Members of the Institute’s Academic Council
PhDr. Ladislav Bukovszky
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Ladislav Bukovszky attended the Department of Archiving and Auxiliary Sciences in History at the Faculty of Philosophy of Comenius University in Bratislava, where he graduated with a doctorate in philosophy. From 1988 to 2003, he was a specialist archivist at the District Archive in Šala. In 2003, he became the first director of the Archive of the Nation’s Memory Institute in Bratislava. He actively participated in the establishment of the Nation’s Memory Institute (Ústav pamäti národa – ÚPN) in Bratislava. He was a member of the ÚPN’s Council for four years. On 4 February 2008, he was appointed director of the Security Services Archive in Prague. He devotes himself to the problems and consequences of the First Vienna Award (1938), the enforced migration of inhabitants between Czechoslovakia and Hungary in the years 1945–1949, the repercussions of the Hungarian Revolution in 1956 in Czechoslovakia, the history of the administration, organisational structure and filing service of State Security (StB), and the subject of anti-communist resistance. He is the author of several studies on these themes, both in Slovakia and abroad. He has written and co-written many articles and publications. |
Dr. Łukasz Kamiński
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Łukasz Kamiński works as director of the Institute of National Remembrance in Warsaw and as researcher for the Institute of History at the University of Wroclaw. He is a member of the editorial staff of the biannual journal “Pamięć i Sprawiedliwość” (“Remembrance and Justice”) as well as a member of the editorial boards of “Soudobé dějiny” (“Contemporary History”) and the monthly publication “Biuletyn Instytutu Pamięci Narodowej” (“Bulletin of the Institute of National Remembrance”). His field of study is contemporary history, particularly Poland’s post-war past, Polish-Czechoslovak relations, the history of communism, resistance and the security apparatus. He is the author of many historical studies, such as the monograph entitled Polacy wobec nowej rzeczywistości (Toruń 2000). He is also the editor and co-editor of a number of anthologies and series of documents, e.g. Polsko a Československo v roce 1968 (“Poland and Czechoslovakia in 1968”), Sborník příspěvků z mezinárodní vědecké konference (“An Anthology of Contributions from an International Academic Conference”) (Prague 2006, together with Petr Blažek and Rudolf Vévoda) or, most recently, Kryptonim „Pegaz“. Służba Bezpieczeństwa wobec Towarzystwa Kursów Naukowych 1978–1980 (Warsaw 2008, together with Grzegorz Waligóra). |
Prof. Jan Kmenta, Ph.D.
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Jan Kmenta is a professor emeritus of the University of Michigan as well as a visiting professor at the CERGE-EI institute in Prague. In 1955, he obtained a bachelor’s degree from the University of Sydney. He was awarded an M.A. in 1959 as well as a doctorate in 1964 by Stanford University. He lectured at the University of Michigan in the years 1973–1993, and was also a guest lecturer at several other world-renowned universities. He is a member of a number of academic associations and has previously worked on the editorial boards of many prestigious professional magazines. In 1989, he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Saarland, Germany, and in 1998 he was the first recipient of the Karel Engliš Medal from the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic. Since 1989, Jan Kmenta has been actively involved in Czech economic education and he has helped many economists from the new generation to obtain their doctorate at the CERGE-EI. |
PhDr. Slavomír Michálek, DrSc.
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Slavomír Michálek is a graduate of the Faculty of Philosophy at Comenius University in Bratislava and the Institute of History of the Slovak Academy of Sciences in the same city (internal academic research fellow – 1994). He has been employed at Comenius University’s Faculty of Philosophy in Bratislava (1984–1986; study placement) and at Comenius University’ Faculty of Law in Bratislava (1997–1998; lecturer). Since 1986, he has been employed at the Institute of History of the Slovak Academy of Sciences in Bratislava, first as a researcher and now as director of this institution. He is a member of many committees, editorial boards and academic councils. He concerns himself with American foreign policy towards Czechoslovakia in the second half of the 20th century, Slovak figures involved in Czechoslovak foreign policy, the establishment and history of the UN, the second and third wave of Czechoslovak and Slovak democratic émigrés and compatriots in the USA, as well as political trials in Czechoslovakia in the years 1948–1989. He has completed eight foreign placements at prestigious universities in the USA, Great Britain and Canada, and is also the holder of a number of international awards, including the American Eagle (Jan and Betka Papanek Foundation – 1996), the Milan Ratislav Štefánik Commemorative Medal (Slovak Ministry of Foreign Affairs – 1999) and the Egon Erwin Kisch Prize (Egon Erwin Kisch Foundation – 1999, 2003). He is the author and co-author of many books as well as dozens of academic studies in academic magazines and anthologies. |
PhDr. Jan Stříbrný
