In the course we are going to look at the role of cities (why we need cities, what they do and how they do it) through some key texts of 20th century dealing with history of cities. Every theme will be discussed in relation to the city of Prague and/or other major cities. We start with new classic Peter Hall’s “Cities in civilization”, than look at: Lewis Mumford and his “City in history”, Spiro Kostof’s “The city shaped”, Rem Koolhaas “Delirious New York” and few other books. In these books we will see not only cities’ role in culture/civilisation and their outer and inner looks but also history of cities. Except for reading and discussing the texts there will also be some pictorial presentation on cities we are going to discuss.

The main goal of the course is to present students with a history of the concept of human rights in the Western intellectual history; with historical and current forms of institutions in place to promote and enforce human rights; with current controversies related to the human rights agenda in the multi-cultural globalized world.

What does Botticelli’s Venus have in common with the contemporary Instagram stars? How did the influential renaissance concept of “figura serpentinata” become a pornographic backbone of contemporary sexual imagery? How did Michelangelo’s infernal orgies survive into the present time, disguised as the images of destruction? While addressing these questions, the course will provide a practical introduction to iconology as it has been defined and practiced by Aby M. Warburg and Ernst Cassirer in the 1920s and 1930s. Concerning their mutually influenced methodology, the course will interpret the critical aspects of the “nameless science” by (and while) exposing and analyzing complicated genealogy of the specific spectrum of surprisingly interrelated images like selfies, underwear advertising, cloud imagery, abstract painting, war atrocities or hygiene-related illustrations.

Upon completion of the course students will have an overview of European history from antiquity through the Middle Ages to modern history. Students will learn the importance of basic historical terms, such as the Reformation, the Lenten System, the Papal Schism and many others. The course will consist of thematic-oriented lectures and will be finished by a written test concentrated on important historical concepts. Completition of said course will help students with their preparation for following mandatory examination from European History.

Is strategic thinking confined to battlefield? Or is it an important part of our everyday lives? The seminar in strategic interaction and decision-making will show the omnipresence of strategic deliberation. We will get acquainted with an approach known in economics as well as other social sciences as “game theory”. It will allow us to see the behavior of rational agents like firms, political parties and (at least sometimes) also ourselves from a new angle. Despite the name of the seminar, our interest in games and strategies will not be just theoretical. The seminar is concluded with a “strategic workshop” when we will discuss practical applications based on student presentations.

This course introduces the key concepts in behavioral economics, a modern and quickly emerging field that integrates insights from psychology into economics. We will focus on the following topics: social preferences and fairness, time discounting and limited self-control, the role of misperceptions, discrimination and group identity, behavioral public policy. After introducing the concepts, the classes will be largely based on discussion of individual papers.

Intellectual history is an interdisciplinary subject in historical studies dealing with understanding and reconstructing various ideas, including those in political thought, as emerging and evolving in the texts produced in their various historical contexts. The task of students and scholars of intellectual history is to engage in a reconstructive understanding of these ideas by also considering their contextual strengths and shortcomings. Each session

covers a different approach highlighting different underlying questions posed, sources used, and argumentative strategies deployed.

The goals for this course are to engage students in reconstructive understanding of ideas by considering the latter’s contextual strengths and shortcomings and to familiarise them with different approaches highlighting underlying questions posed, sources used, and argumentative strategies deployed. Crucially, it is also to enable the students to deploy such approaches in their academic writing.

The course on the Czech Republic provides a comprehensive exploration of the country’s history, political system, economics, society, culture, and media landscape. Throughout the course, students will develop a holistic understanding of the Czech Republic’s past and present, gaining valuable insights into the nation’s identity, its role in Europe, and the contemporary issues it faces in an interconnected world, including those related to its economy.

This course is recommended to students with NO PRIOR knowledge of Czech who want to acquire only the essentials of the Czech language. It is open to students from the FACULTY OF ARTS only due to limited capacity.

By the end of the course, students should be able to share basic personal information, apologize, navigate through town and ask for and give simple directions, order and pay for a meal at a restaurant.

Machine learning is reaching notable success when solving complex tasks in many fields. This course serves as in introduction to basic machine learning concepts and techniques, focusing both on the theoretical foundation, and on implementation and utilization of machine learning algorithms in Python programming language. High attention is paid to the ability of application of the machine learning techniques on practical tasks, in which the students try to devise a solution with highest performance.