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Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA.CZ) “fellowship” projects contribute to developing the international character and quality of the research environment in the Czech Republic, including the professional growth of individual scholars. Thanks to this program, philosopher and architectural theorist Jana Ndiaye Beránková, Ph.D. will begin her work in the Czech Republic in July. Conversely, Martin Pjecha, M.A., Ph.D., a Comenius scholar, will depart from the Institute of Philosophy for a research stay in Vienna....

Mgr. Jana Ndiaye Beránková, Ph.D. is an architectural theorist, philosopher, writer, and publisher. In 2024–2025, she was a fellow at the Institute for Ideas and Imagination in Paris, affiliated with Columbia University. She defended her doctoral dissertation, “Productive Misunderstanding? Architectural Theory and French Philosophy from 1965 to 1990,” in 2023 at Columbia University in New York (GSAPP). Prior to that, she studied at the École Normale Supérieure, École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, the Free University of Berlin, and Masaryk University in Brno.

She runs the nonprofit publishing house Suture Press, which focuses on carefully designed books on continental philosophy, contemporary art, and architectural theory. She is the editor of several collections, including Revolutions for the Future: May ’68 and the Prague Spring (with Nick Nesbitt and Michael Hauser, 2020), and Thinking the Infinite (with Jelica Šumič Riha and David Rabouin, 2021). In 2025, she published a book-length interview with Alain Badiou titled L’Éclat de l’absolu, which explores the intersections between Badiou’s philosophical system and the thought of Plato, Hegel, Sartre, Althusser, Lacan, and Deleuze.

At the Institute of Philosophy, her project ArchConcepts will explore the relationship between architectural theory and continental philosophy (especially structuralism, semiotics, post-structuralism, and logical positivism) between 1960 and 1980. She will focus on a critical analysis of architectural writings by authors such as Aldo Rossi, Giorgio Grassi, Manfredo Tafuri, George Baird and Charles Jencks, Alan Colquhoun, Diana Agrest and Mario Gandelsonas, Françoise Choay, Hubert Damisch, Bernard Tschumi, and Peter Eisenman.

The project will run until 2027 and is coordinated by Assoc. Prof. Martin Nitsche, Ph.D.

Martin Pjecha, M.A., Ph.D. is a historian. He studied at Central European University (Budapest, Hungary – Vienna, Austria). In 2022, he defended his dissertation, “Theo-politics of the Hussite Movement: from Reform to Revolution,” earning his Ph.D. in Comparative History. Previously, he worked at the Faculty of Arts, Charles University, and until 2024 at the Center for Medieval Studies (Institute of Philosophy of the Czech Academy of Sciences) within the Czech Science Foundation project “From Performativity to Institutionalization: Conflict Resolution in the Late Middle Ages (Strategies, Actors, Communication).” He currently works in the Department for Comeniology and Intellectual History of the Early Modern Period.

His research focuses on the international religious-political thought of dissent in the premodern West, particularly how this thought intersects with the historical conditions of Central Europe. He published his first book on the revolutionary ideas of the Hussite movement in 15th-century Bohemia, emphasizing the role of much older discourses (Christian Platonism, apocalypticism) in their new vision of society and religiosity. He is currently shifting his focus toward the early modern period.

In Vienna, he will work on the project Politics in the Holistic Thought of John Amos Comenius, focusing on Comenius’s underexplored political philosophy. This research perspective contrasts with the dominant image of Comenius as a religious reformer and educator. Drawing on neglected sources and interdisciplinary methods, the project aims to highlight the political relevance of Comenius’s philosophy, theology, and scientific endeavors.

The project will run until 2027 and is coordinated by PhDr. Vladimír Urbánek, Ph.D.

MSCA.CZ mobility projects are supported by the Jan Amos Comenius Operational Programme under the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports and are co-financed by the European Union.

More about the MSCA.CZ call

The Institute of Philosophy of the CAS regularly applies for CAS fellowships supporting postdoctoral researchers in the Programme to Support Prospective Human Resources – post PhD candidates. The competition is open to all institutes of the Academy of Sciences and takes place twice a year – in spring and autumn. At IP, the next deadline for submission of proposals in the 26th round of the competition is set for 30 August 2025.

The programme is intended for holders of PhD or its equivalent until up to two years since receiving the degree (i. e. degree received 31 August 2023 or later; time spent on maternity/parental leave is not included in the two-year period; in case of a long-term research stay in other than the candidate's country of residence the two-year period is extended up to four years). Successful applicants receive a two-year fellowship to work on a project whose topic is directly related to the focus of the relevant CAS institute and they become members of one of its scientific teams.

Potential candidates may contact the head of one of the scientific departments at IP to consult the research topic of their interest (proposals for internal competition at IP are submitted by the Head of Department).

For more information about the programme contact Julie Černá, Scientific Secretary of the Institute of Philosophy (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.).

The international conference After Industry: Cities and Regions in Transformation will focus on the transformations of cities and regions in the post-industrial era. It will take place on 14–15 May 2026 in Prague as part of the project Urbanity: Inequality, Adaptation, and Urban Public Space in Historical Perspective. The deadline for paper submissions is 30 June 2025. More information

The Czech-German Research Platform for the Humanities and Social Sciences (Leibniz GWZO Prague) is seeking four researchers for its newly established Prague-based Department of Knowledge and Participation (headed by Dr. Michal Frankl), with the positions starting on 1 September 2025. The call is for two doctoral and two postdoctoral fixed-term positions.The application deadline is 9 May 2025. More details

Overview of current deadlines and detailed information for submitting contributions to upcoming workshops and conferences:

23.–24. 06. 2025 | Conference Asixoxe – Let’s Talk! Conference on African Philosophy 2025 | Understanding Decolonisation and the Return of African Cultural Heritage. CfP Deadline: 31 May 2025

04. 09. 2025 - 06. 09. 2025 | 2nd year of Doctoral Philosophical Conference Perspectives of Thinking. CfP Deadline: 30 April 2025. 

08.–10. 10. 2025 | Conference | Cohabitability Ecologies and Technologies of Living on Earth. CfP Deadline: 30 April 2025. Podrobně o akci

The Scientific Board of the platform The Bohemian Reformation and Religious Practice (BRRP) invites proposals to organize the next biennial BRRP symposium, a long-standing forum for scholars specializing in the Bohemian Reformation and related topics. The upcoming symposium is scheduled to take place in June 2026. We encourage colleagues from the broad international community of researchers to submit their proposals, including a preliminary thematic focus, by 30 May 2025 via the online submission form. For detailed information please see the Practical Matters and the Letter from the Scientific Board.

Starting this year, the Institute of Philosophy will host two foreign researchers whose projects have succeeded in the prestigious scheme Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions Postdoctoral Fellowships. Over 10,000 applications were submitted in the call, which aims to support excellent projects by top scientists. In the Czech Republic, 25 projects at 11 institutions were supported. This is a great result for the Institute of Philosophy, confirming its place among the most prestigious Czech research institutions. Details