Přehled kurzů

Taught courses

Essential Elective Subjects

Courses in summer term of academic year 2022/2023


YBAJ175 Anthropology of Tourism and Mobility (Summer)
YBAJ204 Brain and Behaviour (Summer)
YBAJ024 Controversial Issues in Anthropology (Summer)
YBAJ206 Gender History in Central European Context (c. 1400 - 1820s) (Summer)
YBAJ220 Introduction to Oral History: Theory, Methods, Research (Summer)
YBAJ014 Introduction to Political Philosophy (Summer)
YBA276 Introduction to Research Methods in Social Sciences (Summer)
YBAJ214 Introduction to the Philosophy of Plato (Summer)
YBAJ213 Muslim Middle Age (Summer)
YBAJ187 Philosophical Reading Group: 19th and 20th Century Philosophy (Winter and summer)
YBAJ207 Plato and Aristotle on Rhetoric (Summer)
YBAJ209 Seminar in Academic Reading and Writing II (Summer)
YBAJ218 Society and Its Problems: Applying Ethics to the Real World (Summer)
YBAJ172 Sociology of Conflict (Summer)
YBAJ020 Symbolical Figures of Czech History (Summer)
YBAJ215 The Anthropology of Body, Health and Illness (Summer)
YBAJ208 The Czechoslovak Republic in International Perspective 1918-1938 (Summer)


Anthropology of Tourism and Mobility

Code: YBAJ175 Lecturer: Halbich,M.
Semester: Summer Language: English
ECTS credits: 4
Schedule: wed 13:00 - 14:20, room YT241 (Faculty of Humanities, Pátkova 2137/5, Praha 8 - Libeň)
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.

Brain and Behaviour

Code: YBAJ204 Lecturer: Pfaus,J.
Semester: Summer Language: English
ECTS credits: 4
Schedule: tue 17:30 - 18:50, room YT002 (Faculty of Humanities, Pátkova 2137/5, Praha 8 - Libeň)
Follow-up course to Introduction to brain course.

Controversial Issues in Anthropology

Code: YBAJ024 Lecturer: Heřmanský,M.
Semester: Summer Language: English
ECTS credits: 4
Schedule: tue 16:00 - 17:20, room YT120 (Faculty of Humanities, Pátkova 2137/5, Praha 8 - Libeň)
The course will introduce students to selected issues in sociocultural anthropology through the means of reading and interpretation of anthropological papers. It aims to develop critical anthropological thinking and interpretiveskills. Each class will deal with one controversial issue in anthropology which remains unresolved. Each issue will be presented in two papers holding antagonist positions. Students will be expected to read both papers designated for each week in advance, before each class, and comprehend them to that extent to be able to discuss them in class.

Gender History in Central European Context (c. 1400 - 1820s)

Code: YBAJ206 Lecturer: Čapská,V.
Semester: Summer Language: English
ECTS credits: 4
Schedule: tue 13:00 - 14:20, room YT242 (Faculty of Humanities, Pátkova 2137/5, Praha 8 - Libeň)
The course introduces students to gender history. We will explore the analytical conceptual apparatus of gender studies, look at various definitions of gender and employ gender as a socio-cultural organizing principle, a category of difference and an axis of power. We will discuss the debate between constructivist and essentialist approaches to gender history and explore the so called turn to intersectionality. We will therefore look at how the category of gender intersects with other categories of social structure. We will pay attention to the broader developments of gender history and study such themes as the pre-modern domestic violence, the "world upside down" theme, advice literature for household heads, manuals for midwives, gendered visual and textual representations, early modern forms of masculinity etc. There will be special focus on the historical material and examples from Central and East-Central European contexts. We will also explore how the gender sensitive perspective is utilized in various subfields of history, such as textual history, labour history, material culture history etc. The main emphasis will be on reading and discussing texts.

Introduction to Oral History: Theory, Methods, Research

Code: YBAJ220 Lecturer: Wohlmuth,P.
Semester: Summer Language: English
ECTS credits: 4
Schedule: wed 8:30 - 9:50, room YT113 (Faculty of Humanities, Pátkova 2137/5, Praha 8 - Libeň)
Oral history is often seen primarily as a practice, as a research method, consisting of recording and analysing memories. However, OH rather represents an elaborate interdisciplinary paradigm of historiography, situated at the intersection of new cultural history, historical anthropology and memory studies. Its main aim is to explore the culturally modulated ways in which people understand themselves in history, how they construct their historical subjectivity (identity) through their recorded narratives. The course will introduce students to the theoretical basis of the current dominant post-positivist oral history brand, typical of Euro-American academia. At the end of the semester, we will take a seminar reading of several key oral history texts.

