Ota Konrád
I am a full professor of modern history and director of the Ph.D. program in modern history at Charles University in Prague. From 2012 to 2019 I was head of the Department of German and Austrian Studies at Charles University. I was also a visiting professor at the University of Regensburg and the Centre d'histoire de Sciences Po, and a visiting researcher at L'École des hautes études en sciences sociales in Paris. In 2021 I was a research fellow of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation at the University of Munich.
I have worked on topics in the history of the humanities, the history of foreign policy, the history of the First World War in Central Europe, a cultural history of violence, and contemporary Austrian history. I co-authored (with Rudolf Kučera) "Paths Out of the Apocalypse: Physical Violence in the Fall and Renewal of Central Europe, 1914-1922 (Oxford University Press: 2022). I have also published a monograph on the history of the humanities at the German University in Prague, 1918-1945 ("Geisteswissenschaften im Umbruch: Die Fächer Geschichte, Germanistik und Slawistik an der Deutschen Universität in Prag 1918-1945". Berlin, 2020) and co-edited two volumes on post-war violence ("In the Shadow of the Great War. Physical Violence in East-Central Europe, 1917-1923". Berghahn 2021, and "Collective Identities and Post-War Violence in Europe, 1944-48. Reshaping the Nation". Palgrave Macmillan, 2022).
In my current research project, I focus on domestic violence and its contexts in post-1945 Czechoslovakia and West Germany as a tool for analyzing complex post-war social and political reconstruction.
Address: Institute of International Studies
Faculty of Social Sciences, Charles University, Prague
Pekařská 10
158 00 Praha 5 - Jinonice
Czechia
https://ims.fsv.cuni.cz/en/contacts/people/24263607
I have worked on topics in the history of the humanities, the history of foreign policy, the history of the First World War in Central Europe, a cultural history of violence, and contemporary Austrian history. I co-authored (with Rudolf Kučera) "Paths Out of the Apocalypse: Physical Violence in the Fall and Renewal of Central Europe, 1914-1922 (Oxford University Press: 2022). I have also published a monograph on the history of the humanities at the German University in Prague, 1918-1945 ("Geisteswissenschaften im Umbruch: Die Fächer Geschichte, Germanistik und Slawistik an der Deutschen Universität in Prag 1918-1945". Berlin, 2020) and co-edited two volumes on post-war violence ("In the Shadow of the Great War. Physical Violence in East-Central Europe, 1917-1923". Berghahn 2021, and "Collective Identities and Post-War Violence in Europe, 1944-48. Reshaping the Nation". Palgrave Macmillan, 2022).
In my current research project, I focus on domestic violence and its contexts in post-1945 Czechoslovakia and West Germany as a tool for analyzing complex post-war social and political reconstruction.
Address: Institute of International Studies
Faculty of Social Sciences, Charles University, Prague
Pekařská 10
158 00 Praha 5 - Jinonice
Czechia
https://ims.fsv.cuni.cz/en/contacts/people/24263607
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Books by Ota Konrád
Paths out of the Apocalypse uses violence as a prism through which to investigate the profound social, cultural, and political changes experienced by (post-) Habsburg Central Europe during and immediately after the Great War. It compares attitudes toward, and experiences and practices of, physical violence in the mostly Czech-speaking territories of Bohemia and Moravia, the German-speaking territories that would constitute the Republic of Austria after 1918, and the mostly German-speaking region of South Tyrol. Based on research in national and local archives and copious secondary literature, the study argues that, in the context of total war, physical violence became a predominant means of conceptualizing and expressing social-political demands as well as a means of demarcating various notions of community and belonging. The authors apply an interdisciplinary understanding of violence informed by sociological and psychological theories as well as by rigorous empirical historiographical approach. First, they examine the most severe kind of physical violence - murder - against the backdrop of shifting scientific and media discourses during the war and its immediate aftermath. Second, the authors use numerous cases of collective violence, ranging from less serious everyday conflicts to massive hunger demonstrations and riots, to unravel its 'language', thus deciphering the attitudes and values shared among an ever-growing group of perpetrators. Paths out of the Apocalypse thus fundamentally rethinks some key topics currently debated in the scholarship on early twentieth-century Central Europe, the First World War, violence, nationalism, and modern European comparative social and cultural history.
This book analyses the process of ‘reshaping’ liberated societies in post-1945 Europe. Post-war societies tried to solve three main questions immediately after the dark times of occupation: Who could be considered a patriot and a valuable member of the respective national community? How could relations between men and women be (re-)established? How could the respective society strengthen national cohesion? Violence in rather different forms appeared to be a powerful tool for such a complex reshaping of societies. The chapters are based on present primary research about specific cases and consider the different political, mental, and cultural developments in various nation-states between 1944 and 1948. Examples from Italy, France, Norway, Denmark, Greece, Ukraine, Lithuania, Belarus, Czechoslovakia, and Hungary demonstrate a new comparative and fascinating picture of post-war Europe. This perspective overcomes the notorious East-West dividing line, without covering the manifold differences between individual European countries.
https://www.berghahnbooks.com/title/BoehlerIn
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The Loss of Old Certainties: Austria, 1986–2000
This book focuses on the newest history of Austria. It emphasizes that the year 1986 marked a remarkable turn in Austrian history. In the ensuing decades, the mainstays of
the Austrian second republic were discussed, reinterpreted, and partly even rejected with far-reaching consequences for Austrian politics and society until the present day. The authors of the book follow this process of “losing old certainties” in individual chapters. They deal with the reinterpretation of historical identity (“victim theory”), the reorientation of Austrian foreign policy in a new Europe, migration as a force, which enforced a new understanding of collective identity, privatization challenging the traditionally active role of the Austrian state in the economy, as well as changes in politics, mainly in political culture and voting behavior. The authors understand these processes as running parallel to the transformation of the formerly socialist Central European countries in the 1990s. Therefore, they suggest a broader perspective regarding these changes, which involves paying attention to the still partly forgotten development in the countries of the former “Western Europe”.
