This course explores how digital technologies reshape civil society, activism, and community socialization in the 21st century. Students will critically analyse the evolution of social movements, the interplay between online and offline activism, and challenge simplistic narratives about "clicktivism" or the transformative potential of digital technologies. Case studies will highlight global and local (CEE) examples of community-building and advocacy, with a particular focus on feminist movements and gender inequalities. Guest speakers, critical discussions, and applied research projects will provide a bridge between theory and practice, equipping students with the tools to navigate and contribute to digitally connected civil society.

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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. Shared values have always had a major influence on the shape of art and architecture, and Prague represents a unique collection in this sense. 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.

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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. This will provide you with a strong theoretical base. We will then proceed with methods available for researching the visual material that we explore throughout the course. You can add to this material as you travel around the CEE region because art and architecture created under the various socialist regimes between the late 1940s and 1980s has repercussions for what the CEE region looks like today. Moreover, as the Cold War rhetoric and politics currently undergoes a revival, the study material and its historical context also prove relevant for your understanding of the present geopolitical situation as it is reflected in different forms of art and visual culture.

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Graduates of the module describe behavioral principles of strategic and non-strategic decision making in an economic environment. This enables them to evaluate purely theoretical problems more adequately and to design an appropriate economic environment for applied decision problems as well. Moreover, graduates conduct simple economic experiments in order to test how suitable selected economic and institutional designs are to deal with economic problems.

Pre-requisites: One intermediate-level economics course (Micro or Macro)

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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. This course is divided in two parts. The first part overviews the facts of growth and presents the main theories that try to account for them. Special attention is given to understanding the central role of institutions in this process. The second part of the course analyzes the role of foreign aid and also discusses the role of international organizations, such as the World Bank and the IMF. Throughout, the course puts emphasis on the growth experience across European and former Soviet Union countries.

Pre-requisites: This course is mainly geared toward students with an economics background. We will base our analyses on simple mathematical models, so familiarity with algebra and calculus is strongly recommended. Students without any economics background are advised to consult the professor before enrolling. More precisely, prospective students need to have passed the following courses (or at least have the knowledge at the given level): Intro coursework in Calculus (AP Calculus is accepted)

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This course aims to introduce students to the historical, as well as the contemporary, issues of Czech Society and Culture from an interdisciplinary perspective. Based on several ethnographic case studies, among other literary, academic and visual sources, we will make connections between memory and history, narrative and experiences, change and continuity, and past and present. By the end of the course students will be able to: recognize and analyze the most important events, symbols, and personalities of Czech history, demonstrate how myths, symbols and traditions make the identification of people as members of the Czech nation, describe the characteristics of life under the Socialist system in former Czechoslovakia, and explain how this system has been transformed into its present-day form in relation to the process of Europeanization and Globalization and what kind of anthropological research these changes have stimulated  (traditions, situation of minorities,consuming habits, food, family structure, the media, gender roles…).

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This course discusses the emergence of major modernist movements and ideas in the three Central European cities: Prague, Vienna and Budapest. In the period between the late 19th century and the beginning of WWII, these cities were the main centers of the disintegrating Austrian-Hungarian Empire and, later, the capitals of three independent states—Czechoslovakia, Austria and Hungary, respectively. Despite the political turmoil, all the three cities became a watershed of ideas that remain to be the sources of Western culture even today, including the dominant trends in the current North American culture. Thus, we shall see how dominant ideas in the fields as diverse as religion, philosophy, science, economics, psychology, art and architecture that have shaped the 20th century culture in the West can all be traced back to the works of the Austrian, Czech or Hungarian intellectuals such as Franz Brentano, Sigmund Freud, Adolf Loos and Georg Lukács. We shall have the extraordinary opportunity to study the fermentation of these ideas “on site,” in the very places in which these ideas originated.

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This course will introduce the participants to the crucial phenomena of Central European history and culture. While the turmoils of the twentieth century are covered by several UPCES courses, this class concentrates on tracing the foundations of contemporary identities and the roots of modern complexity. It covers Central European history from its origins to WWI, dealing with a wide range of topics such as chivalry and courtly culture, the Reformation and confessional conflicts, or nationalism and revolutions. All these subjects witness the evolution of social order, the search for ideal political systems, transformation of intellectual paradigms, and changes in artistic sensibilities. Every topic is studied through both key texts and emblematic images which facilitate the explanation of typical features of the given period. Close reading of sources and iconographical analysis is accompanied by extracts from films and excursions to museums and historical sites. The course will provide students with an understanding of the development of Euro-American culture and the milestones of medieval and early modern history. It will also enhance students’ interpretative skills and the competence to “read” specific cultural products which emanated from contexts quite different from their own background.

