Connection in Isolation: Social Media and Human Relationships During COVID-19
A multi-perspective reflection on how social media shaped relationships, communication and emotional well-being during the COVID-19 lockdown.
Who holds the power? 9th Teaching Practice Week brings five Max Weber Fellows to Brno
What does a nuclear reactor have in common with a facial recognition camera, a Big Tech algorithm, or a university hiring committee? More than one might expect. This year's Teaching Practice Week at the Masaryk University Language Centre brought together five postdoctoral scholars whose research, though spanning vastly different fields, kept circling back to one fundamental question: who holds power and who gets to regulate it?
From 23 to 27 March 2026, CJV organised its 9th Teaching Practice Week, welcoming five Fellows from the prestigious Max Weber Programme at the European University Institute in Florence. Over the course of the week, they delivered a total of eleven seminars across the Faculties of Informatics, Social Studies, Law, Economics and Administration, bringing their research directly to undergraduate and graduate students at Masaryk University.
The range of topics was striking.
Mohammad Eslami examined how states navigate the politics of nuclear security, where scientific capability and geopolitical trust are rarely separable.
Sahoo Rajkumar asked whether technology advancements and corporate design choices quietly tip the balance of power between consumers and big tech firms, and whether regulation can tip it back.
Michael Beuvais took students inside the surprisingly contested world of online age verification, where the legal ambition to protect young people collides head-on with concerns about surveillance and privacy. He explored this topic across three seminars.
Diya Sarkar Gosh mapped the enforcement and governance gaps that allow facial recognition systems to expand with limited accountability.
And Carolina Billiotti turned the lens on academia itself, examining how cumulative advantage shapes who gets to produce and be recognised for scientific novelty.
Taken together, the five research topics formed an unlikely but coherent conversation about governance in the 21st century: who designs the systems we live by, who benefits from them and what tools, legal, technical or political, exist to hold them accountable.
This year, Masaryk University students joined these classes:
|
Mohammad Eslami |
The Politics of the Atom: Understanding Nuclear Security through Theory and Practice |
|
Sahoo Rajkumar |
Technology, Regulation & Consumer: How do technology advancements and design create power inequalities among consumers and big tech firms? Can regulation reshape it? |
|
Michael Beuvais |
ID, Please: Age-assurance systems between legal dreams and technical realities |
|
Diya Sarkar Gosh |
Facial Recognition and Designed Surveillance: The Enforcement and Governance Gaps |
|
Carolina Billiotti |
Understanding Cumulative Advantage, Scientific Novelty and Diversity in Academia |
Beyond the seminars, the Fellows had a chance to explore Brno through a guided city tour. The week also included feedback sessions with the CJV director, Dr. Libor Štěpánek, whose background in English for Academic Purposes, teacher training and for Teaching and Learning Expert meant the conversation went beyond logistics. The week wrapped up with a dinner, bringing together the Fellows and the full organisational team.
The Max Weber Programme (MWP) at the European University Institute (EUI) is the largest and most innovative postdoctoral programme in the Historical and Social Sciences in Europe, open to researchers from anywhere in the world. Attracting approximately 1,200 applicants annually, it offers some 50–55 Fellowships across Political and Social Sciences, Economics, Law, and History. More information about the MWP can be found here.
