Institute of Contemporary History

Results of the GA ČR competition published

The Czech Science Foundation (GA ČR) has published the results of its competition, and the Institute of Contemporary History of the Czech Academy of Sciences has received funding for two projects! We warmly congratulate Kristina Andělová, who received funding in the Return Grants competition, and Martin Pácha, who was successful in the Postdoc Individual Fellowship – outgoing competition.

• Kristina Andělová: Nation, Socialism and Women’s Rights. The Political Thought of Milada Horáková in
  Transnational Perspective

  Milada Horáková represents key political figure in Czech contemporary history. While her
  legacy is often reduced to her trial and execution in 1950, this project aims to reconstruct her
  political thought in its full complexity. It will explore her contribution to interwar and postwar
  Czechoslovak political discourse, focusing on her conceptions of democracy, nation and women’
  s rights. Furthermore, the project will examine her intellectual role in antifascist resistance and
  the way in which she contributed to the building of the so-called people’s democracy after 1945.
  One of the main goals of the proposed project is therefore to present Horáková not only as a
  martyr of the communist political trial, but as a thinker whose political and social view shaped
  the inter-war and post-war political discourse on the national community, contributed to the form
  of Czechoslovak social thought and significantly influenced the Czechoslovak feminist
  discourse. Moving beyond her victimhood, this project seeks to reassess Horáková’s intellectual
  legacy in both national and transnational contexts.

• Martin Pácha: Negotiating Religious Freedom in Central Europe: Czechoslovakia and Its Successor States
  (1945–2010s)

  This project examines how religious freedom was negotiated in postwar Czechoslovakia (1945–
  2010s), focusing on transitions through people’s democracy, communism and the post-
  communist era, culminating in the church-state property settlements in the 2010s. Rather than a
  straightforward progression toward greater liberty, the research explores how shifting political
  frameworks and local power dynamics reshaped the accepted form of religious expression.
  Grounded in Bourdieu’s concept of the religious field, this study analyses archival records, legal
  texts, media discourse and personal accounts to capture the interplay between state institutions
  and four religious communities: the Roman Catholic Church, Evangelical Church of Czech
  Brethren, Jewish community and Jehovah’s Witnesses. By investigating how these faiths
  navigated evolving regulatory frameworks, the project illuminates broader patterns of church-
  state negotiation. Placing these findings in a European context underscores how historical
  precedents continue to influence religion-state relations and debates on religious freedom.

We warmly congratulate both of them on their success and wish them many more scientific achievements.