The main subject of the research will be the role of noblewomen in the process of political and cultural communication between Central
European Hapsburg monarchy and Spanish Empire in the 16th and 17th centuries. Wedding alliances will be analyzed properly, they were a
means of bonding nobility to imperial Spanish policy and at the same time, they were a necessary requirement in the process of creating
supra-national aristocracy. That group of noble families would be connected by catholic belief and loyalty to the reigning dynasty. The author
will try to prove that noblewomen were not only passive objects of political interest but they were often given a great deal of social capital. It
enabled them to influence their husbands´ and their sons´ careers. Finally, many noblewomen had a significant position in Spanish kings´
client network due to the above mentioned factors and they played key roles in the process of implementing Spanish imperial and antireformist
policies in Central Europe.

The goal of the project is to investigate the concepts of love and friendship that have received increasing attention in the
contemporary Anglo-American discussions in the domain of philosophical psychology and ancient philosophy. Since the
contemporary debates of the problem have been vastly inspired by the ancient Greek thoughts on the subject, the project aims
at integrating two different directions of research ? the systematic and the historical. Treating these two directions together will
help to minimize the deficiencies of partial research: systematic theory of love and friendship that draws inspiration from
ancient conceptions of philia and eros tends to oversimplify these theories, historical approaches on the other hand have the
tendency to neglect the actual impact of their researched topic and the contemporary conceptual distinctions. We will show that
this dialogue, in which the strength of the project lies, is indispensable for both the systematic elaboration of the topic and its
historical treatment in the ancient texts.

The theme of the project is the political crisis of the central Europe which resulted in several years of military conflict within the empire (1546-47) and ending with the so-called Peace of Augsburg (1555). The aim of the project is to oer a new historical interpretation of the signicance of the Bohemian lands in this conflict, primarily with regard to the economic and military potential which they represented in the
central Europe of the time. So far in European historiography this aspect has not been taken into account suciently because the Bohemian lands did not become an active participant of the military conflict. But at the end of the 1540s it was one of the main economic sources which king attempted to utilise as part of his broader power politics. At the time he managed to establish fundamental economic reforms in the Bohemian lands concerning the assertion of monarchical property rights and changes in the tax and currency system. He thus created economic sources both for the power consolidation of the state and for imperial policy in the last decade of his rule.

The aim of the project is to remodel selected courses at the Department for the Study of Religions. The innovation within the bachelor degree emphasizes formulation of theoretical starting points in the attitude towards different culture. The innovation at the master degree level is focused on students skill enhancement in critical thinking and theoretical approach to issues being researched. The contents of the courses will closely follow the research programme of comparative study of cultures initiated by S. N. Balagangadhara. The support of this project will enlarge the scholarly book sources of the department. They will be accessible by departmental researchers as well as students and used especially in the respective courses. Potential foreign students participation in teaching at the department will be enhanced, too. The courses being remodelled: New Religious Movements II., Traditions and religions of the south and east Asia II. - lecture and seminar.

The main goal of the project is to create the first Czech monograph dealing with Bohemian and Moravian nobility in the
diplomatic service of the Austrian Habsburgs from the end of Thirty Years´ War to the beginning of the rule of Maria Theresa.
At the same time we try to join contemporary European discussions on baroque diplomacy and therefore we want to organize
international scientific conference on diplomacy. We are a group consisting of seven researchers between 25 and 40 who deal in
the long term with baroque nobility.

The aim of the project is to increase the quality of student teacher education, namely of student teachers in bachelor and follow-up master programs of teaching English as a foreign language in basic schools. In the project, the frequency of contacts with practice (extending teaching practice, observations, performing microteaching, practice teachers participating in the selected courses, experience sharing) is planned to be increased and the content of student teacher university preparation amended by including the training of practice situations. Under the concept of the model of the teacher as the reflective practitioner, the project focuses on interweaving theory and practice, i.e. on enhancing pedagogical content knowledge of student teachers of English.

The project deals with every day life in marriage in the ?long?19th century, using the Catholic normative and institutionary sources. Marriage will be presented from the Roman Catholic viewpoint and use fallowing types of sources: evidence source in Episcopal archives (matrimonalia, agenda of dispenses, notes about marriage cases by Episcopal court) and normative sources (pastoral manuals and manuals for confessors).
Through connecting of these sources a vivid view of the care about marriage in the Catholic Church during the 19th century can originate. These sources were not yet used for research of every day life in 19th century. Scholarship of this theme connecting history of pastoral theology with gender history can significantly enrich recent research of marriage and family which is researched especially thanks to
historical demography and ego-documents.