Institute of Contemporary History

Research Interests:

• Czechoslovakia in Global History
• History of Student Internationalism and International Organizations
• Terrorism and Political Violence

Education:

• 2013-2017: Ph.D. in General History, FF UK
• 2011-2013: Master studies in History, FF UK
• 2008-2011: Bachelor studies in History, FF UK

Employment:

• 2023-2025: Institute for Contemporary History, grant project investigator
• 2019-now: Institute of World History FF UK, assistant professor
• 2018: University of Exeter, postdoctoral research associate in the Socialism Goes Global project

Positions and Membership in Organizations:

• Deputy Head of the Cold War Research Group, Charles University

Study and Research Stays Abroad:

• 2022    Two-week research stay on Madagascar
• 2021    One-month SNF research grant at Université Fribourg
• 2021    Two-week research stay in Paris (UNESCO, Cité des mémoires étudiants) and Amsterdam (IASH)
• 2020    Three-week research stay in Moscow (RGANI)
• 2019    One-week research stay in Hamburg (Institut für Sozialforschung)
• 2017    One-month research internship at Universität zu Köln
• 2016    Two-week research stay in Rome (Archivio centrale, Archivio Gramsci)
• 2015    Semestral research scholarship of Hermann und Else Schnabel Stiftung at Universität Hamburg
• 2015    Two-week research stay in Bern (Bundesarchiv) and Zurich (Sozialarchiv)
• 2015    One-week research stay in Berlin (APO Archiv)
• 2014    One-month research internship at Universität zu Köln
• 2014    Two-week research stay in Rome (Archivio Gramsci, Archivio Sturzo) and Bologna (Archivio Parri)
• 2012-2013      Semestral scholarship at Università di Bologna (Erasmus)
• 2011    One-month scholarship at Universität Regensburg
• 2011    One-week research stay in London (Kew)

Research projects:

• 2023-2025: GAČR-SNF, Swiss-Czech bilateral project From Student Internationalism to Erasmus: Globalization and Europeanization of Student Life since 1945, main investigator in the Czech part of the team
• 2021-2023: PRIMUS, African and Middle Eastern Elites Educated in former Socialist Countries: Studies, Trajectories, and Mindsets, team member
• 2019-2023: UNCE, Center for the Transdisciplinary Research of Violence, Trauma and Justice (Charles University Center of Excellence), junior team member
• 2019-2022: Relations in the Ideoscape: Middle Eastern Students in the Eastern Block (1950s to 1991), Max Weber Foundation, external team member
• 2014-2016: GAUK, Left-Wing Terrorism and Political Violence in Western Europe in the 1970s, main investigator

Books:

• O ozbrojeném boji v západní Evropě. Italský a německý levicový terorismus sedmdesátých let v transnacionální perspektivě, Praha: FF UK, 2018.

Editorial work:

• Guest editor in Prague Papers on the History of International Relations, 1-2/2021, special issue: Czechoslovak experts in Africa

Articles:

• Reluctant Revolutionaries: Czechoslovak Support of Revolutionary Violence between Decolonization and Détente, in Intelligence and National Security, DOI: 10.1080/02684527.2022.2098551.
• The Leftist “Imagined Community”. The Transnational Imagination of Left-Wing Subversive Organizations in Western Europe, in Historical Reflections/Réflexions Historiques, 48/2 (2022), 79-104. DOI: 10.3167/hrrh.2022.480205.
• L’internationalisme tchécoslovaque en Afrique à travers l’exemple de l’aide à la construction d’infrastructures militarires et de securité en Guinée, 1958-1965, in Matthieu Boisdron and Krisztián Bene, Marges impériales en dialogue. Échangesm transferts, interactions et influences croisés entre les espaces postcoloniaux francophones et la périphérie soviétique européenne dans la seconde moitié du XXe siècle, Université de Pécs, 2022, 159-170.
• Czechoslovakia, Eastern Bloc and Expert Missions to Africa. Introduction to the Special Issue, in Prague Papers on the History of International Relations, 1-2/2021, 7–18.
• Polozapomenutý listopad. Mezinárodní den studentstva a jeho překrývaná paměť, in Paměť a dějiny 3/2021, 90-100.
• Československo a studená válka v Africe. Přístupy, interpretace a roviny zkoumání (s Janem Kourou), in Paměť a dějiny 14/3 (2020), 3–13.
• Mezi solidaritou, obchodem a politikou. Vojenský výcvik Afričanů v Československu v šedesátých letech, in Paměť a dějiny 14/3 (2020), 24–32.
• Inspirace v boji proti kolonialismu. Československá kulturní propaganda vůči Africe, in Dějiny a současnost 2020/10, 26–29.
• Banking on Military Assistance: Czechoslovakia’s Struggle for Influence and Profit in the Third World 1955–1968 (s Danielou Richterovou and Natalií Telepnevou), in International History Review 43, no. 1 (2021). doi: 10.1080/07075332.2020.1763422.
• The Aftermath of Revolution. U.S. Support for Czech and Slovak Liberal Democracy, 1989–Present (s Kelsey Landau a Normanem Eisenem), in Norman Eisen (ed.), Democracy’s Defenders. U.S. Embassy Prague, the Fall of Communism in Czechoslovakia, and Its Aftermath, Washington 2020, 161-188.
• Sanctuary, Armoury, and Prison. Switzerland and Swiss Anarchists as Intermediaries in the European Terrorist Network in the 1970s, in Central European History 52 (2019), 672–688. DOI: 10.1017/S0008938919000864.
• Giangiacomo Feltrinelli: Život a smrt extravagantního miliardáře, neúspěšného revolucionáře a sponzora evropského terorismu, in Bárta, M. – Kovář, M. (eds.), Lidé a dějiny. K roli osobnosti v historii v multidisciplinární perspektivě, Praha 2017, s. 781–802.
• Rozzuřená generace. Revoluční násilí a terorismus ve Velké Británii na počátku sedmdesátých let, in Koura, J., Tumis, S., Soukup, J. (eds.), Kapitoly z britských a amerických dějin, Praha 2015, s. 202–214.
• Levicový radikalismus v Itálii po roce 1968, in Škerlová, J. – Pokorná Korytarová, L. – Haváč, O. – Vitko, M. (eds.), Promýšlet Evropu 20. století. Konflikty beze zbraní, Brno 2015, s. 213–228.
• The Origins of the Left-wing Terrorism in Italy after 1968, in Dvacáté století – The Twentieth Century, 2014/1.