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This course introduces ways of philosophizing in Central Europe in the second half of the 20th century. The emphases are put on non-Marxist thinking and liberal Marxist ideas as well as the opposing dogmatic state-endorsed philosophy of the Soviet-style Marxism-Leninism. The effort will be made to underlie similarities and distinctions in ways in which harshness of political regimes, ever-present ideological dominance, courage, and the personal stance of individual thinkers shaped the way they adopted and developed Western style philosophizing.

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The course will offer a set of conceptual tools for understanding multiculturalism, ethnicity and collective memory in Central and Eastern Europe since the 20th Century to the present. From an anthropological perspective and the analysis of some relevant ethnographic case studies, some of the questions that will be discussed in class are: What is the relationship between ethnicity and other types of identity? What is collective memory? How do ethnic groups remain distinctive under different social, economic and political conditions? What is Multiculturalism and its relation to the process of Globalisation? In which ways can collective memory be important in the creation of ethnicity? Is nationalism always a form of ethnicity?  What ethnic conflicts do we face in contemporary Central and Eastern Europe? What can be the roots of ethnic differentiations and therefore, potentially, ethnic conflicts: religious, political, economic, linguistic or “racial”? Memory, silence and forgetting; how we should deal with the past in order to advance with the project of Europe.

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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. We will go through the rise and history of Christian anti-Judaism, its transformation into modern forms of anti-Semitism, we will discuss what is exceptional and what is normal about the Holocaust and define the role and responsibility of the individual in modern democracy. We will learn about the role of intellectuals during the Holocaust and discuss how good people can kill other people so easily. We will also try to understand the function of Nazi propaganda and its major themes. We will touch on the phenomenon of “denying the Holocaust”, which is a modern form of anti-Semitism.

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This course aims to bridge the gap between art and society, offering a unique interdisciplinary perspective on Prague's contemporary art scene. We will traverse museums, galleries, and art exhibited in public sphere to unravel the stories embedded in each artwork, exploring the intersections between artistic expression, societal values, and cultural identity.

Throughout the course, we will employ cultural and sociological frameworks to analyze and interpret the encountered artworks, while also examining the pivotal role of local art institutions and the public sphere in fostering dialogue with the audience. Discussions, reflections, critical analyses, and field research will be integral components of this course, encouraging students to ponder the societal implications – both at the local and global levels – of the art they encounter. Each class meeting will feature a blend of lectures and field trips to museums, galleries, and public art spaces in Prague. These excursions will provide firsthand experiences, enabling students to connect theoretical concepts studied in class with real-world examples. Guest speakers from the local art community will enrich our discussions with diverse perspectives. Get ready for an intellectually stimulating and visually captivating odyssey through the artful streets of Prague!

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The objective of this course is to help students understand Czech culture and society from 1918 to the present. Students will learn about history and culture of this era from the perspective of life and work od Václav Havel (1936-2011), Czechoslavak and Czech president (1989-2003), the most important and influential personality of modern Czech history and culture. Using my extensive experience as an editor of Václav Havel´s Collected Writings and also my personal contacts with him and with many important Czech writers and artists of modern era, I have prepared a series of thirteen lectures on twentieth-century Czech culture and society, based on Václav Havel’s life and cultural and political activities, friends, family, and associates, and wide range of interests. Together these themes present modern Czech culture in its complexity, with its many links to world literature, culture, and politics. They provide a deeper and broader understanding of modern Czech culture and society in the historical and cultural perspective. In this course, lectures are combined with interactive discussions and tutored readings from essential texts. Further contact with the subject matter will be provided through excursions to places of direct relevance for our topic and through historical documents (musical recordings, photos, films). A further aim of the course is to bring students into personal contact with important figures of Czech public life (writers, critics, politicians, artists, translators) whom I have known and worked with for decades

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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.

