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.