Přehled kurzů

Taught courses

Essential Elective Subjects

Courses in summer term of academic year 2024/2025


YBLS001 Anthropological approaches to the study of Roma (Summer)
YBLS003 Anthropological Perspectives on Kinship (Summer)
YBLS005 Anthropology of Tourism and Mobility (Summer)
YBLH005 Architects, builders and modern Czech society (Summer)
YBLP001 Beyond Good and Evil: An Introduction to Nietzsche's Philosophy (Summer)
YBLS006 Brain and Behaviour (Summer)
YBLS002 History and Theory of Capitalism (Summer)
YBAJ177 History of the Third Reich (1933-1945) II Domination, Occupation and the War Economy (Summer)
YBLH001 History of the Third Reich (1933-1945) II Domination, Occupation and the War Economy (Summer)
YBLP002 Introduction to Political Philosophy (Summer)
YBLS007 Introduction to Qualitative Methods in Social Sciences (Summer)
YBLP003 Phenomenological Theories of Shame (Summer)
YBLP004 Plato and Aristotle on Love and Friendship (Summer)
YBLS016 Political Psychology (Summer)
YBLS008 Sociology of Conflict (Summer)
YBLS009 The Anthropology of Body, Health and Illness (Summer)
YBLP005 Towards a Philosophy of Existence II. (Summer)


Anthropological approaches to the study of Roma

Code: YBLS001 Lecturer: Abu Ghosh,Y.
Semester: Summer Language: English
ECTS credits: 4
Schedule: tue 14:30 - 15:50, room YT102 (Faculty of Humanities, Pátkova 2137/5, Praha 8 - Libeň)
The tumultuous fate of European Roma and Sinti during the 20th century has seen their culture and very existence as a people challenged. Despite being subjected to intense assimilation policies and persecution, they regularly re-emerge with remarkable revitalizing power. Who are then the Roma and Sint and what does it mean to be Roma/Sinti from their point of view? In this course, we will learn about the historical and social adaptations of various Roma groups mainly in Europe but also in other regions around the world. Then we will focus on Central Europe as a region that has become the laboratory of policies addressing the allegedly troubling fit of the Roma/Sinti to modernity. The course will draw on the latest research on topics such as racialized modernity, memory building, political arenas and subjectivities, labor and class, center and periphery, gender, structural and political violence etc. This course will challenge mono-causal explanations and will stimulate students to think about and through Roma and Sinai experience in a critical way that brings into consideration the societies they live in. Building on a diverse selection of empirical material, ranging from ethnographic, historical, and sociological case studies to film and art, the course will present the Roma/Sinti “as good to think with” about contemporary societies.

Anthropological Perspectives on Kinship

Code: YBLS003 Lecturer: Jakoubková Budilová,L.
Semester: Summer Language: English
ECTS credits: 4
Schedule: tue 8:30 - 9:50, room YT121 (Faculty of Humanities, Pátkova 2137/5, Praha 8 - Libeň)
The course will introduce the ways kinship has been conceptualized in social anthropology. Students will learn about anthropological discussions on important concepts like nature and nurture, consanguinity and affinity, or unilineal and cognatic descent. The ways of conceptualizing relatedness in cross-cultural perspective will be discussed, from the Western notion based on the reference to biological reproduction to milk kinship, blood brotherhood, godparenthood, or “chosen kinship”. Variety of possibilities of the forms of marriage and family households will be presented. Students will read important texts on anthropological analyses of kinship terminology, strengths and weaknesses of the genealogical method and the new reproductive technologies.

