Masaryk University

Faculty of Social Studies

Jostova 10, 602 00
Brno
Czech Republic

Our website:
https://www.fss.muni.cz/en/faculty-of-social-studies

Masaryk University is a public, non-profit educational and research organization, founded in 1919. At present it comprises nine faculties and 2 university institutes with over 200 departments, institutes and clinics, being the second largest university in the Czech Republic. The long-term aim of the MU is to profile itself as a research university with an internationally respected research programme. A university is actively involved in international collaboration both on European and global level. With total of 62 H2020 projects, the MU is one of the best performing universities in the Czech Republic in this programme and has experience with coordinating framework programme projects (MSCA actions, Health or Spreading excellence and widening participation). The Faculty of Social Studies was established in 1998 and it is among the newest and most dynamic parts of Masaryk University. The Faculty of Social Studies (FSS) as one of ten core academic units within MU comprises of seven departments and four research institutes.

Faculty of Social Science focuses on both education and research in the fields of Sociology, Political Science, International Relations, European Studies, Psychology, Media Studies and Journalism, Social Policy and Social Work, and Environmental Studies with the recent additions of Gender Studies, Social Anthropology, and Strategic and Security Studies. The faculty is a leading social science research institute in the Czech Republic. Highly qualified FSS researchers were involved in eight projects funded under FP7 and three projects supported by H2020.

Department of Political Science was founded in 1990 with the ambition to provide comprehensive education in the field of political sciences. Over time, the department has become a well-respected academic institution both domestically and internationally. The academic staff is comprised of high-level experts in their respective fields.

Currently, the department offers two study programs in Czech and one in English:

Political Science
Security and Strategy Studies
Conflict and Democracy Studies

The BA and MA programs both in Political Science and Security and Strategy Studies are full-time study programs (part-time study is not offered at either level). The doctoral degree can be studied either full-time or part-time.

Profile of key people

Otto Eibl, Ph.D.
Graduated in Political Science at the Department of Political Science, Faculty of Social Studies, Masaryk University, where he is now Assistant Professor, teaching courses about political communication and marketing. These areas are also the focal points of his research. At the International Institute for Political Science he mainly studies political brands, their contents, and the processes by which the brands are created and maintained. He also researches the placement of political issues in political space and the communication and marketing strategies of political parties both in and beyond the lead-up to the election.

Monika Gabriela Bartoszewicz, Ph.D.
Has graduated in International Security Studies from St Andrews University (UK). Her academic interests evolve around international security with particular focus on political violence in asymmetric conflicts, and especially in contemporary Islamic terrorism (jihadism). She specialises in diagnoses and counter-measures against radicalisation and terrorist activity of European converts to Islam. In 2005 Dr. Bartoszewicz was awarded a scholarship in the Centre for Transatlantic Studies in Maastricht, the Netherlands. In 2007 she was a research intern at the Centre for the Study of Terrorism and Political Violence and in 2009 her work was recognized with the Russell Trust Award. From 2011 to 2013 she was appointed as the E.MA Fellow specialising in International Relations in the European Inter-University Centre for Human Rights and Democratisation in Venice (Italy). She is also an associate member of the Centre for Security Research (CeSeR) in Edinburgh and a member of the British International Studies Association.