Newsletter July 2025

ACADEMIC EVENT SECTION
#1: CSi Conference 2025: Intelligence & National Security in Changing World
The Cambridge Security Initiative (CSi) is organizing an annual conference that will be held at Cripps Court at Magdalene College, Cambridge, from July 25- 26, 2025. The conference addresses the most pressing security challenges facing governments, private industries, and citizens in the globalized world. The conference participants can look forward to hearing about the incredible power challenges to the global order represented by China and Russia. Global instability, terrorism, regional conflicts, and technological innovations will also be themes for discussion. The conference attendees will have the opportunity to gain direct insight into the problems of Intelligence and National Security from former senior officials, intelligence and security practitioners, and academic experts.

#2: 13th International Conference in Honour of the Laureate of the 2025 Václav Havel Human Rights Prize
The Václav Havel Library, an associate partner of the EPS programme, is organizing a conference focused on Artists in Oppression. The theme of the conference is linking Václav Havel´s personal story of a persecuted dramatist and writer during the totalitarian regime in Czechoslovakia with the situation of contemporary artists who are subjected to threats, harassment, and persecution amid a global wave of rising authoritarianism. The conference will occur in Prague on October 1, 2025, at the Technology Center of the Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design in Prague, Mikulandská 5. The conference programme will be finalized during the summer. See the previous editions of the conference to get an idea of the content. If you would like to attend the conference, please express your interest via email by September 15, 2025.

SOCIAL AND CULTURAL EVENT SECTION
Gdansk, Malbork Castle, and Hel Peninsula
Europe might be under an unpleasant heatwave in the summer months, especially in the southern parts of the continent. Go to the north! Visit the beautiful historical city of Gdansk. Be charmed by the Malbork crusader castle. Enjoy the cool breeze of the Baltic Sea, sandy beaches, and the fresh smell of pine trees at the Hel peninsula. All these sites can be reached by train!

CALL
#1: EPS Excellence and Leadership Award
The Call for Excellence and Leadership (ELA) has been launched, and all first-year students are invited to apply. See the details of the call on the EPS website.The deadline is August 31, 2025.

#2: Best Thesis Award
The second-year students can apply for the Best Thesis Award. Please visit the EPS website to see all the requirements. The application deadline is September 20, 2025.

#3: 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 or uploaded to the shared folder.

HINDSIGHT
Congratulations to all of you who successfully managed to submit your MA Thesis!

READING TIP: Slaughterhouse-Five (author: Kurt Vonnegut, USA, 1969)
Slaughterhouse-Five, an American classic, is one of the world’s great antiwar books. Centering on the infamous World War II firebombing of Dresden, the novel is the result of what Kurt Vonnegut described as a twenty-three-year struggle to write a book about what he had witnessed as an American prisoner of war. It combines historical fiction, science fiction, autobiography, and satire in an account of the life of Billy Pilgrim, a barber’s son turned draftee turned optometrist turned alien abductee. As Vonnegut had, Billy experiences the destruction of Dresden as a POW. Unlike Vonnegut, he experiences time travel, or coming “unstuck in time.”

FREQUENT QUESTION / DO NOT FORGET
When does the EPS student status end if I graduate during the summer?
All EPS students have their student status until the end of September, regardless of the partner university where they defend their thesis. In other words, even if your defense takes place in July at UPF, you have a student status until the end of September. Fingers crossed for finishing your EPS studies!

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.