Anthropology of Tourism and Mobility

Code: YBLS005 Lecturer: Halbich,M.
Semester: Summer Language: English
ECTS credits: 4
Schedule: without the schedule or the schedule has not been defined yet
The aim of the course is to introduce tourism as a multifaceted global phenomenon, which is mainly related to travel in travel-for-leisure and as such offers a range of interesting research topics across different disciplines. Tourism-oriented ethnographic research has come a long way from the almost total disinterest of anthropologists, who have ignored tourism and tourists in their research, to its gradual inclusion in corpus of courses in many social anthropology, sociology, etc. departments around the world. Tourism is nowadays usually seen as an example of global currents that blur traditional territorial, social and cultural boundaries and creating their various hybrid forms. Their objectives are clearly adapting very quickly to global trends and the global market, but at the same time they seek to maintain or even increase their local differences. This conflict of the “global” with the “local” then raises the question of how this “local” is created or reshaped through the practices of “touristified representations”. On the one hand, they play a key role in these processes global marketing companies and national and local authorities, which are jointly involved in creating and selling image of certain destinations. On the other hand, however, it is tourism that, to a greater or lesser extent, generates the for transforming the local. In this way, tourism can be seen as a dynamic process that helps to renew competing socio-culturally defined local identities.

Architects, builders and modern Czech society

Code: YBLH005 Lecturer: Korbel,T.
Semester: Summer Language: English
ECTS credits: 4
Schedule: mon 16:00 - 17:20, room YT112 (Faculty of Humanities, Pátkova 2137/5, Praha 8 - Libeň)
The course deals with the development of the profession of architect and builder against the background of the cultural-historical development of the Czech lands in the 19th and the first half of the 20th century. First, general aspects of the development of architectural and building education, administration and law in the Habsburg Monarchy will be presented. Second, the professional and social rise of this social group will be monitored against the background of the formation of the national identity of the Czech and German ethnic groups in the second half of the 19th century. Third, the course will focus on the role of architects and builders in the first phase of building the Czechoslovak state in the first half of the 20th century.

Beyond Good and Evil: An Introduction to Nietzsche's Philosophy

Code: YBLP001 Lecturer: Vodička, M.
Semester: Summer Language: English
ECTS credits: 4
Schedule: wed 10:00 - 11:20, room YT102 (Faculty of Humanities, Pátkova 2137/5, Praha 8 - Libeň)
This seminar will provide an introduction to the philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche. We will explore the meanings behind the most famous and most important Nietzschean concepts, like the will to power, nihilism, the overman [die Übermensch], master/slave morality, amor fati, or the phrase “God is dead”, and we will also discuss some famous controversies surrounding Nietzsche, like the misuse of his philosophy by the Nazis. The goal of this course will be to familiarize students with the distinctive character of Nietzsche’s thinking, put it in its historical context, and think about how it relates to our situation in the 21st century.

Brain and Behaviour

Code: YBLS006 Lecturer: Pfaus,J.
Semester: Summer Language: English
ECTS credits: 4
Schedule: tue 13:00 - 14:20, room YT032 (Faculty of Humanities, Pátkova 2137/5, Praha 8 - Libeň)
Follow-up course to Introduction to the Brain. This course explores the neural mechanisms that mediate motivated behaviors. We will begin by reading a seminal book on the topic, Motivational Systems, by Frederick Toates, to introduce concepts such as goal-directed behavior and incentive motivation, and heuristics regarding how behaviors can be broken down into motivationally distinct components. We will examine how the "pull" of incentives in the external world compares and relates to the "push" of drive states within the organism, and how these concepts guide our approach to understanding the biological bases of motivation. We will then consider the neuroanatomy and neurochemistry of behaviors directed toward keeping the physical homeostasis of the organism in balance: drinking, feeding, temperature regulation, biological rhythms, and the repercussions of stimuli or states in which these systems are altered. This will be followed by discussions of "non-homeostatic" behaviors like sex, parental behavior, and aggression, and the manner in which these behaviors obey very similar neurochemical rules. We will then consider how these "natural" examples of motivated behaviors relate to pleasure, reward, and drug addiction.