Pre-requisites: One introductory-level economics course

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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.

Pre-requisites: none

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The course deals with main economic issues related to transition from centrally-planned economies of the Soviet bloc, Yugoslavia, and China to market economies. Compared to other similar courses, this course will be less descriptive and more analytical; we will use economic models and results of econometric studies where appropriate. We will also try to apply an experimental approach in order to provide the students with direct experience with asymmetric information markets and soft-budget constraints. The course tries to focus on aspects of transition which can be used to shed light on more permanent problems of economics systems and which can help reduce future exposure to similar errors.

The first part of the course deals with the theory of comparative economic systems, reviewing the theory of capitalism and analyzing the functioning of central planning and selected topics related to corporate governance under central planning (e.g. Yugoslavian self-managed firms). The second part provides an explanation of the gradual economic decline and main structural problems experienced by the former central planning countries, and it also focuses on main transition steps and their economic logic. We will also deal with basic theoretical models that attempt to explain problems experienced by transition economies. The last part will deal with the performance of firms and the role of corporate governance, ownership and institutions.

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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 (reading, listening, speaking and writing). Grammar is used functionally, as a tool to reach a communicational competency, but it is not the core purpose of the learning process.

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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. Students will also review the debate over the environmental Kuznets curve. Because experimental evidence nicely complements theoretic insights, field data, and simulating models, we will conduct in-class experiments and also review some research articles that draw on the experimental methodology.

Pre-requisites: One introductory economics course or statistics course

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This course explores the history and the current state of political, economic and cultural relations between the United States and Europe. Ever since the end of World War II, the cooperative relationship between these two parts of the world, often described as "the West“, has been a bedrock of international stability, security and prosperity. After the end of the Cold War, this relationship has undergone changes, along with the whole system of international relations. Recently, on both sides of the Atlantic, the talk has been about a crisis of the Euro-American relationship. We will examine the validity of these claims, the causes of the current problems and possible ways of overcoming them. Throughout, we will emphasize the overwhelming nature of common values and interests on both sides of the ocean as well as the risks stemming from a potential rift for both Europe and America. We will examine the compatibility of current European and U.S. policies with respect to third countries or regions, such as Russia, China and the Middle East. We will also analyze the specific role played in this relationship by countries of Central and Eastern Europe as relative newcomers to democracy, to the Atlantic Alliance and to European Union.

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This course delves into the pressing social issues and how they shape contemporary society. Students will analyze various societal challenges, including economic inequality, racial and ethnic discrimination, gender, changing family dynamics, aging population and healthcare access among others in Europe and around. The course encourages students to analyze these issues critically looking from current contexts and to understand their complex causes and effects. Through case studies, simulations, class debates, multimedia resources, and class discussions, the course encourages students to develop skills to examine social structures, power dynamics and cultural norms that contribute to these issues. Students will be encouraged to engage with diverse perspectives and critically examine the effects of these issues on communities, policy responses and explore potential solutions. By the end of the course, students should be equipped with a better understanding of modern social issues to think critically about possible solutions and their own roles in society.

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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.

Films produced behind the Iron Curtain were not considered only commercial products. They were instruments of artistic expression and ideology, and also of protest and testimony. The stories of the postwar Czech, Slovak, Polish and Hungarian film industries – the fate and the moral dilemmas of their most talented artists and their specific and strong film language before and after the political changes in Europe of 1989 – will be a discovery for those seeing the films for the first time (as well as for those already familiar with them but who wish to enlarge their knowledge).

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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.

Pre-requisites: Minimal - Introduction to Microeconomics, Introduction to Macroeconomics or Introduction to Statistics; Recommended - Introduction to Microeconomics, Introduction to Macroeconomics, Introduction to Statistics

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This course aims to introduce students to historical and contemporary issues of gender and “minorities” in post-socialist Central/Eastern Europe. In recent years the territorial frontiers of the European community towards the outside and the internal political frontiers between the community and its member states have been shifting significantly. Based on ethnographic work, among other sources, we will analyze how the project of Europe is trying to guarantee the coexistence of different ethnic, religious and political forms across national borders based on the principle of cultural diversity and cosmopolitan tolerance.