Tyrol. Based on research in national and lcal archives and in copious secondary literature, the authors argue that, in the context of total war, physical violence became a predominant means of conceptualizing and expressing social-political demands as well as a means of demarcating various notions of community and belonging. In other words, it was productive and generative, not just destructive and degenerative.
Papers by Ota Konrád
Paths out of the Apocalypse uses violence as a prism through which to investigate the profound social, cultural, and political changes experienced by (post-) Habsburg Central Europe during and immediately after the Great War. It compares attitudes toward, and experiences and practices of, physical violence in the mostly Czech-speaking territories of Bohemia and Moravia, the German-speaking territories that would constitute the Republic of Austria after 1918, and the mostly German-speaking region of South Tyrol. Based on research in national and local archives and copious secondary literature, the study argues that, in the context of total war, physical violence became a predominant means of conceptualizing and expressing social-political demands as well as a means of demarcating various notions of community and belonging. The authors apply an interdisciplinary understanding of violence informed by sociological and psychological theories as well as by rigorous empirical historiographical approach. First, they examine the most severe kind of physical violence - murder - against the backdrop of shifting scientific and media discourses during the war and its immediate aftermath. Second, the authors use numerous cases of collective violence, ranging from less serious everyday conflicts to massive hunger demonstrations and riots, to unravel its 'language', thus deciphering the attitudes and values shared among an ever-growing group of perpetrators. Paths out of the Apocalypse thus fundamentally rethinks some key topics currently debated in the scholarship on early twentieth-century Central Europe, the First World War, violence, nationalism, and modern European comparative social and cultural history.
This book analyses the process of ‘reshaping’ liberated societies in post-1945 Europe. Post-war societies tried to solve three main questions immediately after the dark times of occupation: Who could be considered a patriot and a valuable member of the respective national community? How could relations between men and women be (re-)established? How could the respective society strengthen national cohesion? Violence in rather different forms appeared to be a powerful tool for such a complex reshaping of societies. The chapters are based on present primary research about specific cases and consider the different political, mental, and cultural developments in various nation-states between 1944 and 1948. Examples from Italy, France, Norway, Denmark, Greece, Ukraine, Lithuania, Belarus, Czechoslovakia, and Hungary demonstrate a new comparative and fascinating picture of post-war Europe. This perspective overcomes the notorious East-West dividing line, without covering the manifold differences between individual European countries.
https://www.berghahnbooks.com/title/BoehlerIn
----------------------------------
The Loss of Old Certainties: Austria, 1986–2000
This book focuses on the newest history of Austria. It emphasizes that the year 1986 marked a remarkable turn in Austrian history. In the ensuing decades, the mainstays of
the Austrian second republic were discussed, reinterpreted, and partly even rejected with far-reaching consequences for Austrian politics and society until the present day. The authors of the book follow this process of “losing old certainties” in individual chapters. They deal with the reinterpretation of historical identity (“victim theory”), the reorientation of Austrian foreign policy in a new Europe, migration as a force, which enforced a new understanding of collective identity, privatization challenging the traditionally active role of the Austrian state in the economy, as well as changes in politics, mainly in political culture and voting behavior. The authors understand these processes as running parallel to the transformation of the formerly socialist Central European countries in the 1990s. Therefore, they suggest a broader perspective regarding these changes, which involves paying attention to the still partly forgotten development in the countries of the former “Western Europe”.
Tyrol. Based on research in national and lcal archives and in copious secondary literature, the authors argue that, in the context of total war, physical violence became a predominant means of conceptualizing and expressing social-political demands as well as a means of demarcating various notions of community and belonging. In other words, it was productive and generative, not just destructive and degenerative.
The Center for the Transdisciplinary Research of Violence, Trauma and Justice (VITRI) represents a hub for the study of collective violence, reconciliation, and transitional justice at the Charles University in Prague. VITRI aims to inspire collaboration within divergent disciplines and encourage emerging academics and advanced doctoral students to tackle herein investigated questions from medical and historical to political and legal perspectives.
The VITRI focuses on four major areas of research:
• Violence from a Historical Perspective
• Transitional Justice
• Violence and Trauma from a Mental Health Perspective
• Security Community
The VITRI now invites postdoctoral researchers to apply for one-month fellowships. Altogether two fellowships are available. The fellowship amounts to € 1.500, and preference (in 2018) is given to those working on security communities and/or historical perspectives on violence.
Fellows are expected to work on their individual research project relevant to the VITRI profile. Further, they need to take active part in the VITRI workshop (scheduled for November 22-23, 2018) and acknowledge the support of VITRI and Charles University in all resulting publications.
Only applicants who have received their PhD no longer than five years prior to application deadline or those who have submitted their doctoral thesis are eligible to apply. The VITRI will provide assistance in finding appropriate accommodation in Prague. Furthermore, VITRI provides access to special library holdings at the Charles University as well as to the USC Shoah Foundation Visual History Archive accessible via the Malach Center for Visual History, which contains more than 54.000 video-recorded interviews in over 30 languages.
Please submit your application via email (vitri.unce@fsv.cuni.cz) by April 30, 2018.
The application must include the following documents in English:
• 1-page research proposal within the VITRI thematic range;
• resume (incl. two references and a list of selected publications; max 3 pages)
For further information please contact the VITRI fellowship coordinator: Ass. Prof. Kateřina Králová (kralova@fsv.cuni.cz).