This course offers a comprehensive, comparative analysis of European media landscapes while introducing students to influential theories and scholars that shape contemporary digital culture. The course contrasts the commercialized, First Amendment-centric US model with Europe’s public service broadcasting tradition. Students will engage directly with the historical and post-communist media transitions of Central and Eastern Europe. Through interactive lectures, field trips, screenings of pop culture phenomena such as Black Mirror, and hands-on content production, students learn to critically apply media theory to current affairs, generative AI, and evolving creative industries.

This course introduces students to the empirical methods economists use to evaluate the effects of social policies. We will ask a simple question — does this policy work? — and discover that answering it rigorously requires careful thinking about causality, data, and research design. The course draws primarily on Mostly Harmless Econometrics (Angrist and Pischke, 2008) and Causal Inference: The Mixtape (Scott Cunningham), but the technical level is low, no prior knowledge of statistics or econometrics is required. The mathematics stays light — we work with averages, simple regressions, and differences between groups — but the conceptual demands are real. Students will be expected to think carefully about what data can and cannot tell us.

Russia and European Security: Continuity, Conflict, and Change examines Russia's role as a key actor in the European security environmentthrough the lenses of history, strategy, domestic politics, and internationalrelations. The course explores the enduring foundations of Russian stateidentity and strategic culture alongside the transformations driven by militarymodernization, economic instruments, hybrid warfare, and shifting geopoliticaldynamics. Particular attention is devoted to Russia's relationships withUkraine, the post-Soviet space, Europe/NATO, and China, as well as to theinteraction between domestic regime stability and foreign policy. Combiningconceptual discussions with a practical simulation exercise modelling theKremlin’s response to an armed mutiny, the course equips students with thetools needed to understand the sources of continuity and change in Russianbehavior and their implications for European security.

Assuming that it is possible to acquire knowledge about oneself and others, how is this possible? In other words, which fundamental cognitive capacities are required to attain self-knowledge and knowledge of other selves? The concept of metacognition refers to thinking about thinking, encompassing both reflection on one's own thinking and reflection on the thinking of others. However, providing a more precise definition of metacognition is problematic. Is thinking the capacity to engage with and understand (often linguistic or imagistic) thoughts? Or is thinking better understood as the capacity to anticipate and regulate mental behaviour? The choice of definition places one within a highly contested debate in contemporary philosophy of psychology, namely the debate concerning the origins of self-knowledge.

This course offers a curated journey through the history of human consciousness, with Prague's fine arts as our guiding light. Rather than dry chronology, we journey from the macro to the micro, tracing the artist's gaze as it evolved from the divine medieval representations to the internal, emotional world of the modern individual. Through classwork and visits to galleries and sites, we begin by analyzing the foundations of reality—the city as a canvas and the body as a sacred vessel. We witness a transition from theological symbolism to sociological realism. By examining the elite power structures that shaped perspective and patronage, we arrive at the emergence of internal worlds in which painting becomes a mirror of the human psyche. This course not only fosters academic analysis but also inspires students to engage in meaningful self-reflection throughout their study abroad experience.

We are surrounded daily by claims built on data: "raising the minimum wage destroys jobs," "immigration lowers local wages," "this tax cut paid for itself." But which of these claims deserve our trust – and how would we verify them?

This course teaches students to think with data, not merely compute with it. Students will learn where economic data actually comes from, how to recognize when it is incomplete, misleading, or simply wrong, and how to transform a raw, disorganized dataset into a sound foundation for analysis. Along the way, they will develop the habits of a careful empirical thinker: exploring patterns, creating honest and informative visualizations, understanding uncertainty, and – crucially – recognizing why correlation is not causation.

This course offers an applied approach to macroeconomics, focused on helping students understand how the economy works in practice. We explore how individuals, firms, and governments make decisions in response to key macroeconomic forces, including inflation, interest rates, debt, economic growth, trade, and fiscal and monetary policy. While the logic of economic models provides a vital framework, we focus equally on the complexities, constraints, and behaviors that emerge in real-world settings. Each week connects theoretical tools to practical analysis, using case studies, current policy debates, and media coverage to show how expectations, risk, incentives, and institutions shape economic outcomes. Students will examine why people and institutions don’t always behave the way the models expect, and what that means for interpreting events in the real economy.

This course introduces students through field study to the most beautiful artistic and architectural monuments of Prague and teaches them to interpret their characteristics in the context of art history and culture in Central Europe. Special attention is paid to the question of how the development of spiritual and societal values throughout history has influenced architectural and artistic trends. Through presentations followed by guided tours of the most representative sites, students learn not only to recognize the main artistic styles, but also to read and interpret the values they represent.