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This course covers core topics in modern macroeconomics – long run economic growth, business cycle fluctuations, inflation, the role of finance, unemployment, and climate change – with a focus on analogies and differences between European and US institutions in their response to similar economic problems. The course emphasizes analytical frameworks, empirical evidence, and policy implications relevant to understanding complex economic phenomena. Students will gain skills in interpreting macroeconomic data, evaluating theoretical models, and applying them to contemporary issues.

Course Prerequisites: Introductory Macroeconomics, basic calculus and statistics.

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This course aims to bring together diverse issues and perspectives in the rapidly evolving and changing area of international/global communication. Through a multidimensional, historical perspective, a framework will be established for the appreciation of the immense scope, disparity, and complexity of this field. Students will be encouraged to critically assess shifts in national, regional, and international media patterns of production, distribution, and consumption in the larger context of globalization. Essential concepts of global communication will be examined, including trends in national and global media consolidation, cultural implications of globalization, international content flows, supranational communication law and regulation, and trends in communication and information technologies.

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This course will survey the visual arts—including some photography and film—and architecture in the Czech Lands since the Middle Ages through the 20th century, with an emphasis on the last 150 years or so. That is still a lot of material, so we shall concentrate, as far as possible on the artifacts available in Prague that we can go and see for ourselves. Throughout, we shall not cover only the Czech artists, but also other nationals who either worked in the Czech Lands, or were highly influential here. Thus we shall cover the work of the French, Bavarian and Italian artists and architects during the Gothic and Baroque times, such as the Dientzenhofers or Arcimboldo; the influence of the Norwegian painter Edward Munch on the Czech art around the 1900; the relations between the Czech and the French surrealists; etc. etc. We shall also situate art within a larger context of social and intellectual history, seeing, in particular, how nationalism, religion and ideology shaped the development of Czech art and architecture. Last but not least, we shall notice the specificities of stylistic developments in Czech art, such as the recurrences of the elements of Gothic and Baroque in the Czech versions of Art Nouveau and Cubism.

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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.

Pre-requisites: One introductory-level economics course

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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. Rather than offering simple answers, the aim of the course is to allow for critical thinking and discussions. This course offers an immersion into the human rights system not only through theacademic prism but also through active engagement with human rights practitioners and activists. Discussions with civil society professionals and academics, as well as site visits, excursions, and film screenings, will be vital components of the course.

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The post-communist countries of Central Europe - the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia - are struggling hard to overcome the legacy of the totalitarian regime and to establish liberal democracy and free market economy. The objective of this course is to help students better understand the history of Central Europe and the ideal resources that might enable it to succeed in the transformation from communism. The students will learn recent Czech and Central European political history and get familiar with the various ways in which the predicament of these countries was reflected upon in the thought of the most prominent political theorists from the region concentrating, in particular, on the idea of civil society. We will search in the Central Europe of the 20th century and in its unique historical experience for events and figures that shaped and articulated an understanding of politics that might be viewed as the specifically Czech and Central European contribution to political problems faced by mankind in general. An indispensable touch of reality will be added through excursions to places of relevance for our topics and through historical documents (musical recordings, films).

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This course introduces traditional and modern theoretical views on non-democratic regimes in Central and Eastern Europe in the second half of the 20th century, as well as the historical and political experience of this part of Europe from the year 1945 until the present. Following the end of World War II and the drawing of the “iron curtain” across Europe, there started a period of Soviet Union domination in Central and Eastern Europe through the decades-long rule of communist regimes in this part of the world. Political scientists most often define these kinds of regimes as “totalitarian," however, the reality is more complex, with many variations and “specific paths” (Yugoslavia, Romania). The totalitarian “core” of most communist regimes during the whole period of Soviet dominance, including former Czechoslovakia, is questioned by some authors. However, the year 1989 (“annus mirabilis”), which marked the downfall of the Soviet Union and communistic regimes across Central and Eastern Europe, was not the end of non-democratic rule in the whole region. In those unstable times, when hopes were high and democracy was not established, new leaders came to power and created very specific non-democratic regimes; Meciar's short rule in Slovakia, autocratic regimes that played the main role in the Balkan wars in the 90's (Miloševic in Serbia, Tudjman in Croatia), Kuchma's rule in Ukraine, and Belarus under Lukashenka, one of the last and still surviving non-democracies in Europe. The theory of non-democratic regimes and its tools, combined with knowledge of modern history and the current realities of concrete countries, will help us to analyze and characterize these repressive and bizarre regimes, a rarity in today’s Europe.

