Research Activities
GRANTS AND PROJECTS
Here you can find an overview of the national as well as international Grants and Projects managed by the Faculty of Arts:
2019
- Community Archaeology in Rural Environments - Meeting Societal Challenges (Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports)
- Professional Training of Prison Chaplains with Regard to the Specifics of the Prison Environment (Technology Agency of the Czech Republic)
2018
- INTERREG V-A (CZ-BY) – Forestry in the Bohemian Forest and Bavarian Forest (EU Structural Funds)
- Objectivity: An Experimental Approach to Traditional Philosophical Problems (Czech Science Foundation)
2017
- INTERREG V-A (CZ-BY); Presentation of Cultural Heritage in the Tachov Border Region (EU Structural Funds)
- NTERREG V-A (CZ-BY); Migration and Integration in the Bavarian-Czech Border Region: Analysis, Cooperation Strategy, and Solutions (EU Structural Funds)
2016
- C-ACCESS – Accessing Campscapes: Inclusive Strategies for Using European Conflicted Heritage (HERA JRP Handling Agency)
- Maternal Migration and Health: Pregnancy, Childbirth and Early Parenting (Czech Science Foundation)
2015
- Metternich, Italy, and the European State System of 1830–1848 (Czech Science Foundation)
- Security Risks in Socially Excluded Areas: Creating Knowledge and Tools for Crime Management and Prevention [Czech Security Research Program 2015–2020 (BV III / 1-VS)]
2014
- The Social Dimension of Household Waste: Consumption in the Post-Socialist Space (Czech Science Foundation)
- Critical Political Sociology of (In)security: Dramaturgical Analysis of Public Events in the field of (In)security experts (Czech Science Foundation)
2013
- Political and Economic Interests of Great Britain and Germany in China 1894–1914 (Czech Science Foundation)
- Meanings and Forms of Grandparenthood in the Czech Republic (Czech Science Foundation)
2012
Responding to Inclusion: Poor Roma and Cinti Families in Post-Socialism (Czech Science Foundation)
TDV Research Centre – Research Centre for the Theory and History of Science (EU Structural Funds)
2011
- Problems of Arts in the Thinking of Jan Patočka (Czech Science Foundation)
- Archaeological Strategy – Archaeological Research Strategy in Europe (EU Structural Funds)
2010
- Conceptual and Methodological Innovations of Research into Educational Inequalities Applied to Modern Czech Society (Czech Science Foundation)
- Sources of European Mathematics (Czech Science Foundation)
2009
- Biological Variability, Health Status, and Social Stratification of the Early Medieval Great Moravian Population: Micro Evolutionary Changes (Czech Science Foundation)
- Post-Modern States as Carriers of Kantian Ethics in International Relations? (Grant Agency of the Czech Academy of Sciences)
CONFERENCES
Here you can find an overview of the national as well as international conferences hosted by the Faculty of Arts:
Critiques of Liberalism and Challenges to Democracy: Understanding the Conservative Standpoint: COST Action CA 16211 RECAST, Working Group 2: Languages and Ideologies (Pilsen, Czech Republic, 14–15 February 2019)
The common understanding of conservatism as an ideology draws attention to the unique elements that make it an identifiable discourse. Many scholars believe that conservatism, like any other ideology, retains some core elements, i.e. concepts and values, which provide its internal structure. However, the integrity and internal coherence of conservatism might also be understood differently. Whether we focus on conservatism from a historical perspective or the plurality of contemporary critiques of liberalism, a conservative standpoint constitutes a challenge to the basis of certain values of European political and societal order related primarily to liberal egalitarian conceptions of the individual, social justice, pluralism, equality, respect and/or tolerance, and democratic inclusion. The key task of this workshop was to explore, whether from a historical or normative perspective, the position of conservatism as a thread connecting an otherwise diverse critical reaction towards liberalism and liberal democracy. For further information go to: http://kap.zcu.cz/permalink/41a83388-305b-11e9-a3ce-6cae8b547852.pdf
Thrift in Anthropology: Between Thriftiness and Waste (Pilsen, October 18–19, 2018)
A small group comprised primarily of anthropologists gathered in Pilsen to discuss the concept of thrift and explore its potential for understanding human economy. The aim was to explore different notions of thrift and broaden the anthropological understanding of the concept. The workshop drew together scholars from different countries, academic environments, and regions reflecting different interests. The workshop was supported by the Wenner-Gren Foundation, the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology, and the University of West Bohemia.
4th Biennial CRG African History Conference (Pilsen, June 14–16, 2018)
The conference was organized by the Centre for African Studies, Department of Middle East Studies, which is a member of the Africa-Europe Group for Interdisciplinary Studies (AEGIS). Pilsen was elected as the host institution. The conference brought together dozens of researchers from more than 20 countries, who discussed innovative research methods in African History.
100 years since the Foundation of Czechoslovakia 1918/2018 (May 23–24, 2018)
The conference was organized by the Department of Historical Sciences. It brought together dozens of researchers from Czechoslovakia, Slovakia, and Austria, who discussed the problems of Czech (Czechoslovak) history in the 20th century.
The International Conference “The Professional Text and the Scholarly Text at University” (2017)
The conference dedicated to the analysis of professional and scholarly texts which originated and are studied in the university environment, especially those in the humanities and social science, took place in 2017 and was attended by scholars from six countries. It became the basis of our developing cooperation with universities in France, Spain and Greece.