The course explores how and what ideologies have informed visual aspects of art and architecture produced before and after the Velvet Revolution (1989) in what is now the Czech Republic. We look at individual pieces of art, architecture and material culture, propaganda posters and excerpts from movies, and search for ways in which they are in/formed by different ideologies. To achieve this, you are first introduced to a set of epistemological building blocks, i.e., themes and modes of thinking that have influenced the form of arts and visual culture, such as modernity, modernism, and the concept of ideology as such. 

Why are some countries poor and other countries rich? What are the factors of growth? What is the role of political and economic institutions in the development process? How can aid foster growth and development? These questions are of central interest not only for academics, but also for policy makers and international organizations shaping policies for sustained growth and development. Providing the answers is particularly relevant for any country undergoing a strong transition and development process, such as the former Soviet Union countries. It is however also important for the European Union, whose member countries vary significantly in their original economic environments. This course aims to address these questions in view of the theory and empirics of economic growth

Comprehending the Holocaust (Shoah) goes beyond understanding the historical fact that six million Jews and other innocent victims were brutally murdered in Nazi-occupied Europe. The Holocaust is a lesson in what happened in our modern rational technological society and in what can happen again in spite of all trusted safety measures. What does it mean to comprehend the Holocaust – is it possible at all? We will concentrate more on the nature of modern genocides, their underlying ideological patterns and their modern features. The Holocaust as a significant and unique event in history continues to have universal implications. This mass murder has specific features that make it different from all other genocides. It is not only a historical event but rather a turning-point of our history.

This course examines the tumultuous Czech history of the past millennium through individual and collective narratives and field study of relevant sites. Following key historical periods from the 13th to the 21st century, we will see how collective memory formed national identity as seen today. We will investigate how men and women—rulers, politicians, writers, and artists—influenced the past and constituted the present. We will follow the complex social, political, and cultural forces that shaped this region by visiting sites and memorials in public spaces, studying primary sources, and analyzing historical echoes.

This course will consider the new phenomenon of digital currencies from a monetary and financial stability angle. We will first look at the technological foundations of cryptocurrencies, and then we will discuss challenges related to the issuance of central bank digital currencies and stablecoins. We will study central bank digital currencies that are in advanced stages and we will learn about their potential impact. We will discuss private efforts to issue stablecoins (e.g. LIBRA) and discuss why they raise concerns of regulators.

Our economic lives are constantly changing: Technological change, economic and political crises shaped the world since the industrial revolution during the last 200 years. Countries in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) in particular experienced several upheavals during the last 150 years: The collapse of the Austrian-Hungarian Empire, weak political and economic institutions after World War I, ethnic cleansing after World War II, a centralized planning economy and the transition towards a market economy after 1990 are partially still visible in socio-economic figures today. A long-term perspective on the evolution of economic figures can also help to understand changes and obstacles today. The course bases on a broader understanding of economic development. Despite classical economic measures like GDP, inflation or population growth, we will also discuss so-called soft economic variables such as norms, culture, trust and social capital.

Technology firms use large-scale experimentation and empirical analysis to make decisions. Microsoft alone runs tens of thousands of A/B tests a year, and many tested changes, often 70 to 90 percent, do not improve their target metric. Without systematic measurement, firms may adopt ineffective features, set suboptimal prices, or scale decisions that do not work.

The course covers the main methods economists use to answer causal questions and solve empirical business problems: randomized experiments, quasi-experimental methods, and demand estimation. Each method is introduced through its formal framework, the academic literature, and a series of case studies.

The course has two complementary goals. The first is to build a foundation of a practical empirical skill set that economists might use working in the technology sector. The second is to introduce the business context of technology companies: how firms such as Nvidia, Microsoft, Google, and Netflix operate, how to read financial statements, and what incentives arise in two-sided markets such as Uber’s or Airbnb’s.

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This course targets students that are staying in the Czech Republic for a limited period of time and need to cover the basics of the language in order to communicate in everyday situations. The ultimate aim is to provide the students with basic skills, grammar, and vocabulary for handling everyday life in the Czech Republic, and to give them an idea of the Czech language system as well as Czech culture. The instruction uses a communicative method of teaching: the material is based on situations the students face, not on a grammatical overview of the language, with an emphasis on both receptive and productive language skills.

