Institute of Contemporary History

Research focus:

• socialist and post-socialist city, history of urban planning, cultural and social history of state socialism, politics of memory

Research experience and qualification:

• 2008–pres.: Senior Researcher at the Institute of Contemporary History, Czech Academy of Sciences (head of the Department of Political History, head of the Research Group on Urban History)
• 2011–2019: Lecturer at Faculty of Philosophy & Arts, Charles University, Prague
• 2007: Ph.D. in Comparative History, Central European University, History Department
• 2002: M.Phil in Social Anthropology, University of Cambridge, Dept. of Social Anthropology
• 2000: MA in History, Central European University, History Department

Memberships:

• since 2024: Member of the Programme Committee, Collaboration of Humanities and Social Sciences in Europe (CHANSE)
• since 2024: Member of the Board, Humanities in the European Research Area (HERA)
• since 2023: Member of the Council of the Institute of Contemporary History, CAS
• since 2020: Member of the Editorial Board of Soudobé dějiny/Czech Journal of Contemporary History
• since 2015: Member of the Editorial Board of Dějiny, teorie, kritika
• 2019–2023: Member of the Evaluation Panel of Czech Science Foundation (Modern History and Etnology)

Research Stays Abroad:

• 2016–2017: Imre Kertész Kolleg Jena, research fellowship

Selected Publications (in English):

Monographs and edited volumes:

• Spartakiads: Politics of physical culture under communism in Czechoslovakia. Prague: Karolinum, 2019.

Research articles:

• Planning, Politics and Panel Housing: State-Socialist Czechoslovak housing estates. In: Victoria Grau – Max Welch Guerra (eds.) Histories of Urban Planning and Politcal Power. European Perspectives. New York and London: Routledge, 2024, s. 119-128.
• Postmodern Architecture in a Premodern System. In: Petr Vorlík and Hubert Guzík (ed.): Ambitions: The Architecture of the Eighties (bilingual). Prague: ČVUT, 2023.
• The Battle of Žižkov: Urban Planners’ Transition from Heritage Protection to Neoliberal Discursive Planning. Journal of Urban History, Volume 47 (2021), Issue 3, pp. 495 –510.
• The Crisis of Modern Urbanism under the Socialist Rule: Case Study of the Prague Urban Planning between the 1960s and 1980s. Czech Journal of Contemporary History VI / 2018, pp. 100-124.
• The conservative counter-revolution: post-dissident neoconservatives in post-communist transformation. In: Michal Kopeček and Piotr Wciślik: Thinking Through Transition: Liberal Democracy, Authoritarian Pasts, and Intellectual History in East Central Europe After 1989. Budapest: CEU Press, 2015, p. 171-200.
• Revolution by the law: Transformation of the Czechoslovak Federal Assembly 1989–1990. In: Prispevki za novejšo zgodovino / Contributions to Contemporary History, Vol 55, No 3 (2015), p. 60-83.
• The body of the nation. The Czechoslovak Spartakiades from a gender perspective. In: Havelková, H. a Oates-Indruchová, L., eds., The Politics of Gender Culture under State Socialism: An Expropriated Voice. New York: Routledge, 2014.
• Mass Gymnastic Performances under Communism: The Case of Czechoslovak Spartakiads. In: Balázs Apor, Péter Apor, E. A. Rees, eds., The Sovietization of Eastern Europe: New Perspectives on the Postwar Period. Washington, New Academia Publishing, 2008, p. 171-180.
• A didactic project transformed into the celebration of a ritual: Czechoslovak Spartakiads 1955-1990. In: Journal of Modern European History, 4 (2006), n. 1, p. 90-113.
• Visual Representation of the Czech/Czechoslovak State, 1945-2000: A Survey of the Literature. In: European Review of History-Revue européenne d’Histoire, 13 (2006), p. 83-113.
• Suspicious Slavonic Studies: The Case of Francis Dvornik’s The Slavs in European History and Civilisation. In Petr Roubal & Václav Veber, eds., Prague Perspectives (I): The History of East-Central Europe and Russia (Prague: The National Library of the Czech Republic, 2004), p. 30-38.
• Reviewing Masaryk – The International Response to T.G. Masaryk’s The Spirit of Russia. In: Petr Roubal & Václav Veber, eds., Prague Perspectives (I): The History of East-Central Europe and Russia (Prague: The National Library of the Czech Republic, 2004), p. 193-216 (Together with Martin Beisswenger).
• Politics of Gymnastics. Mass gymnastic displays under communism in Central and Eastern Europe. In: Body and Society 9, no. 2 (2003), s. 1-25.