History and Theory of Capitalism

Code: YBLS002 Lecturer: Çakir,A.
Semester: Summer Language: English
ECTS credits: 4
Schedule: tue 11:30 - 12:50, room YT241 (Faculty of Humanities, Pátkova 2137/5, Praha 8 - Libeň)
This course will aim to present a systematic discussion on the emergence and development of capitalism by going through different works of history and social theory. It will explore precapitalist societies and their gradual transformation, seeking the distinctive characteristics of early capitalist institutions. The historical development of capitalism will then be discussed through periods of mercantilism, colonial expansion, and industrial revolution, while also taking a look at modernism and the contemporary period. Refraining from a singular linear line, several different trajectories of capitalist development from around the world will be included in the course. Aside from the historical discussions, the course will also include theoretical perspectives starting from classical social theory to more recent debates on postmodernism and neoliberalism. By bringing together history and social theory, the course aims to contribute to the students’ overall understanding of capitalism and its historical dynamics.

History of the Third Reich (1933-1945) II Domination, Occupation and the War Economy

Code: YBAJ177 Lecturer: Vondráček,J.
Semester: Summer Language: English
ECTS credits: 4
Schedule: see Student Information System
From the summer term 2024/2025 the course is taught under the code YBLH001.

History of the Third Reich (1933-1945) II Domination, Occupation and the War Economy

Code: YBLH001 Lecturer: Vondráček,J.
Semester: Summer Language: English
ECTS credits: 4
Schedule: wed 11:30 - 12:50, room YT112 (Faculty of Humanities, Pátkova 2137/5, Praha 8 - Libeň)
In this seminar we will analyze three key aspects of the history of Nazi Germany and the Second World War: Nazi domination, occupation and the war economy. We will focus on Nazi military expansion until 1945. In this context we will take closer look at the German war of annihilation (Vernichtungskrieg) and the Holocaust in the east. Although terror and mass murder played a key role in Nazi policy, we will also study how the Nazi policy differed in the east and west towards local populations and how this policy was connected to the war economy. The seminar will be strongly text-based. You will be asked to read one to two texts and answer in-depth questions at each session.

Introduction to Political Philosophy

Code: YBLP002 Lecturer: Hanyš,M.
Semester: Summer Language: English
ECTS credits: 4
Schedule: thu 16:00 - 17:20, room YT201 (Faculty of Humanities, Pátkova 2137/5, Praha 8 - Libeň)
The course provides students with a brief introduction to Western political philosophy by examining some of the major texts of classical authors suchas Plato, Aristotle, Machiavelli, Hobbes, Rousseau, and the modern (Mill, Weber, Arendt, Strauss, Rawls, etc.). The course has the character of a seminar and requires the student to read the texts regularly (20-30 pages every weekend), prepare a presentation, and prepare weekly short answers to the reading questions.

Introduction to Qualitative Methods in Social Sciences

Code: YBLS007 Lecturer: Kolářová,M.
Semester: Summer Language: English
ECTS credits: 4
Schedule: wed 13:00 - 14:20, room YT221 (Faculty of Humanities, Pátkova 2137/5, Praha 8 - Libeň)
Do you want to try out qualitative research methods in the real world? Understand the differences between quantitative and qualitative research methods in Social Sciences? Learn how to conduct an interview, observation or a focus group? Understand and analyse the perception of other people? This introductory course is designed for students from 2nd to 4th semester, and it has three primary aims: 1. It aims to give students a grounding in the theoretical and practical application of qualitative research methods in the social sciences. 2. The course will prepare students for the methodological part of the Comprehensive Exam in Social Sciences (CESS). 3. Completing this course offers a first step towards the skills students need to design and conduct their own research.

Phenomenological Theories of Shame

Code: YBLP003 Lecturer: Janoušek,H. + Synek,S.
Semester: Summer Language: English
ECTS credits: 4
Schedule: fri 14:30 - 15:50, room YT117 (Faculty of Humanities, Pátkova 2137/5, Praha 8 - Libeň)
In this course we will focus on the phenomenology of the emotion of shame. After a brief historical introduction (Plato, Aristotle, Hume), we will look at some of the basic approaches offered by older and more recent phenomenology (Scheler, Bollnow, Strauss, Sartre, Steinbock, Zahavi), which we will occasionally compare with approaches common in English-language moral psychology (Taylor, Williams, Nussbaum, Deonna, Rodogno, Teroni).The lectures will be held on Fridays, except for the three following dates.The lecture on Friday, 18th April, is moved to Thursday morning, 17th April, 8:30-9:50 in room 1.17 (the same one as Friday lectures)The lecture on Friday, 2nd May is cancelled.The lecture on Friday, 9th May is cancelled and replaced by compulsory reading and a voluntary meeting on Zoom at a date and time which we will settle in class together.