Introduction to Political Philosophy

Code: YBAJ014 Lecturer: Hanyš,M.
Semester: Summer Language: English
ECTS credits: 4
Schedule: fri 10:00 - 11:20, room YT220 (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 Research Methods in Social Sciences

Code: YBA276 Lecturer: Urban,M.
Semester: Summer Language: English
ECTS credits: 4
Schedule: tue 8:30 - 9:50, room YT241 (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? Understand the perception of the intimate space 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.

Introduction to the Philosophy of Plato

Code: YBAJ214 Lecturer: Hopkins,B.
Semester: Summer Language: English
ECTS credits: 4
Schedule: thu 14:30 - 15:50, room YT117 (Faculty of Humanities, Pátkova 2137/5, Praha 8 - Libeň)
The renowned British mathematician and philosopher A.N Whitehead once commented on Plato’s thought: “The safest general characterization of the European philosophical tradition is that it consists of a series of footnotes to Plato. I do not mean the systematic scheme of thought which scholars have doubtfully extracted from his writings. I allude to the wealth of general ideas scattered through them”.This course will explore a portion of the wealth of ideas in Plato’s writings alluded to by Whitehead that are foundational to European philosophy by focusing on the most basic ones, which the course divides under these three headings:1. Socratic Method: The Most Blameworthy Ignorance: Thinking You Know What You Don’t Know.2. Meno’s Paradox: Is Learning Possible?3. The Philosophical Conversion of the Soul: The Philosophical Life Plato presented his philosophy dramatically, in written dialogues that portrayed philosophers in conversation with non-philosophers in the process of examining all aspects of life. Significantly, Plato never speaks in his own voice in any of his dialogues. In light of this, the principial aim of this course will be to facilitate the skills requisite for the student of Plato’s philosophy to read his texts with comprehension and to interpret them in a manner that elicits critically their philosophical content.

Muslim Middle Age

Code: YBAJ213 Lecturer: De Pablo Aguilar,D.
Semester: Summer Language: English
ECTS credits: 4
Schedule: thu 11:30 - 12:50, room YT117 (Faculty of Humanities, Pátkova 2137/5, Praha 8 - Libeň)
Traditionally, the Middle Age has been studied exclusively associated with western and Christian Europe, however, a very important part of the main problems in this period (even for western and Christian Europe) happened or had their origin in the Muslim world. Therefore, this course seeks to analyze and understand Muslim history, so the students will have a better comprehension of the past. This course is a course about the other, from the European perspective, and its history, which has a high value nowadays if we take into consideration that Europe has become a multiethnic and multi-religious space, and Europe's history and space have been shaped by the contact with the Muslim world. Hence, the emphasis will not be only on the event, but on the problems (sciences, cities, art, etc.). Thus, the course address topics such as pre-Islamic history, Muhammad and the formation of Islam, Rashidun Caliphates, the Umayyad Empire, the Abbasid Empire, the Fatimid Caliphate, the crusade from the Muslim perspective, the Mamluk dynasty, Turkic kingdoms (Seljuks and Ottomans), Muslim Italy and Spain, etc. Evaluation: 1. Attendance and participation2. Presentation and chapter review 3. final essay Syllabus:1. Introduction2. Muhammad and the formation period 3. Rashidun Caliphate 4. Umayyad Caliphate5. Abbasid Caliphate6. Fatimid Caliphate7. Seljuk Empire 8. The Crusades through Arab eyes 9. Ayyubids Dynasty 10. Mamluks Sultanate 11. Al-Andalus 12. Emirate of Sicily 13. Conclusions

Philosophical Reading Group: 19th and 20th Century Philosophy

Code: YBAJ187 Lecturer: Marek,J.
Semester: Winter and summer Language: English
ECTS credits: 4
Schedule: tue 14:30 - 15:50, room YT241 (Faculty of Humanities, Pátkova 2137/5, Praha 8 - Libeň)
This seminar will allow serious students interested in 19th and 20th century continental philosophy to participate in the tradition of close reading of primary texts. The purpose is to understand the prerequisites for understanding challenging philosophical works that require careful and perceptive reading. In the Winter 2022 semester, we will begin with Kierkegaard's The Concept of Anxiety. We will arrange the next text with the course participants.