Europe is attempting one of the most ambitious economic transformations in modern history: the transition from a fossil fuel-based energy system towards one that is cleaner, more secure, and more sustainable. This transition is often described as a simple shift from coal, oil, and gas to renewable energy. In practice, it is much more complex. Europe must reduce greenhouse gas emissions while maintaining affordability, energy security, industrial competitiveness, and social acceptance.

This course introduces students to the economics of the European energy transition. It combines energy economics, environmental economics, electricity market design, public policy, and basic energy system analysis. Students will learn how Europe uses energy, why electricity markets are different from other markets, how energy technologies can be compared, why renewable electricity creates new system challenges, and why technologies such as hydrogen, biomass, carbon capture, storage, and electrification may be complementary rather than competing solutions.

The aim of this course is to introduce students to some basic economic principles and theories explaining environmental issues and problems today and to explore existing policies at the national, international, and global level. Students will learn about concepts such as externalities, the tragedy of the commons, enforcement as a public good, interventionist solutions to the externality problem such as taxes and marketable pollution permits, as well as non-interventionist solutions to the externality problem such as the Coasian solution and self-regulation.

The aim ofthis course is to improve students' understanding of the symptoms, causes, andconsequences of the crisis of representative democracies in the EU. The purpose is to understand: a) Thekey challenges to the EU in the twenty-first century: populism, technocraticgovernance, anti-system politics, emergency politics and the tensions inrepresentative democracies in the EU politics and policy-making; b) To accessthe comparative perspectives and critical thinking of the crises in Western andEastern societies; c) To understand the theoretical approaches for studying thecrises of representative democracies in the EU, its implications for democraticrepresentation in the EU and the EU’s democratic legitimacy.

Traditional fairytales are a significant part of cultural heritage, drawing the attention of scholars from various disciplines. Through their variety, diversity, and vivid imagery, fairytales reflect the richness of the world, while their unique features and peculiarities highlight the distinctiveness of individual countries, peoples, and cultures. This course introduces the genre of European fairytales within a broader historical, geographical, and cultural framework. It situates fairytales in relation to other European folk genres, such as myths and legends, with a particular focus on Czech fairytales and their specific characteristics. The primary aim of the course is to explore fairytales as symbolic narratives that offer insights not only into the world around us but also into human nature. Numerous theories examine the hidden symbolic meanings of European fairytales and the significance they convey. While folklorists have worked to organize and classify these tales, psychologists, literary critics, and scholars from other fields have sought to interpret them—uncovering the values, beliefs, social rules, and customs embedded within, as well as the human desires, dreams, and fears they reflect. 

This lively and original course is open to students who have an interest in studying the social and political transition in Central Europe through an understanding of its cinema. This is not a traditional film course: We will focus on the films’ social, political and historical contexts. 

This course explores the intersection of finance, economics, and climate change science to introduce students to the current thinking of financial economists on the most pressing climate change and sustainability issues. Theoretical concepts and empirical applications will present students with a broad perspective on the rich and rapidly evolving field of climate and sustainability finance. Many of the problems are open-ended, reflecting the complexity and deep uncertainty intrinsic to the real-world situations faced by today's decision-makers. The case studies, discussions, and real-world examples will provide additional insights into the implications of climate change for financial markets and the promising strategies for sustainable finance.

This course offers a comprehensive introduction to the structure, functions, and dynamics of modern financial markets and the institutions that operate within them, in Czechia and Central Europe in worldwide context. The main objective of the course is to equips students with a solid conceptual foundation in financial instruments, market behaviour, risk management, and the role of central banks and regulatory authorities. Combining theoretical frameworks with real-world applications, the course provides an integrated view of how financial systems support economic activity, interact with the corporate sector, and respond to global trends and innovations.

Further modules introduce the core functions of central banking, financial regulation and supervision, and the Basel framework. The course concludes with an overview of financial innovation - crypto assets, private credit, and prediction markets - and their implications for financial stability and regulation.

This course offers a practical and accessible introduction to data science for upper-level undergraduate and graduate students seeking to build genuine analytical skills in a structured, applied setting. Students are guided through the full data science workflow — from understanding and cleaning data, to building predictive models and evaluating their performance with rigor and responsibility. Bridging programming, statistics, and problem-solving in an AI-driven world, the course emphasizes the data tasks most relevant to applied research, business analytics, and introductory machine learning. Students work extensively with Python-based materials and real-world examples throughout the semester, leveraging modern AI tools as an integral part of the programming workflow.