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Jan Stříbrný was born in Radim u Jičína into a Christian peasant family, which was persecuted and bullied by the regime. (His father farmed privately until 1959 and then subsequently did so again from 1965 to 1989). Besides studying history and Czech at Charles University’s Faculty of Arts (1968-1973), he also completed a secret course of study in theology in the years 1980–1989. He has worked at the Centre for the Czech Association of Anti-Fascist Fighters (Ústředí Českého svazu protifašistických bojovníků), where he was responsible for the historical documentation committee (1974-1990), and at the Historical Institute of the Army of the Czech Republic (Historický ústav Armády ČR, 1990–1994) as an academic secretary for the Memorial of the Resistance (Památník odboje) and a historian of the anti-fascist resistance, focusing on domestic democratic resistance, the persecution of the Jews, and the status of churches in the years 1939–1945. Since 1995, he has been second vice-president of the Czech Christian Academy with responsibility for projects dealing with the history of the Catholic Church, or other Christian churches in the years 1939–1989. At present he is coordinator of the Czech Bishops’ Conference project on the Martyrology of the Catholic Church in the Czech Lands in the 20th Century (Martyrologium katolické církve v českých zemích ve 20. Století). He is the author and co-author of several academic publications. |
PhDr. Eduard Stehlík
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Eduard Stehlík is a graduate of the Faculty of Arts at Charles University in Prague. He is a military historian, who is head of the Education Department and the Military Library of the Military History Institute in Prague. He is the author or co-author of 20 monographs devoted to the latest military history. He has helped create several exhibition projects. Of these, the event that garnered the biggest response was the exhibition entitled “Assassination Attempt – Operation Anthropoid 1941–1942,”(Atentát – Operace Anthropoid 1941–1942), which was staged in Prague, Milan, Berlin and Bratislava. He is now in his third year working for Czech Television where he helps prepare a historical magazine programme (“Historický magazine”). His book “Lidice – příběh české vsi” (“Lidice, the Story of a Czech Village”) won the Museum Publication of the Year Award in 2004 in the “Gloria musaealis” competition, which is decided upon by the Czech Ministry of Culture and the Czech Association of Museums and Galleries. He is co-author of the permanent exhibition at the Lidice Memorial entitled “And the Innocent Were Guilty...” (A nevinní byli vinni…). He was made an honorary citizen of Lidice on 27 October 2006. |
Prof. Mark Kramer
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Mark Kramer is programme director of the Project on Cold War Studies at Harvard University and a senior fellow at Harvard’s Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies. He is editor of both the quarterly Journal of Cold War Studies, which is issued by MIT Press, and the Harvard Cold War Studies Book Series, published by Rowan & Littlefield. He has taught international relations and comparative politics at Harvard, Yale and Brown universities. He was formerly an Academy Scholar at Harvard's Academy of International and Area Studies and a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University. Professor Kramer’s most recent book is Crisis, Compromise, and Coercion in the Communist Bloc, 1956: The Soviet Union and the Upheavals in Hungary and Poland. |
Prof. Michael Kraus
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Michael Kraus is a professor of political science and international relations. He directs Russian and East European studies at Middlebury College, Vermont, USA. Born in Prague, he studied international relations at the University of Colorado, security policy at Harvard University as well as politics and international relations at Princeton University, where he was awarded a doctorate. He has worked as a researcher at Columbia, George Washington and Harvard, where he spent two years as a research fellow at the J. F. Kennedy School of Government. He received a fellowship from the Rotary International Foundation when he taught international relations at Charles University’s Institute of Political Studies as well as at Prague’s FAMU film school (1995-1996). He has obtained grants from the American Council of Learned Societies, the International Research and Exchanges Board (IREX), the Ford Foundation, Fulbright-Hays and others. He has also worked as an advisor and consultant for governmental and non-governmental organisations, including the US Department of State and the Václav Havel Library. He has published a number of studies on contemporary history and politics, e.g. “Did the Charter 77 Movement Bring an End to Communism?” New England Review (2007); “The Czech Republic’s First Decade,” Journal of Democracy (2003); Irreconcilable Differences? Explaining Czechoslovakia's Dissolution (2000); Russia and East Europe after Communism: The Search for New Political, Economic and Security Systems (1996) and other publications. Doc. |
Doc. PhDr. Stanislav Balík, Ph.D.
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Since 2003, Stansilav Balík has been executive director of the Centre for the Study of Democracy and Culture. Since 2008, he has worked as head of the Department of Political Science at the Faculty of Social Studies of Masaryk University in Brno. In 2008, he obtained a higher doctorate in political science at Masaryk University’s Faculty of Social Studies. His field of study is modern Czech politics, local politics and undemocratic regimes. Since 2002, he has been a member of the local council of Bludov village and chairman of the Bludov Council’s Committee for Education, Culture, Youth and Sports. Since March 1999, he has been a member of the board of administration for the Foundation of Charles the Elder from Žerotín (Nadace Karla staršího ze Žerotína), which is an organisation that supports culture. He has published dozens of academic articles and studies. He has also worked and collaborated on an even greater quantity of monographs whilst also contributing to the editing of several anthologies. |
Prof. JUDr. Jan Kuklík, DrSc.