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This course covers, with a focus on both theory and empirics, essential topics in international (interregional) trade and trade policy analysis at the undergraduate level. These basics are complemented by hands-on work with empirical data, and discussions of topic which appear in current debates on trade policies and protectionism. The course attempts to provide insight into the following questions: Why do countries (regions) trade? And how does trade influence the welfare of their citizens? What determines which goods/services will be exported/imported by particular countries? How do trade policies influence the effects of trade on economies and their welfare? How are US and EU policies formed and how do they differ? If US uses “Buy America/n”, is there something like “Buy European”? How can we identify and evaluate vulnerabilities caused by dependencies on countries such as China, Russia, etc.? What kind of sanctions can be used (and are used by the USA, EU, and China), and how do they influence welfare?

The course resembles standard courses in International Trade Theory as taught at many other undergraduate economic programs. Besides theory, we will also attempt our own empirical
analysis – i.e. you will learn what kind of data on trade are available and from which sources and how to work with them. Depending on your skills, you will also learn how to analyze the data – either in Excel or some more advanced type of software.

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This seminar will engage some major prose compositions by the modernist Prague-born writer, Frank Kafka (1883–1924). We shall also engage some key works of criticism on Kafka by authors who are themselves thinker-writers of stature and interest; these will include Theodor W. Adorno, Walter Benjamin, Georges Bataille, Maurice Blanchot, Stanley Corngold, Gilles Deleuze, Félix Guattari, Michael Löwy, J. Hillis Miller, Paul North, David Foster Wallace, Benno Wagner, and Slavoj Žižek. Furthermore, we shall also watch a 1962– film based on Kafka’s novel work, The Trial, by the American-born director Orson Welles (1915–85). We shall also visit the Franz Kafka Museum in Prague.

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This course will look at key European labour market issues from an empirical angle. It will for instance consider topics such as wage determination, skill formation, unemployment and international migration within the context of the labour markets, institutions and policies of the EU. We will apply Labour Economics view on imperfect labour markets, and address empirically policy-makers’ questions on for instance minimum wages, unemployment benefits and flexecurity, education programs, family policies, retirement programs or immigration and integration policies.

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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. As such, the course provides a unique experience for cultural enrichment along with the understanding of the social-psychological underpinnings of the contemporary Czech culture, yet assuming a distinctive view of their prior conceptualizations of their own thinking, communicating, and interacting.

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Throughout Central Europe leading-edge filmmaking erupted in the 1920s. This course studies a select band of Central European directors (along with a special bonus, the Soviet bloc film-artist, director Andrei Tarkovsky) and their collective attempt to deal with and to follow their search for a medium to describe, the cultural and political region, the complexity of individual and collective political life and historical experience. In this way, the truth peeks through some of the aesthetic units of the cinematic image in our chosen films as so many lines of light. Particular attention will be paid to the Czech New Wave movement of the late 1960s. Screenings include pictures or clips from ten notable film-directors and auteurs: Věra Chytilová (Czech Republic, 1929–2014), Rainer Werner Fassbinder (Germany, 1946–82), Miloš Forman (Czech Republic, 1932–2018), Juraj Herz (Slovakia, 1934–2018), Jan Hřebejk (Czech Republic, 1967– present), Fritz Lang (Germany, 1890–1976), Jiří Menzel (Czech Republic, 1938–present), F. W. Murnau, (Germany, 1888–1931), Jan Němec (Czech Republic, 1936–2016), and Andrei Tarkovsky (1932–86). No background in the study of cinema is required. All films have English inter-titles or sub-titles.

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This course of selected works in English translation will sample significant contributions of 20th Century writers from Austria, the former Czechoslovakia (and its successor states), Germany, Hungary and Poland. It will introduce students to the major ideas and themes that have made Central European literature a distinct and vital genre in the pantheon of world literature, one that in particular has left a lasting mark on modern consciousness vis-à-vis the moral answerability of individuals and societies.