Sport has become an important subject within the humanities, with numerous sociological, economic, anthropological, and psychological studies collectively forming the field of sport studies. This course introduces key topics within this field, including the commercialization and globalization of elite sport, the role of sports mega-events, sport in relation to social and gender inequalities, the intersections between sport and politics, and differences between sports cultures in the United States and Europe. These themes will be examined through a series of case studies—such as the Olympic Games, the Super Bowl, and sportswashing in European football. The seminar will focus primarily on professional sport. A central aim of the course is to show that sport is not “just” a game, but a lens through which to understand significant and often urgent social issues. Emphasis will be placed on the interdisciplinary nature of sport studies, demonstrating how insights from sociology, philosophy, economy, cultural studies, and related fields complement and enrich one another.

The course aims to provide students with an introduction to the key concepts, methods and understanding of the application of economics to health and health care. Students will gain knowledge of the core theories underpinning health economics, and by looking at the epmirical evidence they will learn to evaluate whether they give correct predictions for real health care market. The difference between US and European approach toward health care financing and provision will be discussed to stimulate students' critical thinking about the major challenges health care systems face and how health economics can play a role in understanding and mitigating those challenges.

The course aims to provide an interdisciplinary understanding of the international human rights framework in Central and Eastern Europe where human rights system mirrors historical developments of the countries within the globalizing world. The course invites students from all disciplines to explore and make sense of current human rights issues, cases and problems in the region, contextualized in the broader challenges of human rights at the beginning of 21st century. We will discuss how current political crises (refugees and migration, housing issues, digital rights, LGBTQ* rights and alike) shape the debate about human rights in the CEE region and beyond.

This course provides an applied introduction to labour economics with a focus on both theoretical models and contemporary policy challenges. Topics include wage setting, human capital, migration, gender, minimum wages, and the impact of technology on labour markets. Students will engage with economic models, empirical evidence, and policy debates.

The course provides an interdisciplinary insight into current findings across the diverse research areas covering language, culture, and mind to explain individuals’ behavior in a larger cultural and psychological context. The course content stretches across a range of psycholinguistics, anthropological, ethnographic, and social-cognitive topics dealing with social behavior, allowing students to naturally compare the manifestations of these across at least their primary socialization milieu and the study-abroad context.

Who are the Europeans and how did they create the European Union, a unique partnership of 27 states and an ever more important international actor? This course covers the main political, social and economic developments in Europe since the middle of the 20^th century until the present day. We will study promises and achievements of European integration, including peace, democracy, economic prosperity and protection of human rights. Gender, migration and environment will be important cross-cutting themes. 

Music is recognized as a central part of culture. What deserves greater attention, however, is how closely music is tied to politics, history, economy and cultural identity. This interdisciplinary course will use the example of music to discuss more general issues in culture studies, aesthetics, sociology and other disciplines.

The classes will consist of interpreting short excerpts from various texts on music, discussion, listening to musical samples, and field trips. Students will be introduced to major Czech and Central European classical composers as well as popular and alternative/underground music groups. No prior musical education is required. Guest lecturers will also be invited to the course, such as contemporary composers Miloš Orson Štědroň and Lukáš Sommer. The subject of music provides a unique insight into Central European society, culture and history from the 18th century to the present day.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is reshaping nearly every aspect of contemporary life—from how we work and communicate to how we understand creativity, responsibility, and even intelligence itself. This course introduces students from all disciplines to the ethical, social, and conceptual challenges posed by AI and modern technology. It combines perspectives from philosophy, media studies, and contemporary journalism to help students think critically about how these technologies influence both society and human self-understanding.

This course explores mass persuasion and propaganda in a developmental context with an emphasis on understanding approaches and techniques. It traces the emergence of strategic persuasive communication and propaganda from its origins to the present day. The basic principles, philosophy, and techniques of mass persuasion in different periods are considered, with an emphasis on contemporary contexts. Students will learn to identify different propaganda techniques and will gain the tools to evaluate and debunk propaganda campaigns. A developmental approach is used in order to allow the opportunity to see aspects of continuity and change in approaches. 

This course aims to bring psychology out of textbooks and into lived experience. We are not interested in psychology for the sake of psychology, but because we want to live better, more conscious, and more skilful lives. 

So, if you study psychology but struggle to apply theoretical knowledge in real-life situations, this course might be for you. And if you study something completely different but are curious about psychology — without wanting to sit through hours of lectures on abstract theories — this course might also be for you.

This highly experiential course is designed for anyone who wants to better understand everyday situations and learn how to navigate them with greater awareness and practical skill. We will pay particular attention to emotions — how to recognise them, work with them, and regulate them through experiential workshops and practical exercises.