Plato and Aristotle on Rhetoric

Code: YBAJ207 Lecturer: Synek,S.
Semester: Summer Language: English
ECTS credits: 4
Schedule: thu 13:00 - 14:20, room YT117 (Faculty of Humanities, Pátkova 2137/5, Praha 8 - Libeň)
Reading and commentary of selected texts of Plato and Aristotle.An introductory course about rhetoric in ancient Greece from the points of view of Plato and Aristotle. After presenting the historical and political context, that led to emergence of orators and sophists in ancient Greece, and introducing some key orators of the 5th century Athens, we will move on to Plato's depiction of oratory in Gorgias and Protagoras. Then we will compare these views with passages from Aristotle's Rhetoric.

Seminar in Academic Reading and Writing II

Code: YBAJ209 Lecturer: Partridge,J.
Semester: Summer Language: English
ECTS credits: 4
Schedule: mon 17:30 - 18:50, room YT113 (Faculty of Humanities, Pátkova 2137/5, Praha 8 - Libeň)
This course is intended as a follow-up for YBAJ003 (Academic Writing Seminar) and also for students who require to complete YBAJ005 (Proficiency in Academic English). We will take a deeper dive into some of the topics covered in YBAJ003 (including citation styles, academic vocabulary, cohesion and coherence, etc.), and also read and analyse in detail a number of published academic texts. You will be required to write short reviews and papers during the course. A reasonably high level of competence in spoken and, preferably, written English is essential.

Society and Its Problems: Applying Ethics to the Real World

Code: YBAJ218 Lecturer: Novák,A.
Semester: Summer Language: English
ECTS credits: 4
Schedule: wed 17:30 - 18:50, room YT241 (Faculty of Humanities, Pátkova 2137/5, Praha 8 - Libeň)
This course proposes to apply philosophical thinking and ethical theories to some of the most pressing problems confronting contemporary society: Against the background of growing populism and ever more interconnected global communities, how should we navigate the dynamics between nationalism and globalism? What moral claims do migrants have, and whatare states’ rights and obligations in relation thereto? What challenges persist in women’s rights movements across the globe, and how can we meet them? What do we owe the environment and non-human animals? Can political revolutions and civil disobedience be justified? This course will present perspectives from all sides of such questions in a fair and balanced manner, encouraging students to encounter new ideas, question preconceptions, and engage carefully and critically with sensitive and important matters.

Sociology of Conflict

Code: YBAJ172 Lecturer: Černý,K.
Semester: Summer Language: English
ECTS credits: 4
Schedule: mon 11:30 - 12:50, room YT002 (Faculty of Humanities, Pátkova 2137/5, Praha 8 - Libeň)
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).

Symbolical Figures of Czech History

Code: YBAJ020 Lecturer: Marková,A.
Semester: Summer Language: English
ECTS credits: 4
Schedule: mon 10:00 - 11:20, room YT032 (Faculty of Humanities, Pátkova 2137/5, Praha 8 - Libeň)
The course deals with symbolical figures of the Czech history (e.g., St. Wenceslaus, Jan Žižka, Jan Hus and many others) and changes in the interpretation of their role throughout history. The attention will be focused on an interaction between ideology and history, history and historical myths, collective memory and historical consciousness. The aim of the course is to familiarize students with significant milestones and symbolical figures of the Czech history as well as to demonstrate the ambiguity of their interpretation due to different political and historical contexts. An educational excursion (National Memorial on the Vítkov Hill) is a part of the syllabus.

The Anthropology of Body, Health and Illness

Code: YBAJ215 Lecturer: Klepal,J.
Semester: Summer Language: English
ECTS credits: 4
Schedule: thu 16:00 - 17:20, 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.

The Czechoslovak Republic in International Perspective 1918-1938

Code: YBAJ208 Lecturer: Vondráček,J.
Semester: Summer Language: English
ECTS credits: 4
Schedule: wed 11:30 - 12:50, room YT121 (Faculty of Humanities, Pátkova 2137/5, Praha 8 - Libeň)
Based on the concept of “militant democracy” developed by the jurist Karl Loewenstein, this seminar explores how the First Czechoslovak Republic was able to defend itself against changing domestic and foreign threats in the years 1918-1938. Furthermore, the aim is to investigate how Czechoslovakia and the democratic system was perceived abroad. For each session, there will be a selected text that approaches a specific topic using a particular historical method. By writing a short excerpt for each session, the foundation for a fruitful discussion will be created and at the same time, academic writing will be practiced. The aim of this seminar is on the one hand to give an insight into the different aspects of the First Czechoslovak Republic and on the other hand to get familiar with different methodical approaches. In addition, academic reading as well as the clear and structured presentation of knowledge through excerpts and a presentation will be learned.


Last update: 05 Jun 2023
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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