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This course examines the fundamental social institutions of marriage and family. It reviews the historical development and changing structures and functions for understanding relationships. The course delves into the current trends across various cultures and societies to understand and deal with new challenges that are shaping family and marriage issues in contemporary society. Emphasizing comparative analysis, students will engage in debates and open discussions on different topics such as parenting styles, gender roles, marital relations and the impact of globalization on family life. Critical thinking exercises aim to foster a deeper understanding of the ways in which cultural norms, social policies and societal changes influence the evolving concept and definition of family worldwide.

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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. Our journey will start in 1945, when the post-WW2 destruction recasted debates about independence and interdependence of states and people. We will discuss how East and West Europeans, separated until 1989 by an almost impermeable Iron Curtain, created supranational institutions, of which those that emerged in the West proved more viable. The 1989 opened a new chapter in European politics. Demise of authoritarian structures in the East paved way towards deeper integration with the West and brought fascinating debates about catching up, belonging (identity) and possible futures. Our journey will take us through post-socialist transformations all the way to the themes shaping the most recent decade, including presence of women in public life, environmental degradation and new questions opened by refugee crises.  The course covers current events in European politics and EU’s role in the world and offers analytical lenses for thinking about them in historical perspective. Current affairs sections pay particular attention to gender, migration, climate change, as well as changing patterns of work and economic inequalities. Course reader consists of interdisciplinary literature in European Studies, including IR, Political Theory, Economics, History and Anthropology. After taking the course students should have an advanced understanding of key ideas and interests shaping European integration and the many ways in which Europeans and their neighbors negotiate their belonging and identity.  Classes are interactive, students are expected to be familiar with required reading and encouraged to critically engaged with the studied material.

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This course explores the intricate dynamics of human interactions within organizational settings and the broader social environment in which they operate. It delves into the complexities of people’s relations and perceptions, examining how individual and group behavior is influenced by the environment. This is done by covering the interplay and impact of organizations on humans by focusing on organizational structure, culture, diversity, various mechanisms of motivation, teamwork and the strategic use of power and politics to achieve both individual and organizational goals. The course will also introduce students to selected institutions in our society and their impact on people. This would be achieved through a combination of theoretical frameworks, exercises and activities which would help develop the necessary skills to foster positive and productive relationships. It therefore provides an intersection of sociology, social psychology and organizational behavior studies.

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Being a good leader is a challenge under any conditions, but the qualities of great leaders are most visible under difficult circumstance. Central Europe has been through very demanding times in the 20th century and this course will examine role of its leaders in implementing (or failures to implement) crucial and often life-preserving policies. We will grasp responsibilities of a political figure, his or her role toward the governed, as well as assignments of guilt for failure to protect those who need to be protected. We will look at lives and deeds of several important political figures from Hungary, Poland and Czechoslovakia. In doing so we will confront their autobiographical records with facts, learn quite a bit about the history of the region and understand important theories and distinctions in a general theory of leadership. In the end, students will achieve a complex picture on what distinguishing quality leadership, on theoretical preconditions to lead, as well as better appreciation of the region in which they study.

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This course and accompanying excursions will introduce students to the history of the Czech Republic and its capital city, Prague, while also showing the development of its urban structures and main social functions. By using the city of Prague as a classroom, students will gain a deeper understanding of the particularities and intricacies of urban life as it evolved through centuries. Excursions to other urban sites in the Czech Republic will allow students to compare various types of cities and their development, typical of continental European culture.

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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. A combination of classic and contemporary texts in the area of propaganda and disinformation will be studied. Various approaches to propaganda will examined across a variety of media, with an emphasis in the second half of the course on emerging computational and participatory propaganda.

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In this course, we shall engage a select band of the seminars offered by the major postFreudian psychoanalytic thinker, teacher, and practitioner, Jacques Lacan (1901–81), and some outstanding Lacan-criticism. We shall also engage Sigmund Freud (1856–1939) and some important post-Lacanian thinkers with special reference to Slavoj Žižek (1949–) and to Julia Kristeva (1940–), in order to use theoretical psychoanalysis as a powerful critical tool to diagnose individual and social reality, psychic systems, and specific artworks.