The course is also strongly interdisciplinary. Drawing from psychology, anthropology, philosophy, and the arts, we will explore different ways of understanding ourselves and relating to the world around us. The aim is to help participants navigate everyday struggles and discomfort with greater self-awareness, resilience, and agency.

The course begins with an introduction to the main concepts from political psychology, and the latter portion of the course applies these concepts to the study of anti-gender ideologies and populism. Political psychology examines how psychology informs politics, including how we build political identities, why people engage in political behaviors, and the mutually constitutive relationship between people and institutions. The course will primarily focus on research from social/political psychology, but we will also look to broader literatures, including cognitive and personality psychology, sociology, political science, and international relations. Although much of the research in this field is conducted with a focus on the “global north” and the United States in particular, in this course, we will take a global perspective and will discuss whether the types of conclusions and methods used elsewhere generalize to broader settings. 

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This course examines food and eating from sociological, cultural, historical, and semiotic perspectives. Students will explore how food functions not only as a biological necessity but also as a powerful social institution that shapes identities, relationships, communities, and systems of power. Through interdisciplinary engagement with contemporary scholarship, historical case studies, and practical experiences, such as a field trip to a local brewery, a visit to a community garden, and hands-on cooking workshops, students will investigate food as both an embodied experience and a symbolic system that reflects broader social, cultural, political, economic, and environmental processes. Particular attention will be given to Czech and Central European food cultures, their historical development, and their relationship to socio-political change in the region. The course will also introduce students to contemporary debates and innovations in food systems, including sustainability, alternative proteins, and emerging food technologies.

Since the birth of modern Czech literature in early 19th century, Czech writers were assigned the difficult part of the nation’s moral conscience. They were not only the guardians of Czech language and cultural heritage but also the pillars of Czech society, exemplary citizens, fighters for freedom.

As there was no shortage of historical challenges, this demand continued well into the 20th century, making writers often oscillate between their allegiance to the community and their responsibility to their own authentic creative vision.

In this course, we will read some of the most important literary texts of twentieth century Czech literature. We will reflect on the continued tension between state power and artistic and civic consciousness and its influence on the writings but also the lives of some major authors, such as Ivan Olbracht, Josef Jedlička, Jiří Weil, Bohumil Hrabal, Josef Škvorecký, Václav Havel, Milan Kundera, Zdena Salivarová, Ludvík Vaculík.

This course offers a critical introduction to the key currents of Prague’s alternative and subcultural life, including autonomous venues, graffiti and street art, punk music, political art collectives, human-rights initiatives, and queer cultural festivals. Students will engage with the distinctive legacy of Czech pre-1989 underground culture and trace how samizdat practices evolved into contemporary zine production.

Few things remind us so convincingly of the importance of writing as when we suddenly find ourselves in a new environment. Mere exposure to a new place (be it city or a country) activates senses. Ideas and observations rush in. Questions come up: why is this so? How is this different? Why do I find this unsettling? Maybe you can put these questions into a chatbot and see what happens. But a chatbot itself is not going to generate your individual human experience.

This course invites you to explore history and current debates on how humans captured their experience; what role technology (such as typewriter, computer, AI) played in ways we think about the world and our place in it. It is also an opportunity to practice some of the skills professional writers have developed. This includes studying how writers across times and spaces reflected on their own crossing of boundaries, being strangers in new cultures, and how they navigated belonging to multiple communities. It is not a conventional class, but rather a workshop that helps you, on a regular basis, learn to work with the new experience and unpack its different parts.

The course provides an interdisciplinary insight into current findings across the diverse research areas covering language, culture, and mind to explain individuals’ behavior in a larger cultural and psychological context. The course content stretches across a range of psycholinguistics, anthropological, ethnographic, and social-cognitive topics dealing with social behavior, allowing students to naturally compare the manifestations of these across at least their primary socialization milieu and the study-abroad context.

This course targets students that are staying in the Czech Republic for a limited period of time and need to cover the basics of the language in order to communicate in everyday situations. The ultimate aim is to provide the students with basic skills, grammar, and vocabulary for handling everyday life in the Czech Republic, and to give them an idea of the Czech language system as well as Czech culture. The instruction uses a communicative method of teaching: the material is based on situations the students face, not on a grammatical overview of the language, with an emphasis on both receptive and productive language skills.

This course offers a critical introduction to the key currents of Prague’s alternative and subcultural life, including autonomous venues, graffiti and street art, punk music, political art collectives, human-rights initiatives, and queer cultural festivals. Students will engage with the distinctive legacy of Czech pre-1989 underground culture and trace how samizdat practices evolved into contemporary zine production.