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Prof. PhDr. Jan Kuklík, DrSc graduated from Charles University’s Faculty of Law in Prague in 1989. After being awarded a doctorate of law (JUDr), he began post-graduate studies at the Department of Legal History. His field of study comprises the legal history of the Czechoslovak Republic, particularly the history of the Czechoslovak resistance during the Second World War. As part of these studies, he was a visiting post-graduate student at St. Edmund Hall college in Oxford and he also studied at the British National Archives. He is actively involved with several academic committees and councils. He is the author and co-author of many academic publications. Jan Kuklík is currently vice-dean of the Faculty of Law at Charles University in Prague. |
Prof. PhDr. Igor Lukeš, Ph.D.
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Igor Lukeš is a university professor, a professor of international relations and a professor of history (PhDr., Charles University in Prague; MALD, Ph.D., Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University, Boston). He specialises in the history and politics of Central and Eastern Europe and contemporary Russia. Profesor Lukeš is a historian of Central and Eastern Europe in the 20th century. In particular, he writes about the period between the two world wars and about current developments in Central and Eastern Europe, Russia and the Balkans. His work has been published in various languages and publications, e.g. the Journal of Contemporary History, Diplomacy & Statecraft, Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte, Historie a vojenství (“The History and Military Periodical”), Intelligence and National Security, The Polish Review, Journal of Cold War Studies and the Slavic Review. His book entitled Czechoslovakia Between Stalin and Hitler: The Diplomacy of Edvard Benes in the 1930s, which was published by Oxford University Press, won the Boston Authors Club prize and the Kahn Award. He is also co-author of a number of other publications, including, for example, The Munich Conference, 1938: Prelude to World War II (1999), Inside the Apparat: Perspectives on the Soviet Union (1990) and Gorbachev's USSR: A System in Crisis (1990). He has obtained support from various institutions, including the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington, DC, IREX, the John M. Olin Foundation, The Philosophical Society and the National Endowment for the Humanities. He has also twice been awarded a scholarship by the Fulbright Foundation for research, and in 1997 he received the Metcalf Award for Excellence in Teaching at Boston University. |
PhDr. Alena Šimánková
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Alena Šimánková is the daughter of a political prisoner. She is deputy director of the Fourth Department of the Czech National Archives (state administration collections from the years 1945–1992). Her specialist activities focus, in particular, on the persecution of people targeted by the communist regime. She is the administrator of an archive collection on the Czech Judiciary after 1949 (Justice po roce 1949). |
RNDr. Daniel Vaněk, Ph.D.
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Daniel Vaněk studied at Charles University’s Faculty of Science. He also completed a study placement at the Institute of Microbiology of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic. In the years 1992-2002, he worked in the DNA laboratory of the Institute of Criminal Forensics (Kriminalistický ústav) in Prague. From 2002 to 2004, he was director of the DNA laboratory of the International Commission on Missing Persons (ICMP, Bosnia and Herzegovina), where he was involved in formulating expert identification reports for the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) at The Hague. He currently manages the company Forenzní DNA servis (Forensic DNS Service) and lectures at Charles University. |
PhDr. Michal Lukeš, Ph.D.
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Michal Lukeš completed courses in history and Slovak Studies as well as post-graduate studies in modern Czech history at Charles University’s Faculty of Arts. In the years 1993–1997, he was employed as a documentalist at the Department of Modern Czech History in the National Museum (apart from 1994, when he was a research and development worker at the Military History Institute). He also worked as deputy director of the Divadla Bez zábradlí theatre (1998–2001). In 2002, he became general director of the National Museum, and he still holds this post today. His field of study is Czech and Slovak modern history, particularly the era of the First Czechoslovak Republic. His expertise also includes management, marketing and media communication in the cultural sphere. He has taught at Charles University’s Faculty of Arts (Institute of Slavonic and East European Studies) and at the Faculty of Education of the Technical University in Liberec. He has also collaborated in the area of Arts Marketing with the Faculty of Business Administration at the University of Economics. He is a member of several scholarly bodies and advisory bodies of important specialist, cultural and social institutions. |
Cardinal Miloslav Vlk
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Miloslav Vlk studied archival science at Charles University’s Faculty of Arts. He worked as director of the Civic and District Archives in České Budějovice. He subsequently studied theology at Charles University and was ordained a priest in České Budějovice on 23 June 1968. Ten years later, his “state authorisation” to publicly exercise his priestly ministry was revoked. His authorisation was not renewed until 1 January 1989. On 14 February 1990, he was appointed Bishop of České Budějovice. He was appointed Archbishop of Prague on 27 March 1991. In the years 1991–2000, he presided over the Bishops’ Conference. He was appointed cardinal by Pope John Paul II on 26 November 1994. In the years 1993–2001, he was chairman of the Council of European Episcopal Conferences (CCEE). Cardinal Vlk turned 75 years of age in May 2007 and, in accordance with Church law, he offered his resignation to Pope Benedict XVI. The pope accepted his resignation this year. |