Plato and Aristotle on Love and Friendship

Code: YBLP004 Lecturer: Synek,S.
Semester: Summer Language: English
ECTS credits: 4
Schedule: tue 10:00 - 11:20, room YT220 (Faculty of Humanities, Pátkova 2137/5, Praha 8 - Libeň)
This course provides a basic insight into classical topics of love and friendship depicted famously by Plato in dialogues Phaedrus, Symposion and Lysis, and by Aristotle in his Nicomachean Ethics.

Political Psychology

Code: YBLS016 Lecturer: Hanson,E.
Semester: Summer Language: English
ECTS credits: 4
Schedule: tue 11:30 - 12:50, room YT117 (Faculty of Humanities, Pátkova 2137/5, Praha 8 - Libeň)
This course 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 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. We will cover topics such as ideology, political personality, partisanship, attitude change, motivated reasoning, intergroup relationships, conflict, conspiracies, and prejudice/stigma.

Sociology of Conflict

Code: YBLS008 Lecturer: Černý,K.
Semester: Summer Language: English
ECTS credits: 4
Schedule: without the schedule or the schedule has not been defined yet
The lecture deals with sociology of conflict (K. Marx, L. Coser, R. Dahrendorf, Ch. W. Mills) and with the main approaches to the sociology of revolution (P. Sorokin, J. Davies, T. Gurr, Ch. Tilly, C. Brinton, J. Alexander) including selected case studies (for example the Czechoslovac Velvet revolution of 1989, Arab Spring of 2011). It also partly deals with proto-sociology of war, (K. Marx, C. Clausewitz, T. Malthus, V. Lenin, J. Hobson, I. Kant), selected examples of sociology of war (P. Sorokin, Ch. Tilly, M. Kaldor, H. Joas, M. Klare, H. Dixon, S. Huntington), and sociology of terrorism (sociology of religious terrorism of M. Juergensmeyer, suicide terrorism covered by R. Pape).

The Anthropology of Body, Health and Illness

Code: YBLS009 Lecturer: Klepal,J.
Semester: Summer Language: English
ECTS credits: 4
Schedule: thu 10:00 - 11:20, room YT117 (Faculty of Humanities, Pátkova 2137/5, Praha 8 - Libeň)
Sociocultural anthropology in general, and medical anthropology in particular, has been questioning predominant understandings of human body, health, and sickness. This course focuses on anthropological encounters with beliefs and practices through which embodiment, wellbeing, and afflictions are experienced, communicated, and enacted in the contemporary cross-cultural context and globalized world. Topics covered include medical pluralism, disability, (bio)medicalization, reproduction, mental health, complementary and alternative medicine, and (bio)medical technologies. By the end of the course, students will have a better grasp of concepts and methods of sociocultural anthropology; they will be able to critically reflect on their own and others’ embodied experiences of health and disease; and they will be able to apply findings of medical anthropology beyond the field.

Towards a Philosophy of Existence II.

Code: YBLP005 Lecturer: Marek,J.
Semester: Summer Language: English
ECTS credits: 4
Schedule: tue 14:30 - 15:50, room YT032 (Faculty of Humanities, Pátkova 2137/5, Praha 8 - Libeň)
The second part of the introductory course into philosophy of existence we will be dealing with 20th century thinkers and their efforts at communicating and anylizing the specificity of human existence. Our main focus will be on Jaspers, Heidegger and Patočka, but also Franz Kafka. The course will be designed in such a way as to accomodate new students who have not taken part in the first semester.


Last update: 11 Mar 2025
Last change: May 19, 2004 16:46 
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Charles University

Faculty of Humanities

Pátkova 2137/5

182 00 Praha 8 - Libeň

Czech Republic


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