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The course provides an overview of the field of social psychology—the study of human interactions within groups. The concepts (e.g., stereotypes, biases, groupthink, conformity, totalitarianism, agency) will be examined within the context of the Czech society to mitigate students’ broader cultural understanding. The course covers a range of topics to instigate students’ insight and awareness of these at large. It focuses on different factors constituting a society and a culture. For students coming to the Czech Republic, an emphasis on Czech culture and its transition from the communist system to a liberal “western” style democracy provides a unique experience for cultural enrichment as well as for a more in-depth understanding of the social and historical context of the contemporary Czech society.

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This course aims to provide students with an introduction to social policies dealing with the most common problems of modern societies and welfare state and how they are being formulated in the political process. These challenges include work-life balance, gender inequalities and discrimination, homelessness and poor living conditions and respective social services. For each topic, we first introduce the problem, its scope and relevance. We illustrate the historical perspective and time evolution and talk about cross-country differences and the possible reasons for these differences. Second, we discuss potential solutions and address specific policies that could be used to tackle this issue. We investigate how the specific context of Central Europe shapes policies used in the area and how that differs from Western countries. Third, we discuss the effectiveness of policies and provide some evidence about what works and why. Finally, selected students provide a short overview of the situation in their home country related to the issue at hand (the scope of the problem, policies used to tackle the issue and the related costs and benefits). At the end, we compare the situation in the Czech Republic to the one presented by students from their home countries and discuss potential implications for policy.

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This course offers a broad introduction to the field of sociology through in-depth focus onthe analysis of local society, as well as other interrelated issues such as social inequality, different human systems, and how people create meanings particularly when working together in a group.
Students will be acquainted with sociological terminology and key issues such as sexuality, class, race, gender, education, health care, religion, globalization, the media, deviance and crime, as well as environment from both the local and global perspectives to better interpret the surrounding world and different structures which shape our lives.
Students will build their sociological experience by embracing, what I would call, the Kafkaesque experience which is so often – and, indeed, very aptly – associated with the city of Prague and the life in the Czech Republic in the past and presence permeated with a stream of different revolts. The memory plays here an important role: starting with the nation-building stage in the 19^th century, to the present-day globalization imbued with conflicting values with those established by the nation’s forefathers.
We will examine the cultural heritage of the city marked with the traces of past centuries which witnessed the monarchy, fascism, communism, and the present day democratic capitalism. This will involve some visits to different sites in Prague, which are significant for their social and historical context, as well as cultural institutions and museums.

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This course aims to introduce students to the paradox concerning religion: though the historical visage of Prague is very religious, Czech society is currently classified as one of the most atheistic in the World. Through excursions to interesting religious sites we will interpret various historical roles of religion and in class discussions we will explore the roots of such a high degree of secularization today. The course will provide students with an understanding of the role of religion in western societies and of interactions between religion, culture and politics. We will also examine potential prospects for the future.

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We will study theoretical tools and practical applications to sharpen the precision and depth of our strategic thinking. Starting from examples in news stories, books, or movies, we will introduce and apply concepts from game theory and information economics and discuss their real-life relevance. Examples provided by the students are an integral part of the course.

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This course offers an interdisciplinary introduction to the topic of surveillance in Central and Eastern Europe covering Pre-and-Post Communist realms of everyday life. The class dialogue will be focused on the analysis of historical rhetoric of surveillance and its wide range of tools used to gain social control and that of its individual members. We will focus on the comparative analysis of different methods of social control practice employed by select former communist states (mainly Czechoslovakia, Poland, and East Germany) during communism and after its fall. As it may appear that the communist organs of state surveillance, namely: StB in Czechoslovakia, Stasi in East Germany, and SB in Poland, ceased to exist with the fall of the totalitarian system, one could argue that the new mechanisms of social control continue to emerge, but this time offering no visible borders for one to easily escape from. Indeed, the faces of post-communist surveillance will be discussed from more inclusive perspective, touching upon the global resonance of 9/11, when surveillance has been legitimatized as a tool of social order and also openly questioned by individuals such as Edward Snowden. Moreover, surveillance today and the invasion of one’s privacy faces threats from many “little brothers” rather just only the state itself. Therein this course will probe several issues emerging from different types of relationships between the latest technologies and our society, as they may be used by those in power to cultivate the culture of social control, fear, and empowerment.

