In his speech, Oxford University professor and historian Timothy Garton Ash emphasized the importance of truth and recalled the historical ties between the universities of Oxford and Prague.

Memory studies explores how societies relate to the past and how the meanings of that past evolve in the present. It takes a deeply interdisciplinary approach, and reveals unexpected implications for our present as well as future.

Kateřina Čapková from Charles University’s Faculty of Arts will explore the inclusive history of Central and Eastern Europe—examining the past through the perspectives of Roma, Jews, and people with disabilities—thanks to an Advanced ERC grant.

For over 30 years, Olga Kotková has lived among the Old Masters. Now, a major exhibition she curated — Women Artists 1300–1900 — is one of the most important events of the season at the National Gallery’s Waldstein Riding School in Prague.

Oded Lipschits, a professor of Jewish history, combines archaeological excavations with a modern approach to the study of the Bible. "For me, the whole – the context – is the most important," says the researcher, who recently received an honorary doctrate from CU.

Many people know CU student Ondřej Perušič by his nickname, Perun, after the Slavic god of thunder and lightning. Last October, fans saw him and team partner David Schweiner win gold at the World Beach Volleyball Championships.

International Students' Day was marked on Friday 17 November by citizens, students, and academics across the Czech Republic. Traditionally, ceremonies in Prague included representatives of Charles University.

November 17 is Struggle for Freedom and Democracy Day, commemorating students in 1989 who were savagely beaten by communist riot police. The infamous event sparked the Velvet Revolution that would bring down communism in Czechoslovakia. 

Last month saw the publication of a much-anticipated new monograph titled Little Berlin in Big Prague by artist and academic researcher Lenka Kerdová. The basis for the book was fascinating research examining Prague architecture in the interwar period. 

It's one of the signature features of the Great Hall at the Carolinum: a 5 x 8 metre tapestry adoring the front wall of the aula. On it? An image of Holy Roman Emperor Charles IV with St. Wenceslas and symbols of the university’s faculties. 

When and why do national institutions change? In Talking Economics, Katarína Stehlíková and Sebastian Ottinger look back at European history and discuss its relevance for institutional change in today’s China or Russia.

Jaroslav Švelch is an expert in media studies at the Faculty of Social Sciences at Charles University and the author of a fascinating social history titled Gaming the Iron Curtain from MIT Press. Feb 7 sees the release of a new book from the same publisher called Player vs. Monster: The Making and Breaking of Video Game Monstrosity.

From the Freemasons to the mysterious Illuminati, take your pick: throughout history there has been no shortage of conspiracy theories suggesting most of us live with a veil over our eyes. Not knowing there are shadow organisations operating to overthrow society.

During ceremonies of Charles University, you can’t miss him: he stands out even among esteemed guests, always the first to walk into the Great Hall in dignified historical dress, sceptre in hand. He is the university’s bedel or beadle. At the Carolinum that role is performed by Josef Šebek.

Without question one of the most anticipated films this year is the epic motion picture Medieval by director and producer Petr Jákl. Forum talked to the CU graduate about working with world class actors such as Michael Caine and his own film past.

Did you know that it is possible to sleep overnight within the Carolinum complex? Charles University offers accommodation in its buildings to university guests. The most representative accommodation facility is known as Opitz House.

Hillel J. Kieval is an historian at Washington University in St. Louis. An expert on the history of the Jews in Bohemia and Moravia, Kieval taught a course at the Faculty of Arts at Charles University this semester based on his newest book: Blood Inscriptions: Science, Modernity, and Ritual Murder at Europe's Fin de Siecle.

Over the course of a single year, Charles Games – the creators of titles like Attentát 1942 – launched Train to Sachsenhausen based on witness testimonies of the events of 1939 - the takeover of Bohemia and Moravia by the Nazis and the closure of Czech Universities. 

“Being a tour guide at the historic Kuks Hospital taught me a lot,” says Jaroslav Matějka, a third-year student at the Third Faculty of Medicine of Charles University. Above all, he credits it with teaching him how to communicate better with others.

“It has to be talked about, even though personally it hurts a lot...” Belarusian-born historian Alena Marková from the Faculty of Humanities warns that the ‘normalisation’ now in Belarus is similar to Czechoslovakia after 1968.