The Vienna Circle in Czechoslovakia (Pilsen, February 26–28, 2015)
The fact that Czechoslovakia was one of the major locations for activities of the members of the Vienna Circle still remains somewhat obscure. The international conference mapped the remarkable connections between the Czechoslovak environment and the work of the Vienna Circle on the philosophical, scientific, and artistic level. It was organized by the Research Centre for the Theory and History of Science (University of West Bohemia) in cooperation with the Vienna Circle Institute (university of Vienna). Invited speakers came from, among others, Stanford University, the Max Planck Institute, and Harvard University. For further details visit https://www.vcic.zcu.cz/.
The Annual International Conference on Czech Castellology: Building the History and Archaeology of the Middle Ages.
This annual international conference is held at Krivoklat Castle. It focuses on questions of European and Czech castellology, history and archaeology of the Middle Ages. Selected papers are published in the peer-reviewed journal Castellologica Bohemica, issued by the Department of Archaeology of the University of West Bohemia in Pilsen. The conference is organized by the Department of Archaeology of the University of West Bohemia in Pilsen in cooperation with the Archaeological Institute of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague; the Czech National Heritage Institute; and other institutions.
PUBLICATIONS
Researchers at the Faculty of Arts regularly publish monographs with foreign publishing houses, as well as papers in internationally recognized journals (Scopus, WoS). Here is a list of the most relevant publications:
Novotný, L., The British Legation in Prague. The Perception of Czech-German Relations in Czechoslovakia between 1933 and 1938, Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter 2019
The book analyses Czech-German relations within Czechoslovakia between 1933 and 1938. Following Adolf Hitler´s accession to the office of Chancellor, the German minority in Czechoslovakia began progressively to mobilise and gradually to radicalise, such that the majority of Sudeten Germans supported the Sudeten German Party in the 1935 elections and played a significant role in the dissolution of the First Czechoslovak Republic three years later.
Pařízková A., Clausen J. A., “Women on the move: A search for preferred birth services.” In: Women and Birth, 32, 4, 2019, pp. E483-E491
Women and midwives travel long distances, or abroad, to receive or provide birth services. Such travel is not represented in the existing literature, despite the wide range of research available on medical travel. Our aim was to explore the perspectives of women seeking better services outside their places of residence and midwives who travel to provide these services. We followed a qualitative descriptive approach. We conducted 13 qualitative interviews with women from various European countries, four travelling midwives, and one activist. The principles of thematic analysis were employed. We found that deciding whether to travel is the result of a long-term process, influenced by various push and pull factors. Travelling women and midwives share values; they trust the capacity of women to give birth; they value respect and equality in communication; they search for trusting relationships and friendly environments that do not offer unnecessary treatments. Trust and distrust on interpersonal and institutional levels influence women's decisions and frame narratives about their experiences. We concluded that, to a great extent, travelling women and midwives share the values embedded in the midwifery model of care. Women and midwives are willing to take matters into their own hands to achieve their birth experience expectations.
Baumanova, M., Šmejda, L., Rüther, H., “Pre-Colonial Origins of Urban Spaces in the West African Sahel: Street Networks, Trade, and Spatial Plurality”. In: Journal of Urban History, 2019, 45(3), pp. 500–516
The article is published in a WoS Impact journal. It compares the layouts of present-day Timbuktu and Old Towns of Djenne in Mali. Specifically, it deals with their historical development from the 13th century onwards, and the socio-spatial meaning of the organisation of their urban quarters. The article is an innovative perspective on the historically and ethnographically recognised phenomenon of dual settlements.
Cabadová Waisová, Š., The Role of Taiwanese Civil Society Organizations in Cross-Strait Relations, New York: Routledge, 2018
The book investigates the role of Taiwanese civil society organizations in shaping the relationships between mainland China and Taiwan. It explores the role of civil society organizations (CSOs) in building confidence and peace and shows that Taiwanese CSOs hold a very complicated position which has in fact added to tensions. The book closely examines the roles civil society organizations play in conflict transformation, reconciliation and peacebuilding, the modalities of playing such roles, and the challenges facing them.
Šedivý, M., The Decline of the Congress System: Metternich, Italy and European Diplomacy, London: I.B. Tauris 2018
The goal of the book is the analysis of Metternich's Italian policy in the post-Napoleonic European States System.
Лозовюк П., Пригарин А. и к. a., Этнология Одессы в исторической и современной перспективах (Lozoviuk P., Prigarin A., edd., The Ethnology of Odessa from Historical and Contemporary Perspectives), Одесса (Odesa) 2017
The aim of the introductory passages of the presented work is to point out that as early as in the first half of the 19th century there were relatively numerous examples of unusually mature proto-ethnological texts with a surprisingly modern thematisation of the city under review. Although it is necessary to study in more detail many of the period accounts and to reflect on the context, it is now possible to formulate the thesis that Odessa was of particular importance for the development of European urban ethnology. The publication is probably the first attempt to summarize and evaluate this so far unthought-of reality. In addition, the authors were also led by an attempt to indicate the untapped potential of current ethnological reflection on the city under consideration. The fact that Odessa life and institutions may be inspiring for contemporary ethnological research is evidenced by the texts included in the second part of this book.
Kočandrle, R., Couprie, D. L., Apeiron. Anaximander on Generation and Destruction, Cham: Springer International Publishing, 2017
Anaximander traditionally applied the term apeiron to designate the origin of everything. The authors’ investigation of extant sources shows, however, that this common view misses the mark. They argue that instead of reading apeiron as a noun, it should be considered an adjective with reference to the term phusis (nature), and that the phrase phusis apeiros may express the boundless power of nature, responsible for all creation and growth. The authors also offer an interpretation of Anaximander's cosmogony from a biological perspective: each further step in the differentiation of the phenomenal world is a continuation of the original separation of a fertile seed. This new reading of the first written account of cosmogony stresses the central role of the boundless power of nature.