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How do the university environment and education contribute to promoting and respecting women's voices in society? This is one of the questions that the conference “Women, Science and Other Dangerous Things,” organised by the Faculty of Philosophy at the University of West Bohemia in Pilsen, will seek to answer on Wednesday 15 November.

The event will bring together the Chief State Prosecutor, Lenka Bradáčová; the Rector of the University of Defence, Brigadier General Prof. Zuzana Kročová; couples therapist Eliska Remesová; Canadian philosopher and aesthetician Maria Antonios Sassine; psychologist Olga Vlachynská; and novelist and Vice-Rector of Charles University Prof. Eva Voldřichová Beránková. MATYLDA, a woman created by artificial intelligence, and her spiritual father, developer and analyst Jan Tyl, will also perform.

The title of the event refers to the famous book by cognitive linguist George Lakoff, Women, Fire and Dangerous Things: What Categories Reveal About the Mind, which shows how the categories we use to organize our world reflect our mental structures and how they vary across languages and cultures. The conference will follow a similar line of inquiry, looking for example at the authenticity of the female gaze in addressing scientific, political and social problems and challenges of our time.

The conference will take place as part of the Humanities Week and is part of the ‘University as an Opportunity’ series, which was established at the ZČU in 2018.

"Panel discussions from this series are among the traditional and very popular events organised by the Faculty of Arts. This is because they allow students, university staff and the general public to meet and converse with people who connect disciplines, academic and non-academic environments, and influence society. I am very pleased that this year's edition, held as part of Humanities Week, will provide an opportunity to discuss with women who excel in their fields and are prominent figures in public life," says David Šanc, Dean of the Faculty of Arts.

The author of the series, Naďa Hlaváčková from the Department of Philosophy at the Faculty of Philosophy, adds that the University as an Opportunity series was created as a response to the need to show the importance of the humanities and social sciences at ZČU. "The need to develop critical thinking and analytical skills in the pursuit of long-term understanding of different perspectives and, as a result, the cultivation of society is the domain of these disciplines, and they then play a social role as a kind of mediator between the various disciplines," she says.

Over the course of five years, the discussions and conferences have offered the academic community of ZČU and the public meetings with personalities such as philosopher Jan Sokol, economist Filip Matějka, journalist Václav Moravec, biochemist Martin Fusek and cyberneticist Jan Romportl. "The same is true of this year's invited speakers, who are very successful women in a number of fields," explains Naďa Hlaváčková, adding that all of the guests have so far spoken without remuneration. And for that we owe them our great thanks."

The conference Women, Science and Other Dangerous Things will take place on Wednesday, 15 November from 1 to 7 pm in the auditorium of the Faculty of Education of the University of West Bohemia in Veleslavín Street 42. More information about the event can be found on the faculty’s website or in the FB profile of the event. “I am very pleased that this year's event, held as part of Humanities Week, will provide an opportunity to discuss with women who excel in their fields and are prominent figures in public life," says David Šanc, Dean of the Faculty of Arts.