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This independent study course offers students an opportunity to engage in immersive teaching practice at an elementary or high school level in Prague. The teaching practice course adheres to the standardized procedures mandated for pre-service teacher education within the Czech Republic's educational framework, as stipulated by governmental guidelines for Czech universities.

Pre-requisites: This course is aimed at students with a major/minor in education or languages. Students with other majors/minors will be considered on one-to-one bases.

*Note: Due to the limited number of seats and the independent nature of the course, please contact us via email for more information.

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For a contemporary young Czech, let alone a young American, it is exceedingly hard to comprehend what life was like under the communist rule in the Soviet-dominated part of Europe. It is not only that they miss the direct experience of the place and times. Their parents' experience cannot be of much help either because it differed so radically from that of their contemporaries on the eastern side of the Iron Curtain. History books cannot fully convey the totalitarian experience which was unlike anything people in the West encountered in their everyday lives. What made the totalitarian system unique was its holistic nature. It was not a world that was in some respects different from the normal world; it was a world that was different in practically every respect. And yet it was a world in which people managed to have lives, families, friendships and loves like in any other world. Thanks to the ordinary people it was a world that kept refusing to become what it was intended to be. In its later incarnations it was called the world of “real socialism” and there was really something real in its dreary ugliness. At the same time it was a world of total fiction, absurdity and make believe. The proposed course is designed to reflect this contrast. While it was being conceived, the topic has acquired more than just a historical relevance. The Russian aggression in Ukraine has revealed the long-hidden totalitarian tendencies in Russian politics and society. Without accounting for them, it is impossible to explain either the seemingly universal support for the aggressive war or the astonishing indifference to human suffering, wholesale destruction and, worst of all, disregard for the value of human life. By the same token, however, past experience would suggest that underneath the totalitarian monolith there continue to exist seeds of humanity, resistance and aspirations for freedom and dignity. We shall attempt to apply the lessons of the totalitarian experience, both in its most brutal form and in the period of “real” socialism, to hypothesize about the limits, the durability and the eventual vulnerability of the Putin regime or for that matter, any other regime of this kind.

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This course explores several global economic topics that currently interest economists and policy makers. The course will cover the following topics. We will first study the evolution of the European monetary and fiscal policies and the current issues. We will then study the rising economic inequality in the US and worldwide, focusing how to measure inequality and the proximate explanations. We will then study the interrelated issues of the rising firm market power and the falling worker union power, again focusing on the measurement and explanations. Finally, we will study macroeconomic development focusing on the set of policies known as Washington Consensus and evaluating economic outcomes of those policies around the world.

*Note: Topics in Global Economy is a graduate-style course, taken with Master's students, and is best suited for highly motivated students of economics.

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This course invites students to think about mobility as a fundamental human experience. Mobility can be a thrilling adventure and a rewarding learning journey, it can also be a tormenting ordeal. We will study the complex interplay of individual motivations and social/environmental factors that shape various types of movement. Course material takes us through essential keywords in contemporary debates in the field, including borders, passports, freedom, security and citizenship. Central Europe, a region that has lived through many forced displacements and joyful celebrations of free travel, is a particularly stimulating place and case for immersion into the theme. Our discussions will address current issues and analyze them in the context of region’s recent history. The course is designed as a conversation, sessions are interactive and consist of lectures, group work and individual writing assignments.

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The goal of the course is to introduce the main concepts of urban anthropology, emphasizing the urban life and culture of Central European cities. Central European cities have been undergoing rapid social and economic change, which has had major effects on their physical make-ups. It has also affected the ways in which people – urbanites as well as non-urbanites – perceive these cities and urban life in general. This course aims to investigate how, in the post-communist context, city dwellers perceive, define and use this rapidly transforming urban space, as well as how they try to shape and appropriate it. We will focus on the urban experience in the post-communist period and contrast it with the communist period, i.e. the ways people have lived their urban lives and how they have lived through the changes. Other topics the course will deal with are urban landscape, urban culture, property issues, social cleavages, class divisions, city migration, and transnationalism. Students will have a chance to learn more about the cities they will explore on their trips: Prague, Krakow, and Cesky Krumlov. Students learn how to look at cities through an anthropological lens and do field projects analyzing some aspects of city behavior. We will look at the strategies people use to cope with the demands posed by urban environments. The approach will be comparative, drawing on research mainly focused on Central and Eastern Europe.