Conferences and workshops:

• Africans and the Media of the “Communist Geneva”. The Role of Africans in the Communication of the International Organizations Based in Socialist Czechoslovakia, na konferenci Africa and the Global Cold War III, Universität Erfurt, 22.-24. září 2022
• Pražské mezinárodní organizace a studená válka, na Sjezdu českých historiků, UJEP Ústí nad Labem, 20.-22. září 2022
• A Gate for socialism in Africa: Czechoslovak developmentalism in Guinea on the example of Czechoslovak security school in Kankan, 1958-1966 (s Janem Kourou), na workshopu The Socialist Countries and the Third World: Recent Approaches and New Perspectives, FF UK, 8.-9. září 2022
• Cold War Developmentalism: Czechoslovak Infrastructure Building in West Africa, na konferenci Socialist (Dis)Connections, RECET, Universität Wien, 27.-28. června 2022
• International Union of Students: Strategies of Legitimization from Prague to the global Cold War (s Matthieu Gillabertem), na konferenci ‘Divided Together’? International Organizations and the Cold War, Universität Wien, 2-3 června 2022
• Roundtable Soviet and Eastern European Intelligence in the Global South: A Reassessment, BASEEES Conference, University of Cambridge, 8.-10. dubna 2022
• „The World Marxist Review as a Cosmopolitan Space in Socialist Prague. Naim Ashhab and the Middle Eastern Delegates in the Editorial Office of a Global Journal“ , na workshopu Relations in the Ideoscape: Middle Eastern Students in the Eastern Bloc, CEU Budapest, 24.-26. února 2022
• Czechoslovakia’s Struggle for Influence and Profit in the Third World, at The Soviet Union’s Relations with their Allies, University of Glasgow, 10. prosince 2021 (online)
• Africans in the International Union of Students and Cold War Internationalism, konference Viva Africa, Univerzita Karlova, Praha, 16.-17. září 2021
• The World Marxist Review as a Cosmopolitan Space in Socialist Prague: Naim Ashhab and the Middle Eastern Delegates in the Editorial Office of a Global Journal, konference Contested Knowledge in a Connected World, Berlin, 16.-17. září 2021
• L’Europe médiane et l’émergence du «tiers-monde»: Développementalisme et anti-impérialisme. L’exemple de la Tchécoslovaquie, Université Fribourg, 17. května 2021
• Naim Ashhab and the editorial office of the World Marxist Review, workshop Relations in the Ideoscape: Middle Eastern Students in the Eastern Bloc (1950’s to 1991), University of Sofia St. Kliment Ohridsky, 22.–24. července 2021
• Prague as International Socialist Space, na workshopu Relations in the Ideoscape: Middle Eastern Students in the Eastern Block, Orient-Institut Beirut, květen 2019
• Czechoslovak Experts in the Third World: The Case of the Military Technical College in Cairo na workshopu Eastern Bloc and the Third World, listopad 2018, Filozofická fakulta Univerzity Karlovy
• Prague Calling Africa and Asia. Czechoslovakia’s self-presentation in the Third World na konferenci Socialist Cultural Diplomacy of the ХХth century: institutes, actors, discourses, říjen 2018, Deutsches Historisches Institut Moskau
• Czechoslovak Spies on the “Black Continent”: Strategy and Activities of Czechoslovak Intelligence in Africa in the 1960s (s Janem Kourou) na konferenci Secret Struggle for the Global South, září 2018, University of Warwick
• Tricontinental as a Radicalization Factor of the Left-wing Terrorist Groups in Europe na konferenci Legacies of the Tricontinental, 1966-2016: Imperialism, Resistance, Law, září 2016, Universidade de Coimbra
• Levicový radikalismus v Itálii po roce 1968 na konferenci Promýšlet Evropu 20. století. Konflikty beze zbraní, duben 2014, Masarykova Univerzita, Brno