Research

CEDRRPhD

6 Feb

Ondřej Homolka defended his thesis and got a PhD

On February 5 2026, Ondřej Homolka defended the thesis Spatial Dynamics of the Cult of Mary in Late Antiquity and passed successfully the State exam.

LEVYNA

20 Jan

Three evolutionary radiations shaped the evolution of global religious diversity

Recent article in journal Evolutionary Human Sciences, where LEVYNA members contributed data, asks whether religious denominations accumulate gradually or are generated in rapid bursts associated with specific historical events.

LEVYNA

18 Dec 2025

Sensing the Darkness: Dark Therapy, Authority, and Spiritual Experience

A recently published qualitative study by Jana Nenadalová explores Dark therapy, an alternative spiritual practice combining prolonged sensory deprivation with guidance from an authority figure, to understand how religious and spiritual experiences are induced. Drawing on predictive processing theory, the research shows that complete darkness can trigger intense psychological and perceptual phenomena, especially when participants feel a sense of control and bring expectations or prior beliefs into the experience. 

DISSINET

18 Dec 2025

DISSICON: DISSINET lexico-semantic dataset now online

We have published the DISSICON dataset (which stands for DISSINET Conceptual Network), offering an ontology for analysing medieval inquisition records and other trial documents. It formalizes actions, concepts, and their relationships to support computational analyses of historical material.

DISSINET

16 Dec 2025

How do trial records tell stories of heresy? A computational analysis of narrative in Peter Seila's 1241-42 inquisition register

DISSINET

15 Dec 2025

Papal inquest from Doat 32 and other Doat materials published

New transcriptions from the Doat collection were published by the DISSINET team, including the papal inquest preserved in Doat 32 and additional material shedding light on inquisitorial practices and dissident networks in medieval Languedoc.

DISSINET

12 Dec 2025

Occupation, socioeconomic status, and dissidence in medieval Bologna revisited

In an innovative new article published in Reti Medievali Rivista, Katia Riccardo, David Zbíral, and Zoltán Brys provide new insights into the occupation and socioeconomic status of religious dissidents found in the inquisition register from Bologna.

CEDRR

25 Nov 2025

Tereza Menšíková and Jana Kendíková received the Dean's award

Tereza and Jana were recognized by the Dean's award for their PhD and BA theses.