Newsletter April 2025

ACADEMIC EVENT SECTION
#1: AI and War
From the use of autonomous weapons to information warfare to cyber-attacks, artificial intelligence is fundamentally changing the shape of contemporary warfare. What are the ethical and security challenges associated with using AI in military strategies? And how is the role of humans changing in a world where decisions about lives can be delegated to algorithms? Join the debate from 5 p.m. on April 15, 2025, at the Hybernská Campus in Prague. The discussants will focus on AI’s technological and geopolitical aspects in warfare and the broader implications for society, ethics, and the future of conflict in the digital age.

#2: Across borders and oceans: a conference on European emigration and migration
The aim of the conference held on 16-17 April 2025 in Prague is to take a comprehensive look at the migration of Europeans from their own continent, emphasizing Czech emigration to the United States. Space will also be given to the context of migration waves and individual migration within Europe and other countries of the world. More information can be found here.

#3: Has Democracy Gone Wrong? The Role of EU Values After the 2024 Elections.
The UACES Graduate Forum Research Conference 2025 will occur on May 29-30, 2025, in Athens and will explore the interplay between democracy and the crisis within the EU. The conference will deal with research examining EU values’ evolution over time and across different contexts. Scholars in political science, law, history, economics, and related fields will be contributing by presenting their research that employs both traditional and innovative methodologies.

#4: Rebellions, Uprisings and Revolutions throughout the Ages
JU History Students’ Academic Society, JU Faculty of History Student Council, and the Kraków branch of the Polish Historical Association invite you to attend the 3rd Cracovian Congress of History Students, which will take place May 8-10, 2025. This year, the participants will investigate both ancient revolts and modern protests in order to explore pivotal moments of radical change that shaped history, societies, and cultures across the globe. For more information visit the event website.

SOCIAL AND CULTURAL EVENT SECTION
#1: Book Launch: Archeological Perspectives on Contested and Political Landscapes
The book focuses on alternative definitions of landscape in archaeology, particularly those that explicitly address landscapes’ political aspects. In doing so, this volume emphasizes the non-static, dialogic nature of landscape within a community and acknowledges how a community’s composition and its relationship with the landscape can lead to tensions and even violent conflicts with other groups. Understanding how landscapes were created and contested in the past is essential for understanding their political, economic, and cultural manifestations in the present to better organize ourselves for a truly integrative future. The event takes place on April 14, 2025, in the Van Steenis building in Leiden.

CALL
#1: Scholarship for an Internship in Israel
The Herzl Center for Israeli Studies at the Faculty of Social Sciences, Charles University, in collaboration with the Prague Center for Jewish Studies at the Faculty of Arts, Charles University, is offering two scholarships of 50,000 CZK each for a professional internship in Israel for students interested in gaining academic experience in the country. This offer is open to students of Charles University from the 3rd year of undergraduate studies to the 3rd year of doctoral studies. Supported Topic Areas are the following; Israel’s politics, Israel society, International relations, Security, History, Culture, and Literature. Deadline for submitting applications and sending the recommendation letter: April 30, 2025. Please send your application to herzlcenter@fsv.cuni.cz.

#2: EPS programme – student photos
EPS students are welcome to send photos or video material related to the programme. Feel free to send photos related to both academic and student life. Photos of life at universities, of student housing, of life abroad, of countries and cities that students have visited are very much desired. The material from the students will be presented on the EPS website and social networks. Photos can be sent to stepanka.javurkova@fsv.cuni.cz

IMPORTANT DATES
#1: Joint Online Research Seminar
A one-day online research seminar will gather first-year students and academics from all partner universities to provide extensive feedback on students’ MA research proposals on Wednesday, May 28, 2025. The event aims to make the MA research proposal as robust as possible and to make a good start on the thesis production in the 2nd-year.The online feedback event will be held in groups with two academics and a number of students with 30-minute sessions per student.Students will submit a pre-recorded video presentation of (min.) 6 to (max.) 8 minutes by May 21 at 10 AM to a shared folder whose link will be sent to them via email.

#2: MA thesis submission deadline
The deadline for submitting the MA thesis is June 16, 2025. See the details about MA thesis writing and submission on the EPS website.

HINDSIGHT
#1: Graduation ceremony
Graduated students of the 2022-2024 cohort had an opportunity to participate in the graduation ceremony that took place on March 19, 2025, at Prague in Karolinum. Congratulations to all the graduates for their achievement!

#2: EUROPAEUM: Oxford Spring School 2025
Eight second-year EPS students had a chance to participate in the Spring School that took place on March 17-20, 2025. This year´s theme was Resistance and Resilience.

READING TIP: The Cheese and the Worms: The Cosmos of a 16th Century Miller (Author: Carlo Ginzburg, 1976 Italy)
Read the exquisite scholarly work by the Italian historian Carlo Ginzburg, first published in 1976. The book is a notable example of the history of mentalities, microhistory, and cultural history. It has been called “probably the most popular and widely read work of microhistory”. The study examines the unique religious beliefs and cosmogony of Menocchio (1532–1599), also known as Domenico Scandella, who was an Italian miller from the village of Montereale, 25 kilometers north of Pordenone in modern northern Italy. He was from the peasant class, and not a learned aristocrat or man of letters; Ginzburg places him in the tradition of popular culture and pre-Christian naturalistic peasant religions. Due to his outspoken beliefs, he was declared a heretic and burned at the stake during the Roman Inquisition.
FREQUENT QUESTION / DO NOT FORGET
How do I fill out the study plan for the Erasmus+ funding for my 3rd semester?
First, make sure you have in your application only funding for one semester (for UPF it means the autumn/winter period – usually by the end of December). Second, the first table should include codes and courses, you are going to take at the 2nd-year university. As you are students of a joint programme, the second table encompasses the same name of courses as in the first table (the codes need to be those of Charles University, but you might leave the space blank for now). The study plan needs to be sent to EPS email for the signature.

Do you have any hints, ideas, or tips for interesting events, calls, books, films, podcasts, etc.? Do not hesitate to reach us at eps@fsv.cuni.cz. Your feedback and contribution are highly appreciated.