections in recent times. To shed light on the subject, last month Charles University was visited by a guest lecturer, Mr Stephen D. Fisher, a professor in political sociology from Oxford University. The topic of the lecture was the role of election forecasting in the UK, with insights given to the current constant polling culture in the country, as well as some predictions from Mr Fisher himself.

On October 31, the Faculty of Arts at Charles University in Prague hosted a lecture by Italian historian Carlo Ginzburg, Professor Emeritus at the Scuola Normale Superiore of Pisa. Professor Ginzburg's lecture, entitled 'Looking at Europe from the Orient,' opened the TEEMA Conference, which ran from October 31 to November 2 at Charles University in Prague.

Step back in time with a visit to the National Gallery in Prague which is currently housing art exhibition Without Borders, Art in the Ore Mountains between the Gothic and the Renaissance.

Grass growing, flowers blooming, and new life suggest the awaking of nature and the official start of spring.  Springtime is the season in which life is at the centre of existence, it allows the idea of rebirth, rejuvenation, and regrowth. Not only is spring a celebration of new life, it is also a time of celebrating festivals and historical traditions.

Following a number of anti-Roma marches at the end of summer, associate professor Kristina Koldinská from the Department of Labour and Social Security Law of the CU Faculty of Law lost patience.

Did the Exodus really happen?  Was there ever another homeland? Does a historical claim through theology carry any weight? Are Jews who support Israel without exception hypocritical?

It is a nice tradition of the EAIE, European Association for International Education, to open its annual conferences with several Campus Tours at the premises of the universities in the city or region which hosts the EAIE conference that particular year. In September 2014 the EAIE conference with the title “Stepping into a New Era” took place in Prague, bringing to the city over 5000 higher educational professionals.

The researchers from the Department of Social Geography and Regional Development at the Faculty of Science, Charles University, have just finished a unique project. Experts and general public can now take a look at dozens of maps created by the team, and learn about the regional distribution of religious beliefs in Czechia as self-declared by the citizens after 1989.

When I first arrived into the closed poetry evening on the transnational migration of form with Jahan Ramazani, I didn’t quite know what to expect. A group of around twenty of us gathered into the classroom, decorated with bookshelves all along the walls. However, the moment Mr. Ramazani began to speak, I knew that I had the privilege of listening to one of the academic greats of our generation.

Charles University has staged one of its bigger Erasmus+ events this year for foreign students participating in the programme – a party held in the centre of Prague. The aim was to ease the start of studies by giving them a feeling for their new surroundings. And to mark the 20th anniversary of the program in the Czech Republic.

It was on one of the few snowy and freezing days in Prague this winter when the Erasmus Club of the Faculty of Arts paid a special visit to the German Embassy in Prague, located in Lobkowicz Palace near Malostranské náměstí (Malostranské Square).

We have spoken to Elena Battaglia, a History of Art Erasmus student from the Ca' Foscari University in Venice, who is currently studying at the Catholic Theological Faculty of Charles University, to find out more and also to learn about her art education project “Carnival of Venice”, which Elena has prepared under the guidance of the Europe Meets School programme.

The European Office of Charles University has a long standing cooperation with the National Library of the Czech Republic. CU Erasmus students have the opportunity to join the library for internships that not only provide assistance to the community, but also enhance their career prospects and help them to gain vital experience.

“You hear lots of good ideas over a lifetime but when an idea becomes reality, that’s truly exceptional,” is how Jiří Zima, dean of Charles University’s Faculty of Science, sums up the installation of an exceptional interactive Periodic Table at the Chemistry Institute found in Albertov in Prague.

The Novembers exhibition of CU (Karolinum, 17. 11. 2014 – 28. 2. 2015) explored the crucial date of the 17^th of November whilst simultaneously exploring the power and manipulation of history; as the introduction to the exhibition stated “this is a story of a myth, political kitsch and calculated propaganda.”

The events of November 1989 brought about a number of changes at Charles University.

Make time in March to see the exhibition ‘Without borders: Art in the Ore Mountains‘ before it closes on Sunday the 13th. The exhibition displays an impressive collection that encapsulates a large geographic area and historical timeline. It fulfils its aim and more.