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.

Stunning landscapes, diverse in languages, home to different cultural traditions: all that and more are the Caucasus bridging Western Asia and Eastern Europe. The region has long been the focus of Faculty of Arts’ Associate Professor Petra Košťálová.

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.

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.

Charles Games was founded in 2020 as a successful spin-off at Charles University. The firm is the name behind the highly successful historical games Attentát 1942 and its sequel Svoboda 1945: Liberation. Forum spoke to project director Lukáš Kolek.

A specialist in North Korean studies, activist and feminist. That is how the Czech media describe Nina Špitálníková, a student of Oral and Contemporary History at the Faculty of Humanities of Charles University. Her book Witnessing Life in the DPRK (2020) became a bestseller and won the Magnesia Litera Award in the category of journalism.

It seems there were two, though many believe there was only one: the great temple in Jerusalem built by the Biblical King Solomon. The first temple stood on the Temple Mount but no material evidence of its existence has ever been found. However, in 2012, Israeli archaeologists unexpectedly discovered another site in some ways similar.

The Church of St. Bartholomew in Kolín is a national cultural monument and for  good reason. It is one of the most impressive examples of Gothic architecture in Central Bohemia. Among the church’s many gems are extraordinary stained glass windows. These caught Anna Bartoňová's eye.; she is a student at the Catholic Theological Faculty.

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.

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.

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. 

Anyone interested in the history of hot chocolate, tea and coffee would be thrilled to sit down with Karel Černý - the head of Prague’s Institute of Medicine and Foreign Languages at Charles University's First Faculty of Medicine - as we did. Barring that, the next best thing may be to pick up his soon to be published history about caffeinated beverages in Central Europe.

As a little girl, Lucie Korecká received a copy of The Hobbit and was enchanted by J.R.R. Tolkien’s world, explored further in fantastic detail in The Lord of the Rings. The work was influenced by Icelandic and Norse mythology and later Korecká pursued her passion for Old Norse at the Faculty of Arts, where she is completing her PhD.

It has been 110 years since Albert Einstein arrived in Prague for his tenure as a professor of theoretical physics – 16 months in his life that were often overlooked. Einstein in Bohemia by historian Michael D. Gordin changes earlier perceptions, showing that it was in Prague that Einstein shifted full-time to the study of gravity.

If you understand Czech and are interested in Czech cuisine, you will want to look up the popular internet series Zmlsané dějiny co-hosted by historian Martin Franc. Franc, who teaches at Charles University, delights in debunking culinary myths but also gives credit where it is historically due.

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.

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.

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. 

We are here outside the famous Carolinum – the heart and soul of Charles University in Prague. This year the university has been marking 100 years since the founding of Czechoslovakia and recently opened an exhibition entitled “Czechoslovakia in 100 objects”.